Articles: disease.
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This article reviews the association between diabetes mellitus (DM) and COVID-19. We report on the convergence of infectious diseases such as coronavirus infections and non-communicable diseases including DM. The mechanisms for the interaction between COVID-19 and DM are explored, and suggestions for the management of DM in patients with COVID-19 in South Africa are offered.
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Analyses of COVID-19 patients with preexisting interstitial lung disease (ILD) or pulmonary sarcoidosis is lacking but registries are ongoing. Treatment of COVID-19 in patients with underlying ILD or sarcoidosis may include hospital admission, possible drug treatment, caution with steroids, and avoidance of mechanical ventilation in acute exacerbation of ILD. Patients with COVID-19 respiratory illness are at risk for developing ILD.
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Infectious diseases pandemics have devastating health, social and economic consequences, especially in developing countries such as South Africa. Scarce medical resources must often be rationed effectively to contain the disease outbreak. In the case of COVID-19, even the best-resourced countries will have inadequate intensive care facilities for the large number of patients needing admission and ventilation. ⋯ There is currently no evidence to indicate that HIV or TB infection on their own predispose to an increased risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 or worse outcomes for COVID-19. It is recommended that, as for other medical conditions, validated scoring systems for poor prognostic factors should be applied. A subsequent article examines the ethicolegal implications of limiting intensive care access of persons living with HIV or TB.
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The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is putting the European National Health Systems under pressure. Interestingly, Emergency Department (ED) referrals for reasons other than Covid-19 seem to have declined steeply. In the present paper, we aimed to verify how the Covid-19 outbreak changed ED referral pattern. ⋯ The Covid-19 pandemic completely changed the pattern of ED referral in Italy, with a marked reduction of the accesses to the hospitals. This could be related to a limited exposure to traumas and to a common fear of being infected during EDs in-stay. This may limit the misuse of EDs for non- urgent conditions, but may also delay proper referrals for urgent conditions.
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Tijdschr Econ Soc Geogr · Jun 2020
Island Geographies of Separation and Cohesion: The Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic and the Geopolitics of Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland).
Kalaallit Nunaat (Greenland) is an Arctic highly autonomous subnational island jurisdiction (SNIJ) of Denmark, its former coloniser. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020 has influenced both Kalaallit Nunaat's relations with the outside world and relations between people and places within the territory. ⋯ This strategy, however, is challenged both by the SNIJ's economic reliance on Denmark and by the Danish government's own strategy of mitigating the disease. This paper explores the ways in which the coronavirus pandemic has altered how the people of Kalaallit Nunaat interact with the people of Denmark and with one another, ultimately shedding light on the relationship between islands, disease, and geopolitics more generally.