Journal of global health
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Journal of global health · Dec 2020
Rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Vietnam government's experience and preliminary success.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit all corners of the world, challenging governments to act promptly in controlling the spread of the pandemic. Due to limited resources and inferior technological capacities, developing countries including Vietnam have faced many challenges in combating the pandemic. Since the first cases were detected on 23 January 2020, Vietnam has undergone a 3-month fierce battle to control the outbreak with stringent measures from the government to mitigate the adverse impacts. In this study, we aim to give insights into the Vietnamese government's progress during the first three months of the outbreak. Additionally, we relatively compare Vietnam's response with that of other Southeast Asia countries to deliver a clear and comprehensive view on disease control strategies. ⋯ Vietnam could be one of the role models in pandemic control for low-resource settings. As the pandemic is still ongoing in an unpredictable trajectory, disease control measures should continue to be put in place in the foreseeable short term.
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Journal of global health · Dec 2020
Meta AnalysisEffects of underlying morbidities on the occurrence of deaths in COVID-19 patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the most hectic pandemic of the era, is increasing exponentially and taking thousands of lives worldwide. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of pre-existing comorbidities among COVID-19 patients and their mortality risks with each category of pre-existing comorbidity. ⋯ This study provides evidence that COVID-19 patients with pre-existing comorbidities had a higher likelihood of death. These findings could potentially help health care providers to sort out the most susceptible COVID-19 patients by comorbidities, take precautionary measures during hospitalization, assess susceptibility to death, and prioritize their treatment, which could potentially reduce the number of fatalities in COVID-19.
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Journal of global health · Dec 2020
ReviewThe role of children in the transmission of SARS-CoV2: updated rapid review.
Understanding carriage and transmission potential of SARS-CoV-2 in children is of paramount importance to understand the spread of virus in school and community settings. ⋯ There is somewhat limited evidence available for quantifying the extent to which children may contribute to overall transmission, but the balance of evidence so far suggests that children and schools play only a limited role in overall transmission.
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Journal of global health · Dec 2020
Estimation of unreported SARS-CoV-2 cases in Italy using a Susceptible-Exposed-Infectious-Recovered-Dead model.
An important epidemiological characteristic that might modulate the pandemic potential of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the proportion of undocumented cases. ⋯ Our findings partially explain the case fatality risk observed in Italy with a high proportion of unreported SARS-CoV-2 cases. Moreover, we underline that the fraction of undocumented infectious individuals is a critical epidemiological characteristic that needs to be taken into for a better understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic.