Virus cases skyrocketing among Latinos in the USA

From the article:

The doctors "had never seen such a large number of people who speak Spanish in the intensive care unit,” said Dr. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, a Duke professor and physician who has tracked hospitalizations of Latino patients in Durham County, N.C. Although they were young to middle-aged — a group that is not usually at high risk for serious illness, many patients were very ill and had delayed seeking help, she said.

Intensive care doctors in Baltimore have seen a similar pattern: Latino patients seeking care late after trying to battle the virus alone and arriving in worse condition than usual coronavirus patients, exceeded only by those infected in nursing homes.

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“For both the African American and Latino populations there's a triple threat,” Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an interview. “The first is that there's more exposure, the second is that there's more underlying health problems sometimes, and the third is there's less access to health care.”

Those factors continue to raise alarms among public health officials that the disproportionate impact on black and Latino communities will persist in the coming months. Without targeted contact tracing, language resources, enforcement of protective equipment at essential jobs — and an encouragement of those with uncertain legal status to seek help — the disease is likely to become more lethal as states begin to reopen.