Review Article
Ogechi Christiana Obi, Desmond Ajuruchi Odoh
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 14, Issue 3, Article No: em2110
ABSTRACT
To mitigate the spread of Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), many efforts have been made including the adoption of non-pharmaceutical measures such as hand hygiene, wearing of face mask, and social distancing. Sadly, the absence of symptoms in some SARS-CoV-2 carriers has impeded the success of these current interventions, and the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase globally. Understanding the impact and pattern of transmission by presymptomatic and asymptomatic cases is crucial to the management of the disease. We aimed to review the transmission or spread of COVID-19, to provide insight into the impact of these silent spreaders, and inform public health policymaking. A systematic review of published articles was conducted. PubMed, Google Scholar, and Science Direct were searched for articles published in the English Language from January to July 2020. A total of 20 articles were found eligible for the review based on the predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. 17 articles, of which 13 were case reports, 1 serial interval report, 2 investigational reports, and 1 modeling study, provided evidence of asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission. 3 articles reported on the quantitative contribution of asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission. Evidence provided in the literature is not sufficient to elucidate the impact and relative contribution of asymptomatic and presymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers on the spread of the disease. Strengthening of the current non-pharmaceutical measures or better still adoption of other innovative approaches is crucial to combating COVID-19 as far as presymptomatic and asymptomatic cases are concerned.
Keywords: asymptomatic, COVID-19, presymptomatic, SARS-CoV-2, transmission
Original Article
A Fargana, A Arifutzzaman, A A Rakhimov
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 14, Issue 3, Article No: em2109
ABSTRACT
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which emerged from Wuhan, China, is now a pandemic, affecting across the globe. Bangladesh also is experiencing the rapid growth of COVID-19 infection and death cases started from 8th March 2020. The purpose of providing a simple yet effective explanatory model for prediction of the future evolution of the contagion and verification of the effectiveness of the containment and lockdown measures in Bangladesh. In this study, using a modified SIR (Susceptible-Infected-Recovered) model a forecast is generated to predict the trends of COVID-19 cases in Bangladesh. The epidemic model was proposed to accommodate the effects of lockdown and individual based precautionary measures. Data has been taken and analyzed for before and after the movement control order (MCO) and during the MCO period. Modified SIR model in this work offers us an idea how the outbreak would progress based on the current data. It also has estimated that, the peak in terms of the number of infected cases will start from last of June 2020. For the total population (100%) the model gets the peaks at 214875 (infected cases) and 7743 (death cases). For the 90% population, the model shows the peaks at 244356 (infected cases) and 9100 (death cases). Analysis revealed that the lockdown and recommended individual hygiene can slow down the outbreak but unable to eradicate the disease from the society. With the current infection and death rate and existing level of personal precautionary the number of infected individuals will be increasing.
Keywords: COVID-19, modified SIR model, infection rate, death rate, growth rate, basic reproduction number, lockdown effect, Bangladesh
Review Article
Moyinoluwa Joshua Oladoye
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 14, Issue 2, Article No: em2108
ABSTRACT
Over the years, the nations of the world have been plagued with several infectious diseases outbreak. With the continuous rise in the number of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as monkeypox, it is high time we drew lessons and insights from past outbreaks to guide and effectively prepare for possible future outbreaks. Monkeypox, popularly known as the most important orthopoxvirus infection, is a viral zoonotic disease prevalent in Central and West Africa. There are 2 known genetic clades of the monkeypox virus reported so far, the Western African and the Central African clades. The human monkeypox though originated from Africa has grown to be a global concern with cases reported in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, and Singapore. It is distinctively characterized by lymphadenopathy and systemic rash symptoms. Monkeypox has a low fatality rate (0-11%) with the highest rates occurring in children and young persons who were not part of the smallpox vaccinated population. Report suggests that consumption of bush meats could be a potential risk factor in the transmission of the infection or caring for an infected patient. Several factors have been responsible for the weak surveillance system of monkeypox including the current COVID-19 pandemic that has put more pressure on the fragile healthcare systems and infrastructures of most countries. This paper aims to guide global health policymakers on the impending danger of neglecting this disease. The discourse is concluded with the recommendation of strategies to effectively strengthen the disease surveillance system in combating this public health threat.
Keywords: monkeypox, smallpox, orthopox, epidemiology, COVID-19
Original Article
Sandip Saha, Pankaj Biswas, Sujit Nath
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 14, Issue 2, Article No: em2106
ABSTRACT
At present, Novel COVID-19 has become the greatest issue in the world which was first detected in the city of Wuhan of Hubei province in China in the month of December 2019. SARS-COV-2 is responsible for the spreading of corona virus disease. Within a very short time period, it has spread very fast throughout the world. Beyond all the boundaries of medical science, nowadays COVID-19 has become a main interesting topic in many research fields such as Applied Mathematics, economy, politics, up to the living room. The aim of this study is to investigate the dynamic behavior of pandemic COVID-19 which based on real-time data. The logistic growth model and SIR model has been employed to study the different four characteristics of COVID-19, such as low growth state, moderate growth state, transition state, and steady-state. The models have been validated with the results of real-time data. Moreover, the model presents a rapid change due to the unavailability of precautions. Furthermore, some parameters have been implemented to predict the COVID-19 status up to 5th Jan 2021. From these models, it is predicted that the total number of infected peoples reaches 10M up to 5th Jan 2021. It has also been revealed that with the support of lockdown, social alertness, increasing testing facility, and social distancing recovery growth rate of infected persons increases with the increase of time.
Keywords: COVID-19, logistic growth model, SIR model, Novel coronavirus
Review Article
Nseobong Charles Akpabio junior, Ugochukwu Chigozie Okeke, Chinweoge Frances Epum, Chukwuamaka Jennifer Okise, Oluwaloni Olaitan Familoni, Babajide Joseph Oyekunle, Modupeoluwa Mercy Abidakun, Isioma Dianne Okolo
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 14, Issue 2, Article No: em2105
ABSTRACT
The Coronavirus pandemic poses a significant threat to the healthcare sectors of some African countries due to poor healthcare organisation, financing, and reduced uptake of recent technological advancements. Surgical care of patients and surgical training of healthcare workers are considerably affected, due to the dearth of policies and strategic health plans, to ensure the provision of safe and affordable surgical care and continuity of training. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Surgery in Africa and to provide recommendations geared towards the current pandemic and for the future. This review involved a search of the electronic databases MEDLINE/PubMed and Google Scholar, and 31 papers from African countries which explored the impact of COVID-19 across different surgical specialities were screened. The cancellation rate of elective surgeries and benign conditions across some countries were seen to be as high as 74-81% with prioritisation of cancer patients and emergencies. The volume of emergency surgical cases presenting in some hospitals was reduced due to the associated lockdowns and fear of contracting the virus, while Telemedicine became increasingly adopted with newer platforms being used across some countries. The pandemic has exposed the inequities in health systems and further studies need to be done to evaluate its impact across more surgical specialities.
Keywords: global health, surgery, health systems, health technology, COVID-19
Review Article
Sanaa M’sahel, Mohamed Amine
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 14, Issue 1, Article No: em2101
ABSTRACT
A novel virus has emerged to the world causing a new pandemic of respiratory infection. On February 2020, the World Health Organization named it Corona disease 2019. The emergence of this epidemic was first reported in Wuhan, China in late December 2019, before it spread to other countries. In response to this pandemic, the World Health Organization has stressed the need for strengthening health professionals worldwide. Indeed, adequate protective measures can help protect patients and staff from the transmission of a highly infectious disease.
Managing COVID-19 patients exposes healthcare professionals to the risk of contracting the disease and transmitting it to those around them. This risk is very high because of the mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, which is transmitted by inhalation, contact with droplets and infected surfaces which makes it a very contagious disease. Thus, adequate precautions in healthcare establishments can help mitigate this risk, such as adopting several protective measures including personal protective equipment. By the same vein, healthcare professionals run a high risk of anxiety, stress, depression and burnout when managing COVID-19 patients. Therefore, the protection of the mental health of these health workers also includes psychological support measures.
In this regard, this article purports to describe the health and safety measures related to the prevention of the risk of COVID-19 infection to health professionals in China and Morocco. On the other hand, it seeks to present the psychological support measures for these agents in the two aforementioned countries.
Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, health workers, protective measures, Mental health, China, Morocco
Review Article
Shekinah Yobuh Williams, Shalom Oluwafunke Adeyemi, James Oluwadara Eyitayo, Olubunmi Emmanuel Odeyemi, Olaoluwa Ezekiel Dada, Miracle Ayomikun Adesina, Abiodun David Akintayo
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: em2018
ABSTRACT
The novel coronavirus disease was discovered first in Wuhan, China in December, 2019. It was later declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the 11th of March, 2020. COVID-19, as popularly called, has spread rapidly to about 213 countries of the world and 2 international conveyances. There are over 5.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus infection as at May 28th, 2020 and more than 358 thousand death cases reported globally. This staggering statistics has called for drastic and concerted efforts from governments and health workers around the globe to combat COVID-19 pandemic. With the increasing need for effective prevention of spread of the virus and development of a cure and a vaccine for COVID-19 as soon as possible, mobile health technology with all its benefits may just be the answer.
Mobile Health technology has been a vital tool in creation of awareness and dissemination of information; as a means of curtailing the spread of the coronavirus from person to person; tracking of infected persons, and reduction of person-to-person contact, virtual screening and remote monitoring of patients. Despite the aforementioned uses, the challenge of cost, information privacy and less knowledge of the application of mhealth remains. It is therefore recommended that the potential of low-cost mobile technology be maximized; laws and regulation as regard privacy and confidentiality be set and funds be made available by the government.
Keywords: mHealth, mobile health technology, digital technology, COVID-19
Review Article
Abu Tayab Moin, Mohammad Najmul Sakib, Yusha Araf, Bishajit Sarkar, Md. Asad Ullah
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: em2017
ABSTRACT
This paper is purposed to delineate the current situation of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Bangladesh as well as how the people in this country are encountering this threatening crisis. COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has rapidly spread throughout different countries of the world to date. After its emergence in China different continents started to get aware of COVID-19 though, due to its high transmissibility several countries have been quite deteriorated preventing it. All the countries are moving forward to the best of their abilities to find out any solution so that the whole world could get rid of this horrifying situation as soon as possible. The authors here have reported an overview of how the outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted Bangladesh and how the people of this country have been tracing the way to tackle this havoc. Also, authors tried to enunciate the changes that have brought around due to the crisis have offered us some fertile lessons. To conclude, the observation and current knowledge of the pandemic in Bangladesh so far suggest that special considerations might be anticipated to be highlighted pertaining to the COVID-19 outbreak in Bangladesh.
Keywords: COVID-19, Bangladesh, SARS-CoV-2, outbreak, pandemic
Original Article
Edidiong Orok, Success David, Tofunmi Olajide, Adesina Sulaiman, Ebunoluwa Oyewole
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 4, Article No: em2015
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has been predicted to cause mental health deterioration among inhabitants around the globe including university students. This study was aimed at evaluating the perceived effect of COVID-19 on the mental health and social activity of healthcare students in southwestern Nigeria. A cross-sectional online survey method was used in the evaluation where an online questionnaire was distributed to the Whatsapp groups of undergraduate and post-graduate healthcare students from May to June 2020 using convenience sampling technique. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social sciences version 25 and results were presented using descriptive statistics which included mean, frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics was done using the chi-square analysis. A total of 261 students consented to participate in the study. The mean age of the respondents was 23.77 + 3.85 years from various disciplines including pharmacy (31.4%), nursing (31%) and medicine (21.1%). Majority of the respondents (69.7%, 95%, 64.4% and 96.6%) had more than 50% perceived effect score showing considerable effect of COVID-19 on mental health, social life, safety and formal learning respectively. There was an association between gender and the perceived effect of COVID-19 on mental health and safety. There was no association between gender and perceived effect of COVID-19 on formal learning and social activity. COVID-19 has a considerable effect on mental health and social activity of healthcare students. There is a need for interventions to help reduce the effect of COVID-19 on mental health and encourage the use of online platforms to improve learning among college students.
Keywords: COVID-19, healthcare students, mental health, social activities, Nigeria
Review Article
Sukaina Rahman Neamah
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: em2014
ABSTRACT
The ability to perceive the principle symptoms of COVID-19 is very critical as to diminish and control disease in a suitable time. There are numerous similar symptoms of cold, influenza, hypersensitivities and novel coronavirus. The greatest difference is the brevity of breath related with COVID-19. This flu virus or cold does not cause brevity of breath except if it advances to pneumonia. Different symptoms of COVID-19 are fever and coughing dry, extended to incorporate chills, loss of taste and smell, ache of muscle and head and sore throat. A cold, incorporate sneezing, cough, stodgy nose. It clears up within few period by itself. Influenza, incorporate fever or hot/chills, ache of muscle and head and runny nose. It can prompt genuine complications, e.g. pneumonia and death. Sensitivity symptoms are hypersensitivities, irritated eyes, sneezing and nasal runny relying upon the season and environment. In spite of overlap, the regular symptoms of COVID-19 are more like influenza than the normal cold or sensitivity. Individuals at home can be able to treat mild COVID-19 symptoms. On the off chance that they notice increasingly severe indications. In case of serious symptoms, an individual should look for medical assistance right away and inform the health care insurance supplier that they may have COVID-19, to assist them with avoiding potential risk as well as take the appropriate safety. It is important to bear in mind that the correct diagnosis of COVID-19 is not clinical, but rather by examining a sample from the nose or mouth in a laboratory.
Keywords: SARS, flu, COVID-19, Wuhan, symptom
Original Article
Alya Hassan Alhajjaj, Huda Hassan Aldarweesh, Zainab Abdullah Alghawi
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: em2013
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 infection has spread to many countries including Saudi Arabia. This study was designed to assess the knowledge, attitude and awareness among the public in Saudi Arabia about COVID-19 pandemic.
Materials and Methods: It was a cross-sectional online Arabic survey. It was conducted on 23rd March 2020. It included all adult residents in Saudi Arabia.
Results: A total of 2069 questionnaires were returned completed. Most of the participants were females (78.2%) and from the Eastern province (92.9%). The median age was 35.69 years. The majority of the participants had sufficient knowledge (score ≥ 6) with statistical significance in relation to age, gender, marital status, occupation and educational level. Most of them (75.90%) got their knowledge about COVID-19 from Social media. The majority of the participants supported the government regulations and the protective measures taken for COVID-19 prevention. Most of them reported frequent handwashing and maintaining social distancing.
Conclusion: Although our study was conducted at the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia, it showed that our participants had good knowledge level that was reflected on their positive attitude, awareness, and their precautionary measures. Because our participants were mainly from the Eastern province, further studies are needed to investigate other provinces in Saudi Arabia.
Keywords: knowledge, attitude, Saudi, COVID-19, public
Original Article
Abdul Rahim Chandio
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: em2012
ABSTRACT
The current study provides an overview of the COVID-19 implications on the health workers by means of their mental health and psychosocial aspects. It develops the sense of fear and susceptibility of the health workers for coping the strategies and medical targets and such perceived stress remained so fatal and harmful to the workers psyche to meet the job satisfaction under the prevailing situation due to the outbreak of the pandemic COVID-19. The prevention measures failed and became a futile attempt to seize the atmosphere of stressfulness for the frontline workers to combat the COVID-19 and it returned in the form of fear, anxiety and emotional dilemmas of isolation and loneliness. This study assists to investigate perception of the medical workers by empirical means either they face psychosocial worriness and mentally stress relating to their service during the COVID-19 outbreak in Pakistan. For the data collection, an online survey was conducted from 30 April to 20 May in which 392 questionnaires were distributed among Pakistani doctors and paramedical staff and the response rate remained 256 (65.3%) to discover their concern on the rising dilemma of the COVID-19. For the empirical analysis, proposed variables were adopted to carry out the study in order to find out the intentional level of the health workers regarding their mental distress and psychosocial problems. For the data collection, respondents were participated from the Sindh province of Pakistan in which data was analyzed through SPSS version 24 as it applied the regressions and Pearson‘s correlation to test the hypothesis that resulted to reveal all factors to sustain the significant positive relationship with dependent construct.
Keywords: Pakistan, COVID-19, implications, mental health
Research Article
MD Nafiul Alam Khan
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article No: em2010
ABSTRACT
Introduction: The COVID-19 is probably the most terrible pandemic in the world, because there is no approved vaccine or treatment for this rapidly spreading disease. Most of the country is locked down for reducing spreading disease. Due to lockdown situations people are afraid and confused for getting basic food available at hand.
Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the expanded theory of planned behaviour model and adding risk perception variables for intention to reserve food during covid-19 pandemic situation among Bangladeshi internet users.
Material and Methods: A total of 192 consumers living in Bangladesh actively interested in a cross-sectional web-based survey. A standardized questionnaire was generated using Google Forms and a link was shared through authors’ platforms. This sample comprised 110 (57.3%) males and 82 (42.7%) females. Collected information was statistically analyzed using structural equation modelling assessment.
Results: The estimation process assesses the precision and validity of the variables. Cronbach’s alpha and composite reliability (Pc) was used to test the durability of the design. However, this study found Cronbach’s alpha and Pc between 0.842 to 0.730 and 0.864 to 0.744. Moreover, Convergent validity is effectively identified in the findings of the analysis. Therefore, the calculation concept of the analysis has been tested successfully.
Conclusion: In this analysis, we see that the stronger the risk perception of consumers, the greater the attitude of consumers to buy reserve products. This proof that high-risk awareness, in the case of a COVID-19 pandemic or others pandemic situation, can lead to the purchasing of goods that are lack of patience or common sense. The paper presented a new perspective on the negative consequences of risk perception among Bangladeshi internet users.
Keywords: COVID-19, reserve food, intention, pandemic, Bangladesh
Review Article
Mohamed Amine Baba, Youssef Bouchriti, Abderrahmane Achbani, Ahmed Kharbach, Hasnaa Sine, Aziz Naciri
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 3, Article No: em2008
ABSTRACT
In March 2020, the WHO declared COVID-19 as a pandemic. At present, the curative vaccine has not yet been developed, older age and higher comorbidity levels are associated with more severe COVID-19 symptoms. Indeed, the cancer community currently faces many difficult questions.
Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, cancer, 2019-nCoV, pneumonia, oncology
Original Article
Teh Exodus Akwa, Teh Rene Ning, John M. Maingi
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 2, Article No: em2007
ABSTRACT
Introduction: COVID-19 (coronavirus) has become a global threat to the human population. The virus which originated from China in December, 2019 has swept across continents in the world. Cameroon has been one of the countries with a high infectious rate. Lack of awareness plays a major role in the rise of COVID-19 cases. Studies have shown that there exists a strong correlation between the perception of a disease and a ready compliance to health recommendations.
Objective: This paper studied the awareness and perceptions by the general population of Cameroon on the existence and spread of COVID-19.
Methods: The study involved a qualitative survey designed by online questionnaires which were made available to the population of Cameroon through e-mails and ‘WhatsApp’. The survey included the perception of the origin and existence of the COVID-19 virus, its mode of transmission, preventive and control measures. The data obtained from respondents were analysed by descriptive statistics. The data were entered in a spread sheet, Microsoft Excel and normality determined. One-way ANOVA and means comparison using Tukey’s test (α = 0.05) was performed to check whether the perception of respondents differed significantly.
Results: A total of 573 respondents were obtained. From the analysed results, a greater proportion of the respondents (P˂ 0.05) were aware of the COVID 19 existence, transmission and preventive strategies. This knowledge could lead to a reduction in the spread of the disease.
Conclusion: Our findings suggested that there’s more need for public sensitisation of the virus especially its method of transmission, control and prevention.
Keywords: perceptions, COVID-19, control, Cameroon
Review Article
Sadeq Kadhim Hachim
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article No: em2005
ABSTRACT
In the early of 2020, people are challenging a pandemic in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). SARS-CoV-2 causes coronavirus disease, abbreviated as COVID-19. At the time of this writing, SARS-CoV-2 is spreading in multiple countries worldwide. There are above two million cases in different region of world. This virus appears to be a new human pathogen. Currently there are no vaccines, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), or drugs available for SARS-CoV-2, though many are in rapid development and some may be accessible in a short time. This aim of this review that human convalescent serum is an option for stoppage and treatment of COVID-19 disease. Explain main advantage of convalescent serum, in addition to disadvantage of this method.
Keywords: COVID-19, convalescent serum, treatment, antibody
Original Article
Abita Rahmoune
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article No: em2004
ABSTRACT
At the end of December 2019, a novel coronavirus (2019-Cov) emerged in China specifically it appeared in the city of Wuhan, and it has spread to the entire world very fast and in a very short time, and they posed an international public health emergency in a couple of weeks, and has attracted global attention and attained recently the position of a very high-risk category by world health organization (WHO).
This research concerns to investigate the course of the pandemic by mathematical modeling based on the information that the time-dependent change (spreading) rate of the H number of individuals who have caught a contagious disease is proportional to the multiplication of the numbers of those who have caught the disease in time delay and those who have not. According to the results of the mathematical modeling in our study, the course of the pandemic to be stable in the near time.
Keywords: COVID-19, time-varying delay, energy decay result
Original Article
A Fargana, A Arifutzzaman
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article No: em2002
ABSTRACT
A new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), arisen towards the end of December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, province of Hubei, People’s Republic of China. It has spread to the entire world very short duration and very fast. The main goal is to investigate the spreading rate of the coronavirus in Malaysia by using mathematical modeling based on the real-time data. Due to the insufficient precautions, the model shows a very fast change. Based on the estimation, this model regards that after the certain period (about time (t1 )= ~50) the number of infections will go to decrease.
Keywords: Coronavirus, COVID-19, mathematical modeling, spreading rate, Malaysia
Review Article
Mohamed Lounis
EUROPEAN J MED ED TE, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article No: em2001
ABSTRACT
Covid-19 is an infectious disease caused by a new virus called SARS-CoV-2. First reported in Wuhan, in China, the disease is now considered as a pandemic of global interest. Algeria is the fourth most affect countries in Africa with 2718 positive cases in April 20 and the 55th in the world. Since its apparition the Algerian government has implemented a range of measures to reduce the spread of the virus. The chronology of actions taken is reported in this manuscript.
Keywords: COVID-19, Algeria, coronavirus, pandemic, prevention