Articles: pandemics.
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Using electronic health records, we assessed the early impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on routine childhood vaccination in England by 26 April 2020. Measles-mumps-rubella vaccination counts fell from February 2020, and in the 3 weeks after introduction of physical distancing measures were 19.8% lower (95% confidence interval: -20.7 to -18.9) than the same period in 2019, before improving in mid-April. A gradual decline in hexavalent vaccination counts throughout 2020 was not accentuated by physical distancing.
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J. Heart Lung Transplant. · May 2020
Epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of heart transplant recipients during the 2019 coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan, China: A descriptive survey report.
The epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of heart transplant (HTx) recipients during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic remains unclear. We studied the characteristics of HTx recipients from December 20, 2019, to February 25, 2020, in an effort to understand their risk and outcomes. ⋯ HTx recipients who practiced appropriate prevention measures had a low rate of infection with SARS-CoV-2 and transition to the associated disease COVID-19. These early data will require confirmation as the pandemic establishes around the world.
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The pandemic coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has pushed the global healthcare system to a crisis and amounted to a huge economic burden. Different drugs for prophylaxis against COVID-19 including chloroquine (CQ) or hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) have been tried. This study was performed to systematically review the role of CQ and HCQ in preventing the spread of COVID-19. ⋯ Although pre-clinical results are promising, to date there is a dearth of evidence to support the efficacy of CQ or HCQ in preventing COVID-19. Considering potential safety issues and the likelihood of imparting a false sense of security, prophylaxis with CQ or HCQ against COVID-19 needs to be thoroughly evaluated in observational studies or high-quality randomized controlled studies.
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The well-being of the health care workforce is the cornerstone of every well-functioning health system. As a result of the pandemic, medical healthcare providers are under an enormous amount of workload pressure along with increased total health expenditures. ⋯ Direct-to-consumer telemedicine can enable patients to connect with their healthcare provider at a distance. This virtual platform could be used by smartphones or webcam-enabled computers and allows physicians to effectively screen patients with early signs of COVID-19 before they reach to hospital.