Exploring the Impact of COVID-19 on the Sustainability of Health Critical Care Systems in South America

Document Type : Perspective

Author

1 University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

2 INESC TEC - Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science, Porto, Portugal

3 ISPGAYA - Polytechnic Higher Institute of Gaya, Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created strong pressure on national health critical care systems. After its initial impact in Asia, the highest case growth is now in the Americas. The South American countries face a strong challenge due to the vulnerabilities of their health systems and the fragile socio-economic conditions of their population. This perspective looks at the impact of COVID-19 in South America and argues that the health critical care systems of these countries are particularly vulnerable due to the underestimation of the number of cases currently confirmed and the strong need for treatment of these patients in intensive care units (ICUs). In particular, Bolivia will need to increase the number of ICU beds 60-fold while Brazil will need to grow 12-fold to meet the growth rates of COVID-19 by the end of July 2020. In this sense, it is argued that national and transnational measures should be taken urgently to face this challenge. Furthermore, it is necessary to perform tests to detect COVID-19 cases earlier to alleviate the need for internment in ICUs.

Keywords

Main Subjects


  1. Cutler D. How will COVID-19 affect the health care economy? JAMA Health Forum. April 9, 2020. https://jamanetwork.com/channels/health-forum/fullarticle/2764547.
  2. Emanuel EJ, Persad G, Upshur R. et al. Fair allocation of scarce medical resources in the time of Covid-19. N Engl J Med. 2020;382:2049-2055. doi:10.1056/NEJMsb2005114
  3. Aljaberi OA, Hussain M, Drake PR. A framework for measuring sustainability in healthcare systems. Int J Healthc Manag. 2017. doi:10.1080/20479700.2017.1404710
  4. Sanche S, Lin Y, Xu C, Romero-Severson E, Hengartner N, Ke R. High Contagiousness and Rapid Spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020;26(7):1470-1477. doi:10.3201/eid2607.200282
  5. Khan D, Khan LY. The Economics Impact of COVID-19 on Developing Countries. Inter Press Service. 2020. http://www.ipsnews.net/2020/04/the-economic-impact-of-covid-19-on-developing-countries/.
  6. Summer A, Hoy C, Ortiz-Suarez E. Will COVID-19 Lead to Half a Billion More People Living in Poverty in Developing Countries? Global Policy. April 9, 2020. https://www.globalpolicyjournal.com/blog/09/04/2020/will-covid-19-lead-half-billion-more-people-living-poverty-developing-countries.
  7. Kirby T. South America prepares for the impact of COVID-19. Lancet Respir Med. 2020;8(6):551-552. doi:10.1016/S2213-2600(20)30218-6
  8. Chile announces new form of testing as COVID-19 cases rise above 122,000. The Santiago Times. June 28, 2020. https://santiagotimes.cl/2020/06/05/chile-announces-new-form-of-testing-as-covid-19-cases-rise-above-122000/.
  9. Báscolo E, Houghton N, Del Riego A. Lógicas de transformación de los sistemas de salud en América Latina y resultado en acceso y cobertura de salud. Rev Panam Salud Publica. 2018;42:e126. doi:10.26633/RPSP.2018.126
  10. Mahajan M. The IHME in the Shifting Landscape of Global Health Metrics. Global Policy. 2019;10(S1):110-120. doi:10.1111/1758-5899.12605
  11. Verity R, Okell LC, Dorigatti I, et al. Estimates of the severity of coronavirus disease 2019: a model-based analysis. Lancet Infect Dis. 2020;20(6):669-677. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30243-7
  12. Chile is the Latin American country that is doing more tests to detect COVID-19. LABS. April 4, 2020. https://labs.ebanx.com/en/notes/chile-is-the-latin-american-country-that-is-doing-more-tests-to-detect-covid-19/.
  13. Castro MC, Carvalho, LR, Chin T, et al. Demand for hospitalization services for COVID-19 patients in Brazil. medRxiv. 2020. doi:10.1101/2020.03.30.20047662
  14. Marshall E. More Brazilian states facing collapse under Covid-10 pressure. The Brazilian Report. June 26, 2020. https://brazilian.report/society/2020/04/19/more-brazilian-states-facing-collapse-under-covid-19-pressure/.
Volume 10, Issue 8
August 2021
Pages 462-464
  • Receive Date: 08 June 2020
  • Revise Date: 28 June 2020
  • Accept Date: 29 June 2020
  • First Publish Date: 01 August 2021