Questão 12 - FMP Medicina 2021

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1    What could we have done differently? It is a good question in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
Among the answers is a clear lesson from history—the importance of investing in public health agencies.
Historian Colgrove and a team of scientists highlighted the effects of government investment in public
health on the prevention and response to health crises.
2    The choices contributed to the development of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in New York City. In the
1950s and 1960s, increased access to antibiotic therapies and comprehensive case treatment made
tuberculosis cases decline. So, government funding for tuberculosis control was cut drastically. Public
health staff were reassigned from tuberculosis care, clinics were closed, and laboratory testing diminished,
setting the stage for a deadly drug-resistant tuberculosis outbreak in the early 1990s.
3    In combination with homelessness and the HIV/AIDS epidemic, tuberculosis control became a crisis.
Colgrove claims that the outbreak was a predictable outcome of the cuts to public health systems.
4    In contrast, scientists highlight Uganda’s infrastructure for treating hemorrhagic fevers as an example
of how investments in public health can avert infectious disease crises. In 2010, Uganda launched a
surveillance and laboratory program in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Through
this collaboration, Uganda has decreased diseases such as Ebola, Marburg virus, Crimean-Congo virus,
and Rift Valley. Not only has this program saved lives in Uganda, but it has prevented small outbreaks from
escalating into international epidemics.
5    As we attempt to deal with COVID-19, it is worth considering how cuts to public health institutions
undermine the country’s ability to respond to pandemic threats. So, for the benefit of our globalized society,
it is always time to invest in public health infrastructure.

Available at:  https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/its-time-to-invest-in-public-health-infrastructure. Retrieved on: 1 st Sept. 2020. Adapted.

In the second paragraph of Text, the fragment “Public health staff were reassigned from tuberculosis care" implies that public health staff were