Throughout the pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has laid bare weak points in the world’s health care systems. This has been true in arguably every country and every community, but the fractures have been especially apparent in rural areas, where poor access to health care long predated the pandemic.
In this three-part story, Undark explores the gaps in rural health care systems around the world, following the daily work of a village health worker in a small township in central Zimbabwe; a newly graduated rural doctor on a required year-long stint at a remote clinic in northern Ecuador; and a family doctor at a private practice in upstate New York.
Rural life in each of these countries is vastly different, and the challenges that the health care workers face, in some cases, also vary. In Hoja Blanca, Ecuador, for instance, it’s a three-day round trip just to send a Covid-19 test for analysis, requiring travel by motorcycle, bus, and ferry, and in Makusha Township, Zimbabwe, the health care worker gets around on a bike. Meanwhile, doctors in New York State have access to couriers and can hop in a car for house calls. There are also inequalities when it comes to vaccine availability, funding, and even access to basic medicines like ibuprofen.
But Covid-19 has also revealed common problems. There are far fewer doctors and nurses in these remote areas compared to their urban counterparts. Each rural community feels the pinch of badly broken health care systems on the national level. Covid misinformation and disinformation, as well as pandemic fatigue, reaches even the most remote areas. And as the pandemic lingers, all of the health care workers, no matter their country of origin, continue to toil to keep their villages safe.
This reporting project was produced with the support of the International Center for Journalists and the Hearst Foundations as part of the ICFJ-Hearst Foundations Global Health Crisis Reporting Grant.
Top visual: Kata Karáth for Undark