Publications by authors named "Ricardo Haddad"
Background: Brazil has been dramatically hit by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and is a world leader in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Additionally, the largest country of Latin America has been a continuous source of SARS-CoV-2 variants and shows extraordinary variability of the pandemic strains probably related to the country´s outstanding position as a Latin American economical and transportation hub. Not all regions of the country show sufficient infrastructure for SARS-CoV-2 diagnosis and genotyping which can negatively impact the pandemic response.
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- Brazil has experienced high COVID-19 cases and deaths, making Latin America a major pandemic epicenter, with early sustained virus transmission and ongoing gaps in understanding.
- Researchers analyzed over 17,000 near-complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from across Brazil and Paraguay, finding multiple viral lineages predominantly imported from Europe before local transmission clusters emerged after November 2020.
- Effective genomic surveillance has been crucial in tracking the real-time spread of significant variants, such as Gamma (P.1) and Zeta (P.2), and understanding cross-border virus movement into Paraguay.
Article Synopsis
- - Brazil became a major COVID-19 epicenter in Latin America by May 2021, experiencing high transmission rates and deaths, but gaps remain in understanding how the virus spreads nationally.
- - The study analyzes nearly complete SARS-CoV-2 genomes from Brazil and Paraguay, revealing that the initial wave was marked by multiple imported viral lineages mainly from Europe, leading to significant local transmission clusters.
- - As the pandemic progressed without effective restrictions, Brazil saw the emergence and spread of concerning variants like Gamma and Zeta, highlighting the need for extensive genomic surveillance in South America for better pandemic management and public health strategies.
Introduction: Convalescent Plasma therapy is one of the therapeutic strategies that has been used for patients with the Covid-19 disease. Implementing a program with national extension to supply hospitals with this blood component is a great challenge mainly in a middle-income economy.
Objectives: Our objective was to develop and implement a Covid-19 Convalescent Plasma Program which met established quality standards and was adapted to a reality of limited resources.
Sao Paulo State, currently experiences a second COVID-19 wave overwhelming the healthcare system. Due to the paucity of SARS-CoV-2 complete genome sequencing, we established a Network for Pandemic Alert of Emerging SARS-CoV-2 Variants to rapidly understand and monitor the spread of SARS-CoV-2 variants into the state. Through analysis of 210 SARS-CoV-2 complete genomes obtained from the largest regional health departments we identified cocirculation of multiple SARS-CoV-2 lineages such as B.
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