Author: Cadernos De Saúde Pública

Spatialization of the index of vulnerability to severe COVID-19 in the city of Rio de Janeiro reveals the existence of more vulnerable areas in different parts of the city’s territory, reflecting its urban complexity. The areas with greatest vulnerability are located in the North and West Zones of the city and in poor neighborhoods nested within upper-income parts of the South and West Zones. Image: Henrique Soares. … Read More →

These two scenarios are compared to a control scenario in which no intervention is made to distance people. The vertical distancing scenario is almost as bad as the control, both in terms of people infected and in the acceleration of cases. On the other hand, horizontal distancing, if applied with the same intensity in all age groups, significantly reduces the total infected people “flattening the disease growth curve”. Available in English. Image adapted from the original by visuals. … Read More →

Drug repositioning or repurposing (DR) involves the clinical evaluation of existing medicines for new and still unapproved therapeutic indications. It has been elicited by serendipitous clinical or experimental findings, or yet by advancement of knowledge on the drug mechanism of action. Available in English. Image: Haley Lawrence. … Read More →

The study aimed to identify the regions of Brazil with higher specific mortality rates from these comorbidities and the regions with the greatest shortage of ICU beds and mechanical ventilators. A cross-sectional ecological study was performed in which the units of analysis were the country’s Health Regions. Image: Daan Stevens. … Read More →

Smokers are part of the risk group for COVID-19. One can infer the group’s increased risk of infection to the extent that smokers tend to hold smoking products to their mouths (whether conventional cigarettes or electronic smoking devices – ESDs) without adequate prior hand hygiene. Image: Ander Burdain. … Read More →

Prolonged stay at home can lead to a decrease in interaction and longer periods of immobility (sitting or lying), directly or indirectly related to greater use of virtual equipment such as TV, computers, cellphones, and similar devices. Image: Hal Gatewood. … Read More →

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), has emerged
as one of this century’s major global health challenges. In a schematic, simplified approach, the response to the COVID-19 pandemic can be divided into four stages: containment, mitigation, suppression, and recovery. … Read More →

Brazil has 748,000 prison inmates 1, 50,000 of whom in the state of Rio de Janeiro alone, who are practically absent from the public debate on COVID-19. But is it possible to imagine more favorable conditions for the spread of SARS-CoV-2, a virus with airborne and person-to-person transmission, in a population confined to overcrowded cells with poor ventilation and limited access to running water? … Read More →

This article situates the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in a scenario of securitization of global health. I address the pandemic as a crisis of the neoliberal economic model and the result of a process of growing vulnerability due to neoliberalism. The pandemic calls on us to rethink the vulnerabilities resulting from global interconnectedness. I highlight the importance of public and participatory health in the context of a reflection on the possibilities for sustainable life with solidarity on a global scale. … Read More →

This essay discusses the proliferation of discourses about the COVID-19 pandemic, presenting the challenges both to science and public policies that such an information overload present, having Collins’ sociology of expertise as a theoretical framework. Available in English. … Read More →

Besides the biological context, and due to the wide and longlasting changes in daily life it may cause, coping with it represents a challenge to psychological resilience. Previous studies have shown that epidemics and contamination outbreaks of diseases have been followed by drastic individual and social psychosocial impacts, which eventually become more pervasive than the epidemic itself. Available in English. … Read More →

In Brazil, according to data from the 180 Hotline provided by the Ministry for Women, Family, and Human Rights, there was a 17% increase in the number of calls denouncing violence against women in the month of March 2020, when the recommendation for social distancing first issued in the country. … Read More →

The current study was conducted in the Basque Autonomous Community in northern Spain. The authors analyzed stress, anxiety, and depression with the arrival of the virus and the levels of symptoms according to age, comorbidity, and confinement. … Read More →

COVID-19 was detected in Brazil for the time in the 9th epidemiological week of 2020, and the test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus was included in the surveillance protocol starting in the 12th epidemiological week. This study’s objective was to investigate the pattern of hospitalizations for SARI in Brazil since the entry of SARS-CoV-2, comparing the temporal and age profiles and laboratory results to the years 2010 through 2019. … Read More →

In a scenario of increased vulnerability in which diseases cross national borders and health risks are globalized, the sub-regional level, associated with initiatives for integration, offers key opportunities for cooperation in health. … Read More →