Brazil

Our responses

Equipping healthcare staff
MSF is working is north Amazonas, in Atalaia do Norte and Benjamin Constant municipalities, to prepare local health staff in case a new wave of cases strikes the area. MSF teams are working on patient flow, rapid testing, mental health and health promotion, with a focus on infection prevention and control (IPC) training in clinics and hospitals.

Completed COVID-19 projects in Brazil

• COVID-19 care activities in Manaus: During our activities, MSF staff worked in the public hospital and managed 12 beds in the intensive care unit, along with 36 beds for moderate and severe cases of COVID-19. We also ran an isolation centre for migrant Venezuelan indigenous people with suspected COVID-19.
• São Paulo palliative care project: Management of our palliative care services has been passed to the Tide Setubal hospital staff. MSF is providing some staff for to ensure a smooth transition. 
• Equipping healthcare staff in Bahia: From June to August MSF ran a project to prepare the local staff in the municipalities of Xique-Xique, Cocos and Riachão das Neves, focusing on rapid testing training.
• Rapid testing and mobile clinics: In Fortaleza, Ceara, in June, MSF focused on mobile clinics with rapid testing and health promotion activities. In Patos, Pariaba, in July, we established rapid testing points in the city and also.provided IPC training. In Portel, Pará, MSF teams provided IPC support and rapid testing for local health staff and mobile clinics in hard-to-reach communities.
   

By January of 2012, the Brazilian Ministry of Justice announced that some 4,000 Haitians would be granted residence and work visas. The federal government also opened up legal migration opportunities from Haiti. With the improvement in the situation, MSF’s program was closed in February 2012.

Many Haitians left Tabatinga for the city of Manaus, and an MSF team provided training in mental healthcare and health promotion to health staff and social workers in Manaus.