In November 2021, Peru logged the highest COVID-19 death rate in the world. With nearly 6,000 deaths for every 1 million Peruvians, the rate was double that of neighboring Brazil.
Maria Sofia Cuba Fuentes, MD, McS, PhD a professor and Director of the Center for Research in Primary Health care at the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia in Lima, Peru, believes the actual rate was even higher.
“COVID does not affect people differently because of their nationality, but mortality rates are different because of the resources countries have for people,” she said.
Cuba-Fuentes led a team of researchers that investigated why Peruvians were hit so hard by COVID-19. The project was one of the inaugural recipients of the Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility’s (CGHSR) Global Engagement Grants program.
