scholarly journals Corticosteroids for COVID-19 Therapy: Potential Implications on Tuberculosis

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (7) ◽  
pp. 3773
Author(s):  
Radha Gopalaswamy ◽  
Selvakumar Subbian

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization announced the Corona Virus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) as a global pandemic, which originated in China. At the host level, COVID-19, caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), affects the respiratory system, with the clinical symptoms ranging from mild to severe or critical illness that often requires hospitalization and oxygen support. There is no specific therapy for COVID-19, as is the case for any common viral disease except drugs to reduce the viral load and alleviate the inflammatory symptoms. Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), also primarily affects the lungs and has clinical signs similar to pulmonary SARS-CoV-2 infection. Active TB is a leading killer among infectious diseases and adds to the burden of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. In immunocompetent individuals, primary Mtb infection can also lead to a non-progressive, asymptomatic latency. However, latent Mtb infection (LTBI) can reactivate symptomatic TB disease upon host immune-suppressing conditions. Importantly, the diagnosis and treatment of TB are hampered and admixed with COVID-19 control measures. The US-Center for Disease Control (US-CDC) recommends using antiviral drugs, Remdesivir or corticosteroid (CST), such as dexamethasone either alone or in-combination with specific recommendations for COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization or oxygen support. However, CSTs can cause immunosuppression, besides their anti-inflammatory properties. The altered host immunity during COVID-19, combined with CST therapy, poses a significant risk for new secondary infections and/or reactivation of existing quiescent infections, such as LTBI. This review highlights CST therapy recommendations for COVID-19, various types and mechanisms of action of CSTs, the deadly combination of two respiratory infectious diseases COVID-19 and TB. It also discusses the importance of screening for LTBI to prevent TB reactivation during corticosteroid therapy for COVID-19.

Author(s):  
Petr Ilyin

Especially dangerous infections (EDIs) belong to the conditionally labelled group of infectious diseases that pose an exceptional epidemic threat. They are highly contagious, rapidly spreading and capable of affecting wide sections of the population in the shortest possible time, they are characterized by the severity of clinical symptoms and high mortality rates. At the present stage, the term "especially dangerous infections" is used only in the territory of the countries of the former USSR, all over the world this concept is defined as "infectious diseases that pose an extreme threat to public health on an international scale." Over the entire history of human development, more people have died as a result of epidemics and pandemics than in all wars combined. The list of especially dangerous infections and measures to prevent their spread were fixed in the International Health Regulations (IHR), adopted at the 22nd session of the WHO's World Health Assembly on July 26, 1969. In 1970, at the 23rd session of the WHO's Assembly, typhus and relapsing fever were excluded from the list of quarantine infections. As amended in 1981, the list included only three diseases represented by plague, cholera and anthrax. However, now annual additions of new infections endemic to different parts of the earth to this list take place. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has already included more than 100 diseases in the list of especially dangerous infections.


2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (S2) ◽  
pp. 49-56
Author(s):  
Polly J. Price

These teaching materials explore the specific powers of governments to implement control measures in response to communicable disease, in two different contexts:The first context concerns global pandemic diseases. Relevant legal authority includes international law, World Health Organization governance and the International Health Regulations, and regulatory authority of nations.The second context is centered on U.S. law and concerns control measures for drug-resistant disease, using tuberculosis as an example. In both contexts, international and domestic, the point is to understand legal authority to address public health emergencies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Nicastri ◽  
Nicola Petrosillo ◽  
Tommaso Ascoli Bartoli ◽  
Luciana Lepore ◽  
Annalisa Mondi ◽  
...  

On January 9th, 2020, the “World Health Organization” (WHO) declared the identification, by Chinese Health authorities, of a novel coronavirus, further classified as SARS-CoV-2 responsible of a diseases (COVID-19) ranging from asymptomatic cases to severe respiratory involvement. On March 9th, 2020, WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. Italy is the second most affected country by COVID-19 infection after China. The “L. Spallanzani” National Institute for the Infectious Diseases, IRCCS has been the first Italian hospital to admit and manage patients affected by COVID-19. Hereby, we show our recommendations for the management of COVID-19 patients, based on very limited clinical evidences; these recomendations should be considered as expert opinions, which may be modified according to newly produced literature data. *for the INMI COVID-19 Treatment Group – ICOTREG Abdeddaim A, Agrati C, Albarello F, Antinori A, Ascoli Bartoli T, Baldini F, Bellagamba R, Bevilacqua N, Bibas M, Biava G, Boumis E, Busso D, Camici M, Capobianchi MR, Capone A, Caravella I, Cataldo A, Cerilli S, Chinello G, Cicalini S, Corpolongo A, Cristofaro M, D’Abramo A, Dantimi C, De Angelis G, De Palo MG, D’Offizi G, De Zottis F, Di Lorenzo R, Di Stefano F, Fusetti M, Galati V, Gagliardini R, Garotto G, Gebremeskel Tekle Saba, Giancola ML, Giansante F, Girardi E, Goletti D, Granata G, Greci MC, Grilli E, Grisetti S, Gualano G, Iacomi F, Iannicelli G, Ippolito G, Lepore L, Libertone R, Lionetti R, Liuzzi G, Loiacono L, Macchione M,  Marchioni L, Mariano A, Marini MC, Maritti M, Mastrobattista A, Mazzotta V, Mencarini P, Migliorisi-Ramazzini P, Mondi A, Montalbano M, Mosti S, Murachelli S, Musso M, Nicastri E, Noto P, Oliva A, Palazzolo C, Palmieri F, Pareo C, Petrone A, Pianura E, Pinnetti C, Pontarelli A, Puro V, Rianda A, Rosati S, Sampaolesi A, Santagata C, Scarcia D’Aprano S, Scarabello A, Schininà V, Scorzolini L, Stazi GV, Taibi C, Taglietti F, Tonnarini R, Topino S, Vergori A, Vincenzi L, Visco-Comandini U, Vittozzi P, Zaccarelli M, Zaccaro G.


Author(s):  
Angela Mary George ◽  
Daniel Manoj ◽  
Sowmya Ramani ◽  
Lalropuii . ◽  
Murugan Timiri Palani ◽  
...  

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. The alarming levels of spread and severity of the viral disease has resulted in significant morbidity and mortality. Women often face the highest risk of suffering devastating losses from the pandemic. Historically, women’s health has always been inadequately represented in responses to global outbreaks. Resources are often funnelled away from women’s health services towards targets perceived to be more important. Pregnant women with suspected, probable or confirmed COVID-19, should have access to obstetric and foetal medicine, neonatal care as well as mental health and psychosocial support, at facilities ready to tackle maternal and neonatal complications. In this article, we attempt to look at the challenges faced by gynaecologists because of this pandemic, and provide an overview on the current protocols in antenatal care, foetal care, childbirth, and oncological care.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2 (Supp)) ◽  
pp. 288-299
Author(s):  
Shubha DB ◽  
Malathesh Undi ◽  
Rachana Annadani ◽  
Ayesha Siddique

Since the emergence of Corona Virus Disease 19 (COVID 19) in China in December 2019, a lot of significant decisions have been taken by the World Health Organization (WHO) and several countries across the globe. As the world reels under the threat of rapid increase in the number of cases and is planning strategies with the limited information available on the virus, it is essential to learn from the experience of countries across the globe. Hence, we selected a few countries in five WHO regions based on their COVID 19 caseload, management strategies and outcome and compared some of the important measures taken by them to contain the spread of infection. Strategies like extensive testing and contact tracing, strict quarantine and isolation measures, Hospital preparedness, complete restriction of non-essential travel, strict border control measures and social distancing measures play a vital role in containment of the spread. All the countries faced the novel strain of virus and implemented similar strategies as per the guidance of WHO, but the extent of preparedness, swiftness with which the decisions were made and the scale of measures made the difference.


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.


POCUS Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-28
Author(s):  
Sheena Bhimji-Hewitt MAppSc; DMS, CRGS, RDMS

Novel Corona Virus Disease-19 (nCov-19, COVID-19) was recognised as a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020. As of June 14, 2020, this contagious viral disease has afflicted 188 out of 195 countries in the world with 7,893,700 confirmed cases and 432,922 global deaths. Canada has 98,787 people infected and 8,146 deaths. COVID-19 is thought to transmit through contact, droplets and aerosolization. A rapid review showed limited information on the benefits of conducting lung ultrasound (LUS) versus chest radiograph (CXR) or studies correlating lung ultrasound to chest computed Tomography (CT) in patients positive for Covid-19. The literature review confirmed that CT and LUS cannot diagnose this disease, but that both can help in the management and staging of this disease. There is no literature to prove that LUS at the bedside may be beneficial from the view of decreased transmission to other health care workers and bystanders due to reduced transit but comparing the transit pathway and contact leads one to propose that this would be so. Pregnant patients with COVID-19, young children and patients in the reproductive stage would also benefit from LUS since there is no radiation dose and the critical patient in distress will benefit from testing at the bedside.


Author(s):  
Mohsen Ahmed Abdelmohsen ◽  
Buthaina M. Alkandari ◽  
Vikash K. Gupta ◽  
Nermeen Elsebaie

Abstract Background Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic—as declared by the World Health Organization—is a major threatening public health problem. At the time of writing, more than 60,000,000 patients and more than 1,500,000 deaths were recorded worldwide. Besides the classical chest symptoms, gastrointestinal tract-related symptoms were noted, like diarrhea, abdominal distention, and hematochezia, adding more difficulties in the diagnosis of the disease. Although there are many publications evaluated, the thoracic imaging signs and complications of COVID-19, there are few articles—to the best of our knowledge—that evaluated the gastrointestinal tract imaging features and complications related to COVID-19. Results In this retrospective study, positive COVID-19 patients who underwent diagnostic computed tomography (CT) for abdominal complaints along a 3-month duration in a large isolation hospital were evaluated. Strict infection control measures were taken during the CT examinations. The data were reviewed on picture archiving and communications systems with clinical data and laboratory result correlation. Thirty patients (30%) showed gastrointestinal (GI) findings, and 70 patients showed unremarkable or non-related GI findings. The 30 patients were classified into four groups: the ischemic group including 10 patients (10/30: 33.33%), the bleeding group included six patients (6/30: 20%), the inflammatory group included nine patients (9/30: 30%), and fluid-filled bowel group included five patients (5/30: 16.6%). Conclusions COVID-19 should be evaluated as a systemic disease with extra pulmonary highlights. GI imaging should be considered for COVID-19 patients with related suspicious symptoms. Ischemic GI complications were the most common GI findings.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Garzon-Chavez ◽  
Daniel Romero-Alvarez ◽  
Marco Bonifaz ◽  
Juan Gaviria ◽  
Daniel Mero ◽  
...  

Abstract The World Health Organization (WHO) declared coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) a global pandemic on March 11th. In Ecuador, the first case of COVID-19 was recorded on February 29th. Despite efforts to control its spread, SARS-CoV-2 overrun the Ecuadorian public health system which became one of the most affected in Latin America with 22,719 cases reported up to April, 24th. Public health control measures, including social distancing and lockdowns, were implemented at different times in the biggest cities of the country: Guayaquil and Quito. The Hospital General del Sur de Quito (HGSQ) had to transition from a general to a specific COVID-19 health center in a short period of time to fulfill the health demand from patients with respiratory afflictions. Here, we summarized the implementations applied in the HGSQ to become a COVID-19 exclusive hospital, including the rearrangement of hospital rooms and a triage strategy based on a severity score calculated through an artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted chest computed tomography (CT). Moreover, we present clinical, epidemiological, and laboratory data from 75 laboratory tested COVID-19 patients, which represent the first outbreak of Quito city.


Author(s):  
Dr. Jayendrasinh Jadav ◽  
Krishna Kulin Trivedi

The whole fights against the corona virus disease which is an infectious respiratory disease which has high transmissibility and has no medical therapy or vaccine which has been declared as the pandemic by the world health organization popularly known in short as WHO and is a global pandemic. The 21st century is the digital age and digitalization is the global trend. Technology has played a vital role in fighting with the COVID-19 Pandemic. The sudden world-wide pandemic forced to imposed lockdown during which there is digital surge. This research paper focuses on the vital role of technology in fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic.


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