Brazil is preparing to expand its disaster medicine infrastructure in the face of the prospect of a severe El Niño and extreme weather events. According to Adriano Massuda, executive secretary of the Health Ministry, the country plans to invest 9.8 billion reais ($ 1.7 billion) through 2035 to strengthen its disaster response, expanding field hospitals and teams in major urban centers.The National Force of the Unified Health System, created in 2011 following landslides in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro, gained new units in Salvador, Porto Alegre and Rio de Janeiro this year, with five more bases planned for 2027. The structure currently has 82 management professionals and 70,000 volunteers across the country, 3,500 of whom have been trained to respond to disasters.
Private institutions are also mobilizing. Felipe Piza, of Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, stresses that disaster response requires specific training. "The hospital or clinical resources doctors are accustomed to are not available," he says.
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