x
Breaking News
More () »

Health Watch: Why isn’t coronavirus spreading far (yet) in South America?

South America only contains about 10 percent of the world’s population, but it has been the home for only about half-a-percent of the world’s COVID-19 cases

HARTFORD, Conn. — Thanks to some very aggressive containment measures, the new Coronavirus outbreak that started in China has slowed to a trickle. Since then, however it’s spread to more than 100 other countries in the U.S., but that spread hasn’t been evenly distributed. Granted, South America only contains about 10 percent of the world’s population, but it has been the home for only about half-a-percent of the world’s COVID-19 cases. Dr. Virginia Bieluch, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Hospital for Central Connecticut, said researchers are still not certain why this is, but there are a few potential reasons.

“It has been described in Africa and, I think, South America, but I don't know what their public health systems are like and … how much testing they are doing, so I think it’s a little early to say how much or how little there is there,” she said.

That uncertainty in testing thoroughness mirrors some of the uncertainty we have in the U.S., where widespread testing began only recently, so the latest numbers of infections may not be complete.

“The other thing is we don’t know how many people travel back and forth from places like China and Hong Hong to South America,” Dr. Bieluch said.

Another fact to consider – it’s still summer down there, and winter up here.

“Wintertime does promote the spread of viruses because people are inside,” Dr. Bieluch said, “you've got a lot of people clustered together so we do see a lot more viral illnesses in the winter.”

It still remains to be seen if this new Coronavirus will become seasonal like the flu, or die off in the warmer weather.

“You know were all hopeful, we are really hopeful that with warmer weather this can die down,” she said.

Before You Leave, Check This Out