Emergency Department Changes to Combat COVID-19 in Oman

Our hospital is one of the tertiary care hospitals in Oman receiving COVID-19 (C19) patients. To meet the expected surge of patients, a number of changes to the ED (Emergency Department), especially regarding capacity building and patient flow. At first, few changes were made to the main ED, which mainly includes addition of COVID suspect room (CSR) with use of separate resuscitation area. The major drawback of above-mentioned system was the inability to see more than two patients simultaneously. Later separate COVID ED (CED) was utilized. In CED pending admissions was the major problem, as C19 ward (COVID ward) and C19 ICU (COVID ICU) were becoming full, this problem was solved through central command help. In the normal ED the main problem was the presentation of C19 positive patients, sometimes hiding their symptoms and reaching inside main ED exposing the staff and patients. In order to combat this problem, all patients with acute respiratory problem, even if C19 is not suspected, were taken to the corner cubicle. In this report, the changes made to ED to combat C19 situation is discussed.

Modelling the Occurrence of the Novel Pandemic COVID-19 Outbreak– A Box and Jenkins Approach

The corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel pandemic disease that spreads very fast and causes severe respiratory problem to its carrier and thereby results to death in some cases. In this research, we studied the trend, model Nigeria daily COVID-19 cases and forecast for the future occurrences in the country at large. We adopt the Box and Jenkins approach. The time plot showed that the cases of COVID-19 rises rapidly in recent time. KPSS test confirms the non-stationarity of the process (p < 0.05) before differencing. The test also confirmed the stationarity of the process (p > 0.05) after differencing. Various ARIMA (p,d,q) were examined with their respective AICs and Log-likelihood. ARIMA (1, 2, 1) was selected as the best model due to its least AIC (559.74) and highest log likelihood (−276.87). Both Shapiro-Wilk test and Box test performed confirm the fitness of the model (p > 0.05) for the series. Forecast for 30 days was then made for COVID-19 cases in Nigeria. Conclusively, the model obtained in this research can be used to model, monitor and forecast the daily occurrence of COVID-19 cases in Nigeria.

No evidence of vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 after induction of labour in an immune-suppressed SARS-CoV-2-positive patient

We present a case of a 38+1 weeks pregnant patient (G1P0) with a proven COVID-19 infection, who was planned for induction of labour because of pre-existent hypertension, systemic lupus erythematosus, respiratory problem of coughing and mild dyspnoea without fever during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. To estimate the risk of vertical transmission of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) during labour and delivery, we collected oropharyngeal, vaginal, urinary, placental and neonatal PCRs for SARS-CoV-2 during the period of admission. All PCRs, except for the oropharyngeal, were negative and vertical transmission was not observed. Labour and delivery were uncomplicated and the patient and neonate were discharged the next day. We give a short overview of the known literature about SARS-CoV-2-related infection during pregnancy, delivery and outcome of the neonate.

The Illusion of Clinical Success

This chapter discusses how clinicians struggle to identify and treat illnesses whose sources often lie outside the medical system. That is what makes root causes so powerful: they escape ready treatment and underlie a multiplicity of medical presentations. The same root cause can be responsible for a gastrointestinal or a respiratory problem, for an injury or a hepatic problem. This is why, when one thinks of the causes of medical problems strictly from an organ-based perspective, it is never enough. Because medical problems often do not arise in their end organs; they are bodily manifestations of underlying issues. These issues—such as inadequate housing, limited access to addiction treatment, poverty, and terrible neighborhoods—are medical challenges. As such, aside from being responsible for solving the immediate problem—the disease in front of them—clinicians must also grapple with the underlying causes. They can choose to become advocates, voices for public health outside of the hospital or clinic, or they can work within their day-to-day system, encouraging their hospital or clinic to embrace improving the underlying conditions that shape the health of patients.

Plants as a source of Medicine among the Tribes residing in Kota block of Bilaspur district (C.G.) India

Due to rich treatment potentials of varied Medicinal plants, these are efficiently utilized for curing a variety of disorders such as for digestive problem, respiratory problem, skin related disorders etc among the tribal peoples mostly living nearby the forest areas. The study area was tribal village adopted by GGV-Bilaspur (C.G.) under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan programme. Information gained related to the diverse Medicinal plants by personal interview among the tribal peoples. Tribals are efficiently using the plant resources available nearby them because of their easy availability, rich efficiency and no side effect etc

EFFECT OF NATIVITY AND DURATION OF RESIDENCE ON CHRONIC HEALTH CONDITIONS AMONG ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN AUSTRALIA: A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION

SummaryThis study examined the effect of Asian nativity and duration of residence in Australia on the odds of reporting a chronic health condition (cancer, respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and diabetes mellitus). Data were from waves 3, 7 and 9 of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) longitudinal survey, and multi-level group-mean-centred logistic regression models were used for the analysis. After covariate adjustment, Asian immigrants were less likely to report cancer and respiratory problem compared with native-born Australians. While there was no significant difference in reporting CVD, they were more likely to report diabetes than native-born people. Asian immigrants maintained their health advantage with respect to cancer regardless of duration of residence. However, after 20 years of stay, Asian immigrants lost their earlier advantage and were not significantly different from native-born people in terms of reporting a respiratory problem. In contrast, Asian immigrants were not measurably different from native-born Australians in reporting diabetes if their length of stay in Australia was less than 20 years, but became disadvantaged after staying for 20 years or longer. There was no measurable difference in the odds of reporting CVD between Asian immigrants and native-born Australians for any duration of residence. On the whole this study found that health advantage, existence of healthy immigrant effect and subsequent erosion of it with increasing duration of residence among Asian immigrants depends upon the chronic health condition.

Health Problems among Women Building Construction Workers

Back ground: Construction industry is one of the stable growing industries world over, including Bangladesh. In Dhaka city there are many construction sites, where workers are exposed to hazardous condition, specially the female workers. Throughout the world, over 90% of construction workers are male. In some developing countries, the proportion of women is higher. In Bangladesh their number is increasing day by day. Objective: To explore the health problems among the women building construction workers Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out among 134 female construction workers. Data was collected through face to face interview by using prefixed questionnaire. The study was conducted from September 2011 to December 2012 in the Department of Community medicine, Dhaka National Medical College, Dhaka. The subjects were selected from different building construction sites of old Dhaka city. Results: It was observed that among 134 respondents, majority 96(71.6%) of the women construction worker were brick breaker and 38(28.3%) were weight carrier. Their mean age was 38.29±6.9 years. Most workers 110 (82.1%) had different types of skin problem. The proportion of skin problems was found to be high among the weight carrier and the difference was statistically highly significant (pOE .001). 89(66.5%) respondents had urinary tract infection, 66(49.3%) had constipation and 24(17.9%) complaint uterine prolapse. Among the total respondents 68(58.2%) complain of backache. The workers who complain of backache, 52(54.1%) were brick breaker and 16(42.1%) were weight carrier. 79 (58.9%) respondents used personal protective equipments, among them 61(77.2%) used self made hand gloves and 38(48.1%) used folded towel to carry weight. Besides of the total respondents 117(87.3%) complain of different types of respiratory problem. Conclusion: The study concludes that different types of skin diseases are present among female construction workers that might be attributable to exposure to hot humid working environment. Besides pain full micturation, uterine prolapse, low backache and respiratory problem were found among them which might need special attention. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbsp.v9i1.22793 Bangladesh Soc Physiol. 2014, June; 9(1): 31-36