ABSTRACT
@#Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) as a means of prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic have gained increasing attention. NPIs are important to reduce infectious diseases and flatten the curve of infection. However, data or literature on the effectiveness of NPIs is scarce. In this review, we aim to investigate the effectiveness of NPIs in the community based on previous literature. A literature search was conducted on seven databases (OVID, EBSCOHOST, WOS, SCOPUS, TRIP, JSTOR, and PUBMED) using the PICO method which yielded 208 articles from 12th March to 1st April 2020. A PRISMA flow diagram and extraction tables were used to analyze the final 14 eligible articles spanning nine countries. There were nine articles on human surveillance, two on patient and contact management, two on community restrictions, and one article discussing the combination of NPIs (quarantine, closure of facilities, and transit site surveillance). With the use of NPIs, there was a significant reduction of infection episodes among the target population. There has been an increasing demand for scientific evidence on NPIs during the COVID-19 pandemic, and present policy recommendations rely heavily on expert judgement. Randomized trials are required to obtain better evidence for these interventions. However, this review will help experts create feasible and widely acceptable policies and protocols for mitigation plans in the absence of definitive evidence.
ABSTRACT
Background: The emergence of respiratory infections has been attributed to the exposure of human beings to the wide gamut of airborne pathogens. Cough etiquette and respiratory hygiene have been recommended as tools to reduce such transmission.Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among respiratory symptomatic patients attending urban and rural health training centre of a tertiary care hospital for 6 months duration (October 2018 to March 2019) to study their knowledge and practices related to cough etiquettes. A total of 240 study subjects were interviewed face to face with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire after obtaining their written informed consent. The study findings were recorded in an Excel sheet and analysis was done using SPSS version 20.Results: Correct knowledge about cough etiquettes was found in only 22 (9.1%) participants. Almost half of the participants 122 (50.8%) covering mouth and nose with hands while only 14 (9.7%) were using of face mask during bouts of coughing. Barriers to preventive practices were lack of awareness about cough etiquettes and hand hygiene in 14.1% and 66.3%, respectively followed by severity and frequency of bouts of cough in 29 (12.1%) subjects.Conclusions: Knowledge and practice of cough etiquette was not found to be satisfactory in the present study. Thus, it is high time to address this issue and bridge the gap in knowledge as well as practice of cough etiquette among the general population in order to reduce the person to person transmission and thereby decreasing the burden of respiratory infection.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: This survey aimed to identify cough etiquette knowledge and practice level among university students. METHODS: 190 study subject were recruited from a university located in C city of Korea and data were collected utilizing self-reported questionnaires to evaluate cough etiquette knowledge and practice levels. RESULTS: The score of cough etiquette knowledge was 7.38 out of 12 and the correct answer rate was 61.5%. The respondents showed the highest right answer rate (85.3%) on 'cover with a paper tissue or a handkerchief while coughing' and lowest (20.7%) on 'cover with hand while coughing'. Practice level score was 27.28 out of 48. Among those items of practice, 'wearing a mask while coughing' was the lowest (1.40/48) level of practice. And the correlation between knowledge and practice was not significant. CONCLUSION: Cough etiquette knowledge and practice level was revealed to be rather low among university students. Education and social marketing are needed to be developed to encourage the practice level of cough etiquette followed by better droplet infection control and health promotion.