ABSTRACT
Introduction: In Santiago de Cuba province, the actions applied to control the epidemic in 2020 caused changes and negative effects on many of the health services that are usually provided in the territory. Objective: To identify the effect of the COVID-19 epidemic on health services in Santiago de Cuba province during 2020. Methods: A retrospective ecological study was conducted with time series as units of comparative analysis in Santiago de Cuba province as the only geographical territory to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on the provision of health services during 2020. Some health service indicators from the time series from 2015 to 2019 were selected. The data source was official statistics. The percentage of change was estimated and a classification of the effects of COVID-19 according to its magnitude and meaning was proposed. Results: There were changes in the number and types of health services in terms of outpatient and emergency medical consultations, hospital admissions and average stay of cardiology activities related to admissions, coronary angiographies performed, pacemakers implanted and operations performed, elective surgical activities and emergency operations, as well as outpatient and minimal access ones, rehabilitative treatments, studies for diagnosis through the use of clinical and microbiology laboratories, imaging studies in general, and the most affected were those related to Stomatology, and kidney and corneal transplants. Conclusions: The COVID-19 epidemic had a negative effect on the functioning of health services as there were unfavorable changes in the number of services provided at the primary and secondary care levels, which can impact on the health of vulnerable people if alternative strategies are not established.
ABSTRACT
Background: International travelers from regions with high incidence rates of COVID-19 have a high probability of being infected and spreading the disease when in contact with other people, so it is necessary to investigate the influence of the entry of these travelers on the transmission of COVID-19 during the second wave of the epidemic. Objective: To determine the influence of the entry of international travelers and other indicators on the transmission of COVID-19 in Santiago de Cuba province. Methods: an ecological study of correlation of the incidence of COVID-19 with certain variables was developed considering as units of analysis the municipalities of Santiago de Cuba province. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to determine the correlation. To determine the variables that most influenced the number of confirmed cases, multiple linear regression and partial least squares were applied. Cluster analysis was used to determine the most similar municipalities. Results: six models and the formation of several clusters were obtained. The municipality of Santiago de Cuba was atypical. The most influential variables were: travelers, travelers with COVID, number of outbreaks, number of asymptomatic, population density and collaborator. The regions and countries that determined the model were America, Europe, Spain, Mexico and Venezuela. Conclusions: the number of travelers with and without COVID-19 has been a trigger for the number of infected cases in the epidemic in Santiago de Cuba.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Since March 2020, Cuba has been affected by SARS-CoV-2, a highly infectious coronavirus that causes COVID-19. In COVID-19 a set of associated symptoms is presented and its evolution can be influenced by the presence of certain personal pathological antecedents in the host. Objective: To identify through principal components the grouping of clinical variables in cases with COVID-19 in Santiago de Cuba province, Cuba. Methods: We conducted an observational, descriptive and transversal study. The study population consisted of the 49 confirmed cases with COVID-19 in the province of Santiago de Cuba. Ten clinical variables were selected: nine related to symptoms and personal pathological history, and one to the state “deceased”. Principal component analysis was applied as a statistical technique. Results: Variables were represented at the level of the first two principal components. The first component was associated to symptoms and the second component to personal pathological antecedents not associated to the respiratory system. This representation revealed that variables leading to an unfavorable evolution of cases were located in the first and fourth quadrants of the plane, being remarkable for those located in the fourth quadrant. The second and third quadrants were indicators of the favorable evolution, being marked in the second quadrant. Conclusions: The principal component analysis groups the clinical variables and corroborates that personal pathological antecedents have an essential role in the unfavorable evolution of patients with COVID-19. © 2021, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Despite the actions carried out by government institutions and health department in Santiago de Cuba, there has been an increase in the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19, causing the need to increase hospital beds for isolation and treatment. of patients and contacts demanding a greater number of health and support workers for these services, among which an increase in cases has been observed and for this reason it was considered necessary to characterize the perception of risk about Covid-19 who have case contacts confirmed and health workers who work in these institutions, for which a qualitative study was designed in which 106 subjects participated, of them 70 case contacts and 36 health workers. The results showed that there is a contradiction between the perception of the subjects about the negativity - mortality of the disease and the actions to avoid getting infected, as well as the perception of risk is considered only in the beliefs of perceived susceptibility and the perceived benefits and not in the perceived barriers, functional self-efficacy and the signal for action, showing a low perception from the belief in health in these subjects.
ABSTRACT
Objective: To describe the behaviour of COVID-19 confirmed cases from Santiago de Cuba province between March and April, 2020. Methods: It was carried out a cross-sectional, observational descriptive study taking as studied population 49 COVID-19 positive cases in Santiago de Cuba province between March and April, 2020. There were selected clinic and epidemiologic variables. As statistical technique it was applied the implicative statistical analysis with its three forms: similarity, cohesive, and implicative. Results: It was obtained a set of all the relations among the studied variables in a graphic way, being highlighted the differences among both sexes since the females were related to the asymptomatic category and the males to symptomatic, seriously ill and deceased categories;while older adults were related with the higher amount of personal pathological background and the deceased ones, and young adults were related to the backgrounds and respiratory system’s symptoms. Conclusions: This study allows to visualize, as a distinctive feature of COVID-19 cases´ behaviour in Santiago de Cuba province, that the highest risk sub-group is the one of male 2 older adults with underlying diseases, mainly arterial hypertension, which is similar to what is happening in other regions of the world. © 2020, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.