Análisis espacial y las características sociodemográficas y epidemiológicas de la COVID-19 en niños de 0 a 9 años en una capital del noreste del Brasil

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global public health emergency or pandemic, due to the appearance of a new disease, called COVID-19, which can cause the death of its bearer. In this pandemic context, a marked clinical and epidemiological difference in cases between adults and children observed to analyze SARS-CoV-2, especially the behavior of the virus with children who are more vulnerable due to their health status and living conditions. The objective was to analyze the spatial distribution, sociodemographic and epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in children aged 0 to 9 years in Fortaleza in the year 2020. Ecological study, cross-sectional with a quantitative approach, used secondary data from the ESUS-Ve and SIVEP-Gripe System, Brazil (2021), which organized in Microsoft Excel and georeferenced in the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS), version 2.14 with help from Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) coordinates and Google Maps. The spatial distribution was analyzed with: Kernel Density, Gross Rate, Bayesian, Local Moran Index(LMI), LMI(R2) and dead and cured rate. Results: 798 confirmed children, with predominance in males (50.8%), brown (57.3%) and age group from 1 to 3 years (42.9%). 22.7% were hospitalized; 14.4% in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU); the most frequent symptoms with a predominance in men were fever (57.6%), cough (55.2%) and dyspnea (30.3%) and the comorbidities were chronic neurological, chronic decompensated respiratory and cardiac diseases. Of them 5.5% died and 92.3% cured. The spatial analysis identified conglomerates of confirmed children in the neighborhoods of SER II, V and VI located both in the center and on the outskirts of the city of Fortaleza, with a level of significance (p=0.001), and the cases that died they are distributed in all the regions with the exception of the Center of Fortaleza. It is concluded that the space-time behavior of COVID-19 in children is related to the conditions of socioeconomic vulnerability and comorbidity, both for those who live in neighborhoods that are in the center and on the outskirts of the city of Fortaleza. The analysis will also serve as evidence to decentralize and strengthen health promotion and COVID prevention in frontline health facilities, which monitor and control contagion in the most vulnerable communities in Fortaleza, Ceará.