scholarly journals COVID-19 in Iran: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Strategies for Preparedness – A Report From the Field

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Arab-Zozani ◽  
Djavad Ghoddoosi-Nejad
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Seasonal Influenza ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Social Awareness ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Preventive Actions ◽  
The World ◽  
First Onset ◽  
Successful Control

ABSTRACT The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel unknown virus that is challenging whole countries all over the world, has prompted different strategies from various governments. Iran, as one of the first countries to experience the onset of the virus outbreak, made and implemented some policies that should be assessed, so that lessons may be learned for the future. Although some negative actions and policies, such as delays in cancellation of international flights especially from China, not taking the disease seriously and comparing it with seasonal influenza, and the like, are hard to ignore, some impressive actions are also vividly clear. Policies, such as social distancing, dramatically increasing social awareness about preventive actions in terms of public health, and using masks and hand washing, were cost-effective policies that resulted in successful control of the virus in the first onset. While some quite clearly ineffective decisions were made by Iranian authorities, the huge catastrophic effect of sanctions cannot be forgotten. Possibly in level situations with similar countries, Iran will have far better results regarding preparedness for future pandemics like COVID-19.

scholarly journals Harnessing testing strategies and public health measures to avert COVID-19 outbreaks during ocean cruises

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerardo Chowell ◽  
Sushma Dahal ◽  
Raquel Bono ◽  
Kenji Mizumoto
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Contact Network ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Testing Strategies ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

AbstractTo ensure the safe operation of schools, workplaces, nursing homes, and other businesses during COVID-19 pandemic there is an urgent need to develop cost-effective public health strategies. Here we focus on the cruise industry which was hit early by the COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 40 cruise ships reporting COVID-19 infections. We apply mathematical modeling to assess the impact of testing strategies together with social distancing protocols on the spread of the novel coronavirus during ocean cruises using an individual-level stochastic model of the transmission dynamics of COVID-19. We model the contact network, the potential importation of cases arising during shore excursions, the temporal course of infectivity at the individual level, the effects of social distancing strategies, different testing scenarios characterized by the test’s sensitivity profile, and testing frequency. Our findings indicate that PCR testing at embarkation and daily testing of all individuals aboard, together with increased social distancing and other public health measures, should allow for rapid detection and isolation of COVID-19 infections and dramatically reducing the probability of onboard COVID-19 community spread. In contrast, relying only on PCR testing at embarkation would not be sufficient to avert outbreaks, even when implementing substantial levels of social distancing measures.

scholarly journals Preventing the White Death: Tuberculosis Dispensaries

2020 ◽  
Vol 130 (629) ◽  
pp. 1288-1316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Juul Egedesø ◽  
Casper Worm Hansen ◽  
Peter Sandholt Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Information Provision ◽  
Drug Resistant ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Health Institution ◽  
Public Health Institution ◽  
Preventive Actions ◽  
Resistant Strains ◽  
Drug Resistant Strains

Abstract Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of death worldwide and while treatable by antibiotics since the 1940s, drug resistant strains have emerged. This article estimates the effects of the establishment of a pre-antibiotic public health institution, known as a TB dispensary, designed to prevent the spread of the disease. Our annual difference-in-differences estimation reveals that the rollout of the dispensaries across Danish cities led to a 19% decline in the TB mortality rate, but no significant impacts on other diseases when performing placebo regressions. We next take advantage of the dispensaries explicit targeting on TB to setup a triple-differences model which exploits other diseases as controls and obtain a similar magnitude of the effect. As for the mechanism, the evidence highlights the dispensaries’ preventive actions, such as information provision. At an estimated cost as low as 68 dollars per saved life-year, this particular public-health institution was extraordinarily cost effective. Overall, our evidence suggests a policy for developing countries to combat drug resistant TB.

Fighting the SARS CoV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic with Soap

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narendra Kumar Chaudhary ◽  
Nabina Chaudhary ◽  
Manis Dahal ◽  
Biswash Guragain ◽  
Sumie Rai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
Preventive Measures ◽  
Chemical Properties ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
World Health ◽  
Potential Effectiveness ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Unique Chemical

Today, the entire globe is struggling to deal with the greatest pandemic of the century, COVID-19. With no clinically approved treatments available, we are left with no options other than following the preventive measures issued by the World Health Organization (WHO). Among many others, hand washing with soap and water has been emphasized the most because it is cost-effective and easily accessible to the general public. Various studies have reported that soaps offer unique chemical properties that can disinfect the virus as a whole. However, there is still ambiguity in the general public about whether soaps can really shield us from this highly contagious disease. In an attempt to help eliminate the ambiguity, we analyzed the mechanisms underlying the efficacy of soap and its prospect for preventing the spread of COVID-19. In this paper, we have provided an overview of the history and characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), the detailed mechanisms of the deactivation of viruses by soaps, and the potential effectiveness of soap in eliminating coronaviruses including SARS-CoV-2.

scholarly journals Pediatric Mental and Behavioral Health in the Period of Quarantine and Social Distancing With COVID-19

10.2196/19867 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. e19867 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiancheng Ye
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Behavioral Health ◽  
Psychological Trauma ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Clinical Practices ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Health Technologies ◽  
The World

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has spread rapidly throughout the world and has had a long-term impact. The pandemic has caused great harm to society and caused serious psychological trauma to many people. Children are a vulnerable group in this global public health emergency, as their nervous systems, endocrine systems, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axes are not well developed. Psychological crises often cause children to produce feelings of abandonment, despair, incapacity, and exhaustion, and even raise the risk of suicide. Children with mental illnesses are especially vulnerable during the quarantine and social distancing period. The inclusion of psychosocial support for children and their families are part of the health responses to disaster and disaster recovery. Based on the biopsychosocial model, some children may have catastrophic thoughts and be prone to experience despair, numbness, flashbacks, and other serious emotional and behavioral reactions. In severe cases, there may be symptoms of psychosis or posttraumatic stress disorder. Timely and appropriate protections are needed to prevent the occurrence of psychological and behavioral problems. The emerging digital applications and health services such as telehealth, social media, mobile health, and remote interactive online education are able to bridge the social distance and support mental and behavioral health for children. Based on the psychological development characteristics of children, this study also illustrates interventions on the psychological impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though the world has been struggling to curb the influences of the pandemic, the quarantine and social distancing policies will have long-term impacts on children. Innovative digital solutions and informatics tools are needed more than ever to mitigate the negative consequences on children. Health care delivery and services should envision and implement innovative paradigms to meet broad well-being needs and child health as the quarantine and social distancing over a longer term becomes a new reality. Future research on children's mental and behavioral health should pay more attention to novel solutions that incorporate cutting edge interactive technologies and digital approaches, leveraging considerable advances in pervasive and ubiquitous computing, human-computer interaction, and health informatics among many others. Digital approaches, health technologies, and informatics are supposed to be designed and implemented to support public health surveillance and critical responses to children’s growth and development. For instance, human-computer interactions, augmented reality, and virtual reality could be incorporated to remote psychological supporting service for children’s health; mobile technologies could be used to monitor children’s mental and behavioral health while protecting their individual privacy; big data and artificial intelligence could be used to support decision making on whether children should go out for physical activities and whether schools should be reopened. Implications to clinical practices, psychological therapeutic practices, and future research directions to address current effort gaps are highlighted in this study.

scholarly journals A Healthy Buildings Guideline for the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford Federspiel
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Northern Hemisphere ◽  
Indoor Air ◽  
Social Activity ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Airborne Transmission ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Health Experts

AbstractPublic health experts have confirmed that airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is one of the primary mechanisms of infection (CDC, 2020). In addition to social distancing, mask wearing and hand washing, experts now recommend increasing the ventilation and filtration of indoor air. While there is widespread consensus on this general approach, to date there are no published guidelines for the levels of ventilation, filtration, etc. that are required to control the pandemic. This is an urgent concern because colder weather in the Northern Hemisphere has moved social activity indoors where the risk of infection is higher.

Analytic-Thinking Predicts Hoax Beliefs and Helping Behaviors in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Stanley ◽  
Paul Seli ◽  
Nathaniel Barr ◽  
KELLY PETERS
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Analytic Thinking ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Change Behavior ◽  
Global Pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak was labeled a global pandemic by the WHO in March of 2020. During that same month, the number of confirmed cases and the death rate grew exponentially in the United States, creating a serious public-health emergency. Unfortunately, many Americans dismissed the pandemic as a hoax and failed to properly engage in helpful behaviors like social-distancing and increased hand-washing. Here, we examine a disposition—willingness to engage in analytic-thinking—that might predict beliefs that the pandemic is a hoax and failures to change behavior in positive ways. Our results indicate that individuals less willing to engage effortful, deliberative, and reflective cognitive processes were more likely to believe the pandemic was a hoax, and less likely to have recently engaged in social-distancing and hand-washing. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

Analytic-Thinking Predicts Hoax Beliefs and Helping Behaviors in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Stanley ◽  
Nathaniel Barr ◽  
KELLY PETERS ◽  
Paul Seli
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Death Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Health Emergency ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
Analytic Thinking ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Change Behavior ◽  
Global Pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak was labeled a global pandemic by the WHO in March of 2020. During that same month, the number of confirmed cases and the death rate grew exponentially in the United States, creating a serious public-health emergency. Unfortunately, many Americans dismissed the pandemic as a hoax and failed to properly engage in helpful behaviors like social-distancing and increased hand-washing. Here, we examine a disposition—willingness to engage in analytic-thinking—that might predict beliefs that the pandemic is a hoax and failures to change behavior in positive ways. Our results indicate that individuals less willing to engage effortful, deliberative, and reflective cognitive processes were more likely to believe the pandemic was a hoax, and less likely to have recently engaged in social-distancing and hand-washing. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding and addressing the COVID-19 pandemic.

scholarly journals 2.H. Workshop: Vaccination challenges in developed & developing countries: where does the responsibility lie?

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Global Health ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Position Paper ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
World Federation ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Diseases ◽  
The World

Abstract The world is facing multiple health challenges, among those the outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases and the rise of anti-vaccination groups. Vaccination is one of the most cost-effective ways of avoiding disease; it currently prevents 2-3 million deaths a year and a further 1.5 million could be avoided if global coverage is improved. Moreover, global immunization will contribute towards achieving broader global health goals under the UHC and SDG initiatives. Barriers to immunization may vary according to the country and specific context ranging from hesitancy, inappropriate communication, lack of resources, access, individual belief, management of adverse events following immunization etc. Vaccine hesitancy threatens to reverse progress made in tackling vaccine-preventable diseases and is listed by WHO in the 10 threats to global health in 2019. Access to vaccinations is sometimes difficult especially in rural areas affecting most vulnerable populations. Immunization history is not always well managed thus affecting the proper vaccination for all ages. Immunization is one of the best uses of limited public funds for health; however, financing for immunizations are often not covering in a sustainable matter the needs. The World Federation of Public Health Associations has developed a high-level “International Immunization Policy Taskforce” on vaccination policies to engage with public health associations, international organizations and like-minded partners to sustain the development, adoption and implementations of key vaccination policies at country level. The taskforce has developed a position paper that will be launched during the workshop to debate about role and responsibilities as well effective approaches to be applied both in developed and developing. The position paper has its roots in vaccination as human right and as a key component of UHC and SGD initiatives. Global immunization is crucial for every individual and the broader community to prevent diseases, promote health and wellbeing and protect the global population as highlighted in WFPHA Global Charter for the Public's Health. Key experts from different parts of the world will discuss strategies and synergies to create a global coordinated advocacy movement to foster engagement for equitable and effective global immunisation by governments and society at large. Key messages Vaccination challenges may vary from developed & developing countries. Responsibility for immunization uptake lies at different levels. Analyses, advocacy, action are key to prevent & face epidemics. Vaccination is not a personal choice rather a political choice. A strong advocacy movement by PHW is key to guarantee the best equitable and sustainable immunization worldwide.

scholarly journals Hand-hygiene mitigation strategies against global disease spreading through the air transportation network

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christos Nicolaides ◽  
Demetris Avraam ◽  
Luis Cueto-Felgueroso ◽  
Marta C. González ◽  
Ruben Juanes
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Hand Hygiene ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Transportation Network ◽  
Air Transportation ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Hand Washing ◽  
World Health ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTHand hygiene is considered as an efficient and cost-effective way to limit the spread of diseases and, as such, it is recommended by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the effect of hand washing on individual transmissibility of a disease has been studied through medical and public-health research, its potential as a mitigation strategy against a global pandemic has not been fully explored yet. In this study, we investigate contagion dynamics through the world air transportation network and analyze the impact of hand-hygiene behavioural changes of airport population against the spread of infectious diseases worldwide. Using a granular dataset of the world air transportation traffic, we build a detailed individual mobility model that controls for the correlated and recurrent nature of human travel and the waiting-time distributions of individuals at different locations. We perform a Monte-Carlo simulation study to assess the impact of different hand-washing mitigation strategies at the early stages of a global epidemic. From the simulation results we find that increasing the hand cleanliness homogeneously at all airports in the world can inhibit the impact of a potential pandemic by 24 to 69%. By quantifying and ranking the contribution of the different airports to the mitigation of an epidemic outbreak, we identify ten key airports at the core of a cost-optimal deployment of the hand-washing strategy: increasing the engagement rate at those locations alone could potentially reduce a world pandemic by 8 to 37%. This research provides evidence of the effectiveness of hand hygiene in airports on the global spread of infectious diseases, and has important implications for the way public-health policymakers may design new effective strategies to enhance hand hygiene in airports through behavioral changes.

scholarly journals Sociodemographic and Psychological Correlates of Compliance with the COVID-19 Public Health Measures in France

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvain Brouard ◽  
Pavlos Vasilopoulos ◽  
Michael Becher
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Psychological Correlates ◽  
The World ◽  
Using Data

The COVID-19 disease was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, having since spread rapidly across the world. The infection and mortality rates of the disease have forced governments to implement a wave of public health measures. Depending on the context, these range from the implementation of simple hygienic rules to measures such as social distancing or lockdowns that cause major disruptions in citizens’ daily lives. The success of these crucial public health measures rests on the public's willingness to comply. However, individual differences in following the official public health recommendations for stopping the spread of COVID-19 have not yet to our knowledge been assessed. This study aims to fill this gap by assessing the sociodemographic and psychological correlates of implementing public health recommendations that aim to halt the COVID-19 pandemic. We investigate these associations in the context of France, one of the countries that has been most severely affected by the pandemic, and which ended up under a nationwide lockdown on March 17. In the next sections we describe our theoretical expectations over the associations between sociodemographics, personality, ideology, and emotions with abiding by the COVID-19 public health measures. We then test these hypotheses using data from the French Election Study.

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