Specialists analyze the impact of COVID-19 in the Dominican Republic
SANTO DOMINGO. - The distribution of the samples over time, the different laboratories involved in the process and where the tests come from are some elements that should be taken into account to make recommendations and know exactly what is happening at the national level with COVID-19, he said. Ronald Skewes, General Director of Epidemiology of the Ministry of Public Health, who also understands it necessary to establish a COVID-19 sampling scheme by geographic unit.
Skewes explained that when in the daily bulletins it is recorded that 4,000 or 6,000 samples were processed, it is necessary to take into consideration where they come from, what are their patterns, their frequencies and positivities.
In his opinion, in order to have an exact perception of how the pandemic is and how it is affecting each of the provinces, it is necessary to establish a sample-taking scheme by geographical unit, proportional to the size of the population.
Skewes said that, for this on a weekly basis, it would be necessary to take about 7,000 samples, distributed among the National Laboratory that, according to their assessment, when fully developed, between four thousand and five thousand samples could be processed, plus two thousand to three what the private sector can do.
On his side, Jefrey Lizardo, director of the Unique System of Beneficiaries (SIUBEN), presented a survey in which it is highlighted that, as of May 2020, 21% of pregnant or postpartum women were left without access to medical check-upsHowever, in July the figure was reduced by 12%.
In addition, he said that the pandemic affected the diet in homes, where 76% indicated that they are concerned about not having enough food and of these 57% have had to take measures such as reducing the portions served, reducing the amount of food per day or go days without eating.
Lizardo said that these figures are contained in a survey focused on vulnerable groups on the socio-economic impact of COVID-19, led by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef, ) United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Joint United Nations Program on HIV / AIDS (UNAIDS), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and other organizations, with the support of SIUBEN.
During the meeting “Analysis of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Dominican Republic: Where are we going?”, Organized by professionals from the Master of Science in Public Health and Epidemiology of the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), Lizardo highlighted that among the lessons learned from COVID-19 are the need to have resilient health systems in the face of shocks such as the pandemic and adaptive social protection systems to protect the most vulnerable population.
“Primary care must be the center of all health systems that are more proactive and less reactive, that focus on health promotion and disease prevention, in this case on the education and responsibilities of people towards the COVID and risk factors for chronic diseases ”.
Lizardo highlighted that the pandemic creates a great opportunity to promote changes in the health sector and COVID-19 demonstrated the importance of having social protection systems that are adaptive to appropriately articulated, proactive with the ability to act preventively before shocks generated by pandemics due to climate change .
In the virtual event were present by INTEC, Miguel Robiou, dean of the Health Sciences Area; Joel de la Cruz, coordinator of the Postgraduate Level and José Féliz, Academic Vice-Rector.
A predictive model
The Data Science specialist from the INTEC Engineering Area, Renato González, presented a proposal from the academy and the Territorial Innovation and Intelligence laboratory supported by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB LAB), based on a predictive and management model of COVID-19, composed of three fundamental modules to promote information necessary for managing the risk of the epidemic at the macro and micro level.
He stressed that it has a macro-predictive model of the contagion curve, a contact tracing model and a sample design model to determine the seroprevalence of the disease at the national level.
On behalf of the project team, he said that it has key indicators that determine an expansion of the epidemic, which are: the index of control of endogenous factors, index of biosafety and hygiene, index of social mobility, social distancing and use of masks.
About the Master of Science in Public Health and Epidemiology
During the virtual meeting, doctors Jacqueline Medina and Manuel Colomé presented the Master of Science in Public Health and Epidemiology, which will be offered by INTEC.
They indicated that the master's degree is designed to provide a comprehensive perspective of population health, helping to train leaders capable of addressing current public health problems through epidemiology and multidisciplinary approaches using updated scientific knowledge.
The program is designed to meet the competency standards of the Pan American Health Organization according to the Regional Framework of Essential Competencies in Public Health and accreditation of the American Association of Schools and Public Health.
The master's program is aimed at all professionals interested in training in the area of public health. Graduates of the master will have various professional opportunities as a researcher in public health and epidemiology, epidemiologist, public health manager, analyst and consultant in Public Health, manager of health services, analyst of health data, among others.