Person: Apablaza, Mauricio
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Apablaza
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Mauricio
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Publication Overcoming Health Inequities: Spatial Analysis of Seroprevalence and Vaccination Against COVID-19 in Chile(2024) Muriel Ramírez-Santana , Juan Hormazábal, Luis Canales, Pablo Vial, and Ximena Aguilera; Correa, Juan; Núñez Franz, Loreto; Apablaza, Mauricio; Rubilar, Paola; Vial Cox, María Cecilia; Cortes, Lina Jimena; Hormazabal, Juan; Canales, Luis; Vial, Pablo; Aguilera, XimenaBackground: In unequal economies, the spread of the first waves of the COVID-19 was usually associated withlow socioeconomic status of individuals and their families. Chile exemplified this. By mid-2020, Chile had one ofthe highest SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in the world predominantly in poorer areas. A year later, the countrylaunched a universal vaccination campaign based on the national strategy of immunization established in1975. By 2022, Chile presented one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination coverages globally, reaching 94.3%of the population with the primary scheme by the end of 2022.Objective: This study analyzes the spatial distribution of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence at the beginning of the pan-demic (2020) compared with the seroprevalence after 2 years of ongoing epidemic and COVID-19 vaccinationcampaigns (2022).Methods: Two population-based random samples of individuals aged 7 years and older from two Chilean citieswere studied. Utilizing an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay test, IgG antibodies were measured in serum of1061 participants in 2020, and 853 in 2022.Results: Using the Global Moran’s Index, the seroprevalence distribution pattern for the year 2020 showed clus-tering in the two cities. Conversely, seroprevalence and vaccinations were homogeneously distributed in 2022.These results show the success of the vaccination campaign in Chile, not only in coverage but also because itwidely reached all individuals.Conclusions: The uptake of this preventive measure is high, regardless of the social and economic factors,achieving broad population immunity. The extensive deployment of the primary health care network contrib-uted to reducing health inequities and promoting to universal health access.