The first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in an indigenous population in Brazil: an epidemiological study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1678-9946202264069Keywords:
Health of indigenous peoples, Epidemiology, Coronavirus infections, COVID-19Abstract
This cross-sectional observational study that describes the epidemiological data of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Mato Grosso do Sul State, aimed to demonstrate the differences between indigenous and non-indigenous populations, characterize confirmed cases of COVID-19 according to risk factors related to ethnicity, comorbidities and their evolution and to verify the challenges in facing the disease in Brazil. SIVEP-Gripe and E-SUS-VE, a nationwide surveillance database in Brazil, from March 2020 to March 2021 in Mato Grosso do Sul state, were used to compare survivors and non-survivors from indigenous and non-indigenous populations and the epidemiological incidence curves of these populations. A total of 176,478, including 5,299 indigenous people, were confirmed. Among the indigenous population, 52.5% (confidence interval [CI] 51.2-53.9) were women, 38% (CI 36.7-39.4) were 20-39 years old, 56.7% were diagnosed by rapid antibody tests, 12.3% (CI 95%:11.5-13.2) had at least one comorbidity, and 5.3% (CI 95%:4.7–5.9) were hospitalized. In the non-indigenous patients, 56.8% were confirmed using RT-PCR, 4.4% (CI 95%:4.3-4.5) had at least one comorbidity, and 8.0% (CI 95%:7.9-8.2) were hospitalized. The majority of non-survivors were ≥60 years old (65.1% indigenous vs. 74.1% non-indigenous). The mortality in indigenous people was more than three times higher (11% vs. 2.9%). Indigenous people had a lower proportion of RT-PCR diagnoses; deaths were more frequent in younger patients and were less likely to be admitted to hospital. Mass vaccination may have controlled the incidence and mortality associated with COVID-19 in this population during the period of increased viral circulation.
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Copyright (c) 2022 Mariana Garcia Croda, Marcelo dos Santos Barbosa, Silvana Beutinger Marchioro, Débora Dupas Gonçalves do Nascimento, Enirtes Caetano Prates Melo, Oswaldo Gonçalves Cruz, Alex José Leite Torres, Laís Albuquerque de Oliveira, Fabiana Ganem, Simone Simionatto
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Funding data
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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
Grant numbers 401727/2020-3