Articles: pandemics.
-
Acute medicine & surgery · Jan 2020
Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on an emergency medical service system: a population-based, descriptive study in Osaka, Japan.
Novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) was confirmed in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and the COVID-19 pandemic has spread around the world. However, no clinical studies on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on emergency medical service (EMS) systems have been carried out. ⋯ We assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the EMS system in Osaka City, Japan and found that, since April 2020, the EMS system in Osaka City has been facing difficulty in terms of hospital acceptance of patients transported to hospital for acute diseases.
-
The intense global efforts are directed towards development of vaccines to halt the COVID-19 virus pandemic. There are 160 candidate vaccines under clinical trials across the world using different molecular targets and techniques. ⋯ We feel that the fundamental principles of ethics: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence and justice should not be violated in this hastened vaccine development process. We recommend constitute a Consortium on a global platform to formulate, provide and monitor a comprehensive ethical umbrella to the process of vaccine development.
-
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has led to measures of social distancing and quarantine worldwide. This stressful period may lead to psychological problems, including increases in substance use. ⋯ During the lockdown, individuals consumed slightly more alcohol and smoked marginally more cigarettes compared to the period before the lockdown. Further research focussing on follow-up of individuals at risk may be useful to provide appropriate care in post-COVID times.
-
Rev Assoc Med Bras (1992) · Jan 2020
Ethical dilemmas in COVID-19 times: how to decide who lives and who dies?
The respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that produces a large number of simultaneous patients with severe symptoms and in need of special hospital care, overloading the infrastructure of health services. All of these demands generate the need to ration equipment and interventions. Faced with this imbalance, how, when, and who decides, there is the impact of the stressful systems of professionals who are at the front line of care and, in the background, issues inherent to human subjectivity. ⋯ The ethical values for the rationing of health resources in an epidemic must converge to some proposals based on fundamental values such as maximizing the benefits produced by scarce resources, treating people equally, promoting and recommending instrumental values, giving priority to critical situations. Naturally, different judgments will occur in different circumstances, but transparency is essential to ensure public trust. In this way, it is possible to develop prioritization guidelines using well-defined values and ethical recommendations to achieve fair resource allocation.
-
Frontiers in psychiatry · Jan 2020
Burnout Syndrome Among Hospital Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Civil War: A Cross-Sectional Study.
Objective: We aimed to determine the prevalence of burnout among hospital healthcare workers in Libya during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and civil war. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 18 to May 2, 2020 among Libyan healthcare workers. Data on participant characteristics were collected with a specifically designed questionnaire. ⋯ Professional specialty was significantly associated with high emotional exhaustion and depersonalization. Fear of COVID-19 infection was associated with high emotional exhaustion and high depersonalization. Conclusion: The rising prevalence of mental disorders and inadequate availability of health services facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and civil war demonstrated the need for healthcare policies to address the well-being of healthcare workers to decrease the risk of loss, suicide, and medical negligence.