Journal of infection and public health
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J Infect Public Health · Jun 2020
The psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on health care workers in a MERS-CoV endemic country.
The global pandemic of coronavirus disease of 2019 (COVID-19) has led to unprecedented psychological stress on health workers (HCWs). We aimed to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 on HCWs in comparison to the stress brought on by the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) epidemic in Saudi Arabia. ⋯ Pandemic and epidemic infectious diseases such as COVID-19 or MERS-CoV impose a significant level of anxiety and stress on healthcare workers who are caring of infected patients, with their main concern being the risk of transmitting the infection to their families or to acquire it themselves. Therefore, optimizing the compliance of healthcare workers with the proper infection prevention and control measures is paramount during the infectious disease outbreak, to ensure their safety, to decrease the likelihood of getting infected or transmitting the infection to others, and consequently to alleviate their psychological stress and anxiety.
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J Infect Public Health · Jun 2020
Hydroxychloroquine as antiviral prophylaxis for exposed caregivers to Covid-19: An urgent appraisal is needed.
Since the onset of the new coronavirus pandemic, the world is facing a public health emergency. Repositioning hydroxychloroquine (HQ) seems to be a promising option. Many emerging evidences have converged on the effectiveness of HQ in the treatment of Covid-19 infection. In a recent paper, Gautret et al. suggested that further works are needed to determine if HQ antiviral prophylaxis is useful, especially for healthcare workers. ⋯ Anti-Covid-19 HQ prophylaxis should be urgently accessed, especially for healthcare workers. It is to be hoped that HQ prophylaxis reduces the morbidity and mortality from Covid-19 infection among this population which is particularly exposed and relatively old.