Background: We aimed to visualize and classify the time series of COVID-19, tuberculosis (TB) notification, and TB outcomes (cure, treatment abandonment, and death), verify the impact of the new coronavirus pandemic on these indices in Brazil, and verify the presence of spatial autocorrelation between COVID-19 and TB. Methods: This was an ecological time series study that considered TB and COVID-19 cases. Seasonal Trend Decomposition using Loess (STL) was used to trace the temporal trend, Prais–Winsten was used to classify the temporal trend, Interrupted Time Series (ITS) was used to verify the impact of COVID-19 on TB rates, and the Bivariate Moran Index (Global and Local) was used to verify the spatial autocorrelation of events. Results: Brazil and its macro-regions showed an increasing temporal trend for the notification of TB in the pre-pandemic period. Only the Northeast Region showed a decreasing temporal trend for cured cases. For treatment abandonment, all regions except for the Northeast showed an increasing temporal trend, and regarding death, Brazil and the Northeast Region showed an increasing temporal trend. With the ITS, COVID-19 caused a decline in TB notification rates and TB outcome rates. With the global spatial analysis, it was possible to identify the existence of spatial autocorrelation between the notification rate of COVID-19 and the TB notification rate and deaths. With the local analysis, it was possible to map the Brazilian municipalities and classify them according to the relationship between the rates of both diseases and space. Conclusions: COVID-19 influenced the follow-up of and adherence to TB treatment and intensified social vulnerability and, consequently, affected the notification of TB since the relationship between the disease and social determinants of health is already known. The restoration and strengthening of essential services for the prevention and detection of cases and treatment of TB in endemic environments such as Brazil have been oriented as a priority in the global health agenda.
Background: Brazil is the destination of many international migrants and refugees and, given the circumstances of their entry into the country, many face difficulties due to the absence of targeted policies. Thus, the objective of this study was to survey the social impact of COVID-19 on international migrants and refugees regarding income loss, food insecurity and other social inequities, and to identify explanatory factors on these aspects. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, analytical study. We used a validated instrument applied by trained interviewers. Descriptive analysis and binary logistic regression were performed to identify factors associated with income loss and food insecurity. Results: A total of 360 individuals from sub-Saharan African and South American countries participated in the study. Individuals who were white, black/brown, yellow, had an occupation/employment, and earned less than one minimum wage were more likely to lose income. Those who reported no income, received less than one minimum wage, and were diagnosed with COVID-19 were more likely to be food insecure. Conclusions: The study advances knowledge by identifying factors associated with income loss, food insecurity, and individuals' difficulty in accessing health services and social support measures in Brazil.
3 February 2023 in Journal of Migration and Health
To map scientific evidence on the extent of tuberculosis in migrants from the international borders between Brazil and the countries of South America. Scoping review of quantitative, qualitative and mixed studies. The research was conducted between February and April 2021. The terms "migrants", "tuberculosis", "Brazil", "Uruguay", "Paraguay", "Bolivia", "Peru", "British Guiana" "English Guiana", "French Guiana", "Suriname", "Venezuela", "Argentina", "Colombia" combined with Boolean operators "AND" and "OR" to identified relevant documents. Studies addressing tuberculosis on migrants from international borders of Brazil were included. Pubmed Central (PMC), LILACS (Scientific and technical literature of Latin America and the Caribbean/BVS), Scopus (Elsevier), Scielo (Scientific Electronic Library Online) and gray literature CAPES thesis database were searched. The study was carried out in three stages where the data was selected and extracted by two independent reviewers for full reading. A total of 705 articles were extracted from the databases chosen for the search, 04 master's dissertations and 01 doctoral thesis. Of these 456 were excluded because they did not meet at least one of the eligibility criteria for this SR and 4 were further excluded because they were duplicates who had not been previously identified. A total of 58 documents were, thus, selected for assessment of the full text. Of these, 40 were further excluded for not meeting at least one of the eligibility criteria. A total of 18 studies were included for data collection: 15 articles, 2 master's dissertations and 1 doctoral thesis, produced between 2002 and 2021. This scoping review mapped the existing evidence on tuberculosis at the international borders of Brazil and on access of immigrants with tuberculosis to health services in Brazil. tuberculosis; immigrants; public health surveillance; epidemiological surveillance; sanitary control of borders; health services accessibility.
Until 2014, there was already a significant burden of TB in Roraima, with this State being among the most affected ones in Brazil. Since 2015, though, there has been a progressive increase in cases of TB in the state of Roraima, with a notorious concentration of cases in Venezuelan migrants. Active international migration in border territories should be seen as a warning signal about the need to strengthen health surveillance and One Health actions that encompass all components involved in the risk of active transmission of diseases as tuberculosis in these scenarios. This study aims to analyze and compare migrants and non-migrants notified with TB in the State of Roraima in Brazil and identify inequities in terms of diagnosis, access to treatment and outcome of the disease. Quantitative, cross-sectional, descriptive study of all confirmed cases of TB notified in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (SINAN) between 2009 and 2019. Data were described through counts, frequencies, prevalence ratios and 95% confidence interval. We used Poisson regression with robust variance to adjust for confounders. 2111 cases of TB were reported in Roraima between 2009 and 2019 and in this study (mean age 38.2 ± 18.5 years). Cases were more frequently males, brownish race, indigenous people, with high school level education. 10.9% (n = 181) of TB cases were migrants, mainly from Venezuela (72.9%). Migrants with TB were more prone to be homeless (PR = 3.7). A higher number of cases of readmission after treatment dropout (3.3%) and AIDS diseases (11.2%) was observed among migrants compared to non-migrants. The proportion of DR-TB was higher among migrants. The percent of cure of TB was lower among migrants and the prevalence of abandonment of treatment, transfers and deaths by other causes was higher compared to non-migrants. The results of the study have shown considerable differences in the epidemiological profile of TB between migrants and non-migrants living in the State of Roraima, with a tendency for poorer outcomes in the first ones as well as more concentration of vulnerabilities. These results stress out existing inequities between migrants and non-migrants with TB disease and raise questions on the health care network capacity to address these.
This study aims to analyze the feasibility of building an evaluative model for the management of the Tuberculosis Prevention and Control Program in the State of Roraima, located on the border between Brazil and Venezuela. This is an evaluability assessment, a type of study used as a pre-evaluation of the development and implementation stages of a program, as well as throughout its execution. The study was developed in stages comprising the: (i) definition of the intervention to be analyzed and its objectives and goals; (ii) construction of the intervention logical model; (iii) screening of parties interested in the evaluation; (iv) definition of the evaluative questions; and (v) design of the evaluation matrix. Four priority components were defined for the evaluation: management of the organization and implementation of tuberculosis (TB) prevention and control policy; epidemiological surveillance management; care network management; and management of expected/achieved results. In this model, and based on theoretical references, we defined the necessary resources, activities, outputs, outcomes, and the expected impact for each of the policy management components. The management of the TB control program is feasible for evaluation based on the design of its components, the definition of structure and process indicators, and relevant results for the analysis of the management of TB prevention and control actions, as well as its influence on compliance with the agreed indicators and targets aiming at eradicating the disease by 2035.
The coronavirus disease pandemic greatly impacted society, creating unprecedented challenges for science, healthcare systems, and Primary Health Care, which were quickly charged with diversified responses to face this public health emergency. The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of PHC from the perspective of people affected by COVID-19. This was a cross-sectional study with cases of COVID-19 in a Brazilian municipality. We used an electronic questionnaire with sociodemographic and clinical characteristics (of our own elaboration) and the PCATool-Brazil Instrument – for adult patients (reduced version), through the KoBoToolbox resource. After a pre-test and pilot study, data collection took place between January 11 and October 5, 2021. Descriptive statistics were used, calculating the General PHC Score – 0 to 10 (mean and standard deviations). 91 participants evaluated the PHC characteristics/ components. The overall PHC score (mean) was 4.4 (SD=1.9). This low overall PHC score obtained indicates weaknesses in the quality of this level of healthcare, in the first six months of the pandemic in 2020. Such a low PHC quality score is unprecedented. It appears that the negative result in the studied municipality reflects the impact of COVID-19 and the strategies adopted to face the pandemic triggered by SARS-CoV-2 in Brazil and in the world. A pandemia da doença pelo coronavírus impacta sobremaneira a sociedade, gerando desafios sem precedentes para a ciência, para os sistemas de saúde e para a Atenção Primária à Saúde, que foram rapidamente cobrados por respostas diversificadas para o enfrentamento desta emergência de saúde pública. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a qualidade da APS segundo a perspectiva de pessoas acometidas pela COVID-19. Tratou-se de um estudo transversal com casos de COVID-19 em um município brasileiro. Utilizou-se um questionário eletrônico com características sociodemográficas e clínicas (de elaboração própria) e o Instrumento PCATool-Brasil – para pacientes adultos (versão reduzida), por meio do recurso KoBoToolbox. Após pré-teste e estudo piloto, a coleta de dados ocorreu entre 11 de janeiro e 05 de outubro de 2021. Utilizou-se estatística descritiva, sendo calculado o Escore Geral da APS – 0 a 10 (média e desvios padrão). Os 91 participantes avaliaram os atributos/componentes da APS. O Escore Geral da APS (média) foi 4,4 (DP=1,9). Este baixo escore geral da APS obtido sinaliza para fragilidades na qualidade deste nível de atenção à saúde, nos primeiros seis meses da pandemia em 2020. É inédito escore tão baixo de qualidade da APS. Depreende-se que o resultado negativo no município estudado reflete o impacto da COVID-19 e as estratégias adotadas para o enfrentamento da pandemia disparada pelo SARS-CoV-2 no Brasil e no mundo.