Before COVID-19 reached Colombia and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic, in Antioquia we were already strengthening our capacity to face it. Seeing the experiences in other countries, we took this threat seriously from the onset.
This article uses a health stewardship perspective to interpret the strengths of and challenges to national health authorities' capacities to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic through the renewed essential public health functions (EPHF) framework. Based on a literature review, this article argues that the institutional capacities required by countries to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Americas included all four stages of the new EPHF policy cycle: assessment, policy development, allocation of resources and access. While health authorities provided these key functions (e.g.
To examine the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on cancer care access in Chile, analyzing differential effects by insurance type, gender, and age.
We conducted a quasi-experimental study using interrupted time series analysis. We used multiple data sources for a broad evaluation of cancer-related health care utilization from January 2017 to December 2020. We fit negative binomial models by population groups for a range of services and diagnoses.
To assess the baseline prevalence of mental health conditions and associated exposures in a cohort of health care workers (HCWs) in Guatemala.
We analyzed baseline information from 2020 Web-based COVID-19 Health Care Workers Study (HEROES)–Guatemala. Outcomes included mental distress and depressive symptoms. Exposures included COVID-19 experiences, sociodemographic characteristics, and job characteristics. We used crude and adjusted Poisson regression models in our analyses.
To quantify socioeconomic inequalities in COVID-19 mortality in Colombia and to assess the extent to which type of health insurance, comorbidity burden, area of residence, and ethnicity account for such inequalities.
We analyzed data from a retrospective cohort of COVID-19 cases. We estimated the relative and slope indices of inequality (RII and SII) using survival models for all participants and stratified them by age and gender. We calculated the percentage reduction in RII and SII after adjustment for potentially relevant factors.
This article describes eight guiding principles for the digital transformation of the health sector and identifies their relationship with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as highlighting their importance to countries undergoing digital transformation processes. In the Region of the Americas, among other gaps, 30% of people do not have access to the Internet, which is why it is mandatory to develop policies and actions to deliver public health interventions equitably and sustainably to ensure that no one is left behind.
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly showed that health systems need to be well-prepared to deal with emergencies and disasters. Epidemics, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, among other emergencies, require concerted action not only within countries but also between countries. An adequate and timely response to emergencies includes research, human resources for health, equipment, supply chains, laboratory support and adequate and timely communication of information to the population, among other aspects.
This article describes the situation of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the Americas, implementation of NCD interventions according to key progress indicators, the impact of COVID-19 on NCD services, and ways to reprioritize NCDs following COVID-19. Information was retrieved from institutional data and through a supplementary
Dengue, chikungunya, and Zika are viral diseases that pose a constant threat to public health. These three arboviruses can produce very similar clinical pictures, which represents a challenge to achieving an accurate clinical diagnosis and can lead to inadequate management and even fatal outcomes.
To analyze the incidence and mortality trends from COVID-19 in Brazil as well as in federation units and their capitals.
An ecological study was performed using COVID-19 incidence and mortality data covering the period from 25 February 2020 (first case recorded in Brazil) to 31 July 2021. Data were grouped by month for calculation of crude rates (by 100 000 population) and assessment of time trends in federation units and capitals. Significant changes in time trends were analyzed by joinpoint regression.
