Articles: pandemics.
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JMIR Public Health Surveill · May 2020
Delivering Benefits at Speed Through Real-World Repurposing of Off-Patent Drugs: The COVID-19 Pandemic as a Case in Point.
Real-world drug repurposing-the immediate "off-label" prescribing of drugs to address urgent clinical needs-is a widely overlooked opportunity. Off-label prescribing (ie, for a nonapproved indication) is legal in most countries and tends to shift the burden of liability and cost to physicians and patients, respectively. Nevertheless, health crises may mean that real-world repurposing is the only realistic source for solutions. ⋯ This paper briefly summarizes why cimetidine or famotidine, dipyridamole, fenofibrate or bezafibrate, and sildenafil citrate are worth considering for patients with COVID-19. Clinical trials to assess efficacy are already underway for famotidine, dipyridamole, and sildenafil, and further trials of all these agents will be important in due course. These examples also reveal the unlimited opportunity to future-proof our health care systems by proactively mining, synthesizing, cataloging, and evaluating the off-label treatment opportunities of thousands of safe, well-established, and affordable generic drugs.
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Cell host & microbe · May 2020
The Challenges of Vaccine Development against a New Virus during a Pandemic.
The rapid emergence of a highly pathogenic, readily transmissible coronavirus has resulted in a global pandemic, affecting millions and destabilizing economies. This catastrophe triggered a clarion call for the immediate deployment of a protective vaccine. We describe the unique challenges of developing a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 in a pandemic setting.
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Int J Environ Res Public Health · May 2020
Can Teledentistry Improve the Monitoring of Patients during the Covid-19 Dissemination? A Descriptive Pilot Study.
The aim of this pilot study was to describe the advantages of telemedicine (TM) in dental practice during the current national emergency condition due to the Covid-19 dissemination. At Department of Oral Surgery and Pathology-Magna Graecia University of Catanzaro, regional reference center for Covid-19-two groups of patients were determined: patients with urgent conditions (group U) and patients in follow-up (group F). Both groups were instructed to implement remote consultations using a messaging service (WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Inc., Mountain View, California, USA) to send photos. ⋯ In the F group, 384 photos were collected by 52 patients. None of them sent more photos than the number that was established by the protocol. Telemedicine allowed a monitoring of all patients, reducing costs and limiting human contact, decreasing the risk of Covid-19 dissemination.
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Bmc Med Res Methodol · May 2020
Social media as a recruitment platform for a nationwide online survey of COVID-19 knowledge, beliefs, and practices in the United States: methodology and feasibility analysis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has evolved into one of the most impactful health crises in modern history, compelling researchers to explore innovative ways to efficiently collect public health data in a timely manner. Social media platforms have been explored as a research recruitment tool in other settings; however, their feasibility for collecting representative survey data during infectious disease epidemics remain unexplored. ⋯ The social media advertisement campaign was an effective and efficient strategy to collect large scale, nationwide data on COVID-19 within a short time period. Although the proportion of men who completed the survey was lower than those who didn't, interventions to increase male responses and enhance representativeness were successful. These findings can inform future research on the use of social media recruitment for the rapid collection of survey data related to rapidly evolving health crises, such as COVID-19.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has posed several challenges to the Indian healthcare system. Here, we examine the situation in India considering the moral and ethical imperatives of decision making for public health. Currently, in the absence of proven therapies, empirical evidence is being used for treatment of Covid-19 disease. ⋯ Appropriate use of evidence is required. In the ethics context and in the interest of the larger public good, we suggest the inclusion of simple and safe measures from AYUSH systems in the integrative protocols for prophylaxis and treatment of Covid-19. Keywords: AYUSH systems, Covid-19, pandemic, prophylaxis, evidence, empirical evidence, priority setting, public health decision making, global health emergencies,complementary medicine, integrative healthcare.