Covid-19 has left 40 children and teenagers motherless in Brazil

Agency Brazil - Deaths caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have left 40.830 children and adolescents orphaned in Brazil, according to a study published by researchers from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG).

According to the authors of the research, published today (26) by Fiocruz, there was a delay in adopting the necessary measures to control the disease, and this caused a large number of avoidable deaths.

The results obtained by the researchers can be found in an article published in English on December 19th. The data sources used were the Mortality Information System (SIM) for 2020 and 2021, and the Live Birth Information System (Sinasc) for the period between 2003 and 2020.

Coordinator of the Child Health Observatory, an initiative by Fiocruz with the Petrópolis School of Medicine at the Arthur de Sá Earp Neto Center (Unifase), Cristiano Boccolini warns that these children and adolescents urgently need the adoption of intersectoral public protection policies.

"Considering the health and economic crisis in the country, with the return of hunger, increased food insecurity, rising unemployment, intensified job insecurity, and a growing waiting list for social programs, it is urgent to mobilize society to protect children, with priority attention to this group of 40.830 children and adolescents who lost their mothers due to COVID-19 in the first two years of the pandemic," says the researcher, who is one of the authors of the study.

The death of a parent, and in particular of the mother, is linked to adverse outcomes throughout life and has serious consequences for the well-being of the family, adds Celia Landmann Szwarcwald, researcher at the Information and Health Laboratory of the Institute of Scientific and Technological Communication and Information in Health (Icict/Fiocruz). 

"Orphaned children are more vulnerable to emotional and behavioral problems, which necessitates intervention programs to mitigate the psychological consequences of orphanhood."

The data on orphans is part of the researchers' analysis of mortality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across the entire population. Another point highlighted by the study is that COVID-19 was responsible for more than a third of all deaths of women related to childbirth complications.

Researchers estimate that, in 2020 and 2021, COVID-19 was responsible for almost a fifth (19%) of all deaths recorded in Brazil. During the peak of the pandemic, in March 2021, the country recorded almost 4 deaths from the disease per day, a number that exceeds the daily average of deaths from all causes in 2019, which was 3,7.

Inequalities

The study also indicates that mortality among illiterate people reached 38,8 deaths per 10 people, while the average for the Brazilian population was 14,8 deaths per 10 people.

To estimate the impact of education on COVID-19 mortality, researchers used data on deaths from the disease and the distribution of the Brazilian population by education level from the National Health Survey. The results show that among illiterate adults, COVID-19 mortality was three times higher than among those who completed higher education.

Fiocruz researcher Wanessa da Silva de Almeida points out that education and other socioeconomic characteristics affect the prognosis of COVID-19 and other diseases. "Socioeconomic inequality leads to inequities in access to health services and, consequently, difficulties in timely diagnosis and treatment of cases."

The study authors highlight that the higher mortality rate among individuals with lower levels of education reflects the unequal impact of the epidemic on socially disadvantaged Brazilian families, being even greater among children and adolescents who became orphans and lost one of the family's breadwinners. 

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