Articles: pandemics.
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Int J Equity Health · May 2020
The challenges facing indigenous communities in Latin America as they confront the COVID-19 pandemic.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-2019) pandemic struck Latin America in late February and is now beginning to spread across the rural indigenous communities in the region, home to 42 million people. Eighty percent of this highly marginalized population is concentrated in Bolivia, Guatemala, Mexico and Peru. ⋯ We discuss four main challenges that need to be addressed by governments to guarantee the health and lives of those at the bottom of the social structure: the indigenous peoples in the region. More than an analysis, our work provides a practical guide for designing and implementing a response to COVID-19 in indigenous communities.
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous countries worldwide declared national states of emergency and implemented interventions to minimise the risk of transmission among the public. Evidence was needed to inform strategies for limiting COVID-19 transmission on public transport. On 20 March 2020, we searched MEDLINE, CENTRAL, Web of Science and the World Health Organization's database of 'Global research on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)' to conduct a rapid review on interventions that reduce viral transmission on public ground transport. ⋯ These studies suggest an increased risk of viral transmission with public transportation use that may be reduced with improved ventilation. International and national guidelines suggest the following strategies: keep the public informed, stay at home when sick, and minimise public transport use. Where use is unavoidable, environmental control, respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene are recommended, while a risk-based approach needs to guide the use of non-medical masks.
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Editorial Comment
Remdesivir and COVID-19: What are the implications for Africa?
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The pandemic character of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) requires strategy changes designed to guarantee the safety of patients and health-care professionals. We are greatly concerned by the limitations in the operation of pulmonary function test (PFT) laboratories, since there is a high risk of disease progression in patients with chronic pulmonary diseases, and we are now faced by the influx of a new group of individuals in the recovery phase of post-COVID-19-syndrome that requires evaluation and follow-up of their respiratory function. ⋯ We present the safety and hygiene measures that must be adopted in laboratories or centers where PFT is conducted in adults and/or children. These recommendations answer the following questions: which PFT is most recommended in subjects that have recovered from COVID-19; what quality control and safety measures should PFT laboratories implement during this pandemic? And how should we approach non-COVID-19 patients requiring PFT?