The first case of SARS-COV-2 was reported in India in 30th January 2020. A few months down the line, the Government of India announced a sudden lockdown on 24th March. Following the lockdown, all local transport, private and public, came to a halt, private healthcare providers closed their clinics, and government health facilities significantly […]
Month: June 2020
Remembering February
Looking ahead was what America taught me. As a medical student from India, hospitals were my introduction to American preparedness. When Ebola hit, our hospital created a separate unit and response team way ahead of time. It was a ritual, almost a way of life to account for uncertainty and redundancy. This rigorous prep […]
Loss of trust and reluctance in following COVID-19 protective measures in Iraq
The Iraqi Kurdistan region imposed strong control measures against COVID-19 from the early stages of the outbreak. These measures included cross-border movement limitation with health screening that was followed by complete border closure, banning flights and COVID-19 testing for all people returning to the region from abroad. Furthermore, other measures were implemented, including the […]
COVID-19 Experience Among Slum Dwellers In Nairobi: A Double Tragedy Or Useful Lesson For Public Health Reforms?
While the devastating consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic have not yet been felt by many countries in Africa, the same is not true for many others . For people living in the slums of Nairobi, this disease and the resulting government response have only worsened their livelihood. Despite being a significant size of […]
Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic: Importance of Diagnostics in Healthcare
As the world was preparing to celebrate n December 31, 2019, China began reporting to the World Health Organization (WHO), a cluster of cases of pneumonia of unknown aetiology in Hubei Province. One month later on January 30, 2020, after further outbreaks in 18 other countries, the WHO announced that a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, […]
Des modèles aux récits et inversement: un appel à des analyses sur le terrain de la propagation et de la réponse du COVID-19 en Afrique
Cette semaine, BMJ Global Health a publié deux modèles mathématiques pour prédire le schéma de propagation et les conséquences potentielles du COVID-19 en Afrique. Ces deux documents sont en avance sur plusieurs autres de ces exercices prédictifs en ce sens qu’ils s’efforcent délibérément de prendre en compte les différentes manières dont les gens vivent leur vie […]
HIV & COVID-19 – What do we know so far?
HIV & COVID-19 Podcast Take-home points and resources from the originally recorded podcast found here: https://soundcloud.com/bmjpodcasts/hiv-and-covid-19-what-do-we-know-so-far?in=bmjpodcasts/sets/sti Take-home points PLWHIV who have COVID-19 do as well as the general population if they have no other risk factors and who are well immune-reconstituted on anti-retroviral medication. Encourage people living with HIV (PLWHIV) if admitted to hospitals to […]
Don’t blame the science
By Jonathan Michaels When I wrote about the potential for injustices to arise in evidence-based healthcare policy, the COVID-19 pandemic had not begun. Since then, numerous government agencies and academic bodies have rapidly produced policy, claiming legitimacy because it is “evidence-based” or “follows the science”. However, science cannot determine policy, and the failure to distinguish […]
A Crisis in Care: Pandemics and Patients in Care Homes
By Ayesha Ahmad As a philosopher by training, specialising in ethics and working in global health, I research vulnerability in complex conflicts, humanitarian crises and disasters in contexts besieged by silencing and marginalisation. When the COVID-19 outbreak began, my priority was the impact of the public health burden on weak and fragile systems in my […]
Maximizing outcomes in triage of critical care resources—is there a consensus?
By Lynette Reid My university told us to work from home in mid-March; public health asked us to limit shopping and travel—but to get outdoors for exercise—soon after. I can’t complain. I have secure employment; my partner and I live outside the city in a fishing village with protected wilderness all around. It was like […]