A nurse academic's lived experience with COVID-19: a reflective narrative

Author(s):  
Herbert Mwebe

COVID-19 is incomparable in terms of its impact and reach across the globe. Every corner of the world has been affected by this virus in one way or another. The impact of COVID-19 poses an existential and physical threat to us all. This reflective narrative discusses my own experience having caught the virus and examines the impact that living with the disease has had and continues to have on my life. Battling distressing symptoms, and having had to face this life-threatening illness, evoked fear and panic within me, despite my usual level-headed, calm and easy-going personality. I ruminated whether I would be among the statistics of those who eventually recover from the disease or those who sadly do not. Therein was my mental anguish and self-torment; and I very much doubt if I am alone in this.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Kevin Morris ◽  
Mohammad Nami ◽  
Joe F. Bolanos ◽  
Maria A. Lobo ◽  
Melody Sadri-Naini ◽  
...  

Neurological disorders significantly impact the world’s economy due to their often chronic and life-threatening nature afflicting individuals which, in turn, creates a global disease burden. The Group of Twenty (G20) member nations, which represent the largest economies globally, should come together to formulate a plan on how to overcome this burden. The Neuroscience-20 (N20) initiative of the Society for Brain Mapping and Therapeutics (SBMT) is at the vanguard of this global collaboration to comprehensively raise awareness about brain, spine, and mental disorders worldwide. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the various brain initiatives worldwide and highlight the need for cooperation and recommend ways to bring down costs associated with the discovery and treatment of neurological disorders. Our systematic search revealed that the cost of neurological and psychiatric disorders to the world economy by 2030 is roughly $16T. The cost to the economy of the United States is $1.5T annually and growing given the impact of COVID-19. We also discovered there is a shortfall of effective collaboration between nations and a lack of resources in developing countries. Current statistical analyses on the cost of neurological disorders to the world economy strongly suggest that there is a great need for investment in neurotechnology and innovation or fast-tracking therapeutics and diagnostics to curb these costs. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, SBMT, through this paper, intends to showcase the importance of worldwide collaborations to reduce the population’s economic and health burden, specifically regarding neurological/brain, spine, and mental disorders.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-79
Author(s):  
Aslan H Abashidze ◽  
Vladislav S Malichenko

The article highlights the main steps in the formation of compulsory licensing mechanism before the establishment of the World Trade Organization, and analyzes the main provisions of this mechanism implementation under the TRIPS Agreement and the Doha Declaration. Based on the analysis of examples from different regions of the world, the article determines the main advantages of using compulsory licensing with regard to expand of access to medicines, possible impact on quality of the medicinal products being produced and the investment attractiveness of the countries applying this mechanism are assessed. The purpose of this article is to analyze the main approaches to the implementation of compulsory licensing in order to determine the most effective strategy for using this mechanism in the Russian Federation in order to expand the availability of drug therapy for the treatment of life-threatening diseases. Based on the impact of compulsory licensing implementation, the author concludes that it does not correspond to the objectives of the Russian pharmaceutical industry development identified as a priority by Russian Government. Despite a possibility of using compulsory licensing under regulation of many countries, this mechanism is implemented rarely. A possibility of issuing a compulsory licensing is a strong argument in price negotiations with producers. According to the authors position, implementation of compulsory licensing has to be preceded by cost containment mechanism, primarily based on negotiations with producers.


Author(s):  
A. Nikonenko ◽  
A. Nikonenko ◽  
S. Matvieiev ◽  
V. Osaulenko ◽  
S. Nakonechniy

Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a major life-threatening illness which remains one of the main causes of sudden death throughout the world. The analysis of diagnosis and treatment of 472 patients with acute pulmonary embolism for a period of 10 years was performed. High efficiency of diagnosis using multispiral computer angiopulmonography (MSCT APG) has been established, thus this method completely supersedes the traditional selective angiopulmonography. Seventeen (3.6 %) patients died due to PE recurrence, another 8 (1.7 %) patients died due to the bleeding after using fibrinolytics and anticoagulants, and 14 (2.9 %) died due to progression of organs failure. This emphasizes the need to improve measures aimed to prevent PE recurrence and identify sources of possible bleeding and refrain from aggressive fibrinolytic therapy. The use of differentiated approach to the treatment with thrombolytic therapy and anticoagulants enabled to achieve recovery in 433 (91.7 %) patients who were discharged for outpatient treatment. New oral anticoagulants were prescribed to 94 (21.7 %) patients after discharge.


Save My Kid ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 156-172
Author(s):  
Amanda M. Gengler

Chapter 7 introduces the author’s sudden personal immersion into the world of negotiating life-threatening illness. When Amanda Gengler’s father was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, the significant advantages of care-captaining and the potential consequences of care-entrusting were brought into even sharper relief. By living an experience somewhat parallel to that of the families she was studying, she found the emotional dynamics at the root of these illness management strategies crystalizing in her own daily life. She also learned intimately that hope can ultimately serve as both a stepping stone and a stumbling block as illness unfolds.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1SP) ◽  
pp. 01
Author(s):  
Syamsul Syamsul ◽  
Siti Masyita

Currently, the World is hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The impact of this pandemic, is not only life threatening, but also has an economic downturn that is evenly distributed in almost all countries, including Indonesia. This study aims to determine and analyze the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the existence of business actors in traditional markets. The polls and samples of this study were chicken and egg traders at Manonda Central Market, Palu. Primary data was obtained through distributing questionnaires to research respondents. Based on the results of descriptive analysis and test one-way anova, it was found that there were differences in profit, sales turnover, and the number of buyers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This means that the COVID-19 pandemic threatens the existence of business actors in traditional markets. This research is useful for policy makers in maintaining the existence of business actors during the current COVID-19 pandemic


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
El Mehdi Ait Oukhzame

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar are taking the lead in the urbanization boom that is drastically transforming the spatial fabric of the Arab Gulf region. Embedded in the ambitious urban development projects launched by the UAE and Qatar is an endeavour to ‘bring the world to the Arab Gulf region’. To this end, these two states are engaged in a process of collecting and borrowing antique objects and canonized artefacts, as well as reproducing and duplicating some internationally celebrated architectural sites and spaces. While some consider these projects to be ‘part of strategies to prepare for the post-oil era’, others hold that ‘Arab Gulf States aim to strengthen or … creatively (re)construct identitarian patterns’.1 It can be argued that Arab Gulf cities should be looked at as ‘political actors’ due to ‘the functions they fulfill as spatial command posts for globalized capitalism’.2 The production and organization of social space, in this sense, cannot be seen as a ‘dead’ or passive category with no influence over various dimensions of lived experience, including thought, politics and economy. Juxtaposing the UAE’s and Qatar’s urbanization projects with the nineteenth-century phenomenon of world exhibitions and fairs, this article takes the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Villaggio Mall as case studies to investigate the modalities of knowledge generated through processes of cultural and spatial (re)production and the impact of the latter on the construction of personhood and lived experience in the Arab Gulf region.


Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 718
Author(s):  
Shiva Kumar Goud Gadila ◽  
Monica E. Embers

Bartonellosis is caused by a Gram-negative intracellular bacterium with a zoonotic transmission. The disease, caused by any of several genospecies of Bartonella can range from a benign, self-limited condition to a highly morbid and life-threatening illness. The current standard of care antibiotics are generally effective in acute infection; these include azithromycin or erythromycin, doxycycline, gentamicin, rifampin, and ciprofloxacin. However, treatment of chronic infection remains problematic. We tested six different antibiotics for their ability to stop the growth of Bartonella sp. in the standard insect media and in an enrichment media. All antibiotics (ceftriaxone, doxycycline, gentamycin, azithromycin, ampicillin, and azlocillin) had minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) below 0.5 µg/mL in the BAPGM enrichment media but were ineffective at inhibiting growth when the standard insect media was used. Azlocillin was the most potent, with a MIC of 0.01 µg/mL. When Bartonella was tested under intracellular growth conditions, none of the antibiotics were efficacious singly. However, growth inhibition was observed when azlocillin and azithromycin were combined. These studies illustrate the impact of growth medium and intracellular environment on antibiotic susceptibility testing and indicate that azlocillin combined with azithromycin may be an effective drug combination for the treatment of Bartonellosis.


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