ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc globally. Besides devastating physical health consequences, the mental health consequences are dire as well and are predicted to have a long-term impact for some individuals and communities and society as a whole. Specific keywords were entered into various popular databases at three points in time (June 2020, April 2021, and February 2022). Articles about COVID-19 that focused on mental health and/or discussed improving resilience/coping were reviewed by the authors. A total of 119 publications were included. The pandemic is certainly a chronic stressor for many people, and some may be traumatized in the aftermath which may lead to stress-related disorders. The psychological impacts of this stress and trauma are reported and findings presented around three key themes: mental health impact, impact in the workplace, and improving resilience. In addition, particularly vulnerable populations are discussed and some of the violence and inequities they might face. Resilience literature offers keys to promoting positive mental wellbeing during and after the pandemic. Being able to effectively respond to the heterogeneity of specific situations while building resilience is addressed. Prevention, preparedness, Psychological First Aid training, and trauma informed practice can all contribute to building resilience and promoting peri/post-traumatic growth at all levels of society. This narrative review provides an overview of the literature on mental health and resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors propose that, through the use of the accumulated empirical knowledge on resilience, we can mitigate many of the most damaging outcomes. Implications for mental health professionals, policy suggestions, and future research directions are explored.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION COVID-19 has placed excess stress on the antenatal health care system and added additional complexity to expecting mothers. This study aimed to study the attitude and precautionary practices of non-infected pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal. METHODS A cross-sectional study was carried out interviewing all 195 pregnant women attending an antenatal care outpatient department in Nepal, between 15 March and 16 April 2021, using a pretested questionnaire. Precautionary practices were defined as the practice of social distancing, wearing masks, and sanitizing or washing hands, by the mothers during the antenatal period with a 5-point Likert scale for each item Precautionary practices were categorized into good (≥ median score) and poor(< median score). RESULTS The majority of the women who participated in this study were from aged 20–29 years (71.7%), were Brahmin (48.2%) and 84.6% Hindu. Since 46.2% of women assumed the close contact of mother to child as safe practice with specific precautions, only 17.9% were willing to isolate themselves if infected by COVID-19. Overall, 35.9% of the respondents were only willing to breastfeed their newborn, even with specific precaution if infected. Nearly half of the respondents (47.2%) had poor precautionary practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of precautionary practices was found significantly associated with age and occupational status. CONCLUSIONS Most of the respondents were concerned about the threats of mother to child transmission but found to have poor precautionary practices towards COVID-19. Thus, adequate counselling regarding COVID related issues during an antenatal checkup is required to be provided by health workers to break their perceived stigma for better maternal and neonatal outcomes © 2022 Thapa T. et al. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0)
ABSTRACT
Health is a fundamental right for which concerned sides should bear the responsibility at the individual, societal, state, and international level. Not only curative but preventive, promotive, and rehabilitative services should also be availed in accessible, affordable, and acceptable form. The quest for health becomes more intense during adverse periods like a pandemic. The whole world has witnessed the COVID-19 pandemic, the unprecedented pandemic of this century. This quest is more dismal in developing nations like Nepal when even resource- rich countries are laid down by it. The quest of health demands, hence more during this pandemic, for the bearing of the responsibility by all. Here, we have made an attempt to draw together the general and some specific responsibilities of various direct stakeholders in this pandemic with multifaceted mayhem. We have incorporated here, the responsibilities of the public, COVID and non-COVID patients, media personnel, health science students, professionals, institutions, state, and media to ensure or safeguard the health of self and others in this pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 pandemic has provoked a wide variety of psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and panic disorders, especially among health service providers. Due to a greater risk of exposure to the virus, increased working hours, and fear of infecting their families, health service providers are more vulnerable to emotional distress than the general population during this pandemic. This online survey attempts to assess the psychological impact of COVID-19 and its associated variables among healthcare workers in Nepal. Materials and methods: For data collection purposes, Covid-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI) Questionnaire, was used whose content validity was verified by Shanghai mental health center. Data for the survey were collected from 11 to 24 October 2020 which was extracted to Microsoft Excel-13 and analyzed.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2), has become an unprecedented public health crisis. To tackle this crisis in an effective way different computational solutions involving artificial intelligence and machine learning have been propounded by researchers across the world. Artificial Intelligence has changed the landscape of the healthcare industry and is being used by many corporations and governments around the world to tackle health care issues and hence, it finds applications in these troubling times as well. The internet specially google scholar scoured for relevant and accurate applications of machine learning and deep learning in solving the issues of this pandemic. The different applications include diagnosis, mortality rate prediction, vaccine development, drug development, sentiment analysis regarding COVID-19 comments and misinformation detection. A systematic study presents the best working models in the respective field. © 2020 IEEE.