Articles: pandemics.
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Front Public Health · Jan 2020
The Effect of Concerns About COVID-19 on Anxiety, Stress, Parental Burnout, and Emotion Regulation: The Role of Susceptibility to Digital Emotion Contagion.
Background and aims: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused social and economic turmoil, which has led to enormous strain for many families. Past work with pandemic outbreaks suggests that media attention can increase anxiety and compensatory behaviors. Social isolation can lead to increase in online communication and parents who use social media may be affected by other people's emotions online through what is known as digital emotion contagion (DEC). ⋯ A higher level of ER buffered the relationship between emotion contagion and concern about COVID-19. Conclusion: These findings suggest that susceptibility to digital emotion contagion may have a negative effect on parents. Digital emotion contagion may increase parental burnout and is tied to stress.
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Comparative Study
SARS-CoV-2 positivity rates associated with circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels.
Until treatment and vaccine for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) becomes widely available, other methods of reducing infection rates should be explored. This study used a retrospective, observational analysis of deidentified tests performed at a national clinical laboratory to determine if circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels are associated with severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) positivity rates. Over 190,000 patients from all 50 states with SARS-CoV-2 results performed mid-March through mid-June, 2020 and matching 25(OH)D results from the preceding 12 months were included. ⋯ I. 0.983-0.986; p<0.001). SARS-CoV-2 positivity is strongly and inversely associated with circulating 25(OH)D levels, a relationship that persists across latitudes, races/ethnicities, both sexes, and age ranges. Our findings provide impetus to explore the role of vitamin D supplementation in reducing the risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease.
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Objective: The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated drastic and rapid changes throughout the field of radiation oncology, some of which were unique to the discipline of radiosurgery. Guidelines called for reduced frame use and reducing the number of fractions. Our institution implemented these guidelines, and herein we show the resultant effect on patient treatments on our Gamma Knife Icon program. ⋯ Likewise, the percentage of single fraction cases increased from 4.5% per month in January to 67% in April. Conclusions: The results presented here show that it is possible to quickly and efficiently change work flows to allow for reduced fractionation and frame use in the time of a global pandemic. Multidisciplinary cooperation and ongoing communication are integral to the success of such programs.
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Efficient strategies to contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic are peremptory to relieve the negatively impacted public health and global economy, with the full scope yet to unfold. In the absence of highly effective drugs, vaccines, and abundant medical resources, many measures are used to manage the infection rate and avoid exhausting limited hospital resources. Wearing masks is among the non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI) measures that could be effectively implemented at a minimum cost and without dramatically disrupting social practices. ⋯ Wearing a mask presents a rational way to implement as an NPI to combat COVID-19. We recognize our study provides a projection based only on currently available data and estimates potential probabilities. As such, our model warrants further validation studies.
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Rev. Panam. Salud Publica · Jan 2020
To breastfeed or not to breastfeed? Lack of evidence on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in breastmilk of pregnant women with COVID-19.
A rapid systematic review was carried out to evaluate the current evidence related to the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in breast milk from pregnant women with COVID-19. Eight studies analyzing the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the breast milk of 24 pregnant women with COVID-19 during the third trimester of pregnancy were found. All patients had fever and/or symptoms of acute respiratory illness and chest computed tomography images indicative of COVID-19 pneumonia. ⋯ No breast milk samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2 and, to date, there is no evidence on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in breast milk of pregnant women with COVID-19. However, data are still limited and breastfeeding of women with COVID-19 remains a controversial issue. There are no restrictions on the use of milk from a human breast milk bank.