Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jun 26;19(1):104.
doi: 10.1186/s12939-020-01218-z.

Health equity and COVID-19: global perspectives

Efrat Shadmi  1 , Yingyao Chen  2 , Inês Dourado  3 , Inbal Faran-Perach  4   5   6 , John Furler  7 , Peter Hangoma  8   9   10 , Piya Hanvoravongchai  11   12   13 , Claudia Obando  14 , Varduhi Petrosyan  15 , Krishna D Rao  16 , Ana Lorena Ruano  17   18 , Leiyu Shi  19 , Luis Eugenio de Souza  3 , Sivan Spitzer-Shohat  20 , Elizabeth Sturgiss  21 , Rapeepong Suphanchaimat  22   23 , Manuela Villar Uribe  24 , Sara Willems  25
Affiliations

Health equity and COVID-19: global perspectives

Efrat Shadmi et al. Int J Equity Health. .

Abstract

The COVID-19 is disproportionally affecting the poor, minorities and a broad range of vulnerable populations, due to its inequitable spread in areas of dense population and limited mitigation capacity due to high prevalence of chronic conditions or poor access to high quality public health and medical care. Moreover, the collateral effects of the pandemic due to the global economic downturn, and social isolation and movement restriction measures, are unequally affecting those in the lowest power strata of societies. To address the challenges to health equity and describe some of the approaches taken by governments and local organizations, we have compiled 13 country case studies from various regions around the world: China, Brazil, Thailand, Sub Saharan Africa, Nicaragua, Armenia, India, Guatemala, United States of America (USA), Israel, Australia, Colombia, and Belgium. This compilation is by no-means representative or all inclusive, and we encourage researchers to continue advancing global knowledge on COVID-19 health equity related issues, through rigorous research and generation of a strong evidence base of new empirical studies in this field.

Keywords: Covid-19; Health equity; Humanitarian crisis; Pandemic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The following authors serve on the editorial board of the IJEqH: ES and LS: co-editors in chief; ALR: managing editor; PH, CO, VP, KDR, SSS, MVU, and SW are associate editors.

References

    1. Dorn AV, Cooney RE, Sabin ML. COVID-19 exacerbating inequalities in the US. Lancet. 2020;395(10232):1243–1244. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30893-X. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Yancy CW. COVID-19 and African Americans. JAMA. 2020. 10.1001/jama.2020.6548. - PubMed
    1. Behzadifar M, Ghanbari MK, Bakhtiari A, et al. Ensuring adequate health financing to prevent and control the COVID-19 in Iran. Int J Equity Health. 2020;19(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s12939-020-01181-9. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Hopman J, Allegranzi B, Mehtar S. Managing COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries. JAMA. 2020;323(16):1549–1550. doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.4169. - DOI - PubMed
    1. WHO and European Investment Bank strengthen efforts to combat COVID-19 and build resilient health systems to face future pandemics. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/01-05-2020-who-and-european-investm.... Accessed 10 May 2020.