# In-depth analysis of the medical supply for indigenous people in North-Eastern Colombia: a dominance of infectious diseases and only insufficient therapeutic options

## TL;DR

This study examines the medical supply for indigenous Wiwas in Colombia, finding that most diseases, especially infectious ones, are inadequately treated.

## Contribution

The study quantifies the therapeutic gaps in indigenous healthcare and highlights the dominance of infectious diseases.

## Key findings

- Most diseases (88%) cannot be fully treated with available medications.
- Infectious diseases are the most prevalent but only partially covered by medical supplies.
- Non-infectious conditions like cancer and mental disorders are rarely diagnosed.

## Abstract

Colombian indigenous Wiwas are exposed to a variety of partly complex medical conditions with a predominance of infectious diseases. The study provided here aims at verifying of falsifying previous suspicions on therapeutic shortcomings and neglect of disease categories.

Local diagnoses within various subpopulations of indigenous Wiwas obtained by a study physician and local health brigades and health points between 2017 and 2018 were coded following the ICD 10 classification from 2019. Proportions of diagnoses per ICD-10 sub-chapter were evaluated to find diseases and to rank the occurrence of diagnoses in the population of indigenous people. Thereafter, the available medication provided by the indigenous health care provider Dusakawi for the treatment of the indigenous patients was analyzed in regard of its sufficiency to cover the recorded diseases.

The majority of the diseases found in the communities cannot at all (32%) or only partially (56%) be treated according to available guidelines. Only few (12%), predominantly infectious diseases, were covered completely by the provided medication. Notably, there are some ICD chapters with diseases that do only rarely appear at all in the gained datasets, e.g., complications during birth, mental disorders or cancer.

An expansion and revision of the medical supply for the indigenous population of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is needed. An emergency kit for medical brigades and health points should be provided and in place. Awareness for neglected diseases needs to be created.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13690-024-01338-w.