COVID-19: Perspectiva, lo que sabemos y lo que aprendemos

Se  presenta un panorama amplio de lo que fue el inicio de esta pandemía Covid 19, y los retos que representa para los profesionales de la salud y las personas que contribuyen en el bienestar social. Los datos que presenta están soportados con literatura científica, mientras a manera narrativa cuenta mi punto de vista como Epidemióloga.&nbsp

Simulación semanal del comportamiento de la epidemia por COVID–19 en Colombia

  This is a statistical projection of the behavior of the epidemic week by week of the transmission of COVID-19 in Colombia. These projections are based on data provided by the Instituto Nacional de Salud on the number of infections and mortality in the country from March 6 to date.    Esta es una proyección estadística del comportamiento de la epidemia semana a semana de la transmisión del COVID-19 en Colombia. Estas proyecciones están basadas en los datos entregados por el Instituto Nacional Salud sobre el número de contagios y mortalidad en el país desde marzo seis hasta la fecha

Producción científica sobre tuberculosis en Cali - Colombia, 2007-2016

Tuberculosis is a global public health problem. The program for Tuberculosis control of Cali must adopt one of their fundamental pillars: research and innovation, for which it requires evaluating the literature developed locally about this disease, in order to establish a baseline of scientific production, to be able to create improvement strategies and public health policies in this regard. The objective of this study has been to conduct an inventory of the scientific production on Tuberculosis in Cali, between 2007 and 2016, identifying the research which contributed to the implementation of control and prevention actions. Finished works were sought such as they were based in any area of knowledge in Tuberculosis in different databases, physical repositories of local university libraries, platforms of scientific groups and met with researchers and staff of the municipal and departmental Secretary of Public Health. Ninety four documents were identified, developed by 13 different institutions.PublishedLa tuberculosis es un problema de salud pública global. El programa de control de tuberculosis de Cali debe adoptar uno de sus pilares fundamentales: la investigación y la innovación, para lo cual requiere evaluar la literatura desarrollada localmente sobre esta enfermedad, con el fin de establecer una línea de base de la producción científica, para poder crear estrategias de mejora y políticas de salud pública al respecto. El objetivo de este estudio fue realizar un inventario de la producción científica sobre tuberculosis en Cali, entre 2007 y 2016, identificando las investigaciones que contribuyeron a la implementación de acciones de control y prevención. Se buscaron trabajos finalizados que abordaran sobre cualquier área del conocimiento en Tuberculosis en diferentes bases de datos, repositorios físicos de bibliotecas universitarias locales, plataformas de grupos científicos y se entrevistaron investigadores y personal de las secretarías de Salud Pública municipal y departamental. Se identificaron 94 trabajos, desarrollados por 13 instituciones diferente

Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines in older adults in Colombia: a retrospective, population-based study of the ESPERANZA cohort.

Background: Although clinical trials showed that vaccines have high efficacy and safety, differences in study designs and populations do not allow for comparison between vaccines and age groups. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19 in real-world conditions in adults aged 60 years and older in Colombia. Methods: In this retrospective, population-based, matched cohort study, we evaluated the effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19-related hospitalisation and death in people aged 60 years and older. The full cohort consisted of every person who was eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Colombia (the ESPERANZA cohort). The exposed cohort consisted of older adults who were fully vaccinated with Ad26.COV2-S, BNT162b2, ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, or CoronaVac, and who did not have a history of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The unexposed cohort were people aged 60 years and older who had not received any dose of a COVID-19 vaccine during the study period. Participant follow-up was done between March 11, 2021, and Oct 26, 2021. Vaccine effectiveness was estimated as 1- hazard ratio from cause-specific proportional hazards models in the presence of competing risks. We estimated the overall effectiveness of being fully vaccinated, as well as effectiveness for each vaccine, adjusting by main potential confounders. The effectiveness of each vaccine was also assessed by age groups (ages 60-69 years, 70-79 years, and ≥80 years). Findings: 2 828 294 participants were assessed between March 11 and Oct 26, 2021. For all ages, the overall effectiveness across all assessed COVID-19 vaccines at preventing hospitalisation without subsequent death was 61·6% (95% CI 58·0-65·0, p<0·0001), 79·8% (78·5-81·1, p<0·0001) for preventing death after hospitalisation with COVID-19, and 72·8% (70·1-75·3, p<0·0001) for preventing death without previous COVID-19 hospitalisation. The effectiveness of all vaccines analysed at preventing death after hospitalisation for COVID-19 was 22·6% lower in adults who were aged 80 and older (68·4% [65·7-70·9], p<0·0001) compared with adults aged between 60 and 69 years (91·0% [89·0-92·6], p<0·0001). Interpretation: All vaccines analysed in this study were effective at preventing hospitalisation and death from COVID-19 in fully vaccinated older adults, which is a promising result for the national vaccination programme against COVID-19 in Colombia and in countries where these biologics have been applied. Efforts should be improved to increase coverage among older adults. In addition, given that we observed that the effectiveness of vaccines declined with increasing age, a booster dose is also justified, which should be prioritised for older adults. Funding: Colombian Ministry of Health and Social Protection

Estudios de la tuberculosis desde la Sucursal del Cielo

PublishedEste libro está dirigido a la comunidad académica, científica y en general a aquellas personas interesadas en ampliar sus conocimientos sobre la tuberculosis. Iniciamos con una revisión general de la evolución de las metodologías diagnósticas. Posteriormente, destacamos diferentes trabajos de investigación realizados en Cali y el Valle del Cauca en torno a la tuberculosis, resaltando herramientas empleadas para la vigilancia epidemiológica de la enfermedad, así como el estudio de la tuberculosis en población vulnerable (tuberculosis infantil y la incidencia de esta enfermedad en trabajadores de la salud en los últimos años en Cali). Este libro resalta la necesidad de entender el enfoque humano que rodea esta enfermedad, en esa dirección los dos últimos capítulos los enfocamos en las creencias sobre la tuberculosis y la interacción del paciente con las entidades prestadoras de servicios de salud. Esperamos que nuestro libro genere importantes aportes a aquellos que se involucran en el estudio de esta enfermedad que ha acompañado al hombre probablemente desde su presencia en el planeta y sea, además, el insumo de futuros investigadores en las diversas áreas del conocimiento que confluyen en el entendimiento de esta enfermedad infecciosa