Matthew Hing, a doctor who has been conducting important work abroad, for Partners in Health (PIH), will be staying in LaBelle during the next month. Dr. Hing is volunteering to help with the COVID-19 crisis and recent explosive outbreak that has been occurring in Immokalee. He arrived on the evening of Tuesday, June 30.

According to PIH, “COVID-19, the disease resulting from novel coronavirus, will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and hit countries with weak health systems the hardest. The currently reported case fatality rate cannot be used to predict how this virus will devastate many areas globally, where there are not high-functioning and well-resourced health systems that can respond to an aggressive infectious disease, and where the population suffers from conditions such as malnutrition, HIV, and tuberculosis. Mortality is anticipated to be far worse in the places where PIH works, and it is unclear if the current global response accounts for these factors.”

PIH website states they have launched a comprehensive effort to support this response across its network of supported countries around the world to:
• contain and control the spread of the virus,
• ensure that patients are provided with dignified care, and
• demonstrate to the world what aggressive action in vulnerable settings can achieve.

Dr. Hing has been dedicated to “improving global health equity as both a physician and as an advocate”, from an internship in Jinotepe, Nicaragua, where he worked to provide improved services and education for pregnant women, to working with Compañeros En Salud/Partners in Health (PIH) in the rural village of in Chiapas, Mexico, helping to enhance long term care for people with chronic illnesses, and so many other projects in between. He will clearly be an asset to the community.

After he takes a few days to settle in to the area, he will be working remotely during that time, more details and updates on his work will be made available.