scholarly journals Electroconvulsive Therapy During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-190
Author(s):  
Mislav Škrobo ◽  
Vjekoslav Peitl ◽  
Ante Silić ◽  
Ana Matošić ◽  
Branka Vidrih ◽  
...  

In March 2020, three months after the first cases surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan, WHO declared a global pandemic of the novel coronavirus, which by than had already spread through a great number of countries all over the world. In order to protect the health of healthcare workers and patients, activities and measures of disease prevention have been taken; in such circumstances, psychiatry found itself faced with various challenges, one of them being the preservation of the continuity of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in patients with severe or refractory psychiatric disorders. Such patients are a priority and demand immediate treatment in hospital settings adapted to epidemiological circumstances. Having studied the instructions and recommendations of the competent authorities, as well as reviewing available literature, this paper presents the most important measures for the smooth performance of ECT in conditions associated with the COVID-19 disease.

Author(s):  
Ekta Shirbhate ◽  
Preeti Patel ◽  
Vijay K Patel ◽  
Ravichandran Veerasamy ◽  
Prabodh C Sharma ◽  
...  

: The novel coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), a global pandemic that emerged from Wuhan, China has today travelled all around the world, so far 216 countries or territories with 21,732,472 people infected and 770,866 deaths globally (as per WHO COVID-19 update dated August 18, 2020). Continuous efforts are being made to repurpose the existing drugs and develop vaccines for combating this infection. Despite, to date, no certified antiviral treatment or vaccine prevails. Although, few candidates have displayed their efficacy in in vitro studies and are being repurposed for COVID-19 treatment. This article summarizes synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds displaying potent activity in their clinical experiences or studies against COVID-19 and also focuses on mode of action of drugs being repositioned against COVID-19.


Author(s):  
Renée Belliveau

After the World Health Organization declared the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic in March 2020, they cautioned of another outbreak: an “infodemic.” This study examines how online search engines are influencing the global spread of immunization information about COVID-19. It aims to address the various ways in which search technology is shaping users’ perceptions of the pandemic and to measure the credibility of the sources they provide.


2020 ◽  
Vol 148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chen Ling ◽  
Xianjie Wen

Abstract The outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia (coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)), declared as a ‘global pandemic’ by the World Health Organization (WHO), is a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). The outbreak in multiple locations shows a trend of accelerating spread around the world. China has taken a series of powerful measures to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in addition to actively finding effective treatment drugs and developing vaccines, it is more important to identify the source of infection at the community level as soon as possible to block the transmission path of the virus to prevent the spread of the pandemic. The implementation of grid management in the community and the adoption of precise management and control measures to reduce unnecessary personnel movement can effectively reduce the risk of pandemic spread. This paper mainly describes that the grid management mode can promote the refinement and comprehensiveness of community management. As a management system with potential to improve the governance ability of community affairs, it may be helpful to strengthen the prevention and control of the epidemic in the community.


2021 ◽  
pp. 38-42
Author(s):  
Charles Haddad ◽  
Christopher Scuderi ◽  
Judelle Haddad-Lacle ◽  
Reetu Grewal ◽  
Jeffrey Jacqmein ◽  
...  

The world as we knew it changed at the beginning of 2020 with the explosion of the global pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, a.k.a. COVID-19. As of January 10, 2021, the novel coronavirus has infected over 89 million people worldwide and killed over 1.9 million. In the U.S., there have been 22 million people infected and 373,000 deaths. It has never been more important to protect our vulnerable patients and staff from infectious disease, especially during the time they spend in our offices and clinics. It quickly became apparent that there was a need for a dedicated location where patients could be seen that were too ill to be evaluated via telemedicine, but not ill enough to be sent to the Emergency Department (ED). To fill this need, our primary care network developed the Respiratory Evaluation Clinic (REC) concept. These were two geographical locations where the outlying clinics could send potentially infectious patients to evaluate and test COVID-19. Some recommendations, adaptations, lessons learned and the REC clinics' expansions to other locations throughout our network are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian McCulloh ◽  
Kevin Kiernan ◽  
Trevor Kent

The novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, commonly known as COVID19 has become a global pandemic in early 2020. The world has mounted a global social distancing intervention on a scale thought unimaginable prior to this outbreak; however, the economic impact and sustainability limits of this policy create significant challenges for government leaders around the world. Understanding the future spread and growth of COVID19 is further complicated by data quality issues due to high numbers of asymptomatic patients who may transmit the disease yet show no symptoms; lack of testing resources; failure of recovered patients to be counted; delays in reporting hospitalizations and deaths; and the co-morbidity of other life-threatening illnesses. We propose a Monte Carlo method for inferring true case counts from observed deaths using clinical estimates of Infection Fatality Ratios and Time to Death. Findings indicate that current COVID19 confirmed positive counts represent a small fraction of actual cases, and that even relatively effective surveillance regimes fail to identify all infectious individuals. We further demonstrate that the miscount also distorts officials' ability to discern the peak of an epidemic, confounding efforts to assess the efficacy of various interventions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (05) ◽  
pp. A09
Author(s):  
Wishes Mututwa ◽  
Trust Matsilele

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) which was first reported in China's Wuhan province in December 2019 became a global pandemic within a few months. The exponential rise in COVID-19 cases globally was accompanied by a spike in misinformation about the pandemic, particularly on social media. Employing Social Network Theory as a lens, this qualitative study explores how selected international celebrities appropriated their Twitter micro-blogging pages to announce their COVID-19 infection to the world. The study finds that these celebrities can take advantage of their huge social media following to counter disinfodemic and promote awareness about health pandemics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 1678
Author(s):  
Teresa Rito ◽  
Martin B. Richards ◽  
Maria Pala ◽  
Margarida Correia-Neves ◽  
Pedro A. Soares

The novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 emerged from a zoonotic transmission in China towards the end of 2019, rapidly leading to a global pandemic on a scale not seen for a century. In order to cast fresh light on the spread of the virus and on the effectiveness of the containment measures adopted globally, we used 26,869 SARS-CoV-2 genomes to build a phylogeny with 20,247 mutation events and adopted a phylogeographic approach. We confirmed that the phylogeny pinpoints China as the origin of the pandemic with major founders worldwide, mainly during January 2020. However, a single specific East Asian founder underwent massive radiation in Europe and became the main actor of the subsequent spread worldwide during March 2020. This lineage accounts for the great majority of cases detected globally and even spread back to the source in East Asia. Despite an East Asian source, therefore, the global pandemic was mainly fueled by its expansion across and out of Europe. It seems likely that travel bans established throughout the world in the second half of March helped to decrease the number of intercontinental exchanges, particularly from mainland China, but were less effective between Europe and North America where exchanges in both directions are visible up to April, long after bans were imposed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (s1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Puziol de Oliveira ◽  
Jorge Alberto Achcar ◽  
Altacílio Aparecido Nunes

AbstractThis paper reports a broad study using epidemic-related counting data of COVID-19 disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). The considered dataset refers to 119 countries’ daily counts of reported cases and deaths in a fixed period. For the data analysis, it has been adopted a beta regression model assuming different regions of the world where it was possible to discover important economic, health and social factors affecting the behavior of the pandemic in different countries. The Bayesian method was applied to fit the proposed model. Some interesting conclusions were obtained in this study, which could be of great interest to epidemiologists, health authorities, and the general public in the face of the forthcoming hard times of the global pandemic.


Author(s):  
Emily A. Hartford ◽  
Ashley Keilman ◽  
Hiromi Yoshida ◽  
Russell Migita ◽  
Todd Chang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In the midst of a global pandemic, hospitals around the world are working to meet the demand for patients ill with the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the novel coronavirus first identified in Wuhan, China. As the crisis unfolds, several countries have reported lower numbers as well as less morbidity and mortality for pediatric patients. Thus, pediatric centers find themselves pivoting from preparing for a patient surge to finding ways to support the regional response for adults. This study describes the response from 2 West Coast freestanding academic children’s hospitals that were among the first cities in the United States impacted during this pandemic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (COVID19-S4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran Ijaz Haider ◽  
Farah Tiwana ◽  
Sania Mumtaz Tahir

The outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in December 2019 has progressed to the status of a global pandemic, with countries across the seven continents adversely affected and the number of human cases exceeding two million. With no available vaccine, the treatment is primarily symptomatic for those affected and preventative for those at risk. Most countries have taken action to curtail the spread of COVID-19 through measures such as lockdowns, social distancing and voluntary self-isolation. Whilst necessary, such measures and the disease itself, may have an adverse impact on mental health. In view of research from previous pandemic crises, it is known that such situations are likely to increase stress levels and have negative psychiatric effects. The impact is likely to be felt by the general public, sufferers of COVID-19, their families and friends, persons with pre-existing mental health conditions and healthcare workers. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2756 How to cite this:Haider II, Tiwana F, Tahir SM. Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Adult Mental Health. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(COVID19-S4):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.COVID19-S4.2756 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


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