High fever. Chills. Headache. Weakness. "I want to lie down, doctor." Sweat runs down my body, like the waters of the stream down there. I don't know which is more bitter: the boldo tea or my mouth. This malaise that won't go away and drives me to despair. What else can I do? Help me. I close my eyes and dock in any other corner of our country. Someone greets me with a cloth wrapped around their face, and others on their legs and arms. The brown of their gaze is noticeable, and an almost forced smile returns my dull smile. "This terrible wound has taken away my beauty, doctor. I rubbed rosemary-pepper here on my arm, look, but I don't know if it's any use. Help me." I close my eyes, take the boat, which is set adrift in the stream of tears, and dock in my childhood. "You scoundrel! Never, ever treat anyone like that again," she scolded him. He was the one who started it and cursed the lady. The mother retorted that the worst thing in life is being separated from it, and no one deserves to be forgotten. She added that the adjective originated from Lazarus, the biblical character covered in sores. People afflicted with the disease were taken to places of complete isolation, due to its infectious nature, whose time bordered on eternity. This eternity, perceived as an absence of time, makes me close my eyes again. The whispers I hear are those born of pain and contempt, as if the price for survival must be paid by those chosen to show the face of a society that does not want to be revealed.
Now I navigate uncharted waters, seeking to capture the beauty found in Paulo Freire, as a translation of kindness, respect, ethics, coherence, tolerance, and sharing. Malaria is concentrated in the Amazon region, parts of Tocantins, Mato Grosso, and Maranhão. Leishmaniasis, recently identified in its manifestation as a sore throat, is endemic in Brazil and characterized as a neglected disease; likewise, Hansen's disease, formerly called leprosy, stigmatizes people, leaving them hostage to invisibility. There is a neglected population so close. So tenuous.
The preservation of life necessarily involves dignity, beginning with the right to health, guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, which states: "Health is a right of all and a duty of the State, guaranteed through social and economic policies aimed at reducing the risk of disease and other harm, and through universal and equal access to actions and services for promotion, protection, and recovery." How can this right be guaranteed to a neglected population, while still being synonymous with seeing them abandoned, neglected, despised, and even ignored? For the neglected population, there is always a neglected disease. The Ministry of Health itself recognizes that neglected diseases are those that prevail in conditions of poverty, with Brazil having the most neglected diseases on the planet, a huge public health problem.
And here, we recall the first article of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, created in 1942, which states that people are born free and equal in their full dignity and rights. In this regard, health is recognized as a human right by the World Health Organization (WHO), which defines it as physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease. It is important to emphasize that the eradication of poverty and the preservation of health are among the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), proposed by the UN in 2015. When addressing the issues of poverty and health, among so many seminal demands that deserve our attention, it is essential to guide the debate and mobilize people who can influence and monitor public policies. The problem goes beyond the technical-academic universe of medicine, nursing, psychology, chemistry, biology, law, economics, art, engineering, etc. The various areas of knowledge are called upon to discuss poverty and health in a transdisciplinary dimension, beyond borders, and, each with their own expertise, promote a minimally dignified existence.
Those working in the health and biological sciences, in addition to being essential in direct patient contact, must remain steadfast in research into monitoring diseases that affect neglected populations and assessing their impact on people's mental health. The humanities and social sciences are essential, as they provide support to public and private administrations in addressing the economic and health crises, in addition to showing us that statistics are not limited to numbers, clarifying that human existence is endowed with both individual and collective history. May the exact sciences spare no effort in improving our understanding of the molecular structures of drugs, developing mathematical models and aiming to plan control measures. May engineering provide technological and logistical support for the application of science, fostering dialogue with other fields of knowledge and including social demand, not only the technical and economic elements, as a driving force behind technological processing. May art, in its various forms, showcase what is most sublime in human beings, bringing hope. Yes, hope, and to say, to those who have no voice, “count on us.”
The pandemic in early 2020 brought universities to the forefront of the obscurantism, shining a light on the production of knowledge, whose results transcended and continue to transcend the walls of academia into communion with society. I learned from my mother, Dona Maria, in addition to the lesson about Lazarus, that life ends when one stops dreaming. I take the liberty of adding: also when one stops having hope and a modicum of beauty.
This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Unicamp
