JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association
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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-Cov-2), an RNA virus which has caused pandemic in the whole world. It has put an unprecedented burden on healthcare system globally, and neither obstetricians nor labour rooms are spared as deliveries and caesarean sections cannot be postponed. There is a threat of collapse of healthcare system in maternity wards and labour rooms due to risk for transmission to healthy patients, obstetricians, midwives and other staff. ⋯ Many countries including India have declared lockdown to stop the transmission but delivery services have to continue. Proper planning and division of the healthcare system into COVID-positive and negative areas with separate staff can help minimise the spread and preserve precious resources. Hospital staff must protect themselves by wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in COVID-positive and suspected cases.
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The current pandemic of COVID-19 has infected around 2.5 million people with more than 125,000 deaths across the globe till date, and numbers are still rising. The causative organism is a virus of corona family. ⋯ Severe infections mainly involve lungs, and compromise its capacity of ventilation. Respiratory and mechanical ventilation is one of the important parts of management.
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The COVID-19 pandemic with its subsequent mental health consequences has challenged the word view of most people. A genome typically of 26,000-32,000 bases long RNA has shut down the wheel of man made progress. The social isolation after the lock-down has not only led to economic difficulties but also adverse psychological reactions. ⋯ People have to deal with the imminent issue of death which is anxiety provoking in itself. This calls for dealing with the immediate mental health consequences with the aide of technological advancements as discussed in this write-up. A new inter-personal ethics need to emerge which is scientifically correct and in-line with age old values.
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COVID-19 poses a great challenge to clinical and diagnostic services around the world. The need of biosafety practices can never be emphasised more than under current circumstances. The four pillars of biosafety namely, leadership, standard operating procedures, personal protective equipment (PPE) and engineering controls must be employed for effective and safe practices in the clinical setting in general and laboratory settings in particular. ⋯ In our resource-poor settings, we need to adapt safe but cost-effective and improvised solutions to ensure safe handling of clinical samples from COVID-19 patients in the laboratories. The correct use of PPE and their suitable alternatives are available for selection and use. Disinfection of the lab areas and safe disposal of the clinical samples from such patients is also of paramount importance.
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COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease, which has human-to-human transmission through droplet and contact. It is commonly manifested as fever, dry cough, myalgia, and dyspnoea; the severity of this disease may range from mild, severe to a critical-illness. ⋯ Therefore, nurses have a pivotal role to play in its management. This evidence-based comprehensive literature review provides the role of nurses in the management of patients with COVID-19, which starts from the initial assessment and triaging, sample collection, care of patients with mild-to-moderate symptoms, care of the critically-ill patient, and care of the dead body.