Maternal mortality was 70% higher during the 15 months of the pandemic, a study shows.
According to Fiocruz Amazônia, there were 1.353 more maternal deaths than expected, representing an excess mortality rate of 70%.
By Vinícius Lisboa – Reporter for Agência Brasil - Rio de Janeiro
A study led by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) indicates that the first 15 months of the Covid-19 pandemic increased the number of deaths of pregnant and postpartum women in Brazil by 70%. The data were released this Tuesday (25) by Fiocruz Amazônia, in which epidemiologist Jesem Orellana, one of the authors of the research, participates.
The group responsible for the study included researchers from universities in Brazil, Colombia, and the United States. The methodology was to compare the mortality rate predicted for March 2020 to May 2021, without the pandemic, with the actual mortality rate, with the spread of the novel coronavirus.
According to the study, there were 1.353 more maternal deaths than expected, representing an excess mortality rate of 70%. In the Southern region, from March to May 2021, when the country experienced the deadliest phase of the pandemic, excess deaths reached 375% among women aged 37 to 49.
"Misinformation regarding the use of clinically ineffective medications to prevent/treat COVID-19, or even the rejection of scientific evidence supporting the use of masks, social distancing, and even the efficacy and safety of vaccines, has hindered the implementation of public health measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic," says Orellana, in a text released by the Fiocruz News Agency.
The researcher, who coordinates the Laboratory of Modeling in Statistics, Geoprocessing and Epidemiology (Legepi) at Fiocruz Amazônia, and the other authors of the study state that the impacts of the increase in mortality were different in the regions of the country and stronger in the most acute moments of the pandemic, reflecting not only inequalities in access to health that already existed before the pandemic, but also their worsening, especially in the North and Northeast.
"The study also suggests that the delay in including pregnant and postpartum women among the priority groups for vaccination, in mid-May 2021, the subsequent and misguided suspension of vaccination in those without comorbidities, as well as the slow vaccination against COVID-19 in the rest of the general population during the explosive spread of the Gamma variant, may have contributed to the exceptionally high number of preventable maternal deaths in Brazil, highlighting the urgent need to improve maternal and child health policies during health crises," says the epidemiologist.
The research made the production of the article possible. Excess maternal deaths in Brazil: regional inequalities and trajectories during the Covid-19 epidemic. (Excess maternal mortality in Brazil: Regional inequalities and trajectories during the ovid-19 epidemic), which, according to Fiocruz, has been accepted for publication in the scientific journal. Plos One.
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