Amazon indigenous groups feel deserted by Brazil's public health service
by Thais Borges and Sue Branford on 5 August 2019
Until recently, hundreds of Cuban doctors staffed many remote indigenous health facilities in the Brazilian Amazon and around the nation, an initiative funded by the More Doctors program set up by President Dilma Rousseff in 2013.
But far-right President Jair Bolsonaro radically restructured the program, and Cuba calling Bolsonaros demands unreasonable pulled its doctors out.
That withdrawal heavily impacted indigenous groups. Of the 372 doctors working within indigenous communities, 301 were Cuban. The Ministry of Health says 354 vacancies have since been filled by Brazilian doctors, but indigenous communities say many new doctors are unwilling to stay long in the remote posts.
Bolsonaro has hindered rural health care in other ways: 13,000 indigenous health workers have remained unpaid since February or April, depending on the region, after the Brazilian Minister of Health stopped providing resources to the 8 NGOs contracted to provide health services to 34 Special Sanitary Indigenous Districts.
More:
https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/amazon-indigenous-groups-feel-deserted-by-brazils-public-health-service/