ONLINE: COVID-19 in Ecuador

press release:  Global Health Tuesday webinars resume on January 26.

Hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute (GHI), the monthly webinars host researchers and practitioners from campus and across the world. The speakers showcase the complexity of global health challenges and the many kinds of expertise needed to address them. By sharing their experiences, these guests provide insights into global health, encourage conversation and help connect colleagues locally and globally.

January 26, 4:30-5:30 p.m.

“COVID-19 in Ecuador”

Register here.

Avriel Rose Diaz, executive director of Walking Palms Global Health in Bahia De Caraquez, Ecuador, will discuss measures taken in Ecuador with a focus on the city of Bahia de Caraquez, located in the Manabi Province. “The pandemic caught global health systems off-guard, in part because governments lacked adequate Disaster Rick and Response plans,” Diaz says. “In both developed and developing countries, slow and inadequate responses to the crisis exacerbated virus transmission, illness and fatality, and worsened acute economic contractions which disproportionately impacted the most vulnerable populations.” Diaz will identify how national and regional municipalities reacted to the crisis, and how those actions impacted interconnected social and economic systems essential to maintaining quality public health. The coastal province of Manabi is under the constant threat of earthquakes, floods and mudslides, exacerbating health challenges.

Diaz co-founded Walking Palms Global Health in 2016 in the aftermath of a devastating 7.8 earthquake. She is a systems ecologist with a master’s degree in Evolution, Ecology and Conservation Biology with a focus in Infectious Diseases from Columbia University. Her specialization in natural disasters, mosquito-borne illnesses and public health forms the basis for the scientific research conducted by Wild Palms. She has collaborated with UW-Madison’s Lyric Bartholomay on Mosquitos y Yo, a program to teach children about insect-borne diseases.