SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Cities from the Southern Region of Bahia State, Brazil: Analysis of Variables Associated in Both Individual and Community Level

• Published in: Viruses Vol. 15; no. 7; p. 1583
• Main Authors: da Silva, Murillo Ferreira, Dos Santos, Uener Ribeiro, Ferreira, Fabrício Barbosa, Albuquerque, George Rego, Mariano, Ana Paula Melo, Fehlberg, Hllytchaikra Ferraz, Santos de Santana, Íris Terezinha, Dos Santos, Pérola Rodrigues, Santos, Luciano Cardoso, Silva de Jesus, Laine Lopes, Piton, Karoline Almeida, Costa, Beatriz Santos, Gomes, Beatriz Sena Moreira, Porto, Vinicius Moreira, Oliveira, Emanuelly da Silva, Oliveira, Cibele Luz, Fontana, Renato, Maciel, Bianca Mendes, Silva, Mylene de Melo, Marin, Lauro Juliano, Gadelha, Sandra Rocha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 01.07.2023; MDPI
• Subjects: Age; Asymptomatic; Censuses; Cities; community risk; Coronaviruses; Cough; COVID-19; Developing countries; Disease transmission; epidemiology; Infections; Laboratories; LDCs; Olfaction; Pandemics; Population; Public health; risk factor; Risk factors; Sanitation; SARS-CoV-2; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; socio-economic status; Software; Statistical analysis; Viral infections; Brazil; United States > US; COVID-19; epidemiology; SARS-CoV-2; risk factor; socio-economic status; community risk
• ISSN: 1999-4915; 1999-4915
• DOI: 10.3390/v15071583

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), challenged public health systems worldwide. Individuals in low-income countries/regions are still at individual and community risk concerning inequality, sanitation, and economic conditions. Besides, during the pandemic, the transmission in municipalities and communities in the countryside and less developed regions kept viral spread and required structured and strengthened clinical and laboratory surveillance. Here, we present an observational, analytic, cross-sectional study conducted using secondary data from the Laboratório de Farmacogenômica e Epidemiologia Molecular (LAFEM)-Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC), to evaluate individual and community factors associated to SARS-CoV-2 infection in outpatients from different cities from Southern Region of Bahia State, in Brazil. The data were collected between June 2021 and May 2022. The SARS-CoV-2 positivity by RT-qPCR was correlated with low socio-economic indicators, including the Human development index ( ) and Average worker salary ( ). Besides, in general, females were less likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 0.752; CI 95% 0.663-0.853; < 0.0001), while brown individuals had more positivity for infection ( < 0.0001). In addition, those who had clinical symptoms were more likely to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 (OR = 6.000; CI 95% 4.932-7.299; < 0.0001). Although dry cough, headache, and fever were the most frequent, loss of taste (OR = 5.574; CI 95% 4.334-7.186) and loss of smell (OR = 6.327; CI 95% 4.899-8.144) presented higher odds ratio to be positive to SARS-CoV-2 by RT-qPCR. Nonetheless, the distribution of these characteristics was not homogenous among the different cities, especially for age and gender. The dynamic of SARS-CoV-2 positivity differed between cities and the total population and reinforces the hypothesis that control strategies for prevention needed to be developed based on both individual and community risk levels to mitigate harm to individuals and the health system.