Publications by authors named "Jhon Jairo Lopez"
Article Synopsis
- Between 2015 and 2023, over 7 million Venezuelans were displaced globally, leading to a study on prenatal care among Venezuelan refugees in Colombia.
- Analysis of 917 women with recent pregnancies revealed that 61.5% had four or more prenatal care visits, with irregular migration status and denial of care significantly reducing the likelihood of attending these visits.
- Recommendations include improving access to prenatal care by raising awareness, supporting navigation through the health system, and reducing discrimination in health facilities for Venezuelan migrants.
The causes and conditions of displacement often increase the vulnerability of migrant and refugee populations to food insecurity, alongside other material hardships. We aimed to examine the multidimensional aspects and patterns of food insecurity and other material hardships in a cross-sectional sample of 6221 Venezuelan refugees and migrants in urban Colombia using a latent class analysis. Using multinomial and logistic regression models, we investigated the demographic and migratory experiences associated with identified classes and how class membership is associated with multiple health outcomes among Venezuelan refugees and migrants, respectively.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Equitable access to vaccines for migrants and refugees is necessary to ensure their right to health and to achieve public health goals of reducing vaccine-preventable illness. Public health policies require regulatory frameworks and communication to effect uptake of effective vaccines among the target population. In Colombia, the National COVID-19 Vaccination Plan implicitly included Venezuelan refugees and migrants; however, initial communication of the policy indicated that vaccine availability was restricted to people with regular migration status.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Population-based estimates of syphilis prevalence are critical to informing public health response. We aimed to measure syphilis prevalence among Venezuelan refugees and migrants in Colombia to inform public health programming.
Methods: Between July 2021 and February 2022, we surveyed 6221 adult Venezuelan refugees and migrants in four cities in Colombia using respondent-driven sampling (RDS).
Article Synopsis
- Venezuela has faced significant human displacement since 2015, prompting a study to assess HIV prevalence among Venezuelan migrants and refugees in Colombia, where many have settled.
- A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 6,221 Venezuelans aged 18 and older, utilizing rapid HIV screenings, questionnaires, and support for accessing treatment amidst challenges related to migration status.
- The findings revealed a weighted HIV prevalence of 0.9% among participants, with 1.1% confirmed HIV cases; notably, individuals with irregular migration status had lower odds of achieving viral suppression compared to those with regular status.
Background: Colombia hosts a large number of Venezuelan migrants and refugees who are uniquely vulnerable and have been markedly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is necessary to understand their experiences to inform future policy decisions both in Colombia and during disease outbreaks in other humanitarian contexts in the future. As part of a larger study focused on HIV among Venezuelans residing in Colombia, qualitative interviews were conducted to understand this population's experiences and access to healthcare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Epidemiologic research among migrant populations is limited by logistical, methodological, and ethical challenges, but it is necessary for informing public health and humanitarian programming.
Objective: We describe a methodology to estimate HIV prevalence among Venezuelan migrants in Colombia.
Methods: Respondent-driven sampling, a nonprobability sampling method, was selected for attributes of reaching highly networked populations without sampling frames and analytic methods that permit estimation of population parameters.