China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
COVID-19 and Global Public Goods
Published in Rui Nunes, Healthcare as a Universal Human Right, 2022
Indeed, elective procedures were upheld in all countries during the pandemic, whether intentionally or indirectly, because all efforts were focused on the management of the pandemics. All healthcare systems called for curtailing nonessential adult and child nonelective medical and surgical procedures with the intent of flattening the curve. According to Bodilsen et al. (2021) Hospital admissions for all major non-covid-19 disease groups decreased during national lockdowns compared with the pre-pandemic baseline period. Additionally, mortality rates were higher overall and for patients admitted to hospital with conditions such as respiratory diseases, cancer, pneumonia, and sepsis.
The nature and need for slack in healthcare services
Published in Frances Rapport, Robyn Clay-Williams, Jeffrey Braithwaite, Implementation Science, 2022
Healthcare services offer plenty of examples of slack. An everyday instance refers to professionals on standby in emergency departments (EDs). In fact, EDs as a whole play a role as slack as they shield other hospital’s units, such as in-patient wards and intensive care units (ICUs), from variations in demand from the external environment. The COVID-19 pandemic made the need for slack in healthcare services dramatically visible (Saurin 2021). From the perspective of built-in slack, the need for extra ICU capacity and extra supplies stands out. In turn, examples of opportunistic slack (i.e., repurposing and reallocation of resources) abound in the pandemic, such as the adaptation of factories to the production of hand sanitizer and respiratory ventilators, the use of hotel rooms for quarantining international travellers, and the installation of makeshift hospitals. Opportunistic slack also resulted from the mixed effects of the pandemic in the occupation of healthcare facilities, as demand for some services plummeted – for example, suspended elective surgeries freed up operating rooms. Thus, space and staff were reallocated to meet demands from COVID-19 patients. The pandemic also made it clear that slack is finite and that its provision must go hand-in-hand with the control of variability propagation – this lies at the heart of the widely discussed need for flattening the curve of infections and hospitalizations.
Forecasting the Damage Caused by COVID-19 Using Time Series Analysis and Study of the Consequence of Preventive Measures for Spread Control
Published in Ram Shringar Raw, Vishal Jain, Sanjoy Das, Meenakshi Sharma, Pandemic Detection and Analysis Through Smart Computing Technologies, 2022
Basudeba Behera, Ujjwal Gupta, Sagar Rai
In the next part of our work, a comparison of the death rate, confirmed, and recovered cases for Italy and China is done. This study is done to see how different preventive measures can help in flattening the curve of confirmed cases and decreasing the death rate. We see that the confirmed cases in Italy are still increasing exponentially while the cases in China have started to flatten. It is also visible that in China, most of the cases have concluded as the line of recovered cases is moving towards the total cases as shown in Figure 5.6.
Transformation of substance use disorder treatment services during COVID-19 - A lasting change?
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2023
The use of social distancing, lockdowns, and travel restrictions has been an important tool in slowing the spread of COVID-19 (“flattening the curve”) and preventing the collapse of emergency health services during the first twelve months of the pandemic (Aquino et al., 2020; Piovani et al., 2021; Walker et al., 2020). Social distancing measures have also been applied in the healthcare settings to minimize face-to-face contact between staff and patients, and prevent the transmission of the coronavirus (Columb et al., 2020; Pagano et al., 2021). People with Substance Use Disorder (SUD) have faced barriers to access treatment such as scarcity of treatment resources, stigma, and difficulties in using transportation to treatment sites (Ashford et al., 2018; Beardsley et al., 2003; Priester et al., 2016). These difficulties have been greatly exacerbated during the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly due to the reduction or closure of services and the restrictions on movement (Green et al., 2020; Wei & Shah, 2020). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine is an important tool to mitigate the negative effects of lockdowns, social distancing, and mobility restrictions on the access to substance use treatment (Calton et al., 2020; Uscher-Pines et al., 2020). Telemedicine allows for the continuing provision of treatment while reducing physical contact between patients and providers. Accordingly, the expansion of telemedicine services across all areas of healthcare during the pandemic has significantly increased compared to previous years (Bate et al., 2021; Bestsennyy et al., 2021).
Occupational disruption during a pandemic: Exploring the experiences of individuals living with chronic disease
Published in Journal of Occupational Science, 2022
Kerrie E. Luck, Shelley Doucet, Alison Luke
On March 11, 2020 the World Health Organization declared a pandemic due to a global outbreak of COVID-19, an infectious disease caused by the coronavirus. This declaration set in motion preparedness and response plans all around the world. These plans were aimed at “flattening the curve” to reduce new cases of COVID-19 and thus prevent the overload of healthcare systems (Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, 2020). When healthcare providers are assisting with, or disrupted by, pandemic implementation plans, individuals with chronic disease often experience alterations to their regular care (Heffelfinger et al., 2009). As demonstrated during other pandemics, “any catastrophic outbreak of infectious disease will have profound effects on the availability and delivery of health care services and the functioning of health care institutions” (Melnychuk & Kenny, 2006, p. 1393); therefore it is reasonable to assume that those with chronic disease may experience changes to their regular approach to their disease management and access to routine care.
Hypothetical emergence of poliovirus in 2020: part 1. Consequences of policy decisions to respond using nonpharmaceutical interventions
Published in Expert Review of Vaccines, 2021
Kimberly M. Thompson, Dominika A. Kalkowska, Kamran Badizadegan
In Figure 5, the initial rise of the disease in 2020 shown in Figure 2 has been intentionally truncated by limiting the vertical axis to 100,000 cases per year to demonstrate dynamics beginning 1 year after the emergence. In addition, Figure 5 includes an expected incidence line (bold black line) superimposed on the individual runs to show the expected level and periodicity of endemic disease in the absence of eradication. Importantly, while the initial emergence affects individuals of all ages (because no one has immunity), after the initial burn through the population, most of the disease incidence would appear in children who have no immunity. (This is essentially why and how an established infectious disease such as polio comes to be known as a ‘childhood disease.’). Flattening the curve shows a slower accumulation of cases over time and thus a less rapid decline of the average age of infection. The endemic equilibrium in 2030 for the expected birth cohort of approximately 136 million surviving infants [54] would lead to 680,000, 68,000, or 136,000 expected paralytic polio cases in 2030 for nWPV1, nWPV2, or nWPV3, respectively.838384858687888990919293949596979899100101102