On February 25, 2020, the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2),
the etiological agent of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), was firstly confirmed
in Brazil and Latin America, proceeding as an imported case from Italy.1, 2 After
one year of the lately declared pandemic, the COVID-19 has caused deep impacts in
Brazil and the region.
2
Up to March 4, 2021, a total of 21.7 million cases (out of 115 million in the world,
18.8%) (Table 1) have been reported and concentrated in the Latin American and Caribbean
region, led by Brazil (10.6 million), as the third country in the world with more
cumulated cases, after United States of America (28.8 million), and India (11.2 million).
Table 1
Cumulative confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported by Countries and Territories
in Latin America and the Caribbean, modified from the Pan American Health Organization
(March 4, 2021).
Table 1
Subregion
Country/territory
Cases
Deaths
Recovered
CFR%
Subregion
Country/territory
Cases
Deaths
Recovered
CFR%
North America
Mexico
2,097,194
187,187
1,645,312
8.93
Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands
Bermuda
713
12
684
1.68
Central America
Guatemala
175,411
6412
162,398
3.66
Guadeloupe
9968
164
2242
1.65
Nicaragua
5176
174
4958
3.36
Sint Maarten
2061
27
2007
1.31
El Salvador
60,491
1878
56,339
3.10
Dominican Republic (the)
240,773
3130
193,433
1.30
Belize
12,320
314
11,870
2.55
Barbados
3140
36
2552
1.15
Honduras
171,758
4187
66,903
2.44
Saint Lucia
3779
37
3067
0.98
Panama
342,019
5871
328,100
1.72
Bonaire
424
4
395
0.94
Costa Rica
205,514
2820
183,911
1.37
Aruba
7938
74
7695
0.93
Subregion
972,689
21,656
814,479
2.23
Virgin Islands (US)
2695
25
2539
0.93
South America
Ecuador
289,472
15,921
247,898
5.50
Saint Martin
1554
12
598
0.77
Bolivia
250,557
11,703
194,370
4.67
Martinique
6746
45
98
0.67
Peru
1,338,297
46,894
1,244,029
3.50
Grenada
151
1
147
0.66
Colombia
2,259,599
59,972
2,156,057
2.65
Turks and Caicos
2115
14
1876
0.66
Chile
835,552
20,704
790,528
2.48
Virgin Islands (UK)
153
1
152
0.65
Argentina
2,126,531
52,453
1,921,589
2.47
Cuba
52,501
333
47,626
0.63
Brazil
10,646,926
257,361
9,527,173
2.42
French Guiana
16,627
85
9995
0.51
Paraguay
161,530
3218
135,373
1.99
Saint Vincent and Grenadines
1645
8
949
0.49
Uruguay
59,171
617
51,365
1.04
Curacao
4736
22
4651
0.46
Venezuela
139,934
1353
132,052
0.97
Cayman Islands
447
2
415
0.45
Subregion
18,107,569
470,196
16,400,434
2.60
Anguilla
18
0
18
0.00
Caribbean and Atlantic Ocean Islands
Montserrat
20
1
11
5.00
Dominica
144
0
130
0.00
Antigua and Barbuda
769
18
307
2.34
Falkland Islands
51
0
48
0.00
Guyana
8626
197
8024
2.28
Saba
6
0
6
0.00
Bahamas
8573
181
7398
2.11
Saint Barthelemy
612
0
94
0.00
Puerto Rico
100,765
2048
91,338
2.03
Saint Kitts and Nevis
41
0
40
0.00
Haiti
12,536
250
9828
1.99
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
24
0
24
0.00
Suriname
8939
173
8426
1.94
Sint Eustatius
20
0
20
0.00
Jamaica
24,103
435
13,745
1.80
Subregion
531,130
7474
428,059
1.41
Trinidad and Tobago
7717
139
7481
1.80
Total Latin America and the Caribbean
21,708,582
686,513
19,288,284
3.16
Source: https://ais.paho.org/phip/viz/COVID19Table.asp.
Contrary to the initially considered by many experts, COVID-19 has caused a significant
proportion of deaths. A total 2.5 million deaths have been reported so far (2.17%
global fatality rate). In Latin America, this ranges up to 8.93% in countries such
as Mexico or Ecuador with 5.0%. In Brazil, 257,361 deaths have been reported for a
case fatality rate of 2.42%.
Over the last year, multiple new clinical findings have been detected, including smell
and taste disorders, such as ageusia and anosmia, and diarrhea, among many others.
3
The COVID-19 became a respiratory infection and a systemic condition that potentially
affects many other organ and systems, including cardiovascular, neurological, and
renal complications, among others. In at least 2–7% of the patients have required
management at intensive care units (ICU), varying by countries, the risk profile of
the patients (e.g., age and risk factors), as well as the healthcare system, including
the availability of ICU beds, mechanical ventilation as well as critical care specialists,
among other factors. COVID-19 varies from asymptomatic infection (in most cases) to
severe disease that may lead to fatal outcomes.
4
As expected, in countries such as Brazil and others in Latin America, the overlapping
with other regional importance conditions began to be reported and represent a matter
of concern, including HIV, tuberculosis, dengue, and other tropical endemic diseases.5,
6 And these coinfections still need to be better understood in terms of their epidemiological
and clinical impact.
In terms of laboratory capacity, Brazil and other Latin American countries have built
up many skilled molecular biology laboratories that routinely perform the RT-PCR,
based on international protocols, to diagnose the SARS-CoV-2. Also, a significant
deployment of antigen and antibody tests has been employed in clinical and epidemiological
settings, including multiple seroprevalence studies performed in different cities
of Brazil and other Latin American countries.
This year, multiple challenges have been faced, including assessing new and specially
repurposed drugs for their potential use as prophylaxis or treatment in different
clinical conditions. So far, few of them have demonstrated usefulness in COVID-19,
such as dexamethasone for patients requiring oxygen, including those on mechanical
ventilation. On the other hand, chloroquine and ivermectin have not showed significant
benefits in COVID-19. Unfortunately, these and other drugs are widely used in the
region, despite the advice against by infectious diseases societies for the region,
after the evidence assessment of their utility.
Also, in December 2020, many countries detected and observed the threat of the so-called
new variants of concern of the SARS-CoV-2 (VOC) that have been associated with the
increase in transmission, as reported in the United Kingdom and South Africa with
the VOCs 501Y.V1(B.1.1.7) and 501Y.V2(B.1.351), respectively. These new strains are
likely to be more transmissible and may also impact the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines
negatively, still to be fully confirmed. Precisely Brazil is one of the countries
that in January 2021 reported the VOC P.1(501Y.V3), now spreading to other countries
of Latin America, such as Colombia, Suriname, Venezuela, Peru, and Argentina. This
emerging situation resulted in new restrictions on air travel to and from these countries.
7
The VOC P.1 was first reported by Japan from two travelers from Manaus, one of Brazil’s
most important rainforest city. This shows the difficult found in Latin American countries,
including Brazil, to genotype and identify VOC that might be spreading through the
countries in the continent.
Concurrently, ending 2020/beginning 2021, multiple countries started their vaccination
plans using different COVID-19 vaccines, including Brazil and most Latin American
territories. In South America, more than 14.2 million doses have been applied, more
than 9 million in Brazil (Fig. 1). Vaccines such as Comirnaty BNT162b2 (Pfizer/Biontech),
AZD1222 (or Covishield) (AstraZeneca/Oxford), CoronaVac (formerly PiCoVacc) (Sinovac),
BBIBP-CorV (Sinopharm), and Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute), among many other
arriving, are being used in the region, expecting favorable results, based on phase
3 and target trials already published showing high efficacy and even effectiveness
for them. Still, the efficacy and effectiveness of these vaccines need to be assessed
carefully under the scenario of the VOCs.
7
Fig. 1
Cumulative COVID-19 vaccination doses administered per 100 people in selected countries
of Latin America, up to March 3, 2021.
Fig. 1
Additionally, and not least important, as previously discussed by our group,
2
the political scenario has not been friendly for evidence-based decisions. That was
mostly the situation in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Peru, and Venezuela, among others
were not scientifically supported interventions recommended by high-rank stakeholders.
Some of them have not broadly followed the recommendations of the World Health Organization
(WHO) during the COVID-19 pandemic.
2
People who refuse to practice COVID-19 preventive measures, such as wearing a mask,
hand hygiene, physical distance, remaining in respiratory isolation at home when affected
by the disease and not participating in agglomerations are largely responsible for
the critical social and effective consequences that affect our countries in Latin
America.
It is known that the solution, already experienced by countries such as the USA, United
Kingdom and Israel, is the adoption of preventive measures by the entire population,
together with the rapid mass vaccination of the population. Unfortunately, this target
seems to be far for most Latin American countries yet.
Even with effective vaccines, multiple measures will need constant assessment and
continuing use in Latin America, including selective quarantine for specific territories
and periods, isolation, physical distancing, correct use of facial mask, hand washing,
controlled rooms capacity, among others. Still, many work and study activities should
be carried out virtually.
2
Finally, the critical role played by the scientific societies, giving proper support
and advice, such as the Brazilian Society of Infectious Diseases (SBI), in addition
to the international organizations, such as the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO)
and the WHO, have helped to slow the number of new cases expected, define cases, detect
them, and especially with the development of evidence-based clinical guidelines, appropriate
clinical management, including diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Over this first
year, many lessons have been learned from different points of view. Very sadly, many
colleagues and health professionals have died working in the first line, and some
have survived with sequelae. Physicians in Brazil and Latin America are working hard
to face the ongoing challenges of the pandemic and hopefully move into the transition
to a new “normal” world that may firstly control this emerging coronavirus effectively
over the course of the next few months and years, sooner than later. For the moment
of proofs correction of this Editorial (March 17, 2021), Brazil reached to 11.6 million
cases, becoming the second country in the world with highest cases after USA (29.5
million cases), and facing one of the worse health crises due the collapse of health
services.
Funding
None.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.