Articles: coronavirus.
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The current COVID-19 outbreak in conjunction with the need to provide safe dental treatments and the limited knowledge on the efficacy of protective measures has posed dentists into a challenging situation. Therefore, the present article aimed at collecting experiences and recommendations of frontline clinical experts on critical aspects of dental treatment provision during pandemic. ⋯ The limitation of aerosol-generating procedures along with the usage of adequate personal protection equipment was considered to be crucial to protect dental healthcare providers and patients, thus reducing the transmission risk of COVID-19.
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When infectious disease outbreaks strike, health facilities acquire labels such as "war zones" and "battlefields" and healthcare professionals become "heroes" on the "front line." But unlike soldiers, healthcare professionals often take on these dangerous roles without any prior intention or explicit expectation that their work will place them in grave personal danger. This inevitably raises questions about their role-related obligations and whether they should be free to choose not to endanger themselves. In this article, I argue that it is helpful to view this situation not only through the lens of "professional duty" but also through the lens of "role-related conflicts." Doing so has the advantage of avoiding exceptionalism and allowing us to draw lessons not only from previous epidemics but also from a wide range of far more common role-related dilemmas in healthcare.
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Health Informatics J · Dec 2020
The social life of COVID-19: Early insights from social media monitoring data collected in Poland.
Research has revealed that social media data may be promising in many health threats and help to understand how people respond to them. As the outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a global pandemic, a real-time social media monitoring is needed to know the scale of this phenomenon. We have reported the frequency, reach and impact of online mentions about the COVID-19 illness taken from social media platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, blogs, forums, and news portals to highlight and better understand the scope of coronavirus discussion in Poland. ⋯ Males have dominated the online conversation about COVID-19 (65.32% vs 34.68% females). At the same time, women were more likely to discuss the topic on social media platforms such as: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We concluded with theoretical and practical implications.
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The COVID-19 pandemic is causing a significant increase in the number of patients requiring relatively prolonged invasive mechanical ventilation and an associated surge in patients who need a tracheostomy to facilitate weaning from respiratory support. In parallel, there has been a global increase in guidance from professional bodies representing staff who care for patients with tracheostomies at different points in their acute hospital journey, rehabilitation and recovery. Of concern are the risks to healthcare staff of infection arising from tracheostomy insertion and caring for patients with a tracheostomy. ⋯ Supporting this workstream, UK stakeholder organisations involved in tracheostomy care were invited to develop consensus guidance based on: expert opinion; the best available published literature; and existing multidisciplinary guidelines. Topics with direct relevance for frontline staff were identified. This consensus guidance includes: infectivity of patients with respect to tracheostomy indications and timing; aerosol-generating procedures and risks to staff; insertion procedures; and management following tracheostomy.