Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias, Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM), Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Centro Integrado de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Saúde (CIPq-Saúde), Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri (UFVJM), Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Sci Rep. 2021 Feb 23;11(1):4402. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-83971-x.
COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in Brazil, a country of continental dimensions, but the incidence of the disease is showing to be very heterogeneous, affecting cities and regions differently. Thus, there is a gap regarding what factors would contribute to accentuate the differences in the incidence of COVID-19 among Brazilian cities. This work aimed to evaluate the effect of altitude on the incidence of COVID-19 in Brazilian cities. We analyzed the relative incidence (RI), the relative death rate (RDR) of COVID-19, and air relative humidity (RH) in all 154 cities in Brazil with a population above 200 thousand inhabitants, located between 5 and 1135 m in altitude. Pearson's correlation analysis was performed to compare a relationship between altitude with RI and RDR, and between RH with RI and RDR. Altitudes were classified into three classes [low (altitude ≤ 97 m a. s. l), middle (97 < altitude ≤ 795 m a. s. l), high (795 < altitude ≤ 1135 m a. s. l)] for the RI, RDR, and RH variables. To compare the three classes of altitude, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey test were used to compare averages (p < 0.05). Our epidemiological analysis found that the RI, RDR, and RH were lower in cities located in high altitudes (795 < altitude ≤ 1135 m a. s. l) when compared to the middle (97 < altitude ≤ 795 m a. s. l) and low (altitude ≤ 97 m a. s. l) cities altitudes. Furthermore, our study shows that there is a negative correlation between the incidence of COVID-19 with altitude and a positive correlation with RH in the cities analyzed. Brazilian cities with high altitude and low RH have lower RI and RDR from COVID-19. Thus, high altitude cities may be favorable to shelter people at risk. This study may be useful for understanding the behavior of SARS-CoV2, and start point for future studies to establish causality of environmental conditions with SARS-CoV2 contributing to the implementation of measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.
新型冠状病毒肺炎(COVID-19)在幅员辽阔的巴西迅速蔓延,但疾病的发病率表现出非常不均匀,不同城市和地区的情况不同。因此,对于哪些因素会加剧巴西各城市 COVID-19 发病率的差异,存在差距。本工作旨在评估海拔高度对巴西城市 COVID-19 发病率的影响。我们分析了所有 154 个人口超过 20 万居民的巴西城市的相对发病率(RI)、COVID-19 的相对死亡率(RDR)和空气相对湿度(RH),这些城市的海拔高度在 5 至 1135 米之间。进行了 Pearson 相关性分析,以比较海拔高度与 RI 和 RDR 之间的关系,以及 RH 与 RI 和 RDR 之间的关系。将海拔高度分为三个等级[低(海拔高度≤97 m a. s. l)、中(97<海拔高度≤795 m a. s. l)、高(795<海拔高度≤1135 m a. s. l)]用于 RI、RDR 和 RH 变量。为了比较海拔高度的三个等级,使用方差分析(ANOVA)和 Tukey 检验来比较平均值(p<0.05)。我们的流行病学分析发现,与中海拔(97<海拔高度≤795 m a. s. l)和低海拔(海拔高度≤97 m a. s. l)城市相比,高海拔(795<海拔高度≤1135 m a. s. l)城市的 RI、RDR 和 RH 较低。此外,我们的研究表明,在分析的城市中,COVID-19 的发病率与海拔高度呈负相关,与 RH 呈正相关。海拔高且 RH 低的巴西城市 COVID-19 的 RI 和 RDR 较低。因此,高海拔城市可能有利于庇护有风险的人群。本研究可能有助于了解 SARS-CoV2 的行为,并为未来研究提供起点,以确定环境条件与 SARS-CoV2 之间的因果关系,为 COVID-19 的传播预防和控制措施的实施提供依据。