Perfil clínico-epidemiológico de pacientes diagnosticados com hanseníase / Clinical-epidemiological profile of patients diagnosed with leprosy / Perfil clínico-epidemiológico de los pacientes diagnosticados de lepra

hanseníase no Brasil ainda apresenta como um problema de saúde pública. A posição epidemiológica da doença no país é considerada diversificada devido ao alto coeficiente e variação de prevalência nas diversas regiões do país. O objetivo desse estudo é conhecer o perfil epidemiológico da população acometida pela hanseníase na cidade de General Carneiro, no interior do Mato Grosso, durante os anos de 2006 e 2021. A coleta de dados foi realizada nos meses de julho e agosto do ano de 2021. Trata-se de uma pesquisa retrospectiva, documental do tipo descritiva, com abordagem quantitativa. No período em estudo notificou-se 50 casos, sendo 62% do sexo masculino, com faixa etária entre 48 a 69 anos de idade, de cor branca, com predominância da forma dimorfa. Os resultados demonstram que a cidade de General Carneiro, está com o número de casos de hanseníase na média do preconizado pela Organização Mundial de Saúde e também, inferior à média brasileira.

Leprosy in Brazil still presents as a public health problem. The epidemiological position of the disease in the country is considered diversified due to the high coefficient and variation in prevalence in different regions of the country. The aim of this study is to know the epidemiological profile of the population affected by leprosy in the city of General Carneiro, in the interior of Mato Grosso, during the years 2006 and 2021. Data collection was carried out in July and August of 2021 This is a retrospective, descriptive documentary research with a quantitative approach. During the study period, 50 cases were reported, 62% male, aged between 48 and 69 years old, white, with a predominance of the borderline form. The results show that the city of General Carneiro has the number of cases of leprosy in the average recommended by the World Health Organization and also below the Brazilian average.

La lepra en Brasil sigue siendo un problema de salud pública. La posición epidemiológica de la enfermedad en el país se considera diversificada debido al alto coeficiente y a la variación de la prevalencia en diferentes regiones del país. El objetivo de este estudio es conocer el perfil epidemiológico de la población afectada por la lepra en la ciudad de General Carneiro, en el interior de Mato Grosso, durante los años 2006 y 2021. La recogida de datos se realizó en julio y agosto del año 2021. Se trata de una investigación retrospectiva, documental y descriptiva, con un enfoque cuantitativo. En el período de estudio se notificaron 50 casos, siendo el 62% de sexo masculino, con una edad entre 48 y 69 años, de color blanco, con predominio de la forma dimorfa. Los resultados muestran que la ciudad de General Carneiro, está con el número de casos de lepra en la media recomendada por la Organización Mundial de la Salud y también por debajo de la media brasileña.

Global return on investment and cost-effectiveness of WHO's HEAR interventions for hearing loss: a modelling study.

BACKGROUND: To address the growing prevalence of hearing loss, WHO has identified a compendium of key evidence-based ear and hearing care interventions to be included within countries' universal health coverage packages. To assess the cost-effectiveness of these interventions and their budgetary effect for countries, we aimed to analyse the investment required to scale up services from baseline to recommended levels, and the return to society for every US$1 invested in the compendium. METHODS: We did a modelling study using the proposed set of WHO interventions (summarised under the acronym HEAR: hearing screening and intervention for newborn babies and infants, pre-school and school-age children, older adults, and adults at higher risk of hearing loss; ear disease prevention and management; access to technologies such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, or hearing assistive technologies; and rehabilitation service provision), which span the life course and include screening and management of hearing loss and related ear diseases, costs and benefits for the national population cohorts of 172 countries. The return on investment was analysed for the period between 2020 and 2030 using three scenarios: a business-as-usual scenario, a progress scenario with a scale-up to 50% of recommended coverage, and an ambitious scenario with scale-up to 90% of recommended coverage. Using data for hearing loss burden from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019, a transition model with three states (general population, diagnosed, and those who have died) was developed to model the national populations in countries. For the return-on-investment analysis, the monetary value of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) averted in addition to productivity gains were compared against the investment required in each scenario. FINDINGS: Scaling up ear and hearing care interventions to 90% requires an overall global investment of US$238·8 billion over 10 years. Over a 10-year period, this investment promises substantial health gains with more than 130 million DALYs averted. These gains translate to a monetary value of more than US$1·3 trillion. In addition, investment in hearing care will result in productivity benefits of more than US$2 trillion at the global level by 2030. Together, these benefits correspond to a return of nearly US$15 for every US$1 invested. INTERPRETATION: This is the first-ever global investment case for integrating ear and hearing care interventions in countries' universal health coverage services. The findings show the economic benefits of investing in this compendium and provide the basis for facilitating the increase of country's health budget for strengthening ear and hearing care services. FUNDING: None.

Effect of Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines against COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in real-world settings at countrywide vaccination campaign in Saudi Arabia.

OBJECTIVE: Vaccinations are highly essential to control infectious diseases and epidemics. Presently, the entire world faces a challenging crisis of "Severe Acute Respiratory Diseases Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), also known as the COVID-19 pandemic". The impact of vaccines at national levels to reduce the SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths are unclear, and people have concerns about the effectiveness of vaccines in real-world settings. This study's objective was to examine the effect of the "Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca" vaccines to prevent SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths in Saudi Arabia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this retrospective cohort study, we collected data on SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths from the date of the first case of SARS-CoV-2 in Saudi Arabia March 2, 2020, to the date of launching the vaccination campaign on December 14, 2020; and from December 15, 2020, to September 8, 2021. We recorded the World Health Organization data and Ministry of Health of Saudi Arabia to evaluate the impact of the "Pfizer/BioNTech, (BNT162b2 mRNA) and Oxford/AstraZeneca (AZD1222)" vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths before and after the vaccination campaign in Saudi Arabia. RESULTS: Saudi Arabia launched the "Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca" vaccination campaign against SARS-CoV-2 on December 14, 2020. In Saudi Arabia, before the vaccination campaign from March 2, 2020, to December 14, 2020, the mean daily SARS-CoV-2 cases were 1235.60, daily deaths were 22.70, that significantly reduced (p=0.0001) compared to the period after the vaccination campaign from December 15, 2020, to September 8, 2021, in which the daily cases fell to 692.08, and daily deaths fell to 9.48 (p=0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: In Saudi Arabia, Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccinations significantly reduced the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases and deaths after the vaccination compared to the period before the vaccination campaign at country levels. The study findings demonstrate that vaccination and adherence to nonpharmaceutical intervention can better control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Information management practices in the WHO African Region to support response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The rapid transmissibility of the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 causing coronavirus disease-2019, requires timely dissemination of information and public health responses, with all 47 countries of the WHO African Region simultaneously facing significant risk, in contrast to the usual highly localised infectious disease outbreaks. This demanded a different approach to information management and an adaptive information strategy was implemented, focusing on data collection and management, reporting and analysis at the national and regional levels. This approach used frugal innovation, building on tools and technologies that are commonly used, and well understood; as well as developing simple, practical, highly functional and agile solutions that could be rapidly and remotely implemented, and flexible enough to be recalibrated and adapted as required. While the approach was successful in its aim of allowing the WHO Regional Office for Africa (WHO AFRO) to gather surveillance and epidemiological data, several challenges were encountered that affected timeliness and quality of data captured and reported by the member states, showing that strengthening data systems and digital capacity, and encouraging openness and data sharing are an important component of health system strengthening.

Digital Health during COVID-19: Informatics Dialogue with the World Health Organization.

BACKGROUND: On December 16, 2020 representatives of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA), a Non-Governmental Organization in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO), along with its International Academy for Health Sciences Informatics (IAHSI), held an open dialogue with WHO Director General (WHO DG) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus about the opportunities and challenges of digital health during the COVID-19 global pandemic. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper is to report the outcomes of the dialogue and discussions with more than 200 participants representing different civil society organizations (CSOs). METHODS: The dialogue was held in form of a webinar. After an initial address of the WHO DG, short presentations by the panelists, and live discussions between panelists, the WHO DG and WHO representatives took place. The audience was able to post questions in written. These written discussions were saved with participants' consent and summarized in this paper. RESULTS: The main themes that were brought up by the audience for discussion were: (a) opportunities and challenges in general; (b) ethics and artificial intelligence; (c) digital divide; (d) education. Proposed actions included the development of a roadmap based on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. CONCLUSIONS: Decision making by policy makers needs to be evidence-based and health informatics research should be used to support decisions surrounding digital health, and we further propose next steps in the collaboration between IMIA and WHO such as future engagement in the World Health Assembly.