LUIS ESPINOZA has been battling covid-19 in Peru since March. A doctor specialising in tropical medicine and infectious diseases, he was sent by the health ministry to Iquitos, in the northern jungle, when the pandemic began, then moved to Sullana, a sweltering northern city. Both cities have high numbers of deaths from covid-19. Many, says Dr Espinoza, were avoidable. "Patients who should not be dying are dying because of complications caused by self-medicating," he says. That may help explain why Peru has had more deaths from the disease as a share of its population than all but one other country. Self-medication is not a new problem. A third to a half of Peruvians use medicines that are not prescribed by a doctor, studies show. Against a variety of maladies they swallow antibiotics, steroids, anti-clotting medicines and the veterinarian version of ivermectin, which is used against parasites such as intestinal worms. Chlorine dioxide, a disinfectant, is also popular.
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