Articles: pandemics.
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Salud pública de México · May 2020
[Public health literacy in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic emergency].
Health literacy is the process of obtaining knowledge, motivation and individual competencies to understand and access information, express opinions and make decisions with respect to health promotion and maintenance. This applies in different contexts, environments, and throughout life. This conceptual perspective is very necessary in the face of the SARS-CoV-2 virus emergency. ⋯ This includes not only the strategy of public surveillance, but also sentinel and event-based surveillance, as it is impossible to actually identify all positive cases; b) Mitigating measures against the spread of the epidemic, such as social distancing and hygiene, washing hands, quarantine, restricting movement and using masks, among others; c) Measures to suppress transmission when the number of cases is very high, such as strict measures to stay at home; d) strengthening health services 'capacity for medical attention and improving health services' ability to prevent transmission, including the use of diagnostic tests; e) the development of prophylactic vaccines against Covid-19, as well as the development of therapeutic agents. All of these actions must be rapidly implemented, from a multidisciplinary and multisectorial public health perspective, and they absolutely must also be taken with the community's participation as shared responsibility. Therefore, public health literacy is needed.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has quickly and radically altered how Otolaryngologists provide patient care in the outpatient setting. Continuity of care with established patients as well as establishment of a professional relationship with new patients is challenging during this Public Health Emergency (PHE). ⋯ The significant coding and billing issues related to implementing telemedicine services are discussed to promote acceptance of this technology by the practicing Otolaryngologist. Of particular importance, outpatient visit Current Procedural Terminology® codes (99201-99215) may be used for telehealth visits performed in real-time audio and video.
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Indian heart journal · May 2020
Will the hidden specter of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) emerge from the avalanche of COVID-19?
There has been a huge impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global healthcare systems. Advisories across the world have appealed to people to stay at home and observe social distancing to slow down the pandemic. However it is important to realize as to how this is affecting acute cardiovascular care. ⋯ Lockdown restrictions have also limited transport options for patients seeking to reach hospitals in time. Healthcare systems need to be prepared for an anticipated downstream deluge of such untreated patients who may present with sequelae like heart failure, reinfarction, arrhythmias, mechanical complications etc. Scientific societies should have proactive campaigns to alleviate patient concerns, and encourage them to seek timely medical attention despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
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G Ital Cardiol (Rome) · May 2020
[Being a cardiologist at the time of SARS-COVID-19: is it time to reconsider our way of working?]
The SARS-COVID-19 pandemic is bringing to light significant issues that require deliberations on how to manage patients at high cardiovascular risk or with proven heart disease. The evidence that the hospital can be a place where one might contract the infection and spread the disease has drastically reduced non-COVID-19 accesses to emergency rooms (ER) and to elective non-COVID-19 hospital activities. If this, on one hand, results in reducing improper access to the ER and hospital, on the other hand it substantiates the risk of underestimating problems not connected to COVID-19, such as an increased delay in the diagnosis and treatment of acute myocardial infarction and other cardiovascular emergencies. ⋯ The problem is furtherly amplified by the uncertain trend of the epidemic, by the duration of forced isolation and limited mobility measures and by the inadequate integration between hospital and territory, especially in high-risk areas such as residences for the elderly or in socially and economically fragile environments. Our opinion is that a syndemic approach, which considers the complex interplay between social, economic, environmental and clinical problems, can be the most appropriate and achieved by means the contribution of telemedicine and telecardiology, intended as integration and not as an alternative to traditional management. A flexible use of telematic tools, now available for teleconsultation, and/or remote monitoring adapted to the needs of clinical, family and social-health contexts could allow the creation of integrated and personalized management programs that are effective and efficient for the care of patients.