SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Cities from the Southern Region of Bahia State, Brazil: Analysis of Variables Associated in Both Individual and Community Level.

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), challenged public health systems worldwide. Individuals in low-income countries/regions are still at individual and community risk concerning inequality, sanitation, and economic conditions. Besides, during the pandemic, the transmission in municipalities and communities in the countryside and less developed regions kept viral spread and required structured and strengthened clinical and laboratory surveillance. Here, we present an observational, analytic, cross-sectional study conducted using secondary data from the Laboratório de Farmacogenômica e Epidemiologia Molecular (LAFEM)-Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), to evaluate individual and community factors associated to SARS-CoV-2 infection in outpatients from different cities from Southern Region of Bahia State, in Brazil. The data were collected between June 2021 and May 2022. The SARS-CoV-2 positivity by RT-qPCR was correlated with low socio-economic indicators, including the Human development index (HDIc) and Average worker salary (AWSc). Besides, in general, females were less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 0.752; CI 95% 0.663-0.853; p < 0.0001), while brown individuals had more positivity for infection (p < 0.0001). In addition, those who had clinical symptoms were more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 6.000; CI 95% 4.932-7.299; p < 0.0001). Although dry cough, headache, and fever were the most frequent, loss of taste (OR = 5.574; CI 95% 4.334-7.186) and loss of smell (OR = 6.327; CI 95% 4.899-8.144) presented higher odds ratio to be positive to SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR. Nonetheless, the distribution of these characteristics was not homogenous among the different cities, especially for age and gender. The dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 positivity differed between cities and the total population and reinforces the hypothesis that control strategies for prevention needed to be developed based on both individual and community risk levels to mitigate harm to individuals and the health system.

Characteristics and Factors Associated with SARS-CoV-2 Infections in Individuals That Attended Referral Hospitals from Southern Region of Bahia State, Brazil: A Surveillance Network Retrospective Study.

In December 2019, a novel coronavirus was detected in Wuhan, China, and rapidly spread worldwide. In Brazil, to date, there have been more than 20,000,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 550,000 deaths. The purpose of the current study was to determine the clinical and epidemiological profile of the population affected by COVID-19 that have attended referral hospitals in Southern region of Bahia State, to better understand the disease and its risk factors in order to enable more appropriate conduct for patients. An observational, descriptive, cross-sectional, exploratory study was conducted using secondary data collected from the Laboratório de Farmacogenômica e Epidemiologia Molecular, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (LAFEM/UESC). Chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests were applied to determine the association between clinical symptoms and laboratory results, and to identify risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection. A total of 3135 individuals with suspected severe respiratory illness were analyzed and 41.4% of them tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Male individuals and having comorbidities were risk factors significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection (OR = 1.17 and OR = 1.37, respectively). Interestingly, being a healthcare professional was a significantly protective factor (OR = 0.81, p < 0.001). Our findings highlight the importance of routinely testing the population for early identification of infected individuals, and also provide important information to health authorities and police makers to improve control measures, management, and screening protocols.