The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) measured the state of health in Latin America and the Caribbean between 2020 and 2021, after concluding that the region was the most affected in the world by the Covid-19 pandemic, with 2.3 million excess deaths (the difference between expected and estimated deaths).
The good news is that there was a good medical care response and, furthermore, this is added to the fact that they found better public health indicators that allowed life expectancy to be extended in various countries of the region. “Improvements in public care systems, more opportune times although difficulties continue and medical coverage were those points that contributed to the indicators,” they said.
Colombia is among the countries in which the increase in life expectancy is stronger if the data from 2000 is compared to 2021, going from 71 to 76.8 years. here the OECD emphasizes that issues such as greater access to water, health systems and medical care are contributing to these figures.
The highest life expectancy is in Chile (81 years), followed by Costa Rica (80.8), Barbados (79.3) and Cuba (78.9). The average in Latin America and the Caribbean jumped in the last two decades from 71.2 years to 75.1; among the general average of the OECD this was 80.4 years.
For the club of good practices, the tragedy of the Covid-19 at the time intervened in these numbers, in fact they recognize that it would have been even greater if measures of protection had not been adopted. public health on a large scale and if the population had not adhered firmly to them.
For example, in mid-2020, 78% of the region’s population reported wearing a face covering almost all the time when out in public, a figure higher than the 54% reported in OECD countries at that time. In addition, throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, 80% of the population was willing to be vaccinated against Covid-19 in 2021.
The countries with low excess mortality in Latin America and the Caribbean were Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Jamaica, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and Venezuela, with 34% fewer excess deaths than the block average.
These countries rolled out vaccination and public information campaigns more quickly and maintained public health containment measures in 2021.
Mortality was especially high in Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Peru, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. These countries accounted for 48% of the excess deaths in the region while they only have 29% of their population.
Looking to the future, “health systems in Latin America and the Caribbean need to better prepare for future crises, especially those associated with climate change. For example, the annual deaths of adults aged 65 and over attributable to exposure to heat in the region increased on average almost 240% and yet only four of the 23 countries in the region reported that they had an early warning system for heat-related illnesses”.
