scholarly journals Physician deaths from corona virus (COVID-19) disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 370-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
E B Ing ◽  
Q (A) Xu ◽  
A Salimi ◽  
N Torun

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has caused much morbidity and mortality to patients but also health care providers. Aims We tabulated the cases of physician deaths from COVID-19 associated with front-line work in hopes of mitigating future events. Methods On 15 April 2020, a Google internet search was performed using the keywords ‘doctor’, ‘physician’, ‘death’, ‘COVID’ and ‘coronavirus’ in English and Farsi, and Chinese using the Baidu search engine. The age, sex and medical speciality of physicians who died from COVID-19 in the line of duty were recorded. Individuals greater than 90 years of age were excluded. Results We found 278 physicians who died with COVID-19 infection, but complete details were missing for 108 individuals. The average age of the physicians was 63.7 years with a median age of 66 years, and 90% were male (235/261). General practitioners and emergency room doctors (108/254), respirologists (5/254), internal medicine specialists (13/254) and anaesthesiologists (6/254) comprised 52% of those dying. Two per cent of the deceased were epidemiologists (5/254), 2% were infectious disease specialists (4/254), 6% were dentists (16/254), 4% were ENT (9/254) and 3% were ophthalmologists (8/254). The countries with the most reported physician deaths were Italy (121/278; 44%), Iran (43/278; 15%), Philippines (21/278; 8%), Indonesia (17/278; 6%), China (16/278; 6%), Spain (12/278; 4%), USA (12/278; 4%) and UK (11/278;4%). Conclusions Physicians from all specialities may die from COVID. Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a common cause of death. Consideration should be made to exclude older physicians from front-line work.

Author(s):  
Edsel B. Ing ◽  
Alis (Qinyuan) Xu ◽  
Ali Salimi ◽  
Nurhan Torun

ABSTRACTOBJECTIVEThe COVID-19 pandemic has caused much morbidity and mortality to patients but also health care providers. We tabulated the cases of physician deaths from COVID-19 associated with front-line work in hopes of mitigating future events.METHODOn April 5, 2020, Google internet search was performed using the keywords “doctor” “physician” “death” “COVID” “COVID-19” and “coronavirus” in English and Farsi, and in Chinese using the Baidu search engine.RESULTSWe found 198 physician deaths from COVID-19, but complete details were missing for 49 individuals. The average age of the physicians that died was 63.4 years (range 28 to 90 years) and the median age was 66 years of age. Ninety percent of the deceased physicians were male (175/194). General practitioners and emergency room doctors (78/192), respirologists (5/192), internal medicine specialists (11/192) and anesthesiologists (6/192) comprised 52% of those dying. Two percent of the deceased were epidemiologists (4/192), 2% were infectious disease specialists (4/192), 5% were dentists (9/192), 4% were ENT (8/192), and 4% were ophthalmologists (7/192). The countries with the most reported physician deaths were Italy (79/198), Iran (43/198), China (16/198), Philippines (14/198), United States (9/192) and Indonesia (7/192).CONCLUSIONPhysicians from all specialties may die from COVID, and these deaths will likely increase as the pandemic progresses. Lack of personal protective equipment was cited as a common cause of death. Consideration should be made to exclude older physicians from front-line work.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn M. Sampselle ◽  
Kenneth J. Pienta ◽  
Dorene S. Markel

The ultimate aim of the National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) initiative is to accelerate the movement of discoveries that can benefit human health into widespread public use. To accomplish this translational mandate, the contributions of multiple disciplines, such as dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, public health, biostatistics, epidemiology, and bioengineering, are required in addition to medicine. The research community is also mandated to establish new partnerships with organized patient communities and front line health care providers to assure the bidirectional flow of information in order that health priorities experienced by the community inform the research agenda. This article summarizes current clinical research directives, the experience of the University of Michigan faculty during the first 2 years of CTSA support, and recommendations to enhance the effectiveness of future CTSA as well as other interdisciplinary initiatives. While the manuscript focuses most closely on the CTSA Community Engagement mission, the challenges to interdisciplinarity and bidirectionality extend beyond the focus of community engagement.


1996 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
J A Winston ◽  
P E Klotman

HIV-associated nephropathy is infrequently cited as a common cause of ESRD. It is likely, however, that by the end of the decade, HIV-associated nephropathy will be the third leading cause of ESRD in African Americans between the ages of 20 and 64. Underreporting for reasons of confidentiality and a failure to track this specific diagnostic category nationally may account for the nephrology community's inattention. As a result of this community's failure to define this issue, national agencies are poorly prepared to recognize and anticipate the changing demographics of the AIDS epidemic as it affects the practice of nephrology. The study presented here concluded: that a national registry should be created to track the incidence of HIV-associated nephropathy as a cause of ESRD; that renal biopsies should be routinely performed to confirm the clinical diagnosis of HIV-associated nephropathy; that anonymous serological screening of all patients and health care providers in dialysis units be reconsidered in order to maintain vigilance for potential unit outbreaks; that the National Institutes of Health and the Office of AIDS Research be better appraised of the importance of this issue by the nephrology community; and that special attention be directed toward the underlying cause(s) of HIV-associated nephropathy and the cofactor(s) that determine the predilection of this disease in blacks.


Blood ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Law ◽  
Randy A. Taplitz

Infections are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with lymphoid cancer. With evolving cancer therapeutics, including new targeted and immunotherapies, clinicians need to be aware of additional risk factors and infections that may arise in patients treated with these agents. This "How I Treat" article will highlight fundamental issues including risk factors for infection, infectious diseases screenings and antimicrobial prophylaxis recommendations in patients with lymphoid cancers. We present 4 scenarios of patients with lymphoid cancers with varied infections and describe a treatment approach based on a combination of evidence-based data and experience, as there are limitations in objective infection data especially with newer agents. The goal of this discussion is to provide a framework for institutions and health care providers to develop their own approach in preventing and treating infections in patients with lymphoid cancer.


Author(s):  
Mark J. Simone ◽  
Suzanne E. Salamon

Geriatric medicine is the subspecialty of internal medicine that focuses on the care of patients over the age of 65. As life expectancy increases and the baby boom generation reaches old age, there will be a significant increase in this population. As of 2000 there were 35 million people 65 and older. This number is expected to double to over 70 million by 2030. The 85+ population is projected to increase from 4.2 million in 2000 to 7.3 million in 2020. There will never be enough geriatric specialists to care for this group of patients, so all health care providers must be aware of the key principles of geriatrics. The effects of normal aging and disease-related changes common in older adults necessitate a unique approach to caring for this group. There are several geriatric syndromes encountered regularly in elderly adults. These include polypharmacy, dementia, delirium, late-life depression, urinary incontinence, and falls.


Author(s):  
Suruchi Singh ◽  
Satish Kumar Sharma

As the lockdown situation progressed in COVID-19 pandemic, national pharmacy role players became major front line workers for maintaining accessibility of health care utilities. Pharmacists have been handling in-house deliveries of essentials, reducing burden on health care, along with attending patients with other ailments. Since pharmacists are representatives directly associated with public health concerns, there is need for disseminating awareness in pharmacists to maintain the health conditions of the people living in the pandemic situation. Pharmacy Colleges and representatives of public health interests were subjected to systematic literature review regarding publicly reported pharmacist positions. It is concluded that respondents having much experience are intended to perceive a pharmacist's position as being essential to health care providers relative to the individuals who have less experience. The findings of this research can be beneficial for educating pharmacists in order to achieve the goal of keeping the people healthy in the pandemic situations.


Encyclopedia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1058-1075
Author(s):  
Phil B. Tsai ◽  
Hsiang-Ning Luk

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a respiratory syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2, can be transmitted through respiratory droplets and aerosols of droplet nuclei. Aerosol-generating medical procedures (AGMP) are needed to take care of critically ill patients but place health care providers at risk of infection. With limited supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), barrier systems were developed to help protect health care providers during tracheal intubation. The video intubating stylet shows promise to become the preferred intubation device in conjunction with plastic sheet barriers during the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mebratu Kebede ◽  
Dereje Demissie ◽  
Dessalegn Guddu ◽  
Michael Haile ◽  
Zebenay Bitew ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: the rapid spread of COVID-19, its lethality in severe cases and the absence of specific medicine poses a huge threat to human life and health, as well as huge impact on the mental health. Facing this critical situation, health care workers on the front line who are directly involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with COVID-19 are at risk of developing psychological distress and other mental health symptoms including emotional disturbance.Objective: the aim of this study will be to assess the current state of emotional responses and perceived stressors of frontline medical staffs in case of Addis Ababa COVID-19 Treatment Centers and obstetrics emergency and abortion care, Ethiopia 2020Methods: Hospital based comparative cross-section study design was conducted by using self-administered questionnaire survey from June 1st to 30th of 2020 among 133 and 266 frontline medical staffs from obstetric emergency and abortion care clinic and COVID-19 treatment centers respectively. The data were collected after getting written consent from each participant and it entered into the computer using Epi-data version 7, then exported to SPSS version 20 for further analysis. Descriptive analysis was done using frequencies & percent. All independent determinants with P-value <0.05 were used to identify important predictors of emotional responses and perceived stressors. Result; A total of 399 frontline medical staffs were included in the study. The mean age of the respondents of those who were working in obstetrics emergency and abortion care clinic was 27.47 (SD=3.46) years and it was 28.12 (SD=4.09) years for the other groups. This study revealed that, 72.9% and 5.6% of the study participant from obstetrics emergency and abortion clinic and COVID-19 treatment centers had a positive emotional response, respectively. Factors such as having a low level of motivational factors (AOR 2.78, 95% CI (1.13, 6.84)), being a nurse (AOR 10.53, 95% CI (1.31, 85.26)) and working at triage (AOR 8.61, 95% CI (1.15, 64.81))) had statistically significant association with negative emotional response.Conclusion; The current study revealed that a high proportion of front line a negative emotional responses had negative emotional response. Further, almost all of the medical staffs working in COVID-19 treatment centers and at obstetrics emergency and abortion care unit had perceived the outbreak related stressors. So, providing comprehensive psychological support is warranted for health care providers working in such kinds of department or units.


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