ABSTRACT
Objectives: The objective of this research was to demonstrate the evolution of the COVID-19 outbreak in Ecuador and South America during the first eight months after the start of the pandemic in the region. Methodology: In Ecuador, data from the Civil Registry, COVID-19 Ec and Ecuador were used in figures regarding the number of deaths, available beds, and infections of health personnel. The population data was obtained from the UN projection for the year 2020, and for the daily contagion reports, the source Our World in Data was used. The graphs were made in Google Drive spreadsheets. Result(s): The impact of the pandemic has affected the entire world, affecting South America with a high daily increase in cases even months after the first outbreak, in addition to the arrival of the second wave of contagion in Europe. The next few months are expected to lighten the panorama with the help of scientific advances in the development of the vaccine and a better understanding of the diagnosis, clinical manifestations and treatment of the disease. Conclusion(s): Ecuador was seriously affected with a significant increase in mortality rates and a lack of health resources. The comparison between the South American countries revealed that the highest spikes in contagion and mortality during the first wave occurred in July and August. It was recommended to continue complying with the rules of social distancing to prevent the appearance of a second wave during the beginning of 2021. Copyright © 2022, Venezuelan Society of Pharmacology and Clinical and Therapeutic Pharmacology. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that was first identified in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, Hubei province in the People’s Republic of China, the virus is transmitted from one person to another in the respiratory secretions that are dispersed when the infected person coughs, speaks or sneezes. With 10.93 deaths per million people from coronavirus as of April 6, 2020, Ecuador has one of the highest mortality rates from COVID-19 in Latin America, with only 7.46 Polymerase Chain Reaction tests. (RT-PCR) per 10,000 people. Pediatric cases were rare in the first days of the COVID-19 outbreak, but with the appearance of family aggregation, they began to appear, registering the first cases on March 27th. The pediatric group is always susceptible to upper respiratory tract infections because their immune system is developing. This report describes the epi-demiological situation of pediatric patients in Ecuador, where it was shown that adolescents aged 15 to 18 years were more susceptible to contracting COVID-19 and the group with the highest mortality was from 0 to 9 years old, it was also shown that of the total diagnostic tests performed, 63.6% were RT-PCR tests and 36.3% were rapid tests.