Turk J Med Sci
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Review Meta Analysis
How efficient are facial masks against COVID-19? Evaluating the mask use of various communities one year into the pandemic.
Face masks are devices worn over the mouth and nose to protect against splashes, infectious respiratory droplets, or aerosols generated during breathing or coughing according to their filtering capacity. Medical masks, respirators, or cloth masks have been used for source control and for the protection of the exposed. After the first case on March 11, 2020, in Turkey, National COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Board published various contents for the correct use of masks. ⋯ Metaanalysis, case control, cross sectional, cohort, retrospective, retrospective cross sectional, research, randomized controlled, and controlled comparison studies were reviewed on the protective effect of masks on COVID-19 with laboratory evidence. Optimum use of face masks with additional precautions has been found to be useful controlling the spread of the respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 in most of the studies and metaanalyses. As a conclusion, the recent evidence in COVID-19 pandemic is consistent with the previous studies which have shown association between face mask use and decreased risk of viral infections, and medical face mask use should be encouraged both for the community and healthcare facilities along with other infection control measures such as hand hygiene, during outbreaks when there is widespread community transmission.
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The purpose of this review was to present the ultimate toll of the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on the communication strategies and mental health. ⋯ To conclude, the negative conditions of the pandemic seem to make some people, but not all, vulnerable to mental illness. In addition, framing the public warnings in an optimal emotional tone seems to be more effective to comply with the precautions.
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In this review, we evaluated health care problems, which were not common before pandemic outbreak but have been common issues after its appereance and approaches to control pandemic considering its influences on people. We revised current health care developing approaches under the light of experience obtained throughout the pandemic so far. ⋯ As in Covid 19 pandemics, such long lasting and widely affecting situations, durability is also very important together with flexibility and quickness. To provide durability, we need global policies taking the health to its center as well as health system policies.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, children can be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Clinical symptoms of children with COVID from China, where the disease was first reported, generally were less severe than adults. However, at the end of April 2020 in Europe, it was observed that some children with SARS-CoV-2 infection developed fever, abdominal pain, shock, myocardial insufficiency and they needed to be taken care of in intensive care unit. ⋯ Although the pathogenesis of MIS-C is unclear, it progresses with signs of multiorgan involvement as a result of uncontrolled inflammation of the immune system and even causes death. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment of patients with MIS-C should be managed quickly. In this review, the pathophysiology, clinical and laboratory findings, diagnostic methods, and treatment regimens of MIS-C were discussed.
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Mobilizing the research ecosystem for accelerating vaccine and drug development has been an important reality of the pandemic. This article reviews the scientific advances that are attained by the COVID-19 Turkey Platform for vaccine and drug development against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The platform that is coordinated by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey is established with a "co-creation and succeeding together" approach, which involves 436 researchers across 49 different institutions working on 17 vaccine and drug development projects in total. ⋯ Moreover, an adjuvanted inactivated vaccine candidate and two drug candidates that have been identified through the virtual scanning of more than 20,000 molecules are currently in clinical studies. Other vaccines and drug candidates involve additional innovative aspects, and a locally synthesized drug is found to have an impact on COVID-19. This review article discusses the advances that are achieved by the COVID-19 Turkey Platform from the ecosystem perspective, emphasizing the important scientific advances that have been achieved in the field of medical sciences.