Articles: pandemics.
-
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted connections between health and social structural phenomena that have long been recognized in bioethics but have never really been front and center-not just access to health care, but fundamental conditions of living that affect public health, from income inequality to political and environmental conditions. In March, as the pandemic spread globally, the field's traditional focus on health care and health policy, medical research, and biotechnology no longer seemed enough. The adequacy of bioethics seemed even less certain after the killing of George Floyd, whose homicide showed in an especially agonizing way how social institutions are in effect (and often intentionally) designed to make the lives of black people go poorly and end early. Whether bioethics needs to be expanded, redirected, and even reconceived is at the heart of the May-June 2020 issue of the Hastings Center Report, which is devoted to questions provoked by and lessons emerging during this pandemic.
-
The COVID-19 pandemic will give rise to long-term changes in neurological care, which are not easily predictable. ⋯ The key informant survey identified the foreseeable changes in neurological care after the pandemic.
-
Ann Acad Med Singap · May 2020
ReviewPrecautions When Providing Dental Care During Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.
Transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-caused by novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2-through aerosolised saliva and respiratory droplets is possible when aerosol-generating dental procedures are performed. Consequently, dental practitioners are at increased risk of being infected when treating COVID-19 patients. A comprehensive review of the current literature on precautions when providing dental care during the COVID-19 pandemic is discussed and recommendations for dental practitioners are made. Dental practitioners should actively keep themselves abreast of the guidelines published by both national and international authorities and adhere strictly to them.
-
The pandemic spread of a novel coronavirus - SARS coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a cause of acute respiratory illness, named Covid-19, is placing the healthcare systems of many countries under unprecedented stress. Global economies are also spiraling towards a recession in fear of this new life-threatening disease. Vaccines that prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and therapeutics that reduces the risk of severe Covid-19 are thus urgently needed. ⋯ However, both hyperimmune globulin and vaccine development face a common hurdle - the risk of antibody-mediated disease enhancement. The goal of this review is to examine the body of evidence supporting the hypothesis of immune enhancement that could be pertinent to Covid-19. We also discuss how this risk could be mitigated so that both hyperimmune globulin and vaccines could be rapidly translated to overcome the current global health crisis.
-
All surgery performed in an epicenter of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, irrespective of the known or suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) status of the patient, should be regarded as high risk and protection of the surgical team at the bedside should be at the highest level. Robot assisted surgery (RAS) may help to reduce hospital stay for patients that urgently need complex-oncological-surgery, thus making room for COVID-19 patients. In comparison to open or conventional laparoscopic surgery, RAS potentially reduces not only contamination with body fluids and surgical gasses of the surgical area but also the number of directly exposed medical staff. A prerequisite is that general surgical precautions under COVID-19 circumstances must be taken, with the addition of prevention of gas leakage: • Use highest protection level III for bedside assistant, but level II for console surgeon. • Reduce the number of staff at the operation room. • Ensure safe and effective gas evacuation. • Reduce the intra-abdominal pressure to 8 mmHg or below. • Minimize electrocautery power and avoid use of ultrasonic sealing devices. • Surgeons should avoid contact outside theater (both in and out of the hospital).