Faculty of Health Sciences
ODS 3
The Atahualpa community is one of the 6 rural parishes that make up the canton of Santa Elena, in the province of Santa Elena. It is a parish also known as the ‘Capital or Empire of Furniture’, is located 5 km from the Salinas - Guayaquil road.
Since 2014, UEES through the Atahualpa Community Center directed by Dr. Oscar Del Brutto, research professor, seeks to reduce the increasing prevalence of cerebrovascular disease and heart attack in the area. Through early diagnosis and prevention.
Few studies have described the incidence and prevalence of neurological diseases in our country and most of these have been conducted in the inter-Andean region. Even in a small country like ours, its great biodiversity makes it difficult to extrapolate the results of such studies to all its regions and inhabitants. The coast is a large region of the country where more than 50% of the Ecuadorian population lives. We have proposed to conduct an epidemiological study in Atahualpa, to evaluate the progression and change in the prevalence of diseases and expand the search spectrum to other neurological conditions in this population, this project began in 2012 and its second stage in 2018.
The pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus caused a high mortality rate in this population which, added to the scarcity of data on the disease, collapsed health centers and lack of material and supplies to identify and treat the infection, motivated us to support the local health system with rapid tests in peripheral blood to identify IgG/IgM against COVID-19.
Activities carried out during 2020
- Sleep control test, anxiety, depression, cognitive test, etc. Those who were found to have an altered result were recommended to approach the specialist in the local health system.
- Glucose and cholesterol control for hypertensive and diabetic people at home.
- Preparation of a project for an observational study on the incidence of COVID 19 in the rural population.
- Samples were taken from 800 people, especially adults over 60 years of age and those living in the same household, and those who tested positive were given a medical check-up and a nasal swab test.
- Prevention campaign to the population on biosecurity measures for the prevention of SARS CoV 2 disease.
- Development of 50 COVID 19 rapid tests in people who tested negative for COVID in June 2020.
- Evaluation of the Hangman's Sign in people who underwent Polysomnography to validate with the results of this.
- EEG processing in 100 people who had pre-pandemic EEGs and compare
- We visited houses with latrines to remind people of the importance of cleaning them to prevent COVID-19 infection.
