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Challenges of Global Healthcare Disasters
Published in Adarsh Garg, D. P. Goyal, Global Healthcare Disasters, 2023
Deepika Sherawat, Sonia, Priyanka Shukla
An epidemic is a disease that affects a large number of people within a community, population, or region, and a pandemic is an epidemic that is spread over multiple countries and continents. Pandemics and large-scale epidemics that can claim loss of lives of masses, disrupt civilizations, and shatter economies. WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme (WHE) is working with member states to help countries to prepare for large-scale outbreaks and pandemics. Countries are also encouraged to involve the whole of society for effective pandemic preparedness and response. The pandemics are new and highly infectious airborne viruses that have an impact on the population that lack immunity. Some of the most infectious viruses that have infected masses are influenza. Some of the diseases are spread by blood-feeding anthropoids like mosquitoes, fleas, and ticks. Such diseases are called vector-borne diseases. The vector-borne diseases are Nile virus, dengue fever, malaria, Zika, and chikungunya to name a few. Most of these diseases are fanned by climate change.
SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19
Published in Patricia G. Melloy, Viruses and Society, 2023
SARS-CoV-2 is very similar to two other coronaviruses that have affected humans in the past 20 years, including the original SARS, SARS-CoV, which became an epidemic mostly in Asia in 2002–2003, and MERS-CoV which has been found in regional outbreaks in the Middle East (Wardeh, Baylis, and Blagrove 2021; Christakis 2020; Wright 2021). All three, SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV, cause respiratory illness with varying degrees of severity. There are also four more coronaviruses, HKU1, NL63, OC43, and 229E, that can infect humans but only cause mild illness such as seen with the common cold (Wardeh, Baylis, and Blagrove 2021; Christakis 2020; Rabadan 2021; Cyranoski 2020; Krammer 2020; Abdelrahman, Li, and Wang 2020).
Epidemiology, Disease Transmission, Prevention, and Control
Published in Julius P. Kreier, Infection, Resistance, and Immunity, 2022
As mentioned before, an epidemic is the occurrence, in a population or community, of a group of cases of a disease in excess of the usual number of cases. When the incidence of a disease in a specific population, or during a given period of time in one geographic area, exceeds the usual frequency of that disease for that same popu-lation, that is indicative of the need for an epidemiological investigation. The result of an evaluation of risk factors may also indicate the need for an epidemiological investigation.
Patients with dermatomyositis shared partially similar transcriptome signature with COVID-19 infection
Published in Autoimmunity, 2023
Yiying Yang, Jie Song, Hongjun Zhao, Huali Zhang, Muyao Guo
The etiology of DM is still unclear. Both immune and non-immune mechanisms are involved in its pathogenesis [5–8]. A dysregulated type I interferon response plays an important role in the development of DM [9–11]. Type I IFN excess may be associated with disease severity and autoantibodies [9]. In addition, some studies have suggested that the pathogenesis of dermatomyositis may be related to viral infection, especially EB virus infection [12, 13]. The current epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2. Recent study indicates that COVID19 infection and DM may share some of the same pathogenesis, and both are associated with excessive activation of the type I interferon pathway [14, 15]. And there are also studies suggesting that COVID-19-related myositis may be dermatomyositis [16]. Therefore, it is necessary to re-analyze the differential genes between dermatomyositis and healthy control. This will provide useful information for the early diagnosis and treatment of dermatomyositis and is expected to provide new targets.
Mpox: epidemiology, clinical manifestations and recent developments in treatment and prevention
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2023
Nikil Selvaraj, Shreya Shyam, Puvin Dhurairaj, Kaviarasan Thiruselvan, Akil Thiruselvan, Yochana Kancherla, Pritika Kandamaran
Patients may seldom develop sequelae from Mpox, including bacterial superinfection, encephalitis, pneumonitis, conjunctivitis/keratitis, and conjunctivitis/pneumonitis. Complication rates and their onset times have not been rigorously calculated. Although Mpox and smallpox have many common characteristics, Mpox is frequently milder and manifests as lymphadenopathy, which is generally absent in smallpox infections. The cutaneous signs of Mpox can be mistaken for those of other illnesses, such as chickenpox, molluscum contagiosum, the herpes simplex virus, syphilis, impetigo, early-stage measles, and rickettsial disorders (Figure 2). Many individuals affected by the 2022 outbreak of Mpox have unusual Mpox presentations. For instance, the typical rash may still be present but restricted to the vaginal, perigenital, and perianal regions and appear at various phases of development. Patients may also exhibit little or nonexistent prodromal symptoms, which may appear after the beginning of a localized rash. In order to effectively identify patients and help the global effort to stop the epidemic, it is vital to recognize the wide range of clinical manifestations [14].
Behavioral changes observed in substance users in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic
Published in Journal of Substance Use, 2023
Melike Simsek, Saliha Yucebas, Kultegin Ogel
A pandemic is a concept that explains infectious epidemics causing diseases and deaths that spread across the continents and geography. The World Health Organization (WHO) determines whether an epidemic is a pandemic and its course accordingly. COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic by the WHO in March 2020 due to the worldwide spread of the virus. A pandemic brings many challenges to human life that are difficult to deal with. Mental problems are at the top of these difficulties (Dubey et al., 2020). In particular, anxiety disorder, sleep problems, and dissociation are the most common mental problems that occur during a pandemic (Banerjee, 2020). Some special groups are thought to be at higher risk than others during a pandemic. Such groups can be listed as elderly individuals, those with immune system diseases, those with psychiatric problems, and alcohol/substance users (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020).