Impact of the COVID-19 virus pandemic on hospitalizations for skin cancer treatment in Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 virus infection was a severe health impact in 2020. The direct repercussion is easily measured through its morbidity and mortality rates. Its indirect repercussion on health is still little measured, and this is the objective of this study. Methods: To determine the number of hospitalizations for general treatments, for the treatment of neoplasms and malignant skin cancer in the SUS, from 2008 to 2020, in the department of informatics of the SUS. Results: The parallelism of the data referring to the three groups selected above allowed to observe a drastic reduction in the number of hospitalizations in the SUS between the same months of 2019 and 2020: a decrease of 10.60% in general hospitalizations, 58.65% in hospitalizations for neoplasia and 156% in hospitalizations for malignant skin cancer. The reduction gradually worsened in 2020 from January. In June 2020, the number of hospitalizations for skin cancer treatment reflected values from 12 years ago. Conclusion: The follow-up of the historical series of hospitalizations in the SUS provides a tangible value that serves as a basis for understanding the direction of health measures. The indirect implications of COVID-19 may have an outcome as tragic as its mortality, as they impact specialized health services availability. Services of great specialization such as hospital cancer treatment attend complex cases, and their unavailability may reflect an increase in mortality from these causes - an indirect impact of COVID-19.

Keywords

• coronavirus infections
• skin neoplasms
• melanoma
• basal cell carcinoma
• neoplasms