Articles: pandemics.
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Critical care medicine · Sep 2023
Early Empiric Antibiotic Use in Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
To investigate temporal trends and outcomes associated with early antibiotic prescribing in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. ⋯ Although treatment of COVID-19 patients with empiric antibiotics has declined during the pandemic, the frequency of use remains high. There is significant inter-center variation in antibiotic prescribing practices and evidence of potential harm. Our findings are hypothesis-generating and future work should prospectively compare outcomes and adverse events.
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Remote reporting is an important preventive measure against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) for radiology departments; it reduces the chance of cross-infections between coworkers. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the preferred locations that radiologists filed reports from changed in response to COVID-19 by measuring the use of internal teleradiology workstations. ⋯ In response to the COVID-19 outbreak, radiologists used internal teleradiology to report CR and CT/MRI examinations significantly more frequently. In contrast to the predictions of previous studies, the use of internal teleradiology returned to baseline levels after the pandemic was under control.
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Observational Study
Real-time surveillance of international SARS-CoV-2 prevalence using systematic traveller arrival screening: An observational study.
Effective Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) response relies on good knowledge of population infection dynamics, but owing to under-ascertainment and delays in symptom-based reporting, obtaining reliable infection data has typically required large dedicated local population studies. Although many countries implemented Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing among travellers, it remains unclear how accurately arrival testing data can capture international patterns of infection, because those arrival testing data were rarely reported systematically, and predeparture testing was often in place as well, leading to nonrepresentative infection status among arrivals. ⋯ As well as elucidating previously unmeasured infection dynamics in these countries, our analysis provides a proof-of-concept for scalable and accurate leading indicator of global infections during future pandemics.
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African health sciences · Sep 2023
ReviewCovid-19 and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa: a narrative review.
Coronavirus disease 2019 popularly known as COVID-19 is the current pandemic ravaging the world. It has disrupted so many aspects of humans' life including the healthcare systems of all countries. While governments have instituted preventive measures such as social distancing, self-isolation and lockdown in a bid to control the spread of the virus, the absence of vaccine can lead to poor management of key risk factors (including unhealthy diets and physical inactivity) associated with NCDs and limited access to preventive health services can further contribute to development and progression of NCDs. This study provides a review of available evidences from PubMed, google scholar, online databases, and papers from other sources on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on NCDs in Africa and emphasizes lessons from past pandemics that can be adopted to reduce the burden of the disease.