By Valéria Credidio/ LAIS/UFRN Communication Advisor
The effectiveness of the vaccines against covid-19 is directly related to the decrease in hospital admissions and deaths, in Rio Grande do Norte. This is one of the results of studies conducted by Brazilian, Portuguese, and American researchers, which can be seen in the article Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination on Reduction of Hospitalizations and Deaths in Elderly Patients in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, a journal of international relevance, which impact factor is 4.614.
The study, conducted by the Laboratory for Technological Innovation in Health (LAIS/UFRN), is the result of work done in Rio Grande do Norte in partnership with the State Secretariat of Public Health of Rio Grande do Norte (Sesap/RN). All the data were collected from the Technological Ecosystem for coping with the covid-19 pandemic, composed of platforms such as Regula RN, RN+Vaccine, and Coronavirus RN Platform developed by LAIS, alongside Sesap/RN.
The data that make up the study map a historical series, defined between March 2020 and August 2021, marking a period where initially no vaccination was available, going through the beginning of the immunization process of the population, evolving until the comprehensive vaccination. “These data are critical, contributing to the next vaccination campaigns,” said researcher Leonardo Lima, one of the article’s authors. Lima also pointed out that the data collected measures the effectiveness of the immunizers.
The article proves that in Rio Grande Grande Norte, Brazil, the most effective action against covid-19 was vaccines. In addition to demonstrating the effectiveness of immunization in reducing deaths, the article also highlights the effectiveness in reducing hospitalizations. For the authors of the article, this fact is recognized as real-world effectiveness when the analyses and studies run outside controlled environments such as laboratories.
It was also proven that even among vaccinated patients who became ill with covid-19 when hospitalized, they mostly had a better outcome when compared to unvaccinated patients. “This important study was only possible because Rio Grande do Norte, through LAIS/UFRN and Sesap/RN, developed and implemented during the covid-19 pandemic a Technological Ecosystem allowing a responsible conduct of the pandemic, guided by care and epidemiological data, which enabled public authorities to make more effective and timely decisions,” explained the executive director of LAIS, Professor Ricardo Valentim. The scientist also points out that the technical cooperation carried out during the covid-19 pandemic with control bodies and municipalities contributed a lot to the process of incorporating the Technological System Ecosystem.
Methodologically, the research has great relevance once it had access to more than 12 thousand cases for study. For doctor Ion Andrade, a member of the article’s authors, the work brings essential conclusions, such as the fact that only one dose of the vaccine against covid-19 already makes a difference from the epidemiological point of view in relation to severe covid. For Ion Andrade, the fact that the pandemic is under control is due to good vaccine coverage. “But this article brings a truth that goes beyond that. It shows more and more the importance of vaccination and this needs to be known by everyone because today, for example, we have a battle that is not just against covid, but is also the culture of vaccination to get back to having sufficient levels of vaccination coverage for polio, which has returned to being a risk disease,” he warned.
Another LAIS researcher and also the author of the article, Isabela Sales, points to significant data, especially regarding the reduction of cases among the older adults. “with the beginning of vaccination, it can be observed that the number of moderate and severe cases as well as the number of deaths by COVID-19 decreased significantly, especially in the older adults population,” explained the researcher. It is worth remembering that in the research period almost 100% of the population over 60 years old was vaccinated with two doses. In terms of the general population, this percentage, within the period determined for the research, was around 63% in the whole RN.
How to cite:
Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination on Reduction of Hospitalizations and Deaths in Elderly Patients in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil
Sales-Moioli, A.I.L.; Galvão-Lima, L.J.; Pinto, T.K.B.; Cardoso, P.H.; Silva, R.D.; Fernandes, F.; Barbalho, I.M.P.; Farias, F.L.O.; Veras, N.V.R.; Souza, G.F.; Cruz, A.S.; Andrade, I.G.M.; Gama, L.; Valentim, R.A.M. Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination on Reduction of Hospitalizations and Deaths in Elderly Patients in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19, 13902. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192113902