Articles: pandemics.
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As of 29 February 2020 there were 79,394 confirmed cases and 2,838 deaths from COVID-19 in mainland China. Of these, 48,557 cases and 2,169 deaths occurred in the epicenter, Wuhan. ⋯ Compared to those aged 30-59 years, those aged below 30 and above 59 years were 0.6 (0.3-1.1) and 5.1 (4.2-6.1) times more likely to die after developing symptoms. The risk of symptomatic infection increased with age (for example, at ~4% per year among adults aged 30-60 years).
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On 31 December 2019, the Wuhan Municipal Committee of Health and Healthcare (Hubei Province, China) reported that there were 27 cases of pneumonia of unknown origin with symptoms starting on the 8 December. There were 7 serious cases with common exposure in market with shellfish, fish, and live animals, in the city of Wuhan. On 7 January 2020, the Chinese authorities identified that the agent causing the outbreak was a new type of virus of the Coronaviridae family, temporarily called «new coronavirus», 2019-nCoV. ⋯ On 11 February 2020 the WHO assigned it the name of SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2 and COVID-19). The Ministry of Health summoned the Specialties Societies to prepare a clinical protocol for the management of COVID-19. The Spanish Paediatric Association appointed a Working Group of the Societies of Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Paediatric Intensive Care to prepare the present recommendations with the evidence available at the time of preparing them.
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Int J Occup Environ Med · Apr 2020
Preparedness and Lessons Learned from the Novel Coronavirus Disease.
In a short span, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has captured global consciousness by significantly affecting the day-to-day life of humans and emerged as a public health emergency. Undoubtedly, it indicates that lessons learnt from the past epidemics of coronaviruses such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), had not enough and thus left us ill-prepared to deal with the challenges that COVID-19 pandemic is currently posing. ⋯ However, the disease has prepared humankind in facing such outbreaks at present as well as in the future. Besides, it has also taught numerous lessons that are worth considering and implementing to make the world a better reality.
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While we were drafting the recommendations for the joint contingency plan between the Spanish Society of Intensive Care and Coronary Unit Nursing (SEEIUC) and the Spanish Society of Intensive and Critical Care Medicine and Coronary Units (SEMICYUC), predictions were overtaken by events with regard to the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic. Members informed us of the lack of personal protection equipment (PPE), the rapid provision of improvised ICUs in various hospital areas and the recruitment of nurses to cover shifts. The failure to recognise the specialty of critical care nursing, included in the macro-specialty of medical-surgical nursing and not yet developed, has highlighted the urgent need to learn from our mistakes: specialisation, increase the number of nurses in teams and protect the public health system.