A clinical approach to COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 723-729
Author(s):  
Akshata Jaiswal ◽  
Swapnil Borage ◽  
Priyanka Shelotkar

The Corona Virus COVID-19 pandemic is the defining global health crisis emerging these days and the most significant challenge faced since World War Two. Corona Virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is defined as an illness caused by a novel Corona Virus now called severe acute respiratory syndrome Corona Virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was first identified due to outbreak of respiratory illness cases in Wuhan City, China. The most common symptoms include dry cough, fever and tiredness. Some may also develop aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhoea. There are no drugs or other therapeutics approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to prevent or treat COVID-19. Both ancient, as well as modern therapeutic procedures, can be adopted for COVID -19. Current advanced clinical management includes infection prevention and control measures and supportive care, including supplemental oxygen and mechanical ventilator support depending upon the condition. On the other hand, Ayurveda is equipped with a variety of treatment protocols including Dincharya (daily regime), Rutucharya (seasonal regime), Pranayama (Breathing exercise), and various Panchakarma (Purification) procedures.

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chetan Chauhan ◽  
Shanta Kumari

Global Respiratory illness outbreak COVID-19 is a new public health crisis threatening humanity across the globe with the emergence and spread from central China in late 2019. The virus originated around Wuhan, Hubei province, China in December 2019 in bats and was transmitted through unknown intermediary sources to humans. The clinical presentation of viral infection ranges from asymptomatic to severe pneumonia with acute pulmonary distress syndrome is designated as COVID-19. WHO has characterized the disease as a pandemic due to its severity, as well as the shifting of epidemic zones across the globe from epicentre zone, China through a different stage of transmission by contact or inhalation with infected droplets and the incubation period, varies between 2 - 14 days. Treatment is essentially supportive; the effective role of antiviral agents is yet to be established and secondly without knowing the entire genome sequence of COVID- 19, no drug or vaccine can be effectively administered. Prevention entails home isolation of suspected cases and those with mild illnesses and strict infection control measures at hospitals that include contact and droplet precautions. The highest risk of healthcare-associated transmission is in the absence of standard precautions, when basic infection prevention and control measures for respiratory infections are not in place, and when handling patients where COVID infection is yet to be confirmed. The pandemic acceleration of COVID-19 indicates that the initial sporadic spreading worst hit the epicentre, China. But later on, epidemic zone shifts to nearly all continents. Several countries are experiencing sustained local transmission, including Europe and America at the end of February 2020. Current status indicates that confirmed and death cases pattern is rapidly varied among the different continents and emerged as an alarming health crisis of the nd Era in countries like Italy, Spain, U.K, Iran, and the USA. Although India is now in the 2 stage of transmission and too rd far from the 3 stage but till government has already taken deceive control measures. At the same time some of the Asian countries like South Korea, Japan has been reporting a slowdown in the growth of COVID-19 cases due to adoption concept of "Testing is central" to outbreak response that leads to early detection to minimizes further spread. The proportion of asymptomatic cases is currently unknown and hampers the realistic assessment of the virus epidemic potential and complicates the outbreak response. WHO has already announced a large global trial, called SOLIDARITY th on 27 March 2020 which is focusing on the most promising panacea therapies including remdesivir; chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine; a combination of two HIV drugs, lopinavir, and ritonavir; and that same combination plus interferon-beta. The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has already brought considerable human suffering and major economic disruption. In the current scenario, the exact global impact and extension of COVID 19 pandemic acceleration nd rd and reoccurrences of 2 and 3 waves are yet uncertain in globally. Therefore the corona pandemic is unprecedented in its global impact and reach, posing alarming challenges to policymakers, researchers and health workers.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0245672
Author(s):  
Rehab H. El-Sokkary ◽  
Amani El-Kholy ◽  
Sally Mohy Eldin ◽  
Walaa Shawky Khater ◽  
Doaa Mostafa Gad ◽  
...  

A limited number of publications have identified risk factors for Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) among Healthcare Providers (HCPs). We aimed to assess the clinical and epidemiological characteristics and the predicting factors related to COVID-19 among HCPs in Egypt. A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted among HCPs via an online questionnaire. Out of 440 responses, a total of 385 complete responses were analyzed. The responders’ mean age was 37.5±9.4 years, 215 (55.8%) of the participants were males. They included 77 (20%) confirmed COVID-19 cases; most of them had mild (58.6%) or moderate symptoms (30%), and (9.1%) were asymptomatic. Almost all sustained infection while on duty (97.4%). The sources of infection were either infected patients (39%), colleagues (22.1%), household contacts (5.2%) or uncertain (33.8%). The sources were symptomatic in only 62.3% of cases. Asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic sources accounted for 37.7% of the cases. Exposure occurred during healthcare provision in 66.3% of the cases. The presence of co-morbidities (OR = 2.53, CI 1.47–4.38, P = 0.001), working more than 8 hours per day in isolation hospital (OR = 3.09, CI 1.02–9.35, P = 0.046), training on hand hygiene (OR = 2.31, CI 1.05–5.08, P = 0.038) and adherence to IPC measures (OR = 2.11, CI 1.16–3.81, P = 0.014) were the significant predictors of COVID-19. In conclusion, COVID-19 occurred in 20% of responders. Silent spread from asymptomatic or presymptomatic patients, and infected colleagues in hospital settings is an alarming sign. Proactive infection prevention and control measures are highly encouraged on both strategic and operational levels. Reconsideration of surveillance strategy and work-related regulations in healthcare settings are warranted.


2021 ◽  
pp. 29-30
Author(s):  
Venkatesh B. C. ◽  
Rajendra Rao K. M. ◽  
K. N. Mohan Rao

Corona virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is causing a major health crisis across the globe. With the increasing number of fungal infections associated with COVID-19 being reported, it is imperative to understand the spectrum of such infections. Most documented cases have been reported in patients with diabetes mellitus or treatment with immunomodulators. The most common causative agents are Aspergillus, Candida or Mucorales. This series aims to portray the spectrum of fungal infections associated with COVID-19.


2020 ◽  
Vol 01 (01) ◽  
pp. 46-49
Author(s):  
SHAIK REEHANA ◽  
DR.A.KISHORE BABU ◽  
ATLURI SANTHI

Author(s):  
Bernadine Ekpenyong ◽  
Chukwuemeka J. Obinwanne ◽  
Godwin Ovenseri-Ogbomo ◽  
Kelechukwu Ahaiwe ◽  
Okonokhua O. Lewis ◽  
...  

The aim of this study was to explore knowledge, practice of risk and guidelines of the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) infection among the eye care practitioners and the potential associated factors. A cross-sectional self-administered online survey was distributed via emails and social media networks between 2nd and 18th May 2020 corresponding to the week of the lockdown in Nigeria to eye care practitioners (ECPs). Data for 823 respondents were analyzed. Knowledge and risk practice were categorized as binary outcome and univariate and multivariate linear regression were used to examine the associated factors. The mean score for COVID-19-related knowledge of public health guidelines was high and varied across the ECPs. Ophthalmic Nurses, Ophthalmologists and Optometrists showed higher COVID-19-related knowledge than other ECPs (p < 0.001), particularly those working in the private sector. More than 50% of ECPs stated they provided essential services during the COVID-19 lockdown via physical consultation, particularly the Ophthalmologists. Most respondents reported that the guidelines provided by their Association were useful but expressed their lack of confidence in attending to patients during and after the COVID-19 lockdown. Compared to other ECPs in Nigeria, more Ophthalmic Nurses received training in the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). This survey is the first to assess knowledge, attitudes and practice in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria. ECPs in Nigeria displayed good knowledge about COVID-19 and provided eye care services during the COVID-19 lockdown in Nigeria, despite the majority not receiving any training on the use of PPEs with concerns over attending to patients. There is need for the government to strengthen health systems by improving and extending training on standard infection prevention and control measures to ECPs for effective control of the pandemic and in the future as essential health workers.


Author(s):  
Diplo Tchepé Flore Bernadette ◽  
Anné Blessa P. A. Jean Claude ◽  
Achy Brou Armand ◽  
Aoussi Serge ◽  
Yéo Alain ◽  
...  

The Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) health crisis has not spared any country in the world, from the most advanced to the poorest. COVID-19 pandemic has exposed much vulnerability in systems and societies. In all resource-constrained countries, the response has been very complicated. The pandemic had to be dealt with very quickly with limited health and economic resources to avoid the hecatomb already predicted for these countries. In Côte d'Ivoire in particular, health and government authorities worked with state or private structures with infrastructure and human resource capacities to develop a rapid and effective response plan. Several measures have been adopted to reduce the spread of COVID-19. As a result of all these strategies, the number of cases of infected persons has been gradually decreasing. This new situation has favored the revision of certain restrictive measures, in this case the closure of air borders, which have of course been eased under certain conditions. Travelers are required to have a paper attesting to their negativity in COVID-19 test. Thus, Pasteur Institute of Côte d'Ivoire (IPCI), the reference laboratory for carrying out COVID-19 tests, was responsible for supplying a certificate of analysis to travellers. The purpose of this article is to show the internal process developed and different strategies implemented by IPCI to establish and deliver this document in order to meet the demand in the context of a pandemic.


Author(s):  
Sudhanshu Kumar Biswas ◽  
Jayanta Kumar Ghosh ◽  
Susmita Sarkar ◽  
Uttam Ghosh

The present novel corona virus (2019-nCoV) infection has created a global emergency situation by spreading all over the world in a large scale within very short time period. The infection induced death rate is also very high. There is no vaccine or anti-viral medicine for such infection. So at this moment a major worldwide problem is that how we can control this pandemic. On the other hand, India is a high population density country, where the corona virus disease (COVID-19) has started to spread from $1^{st}$ week of March, 2020 in a significant number of COVID-19 positive cases. Due to this high population density human to human social contact rate is very high in India. So control of the pandemic COVID-19 in early stage is very urgent and challenging problem. Mathematical models are employed in this paper to study the COVID-19 dynamics, to identify the influential parameters and to find the proper prevention strategies to reduce the outbreak size. In this work, we have formulated a deterministic compartmental model to study the spreading of COVID-19 and estimated the model parameters by fitting the model with reported data of ongoing pandemic in India. Sensitivity analysis has been done to identify the key model parameters. The basic reproduction number has been estimated from actual data and the effective basic reproduction number has been studied on the basis of reported cases. Some effective preventive measures and their impacts on the disease dynamics have also been studied. Future trends of the disease transmission has been Predicted from our model with some control measures. Finally, the positive measures to control the disease have been summarized.


Author(s):  
Sarfaraz Alam Khan ◽  
Nazeem Ishrat Siddiqui

A series of acute and atypical serious respiratory illnesses were reported in December 2019 from Wuhan, a city of China. It spread to other places and became a global pandemic involving more than 200 countries of the world. Soon, it was discovered that this atypical respiratory illness was caused by a novel corona virus. It was named as the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease caused by it as corona virus disease-19 (COVID-19). Since COVID-19 is a new viral disease, world is still struggling to find out a permanent remedy to control this serious health problem. It seems prudent to study or have a look on the pathophysiology of SARS CoV-2 in the light of available research. Further, a review on pathophysiology may give an insight on the potential therapeutic options. Being a new virus and having potential to cause significant morbidity and mortality in short span of time various approved drugs are being repurposed for the treatment of COVID-19.


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