Influência da pandemia da COVID-19 no diagnóstico de doenças infecciosas em um hospital público da cidade de Governador Valadares – MG

Abstract

The severe acute respiratory syndrome virus (SARS-CoV-2) affected a large portion of the global population, showing variation in disease lethality rates as well as in the effects of the pandemic on the diagnosis of other diseases, including visceral leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and C, syphilis, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In the city of Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil, where the study hospital is a reference center for the diagnosis and treatment of visceral leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted infections for 24 municipalities in the eastern microregion of the state, the COVID-19 fatality rate was higher than that of Brazil from 2020 to 2022. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the prevalence of infectious diseases (visceral leishmaniasis, tuberculosis, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, syphilis, HIV) diagnosed at the Municipal Hospital of Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil. This is a retrospective cross-sectional study based on secondary data collected from the hospital’s database. Examinations conducted at the Municipal Hospital in the pre-pandemic (2018, 2019), pandemic (2020 to 2022), and post-pandemic (2023) periods were compared, regardless of the result, excluding tests performed for treatment confirmation and follow-up. The collected data were analyzed by calculating the proportion of positive tests over the total number of tests for each disease to make appropriate comparisons, as well as analyzing the data by gender and age of the patients. A chi-square test was performed, with a significance level set at 5%. The results indicated that for most of the diseases studied, the pandemic did not impact their frequency. However, syphilis infection showed a significant difference during the studied periods, with an increase in positive cases and a predominance of women of childbearing age. It was concluded that, of all the infections analyzed, syphilis was influenced by COVID-19, with an increase in the number of positive cases.