Turk J Med Sci
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The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Afterward, it spread rapidly all over the world, causing almost 4 million deaths as of June 2021. It is clear that effective preventive measures are needed in this devastating disease, which still has no cure. ⋯ All over the world, the measures taken and activities performed in the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed, and information in this regard is shared. Mask usage, social distancing, hygiene, avoiding crowded and closed areas, contact tracing, rapid and accurate testing, increased indoor air quality, vaccination, and lockdown measures constitute the main preventive measures. This review summarizes the efficiency of public policy measures against COVID-19.
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Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) are actions apart from getting vaccinated and medications, in order to promote deceleration of the spread of illness among people and communities during pandemic. In this article, we aim to examine NPIs applied in Turkey and worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the NPIs such as isolation, quarantine, and contact tracing were maintained with updates of the Ministry of Health guidelines in Turkey. ⋯ Even some countries mainly applied the suppression method, and others applied the mitigation method, in general, it is seen that similar methods were applied with different weights. Examples of different countries demonstrated that NPIs are effective for flattening epidemic curve. NPI have been the main instrument for a year and a half from the beginning of the epidemic to mid-2021 in Turkey as well as worldwide.
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Currently there is not an effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19, but a large number of drugs have been evaluated since the beginning of the pandemic, and many of them have been used for the treatment of COVID-19 despite the preliminary or conflicting results of the clinical trials. We aimed to review and summarize all of the current knowledge on the antivirals for COVID-19 ⋯ When taking into account the results of all the available laboratory and clinical trials on the subject, monoclonal antibodies seem to be the most effective treatment for COVID-19 at the moment, and high-titer convalescent plasma also could be effective when administered during the early phase of the disease. As lopinavir/ritonavir, hydroxychloroquine, merimepodib, and umifenovir were found to be ineffective in RCTs, they should not be used. Additional studies are needed to define the role of remdesivir, favipiravir, interferons, ivermectin, dutasteride, proxulutamide, fluvoxamine, bromhexine, nitazoxanide, and niclosamid in the treatment of COVID-19. Finally, the results of phase trials are waited to learn whether or not the newer agents such as molnupiravir, PF-07321332, PF-07304814, plitidepsin and AT-527 are effective in the treatment of COVID-19.
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The Covid-19 pandemic is one of those rare events that affects everyone on earth and changes our lives. The pandemic, which has killed over four million people worldwide, is putting unprecedented pressure on governments to maintain essential health and social services, as well as keep their economies running, even as the virus threatens people’s daily life on every level. Thus, the purpose of this study is to discuss the short-term economic impact of the pandemic by assessing its costs using official economic data for both the world and Turkey. Furthermore, this research highlights possible economic, social, and political pathways for a postpandemic new world. ⋯ Early economic growth projections show that there will be no ordinary recovery for the world economy since short-term countries’ recovery paths are different. It is likely to remain uneven and depend on the effectiveness of the vaccination process, fiscal policy support, public health management, and hard-hit sectors’ growth size in economies. Due to the uncertainty and lack of confidence, governments should ensure an equal and sustainable economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic by conducting flexible monetary and fiscal policies. However, without structural reforms, economies can not boost either in the short-term and long-term.
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One and a half years into the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 is still here to stay. Whilst rapid several effective COVID-19 vaccines have been developed and are being rolled out, the critical questions remain whether vaccines provide widespread protection against infection and reinfection, and what the duration of protection is. Community wide control cannot be obtained until almost everyone is immune. ⋯ The severity will depend on the proportion of the population with immunity from natural infections or immunisation. Therefore, control rests on a population wide immunisation including children, which may or may not need to be repeated if new SARS-CoV-2 variants evolve that can escape immunity from either previous infections or immunisations. Preventing long term sequelae of COVID-19 also remains a priority.