As COVID-19 spread quickly through Peru's Amazon, the Indigenous Shipibo community decided to turn to the wisdom of their ancestors.
Hospitals were far away, short on doctors and running out of beds. Even if they could get in, many of the ill were too fearful to go, convinced that stepping foot in a hospital would only lead to death.
So Mery Fasabi gathered herbs, steeped them in boiling water and instructed her loved ones to breathe in the vapors. She also made syrups of onion and ginger to help clear congested airways.
"We had knowledge about these plants, but we didn't know if they'd really help treat COVID," the teacher said.
"With the pandemic we are discovering new things." The coronavirus pandemic's ruthless march through Peru - the country with the world's highest per-population confirmed COVID-19 mortality rate - has compelled many Indigenous groups to find their own remedies.
Decades of under-investment in public health care, combined with skepticism of modern medicine, mean many are not getting standard treatments like oxygen therapy to treat severe virus cases.
In the Ucayali region, government rapid response teams deployed to a handful of Indigenous communities have found infection rates as high as 80% through antibody testing.
