Elizabeth Chloe Romanis, Jordan Parsons and Nathan Hodson Today, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that a temporary change in the law allowing women in England to access abortion entirely remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. The approval order allows women to be prescribed abortion medications remotely and take both early medical abortion medications […]
Month: March 2020
NSAIDs and corticosteroid injections during the COVID pandemic: what Sport and Exercise Medicine Physicians (and sports physios) should know
By A/Prof Jane Fitzpatrick, jane.fitzpatrick@unimelb.edu.au So the twittisphere is alive with experts and casual observers making comments about the use of medications in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In an unreferenced news article in The BMJ, Michael Day said, “Scientists and senior doctors have backed claims by France’s health minister that people showing symptoms […]
Wuhan Coronavirus : Should we trust social media?
The recent outbreak of novel coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, originated from China, has driven enormous public attention. So far, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are approximately 4593 confirmed cases of coronavirus globally and 106 deaths (1). The overall situation regarding the coronavirus spread is fluid. Considering its high level of infectivity and […]
Is mental health a concern for COVID-19?
The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) which originated in Wuhan, China has been declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO). At the time of writing the article , there w approximately 71,811 confirmed cases, and 1,775 deaths globally due to this deadly virus (1). The current […]
COVID-19 and the Global Health Workforce
Following the second meeting of the Emergency Committee convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, the novel Corona virus or COVID-19 outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). This has negatively impacted the global economy and global travel, with growing concerns for preparedness of health systems worldwide and its […]
Protecting China’s healthcare workers during COVID-19
With over a hundred thousand COVID-19 cases across 100 countries , the World Health Organization (WHO), has declared the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (1). COVID-19 originated from Wuhan in the Hubei Province in China, the epicenter of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak since December 2019. COVID-19 is highly contagious and […]
COVID-19 in Ecuador: high alert, limited information
With only 17 officially announced cases, Ecuador recently declared COVID-19 a health emergency, but the announcement was not backed by precise scientific information to fully understand the reasons behind this decision or a contingency plan. Because it was the third country in the region to identify SARS-CoV-2, on February 29, the Ecuadorian government could […]
Public Health Communication for COVID-19: Can professional health associations in India do more?
The glimmer of hope provided by the damping down of the COVID-19 epidemic curve in China is being compensated for by the rapid rise of the number of cases and deaths in Italy, Iran, and South Korea, with WHO’s risk assessment in China, the Regional Level and the Global Level remaining ‘Very High’. India, […]
Ethical Pandemic Control
What makes the difference in whether actions in the face of a pandemic such COVID-19 are perceived as ethical or unethical? And why does this matter to the trajectory of a pandemic? Traditionally in public health ethics, five factors have played a prominent role in ethically responding to an epidemic. Organism biology Infectiousness and […]
What the “Global North” needs to learn about COVID-19?
There are times where our world can feel so different and certain diseases seem relegated to other times and other places. As Covid-19 spreads widely in the United States, predictions are that it will tax our health system to its limit, and, cause health workers to face unprecedented challenges in their duty to patients. There […]