Objective: Describe and analyze scientific activity on COVID-19 in Latin America.
Materials and methods: Through a systematic review of the literature in PubMed, LILACS, and the preprinted repositories BioRxiv and medRxiv, all available documents on COVID-19 in Latin America from January 1 to April 24, 2020, were retrieved for review and bibliometric analysis.
Results: A total of 29 publications were included in the analysis. The country with the most scientific production was Brazil (10/29; 34,4%) followed by Colombia (6/29; 20,6%) and Mexico (6/29; 20,6%). The university with the most articles was the Technological University of Pereira, Colombia (5/29; 17,2%). 41,3% of the publications were preprinted documents. Most of the excluded studies were editorial comments or expert opinions. Three out of four investigations had an epidemiological focus (21/29; 72,4%); Limited studies on diagnosis (5/29; 17,24%), pathophysiology (2/29, 2,8%) and therapeutic.
Conclusion: Despite the exponential growth of publications in the world, there is a limited amount of information on the behavior of this infection in Latin America. The publication of studies with high methodological quality is required, which provide knowledge of the impact of the pandemic in the region.