Department of Neurology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, United States.
Department of Epilepsy, Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Neurológicas, Lima, Peru.
Front Public Health. 2023 Sep 7;11:1210238. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1210238. eCollection 2023.
Peru is a historically unique and culturally diverse Latin American country. As a low-to-middle-income country (LMIC), Peru faces health implications from the spread of communicable diseases as well as a growing rate of noncommunicable diseases, both of which have been worsened by the recent COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the national health system. Over the past two decades, the country has aimed to improve health access for its population through various efforts described in this review. Despite this, there are notable neurological health disparities that exist today. This narrative review investigates such disparities through the leading neurological contributors to the national burden of disease in the country, including migraine headaches, cerebrovascular disease, and dementia. Public health disparities that contribute to other major neurological diseases in the country, including epilepsy, neurocysticercosis, Chagas disease, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, traumatic and non-traumatic spinal cord injuries are also investigated. We also explore potential solutions for overcoming the various neurological health disparities covered in this review that may be applied through public policies, as well as in similar LMICs in Latin America. By overcoming such disparities, the country may be able to successfully address the major contributors of neurological disease burden and create a healthcare environment that can sustainably and equitably improve health outcomes for Peruvian people.
秘鲁是一个历史独特、文化多样的拉美国家。作为一个中低收入国家（LMIC），秘鲁面临着传染病传播和非传染性疾病发病率不断上升的健康问题，而最近 COVID-19 大流行对国家卫生系统的影响使这些问题更加恶化。在过去的二十年中，秘鲁通过本综述中描述的各种努力，旨在改善其人民的卫生保健服务。尽管如此，目前仍存在明显的神经健康差异。本叙述性综述通过研究该国导致疾病负担的主要神经学因素，包括偏头痛、脑血管疾病和痴呆，来调查这些差异。此外，还研究了导致该国其他主要神经疾病的公共卫生差异，包括癫痫、神经囊虫病、恰加斯病、多发性硬化症、创伤性脑损伤、创伤性和非创伤性脊髓损伤。我们还探讨了克服本综述中涵盖的各种神经健康差异的潜在解决方案，这些解决方案可以通过公共政策以及拉丁美洲其他类似的中低收入国家来实施。通过克服这些差异，该国可能能够成功解决神经疾病负担的主要贡献者，并创造一个能够可持续和公平地改善秘鲁人民健康结果的医疗保健环境。
