• Luana Resende Cangussú, Igor Rafael Pereira de Barros, Carlos Alberto de Lima Botelho Filho, Jarbas Delmoutiez Ramalho Sampaio Filho, and Matheus Rodrigues Lopes.
• . Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco, campus Paulo Afonso, Paulo Afonso, BA, Brasil.
• Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992). 2020 Jan 1; 66Suppl 2 (Suppl 2): 31-33.

AbstractThe emergence of a new form of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) exposed weaknesses of health services in several countries, with overcrowding of hospitals, and lack of supplies and professionals in combating the disease, which sometimes contributed to the installation of social, political, and economic chaos. The critical situation experienced made the subject widely publicized so that the current pandemic also deals with an information epidemic. However, the data received and transmitted require prior critical analysis of its content, although not everyone is able to make the necessary judgment before using or sharing information, partly due to the lack of adequate health knowledge. Health literacy is a broad and important topic in public health but still globally underestimated, thus considered a silent epidemic. The exponential increase in the number of confirmed cases shows the world population's inadequacy and difficulty in understanding basic prevention guidelines. The COVID-19 pandemic warns of gaps in the health literacy levels of the world population and exposes the need for a comprehensive mapping to identify the overall health literacy status in more countries.

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