Articles: pandemics.
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Front Public Health · Jan 2020
Economic Consequences of the COVID-19 Outbreak: the Need for Epidemic Preparedness.
COVID-19 is not only a global pandemic and public health crisis; it has also severely affected the global economy and financial markets. Significant reductions in income, a rise in unemployment, and disruptions in the transportation, service, and manufacturing industries are among the consequences of the disease mitigation measures that have been implemented in many countries. It has become clear that most governments in the world underestimated the risks of rapid COVID-19 spread and were mostly reactive in their crisis response. As disease outbreaks are not likely to disappear in the near future, proactive international actions are required to not only save lives but also protect economic prosperity.
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To identify investigated interventions for COVID-19 prevention or treatment via trial registry entries on planned or ongoing randomised clinical trials. To assess these registry entries for recruitment status, planned trial size, blinding and reporting of mortality. ⋯ An extraordinary number of randomized clinical trials investigating COVID-19 management have been initiated with a multitude of medical preventive, adjunctive and treatment modalities. Blinding will be used in only 47% of trials, which may have influence on future reported treatment effects. Fifty-seven percent of all trials will assess mortality as an outcome facilitating future meta-analyses.
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The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately disrupts the daily lives of marginalized populations. Persons with substance use disorders are a particularly vulnerable population because of their unique social and health care needs. ⋯ Hence, we discuss: (1) why persons with substance use disorders are at increased risk for infection with COVID-19 and a severe illness course; (2) anticipated adverse consequences of COVID-19 in persons with substance use disorders; (3) challenges to health care delivery and substance use treatment programs during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; and (4) the potential impact on clinical research in substance use disorders. We offer recommendations for clinical, public health, and social policies to mitigate these challenges and to prevent negative outcomes.
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Frontiers in immunology · Jan 2020
Case ReportsCase Report: Systemic Inflammatory Response and Fast Recovery in a Pediatric Patient With COVID-19.
We report a case of an 8-year-old girl who underwent a SARS-CoV-2 infection manifesting with atypical symptoms spearheaded by abdominal discomfort and systemic inflammation and partially mimicking hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) or macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), which however did not fulfill the HLH/MAS diagnostic criteria. In this case of what has since been described as Pediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome Temporally associated with SARS-COV-2 (PIMS-TS) we documented excellent clinical response to immunosuppression with systemic corticosteroids and intravenous immunoglobulins. We show a detailed longitudinal development of neutrophil immunophenotype which suggests activation and engagement of neutrophils during PIMS-TS with compensatory contraction of the response and contra-regulation of neutrophil phenotype during recovery.