SARS-CoV-2 in the Amazon region: A harbinger of doom for Amerindians

Ramírez, Juan David; Sordillo, Emilia Mia; Gotuzzo, Eduardo; Zavaleta, Carol; Caplivski, Daniel; Navarro, Juan Carlos; Crainey, James Lee; Luz, Sérgio Luíz Bessa; Delgado-Noguera, Lourdes A.; Schaub, Roxane; Rousseau, Cyril; Herrera, Giovanny; Oliveira‐Miranda, María A.; Quispe-Vargas, Maria Teresa; Hotez, Peter J.; Mondolfi, Alberto Paniz

doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0008686

Cited by 28 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The socioeconomic difficulties inherent to the country’s situation and the inadequate education and understanding of the public health context by the community, which results in an inappropriate perception of risk, are factors that have a negative impact on the management and effectiveness of the measures taken, which has facilitated the dispersion of COVID-19 [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Several epidemic modelling studies based on R t estimations have been performed in an attempt to decipher the current infection dynamics, with the caveat that most of these studies have been purely descriptive and restricted to certain geographical regions at the beginning of the pandemic [ 3 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 ]. This has precluded an accurate assessment on the impact of control strategies across wide settings throughout the pandemic period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and Epidemic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia: A Year into the Pandemic

et al. 2021

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Current efforts to understand the epidemiology, transmission dynamics and emergence of novel SARS-CoV-2 variants worldwide has enabled the scientific community to generate critical information aimed at implementing disease surveillance and control measures, as well as to reduce the social, economic and health impact of the pandemic. Herein, we applied an epidemic model coupled with genomic analysis to assess the SARS-CoV-2 transmission dynamics in Colombia. This epidemic model allowed to identify the geographical distribution, Rt dynamics and predict the course of the pandemic considering current implementation of countermeasures. The analysis of the incidence rate per 100,000 inhabitants carried out across different regions of Colombia allowed visualizing the changes in the geographic distribution of cases. The cumulative incidence during the timeframe March 2020 to March 2021 revealed that Bogotá (8063.0), Quindío (5482.71), Amazonas (5055.68), Antioquia (4922.35) and Tolima (4724.41) were the departments with the highest incidence rate. The highest median Rt during the first period evaluated was 2.13 and 1.09 in the second period; with this model, we identified improving opportunities in health decision making related to controlling the pandemic, diagnostic testing capacity, case registration and reporting, among others. Genomic analysis revealed 52 circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages in Colombia detected from 774 genomes sequenced throughout the first year of the pandemic. The genomes grouped into four main clusters and exhibited 19 polymorphisms. Our results provide essential information on the spread of the pandemic countrywide despite implementation of early containment measures. In addition, we aim to provide deeper phylogenetic insights to better understand the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in light of the latent emergence of novel variants and how these may potentially influence transmissibility and infectivity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolution and Epidemic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia: A Year into the Pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…Although COVID-19 outbreaks have been described for different countries in the Amazon basin, no massive surveillance testing has been carried out for Amazonian indigenous communities (Ramirez et al, 2020). This paper describes the experience of COVID-19 surveillance within remote indigenous communities in the Ecuadorian Amazon region.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 at the core of voluntary collective isolation: Lessons from the indigenous populations living in the Amazon region in Ecuador

Ortíz-Prado

Rivera-Olivero

Freire‐Paspuel

et al. 2021

International Journal of Infectious Diseases

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Voluntary collective isolation has been proposed to be the best response to COVID-19 for indigenous populations. While the potential value of voluntary collective isolation is appealing, the feasibility of this approach needs empirical evidence to support it as the best response to protect indigenous communities from COVID-19. This paper describes our experience during SARS-CoV-2 surveillance among Waorani communities in the Ecuadorian Amazonian region, from June to September 2020. We found that selfisolation strategies failed to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from main urban areas to remote and isolated comunities.

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“…A recent example is the Andaman Jarawa or the Yanomami communities, which have seen disease measles outbreaks, resulting in deaths (Das et al, 2005; Kumar, 1999). The most recent coronavirus pandemic outbreak has put a lot of pressure within Indigenous groups in the Amazon basin, increasing the risk of a possible transmission to the isolated communities (Palamim et al, 2020; Ramírez et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Avoiding extinction: the importance of protecting isolated Indigenous tribes

Ortíz-Prado

Cevallos-Sierra

Vásconez

et al. 2021

AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples

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Isolated Indigenous peoples are a group of Indigenous tribes that live in voluntary isolation in remote and mostly inaccessible territories. Together with Indigenous peoples in initial contact, Isolated Indigenous peoples are threatened continuously by advancing extractive activities, the absence of public policies and protection measures by the State, and the pressure of illegal activities on their territories. Generating multidimensional public policies that protect these groups is essential. This commentary shares South America’s perspective on the matter as it is the region where most of the isolated groups reside.

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SARS-CoV-2 in the Amazon region: A harbinger of doom for Amerindians

Cited by 28 publications

References 9 publications

Evolution and Epidemic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia: A Year into the Pandemic

Evolution and Epidemic Spread of SARS-CoV-2 in Colombia: A Year into the Pandemic

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 at the core of voluntary collective isolation: Lessons from the indigenous populations living in the Amazon region in Ecuador

Avoiding extinction: the importance of protecting isolated Indigenous tribes

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