COVID-19 in socially vulnerable quilombola populations in Salvaterra, Pará, Eastern Amazon, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 is a severe respiratory syndrome caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In Brazil the highest infection rates are associated with socially vulnerable populations. This study therefore sought to analyze the spatial distribution of the disease and its relation with geographic, socioeconomic and public health policy characteristics associated with quilombola communities in Salvaterra municipality, state of Pará, for the period of March to September, 2020.

Methodology: This cross-sectional and ecological study used data from the Disease Notification System and the National Registry of Health Establishments of the Ministry of Health, the Income Transfer Registry of the Ministry of Citizenship and the 2010 census of the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Statistical and spatial analysis of the data was done through percentages of cases and Flow and Kernel map techniques.

Results: Seventy-five notified cases of COVID-19 distributed among 7 quilombola communities in the municipality were analyzed. The epidemiological profile followed a national trend, with a higher percentage of cases among persons who were female, adults with low schooling levels, working as family farmers and with an outcome ending in recovery. The spatial distribution of the disease was not homogenous and showed clusters of cases and high incidence rates, especially in communities close to the municipal seat or to highways.

Conclusions: The use of data analysis techniques was satisfactory for providing an understanding of the socioeconomic production of the disease in the areas studied. Accordingly, the need for intensifying epidemiological survey actions in the quilombola communities of the municipality is emphasized.

Keywords: COVID-19; Epidemiology; Quilombola; Social Vulnerability.