ABSTRACT
AimsThis study aimed to determine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Wandsworth Home Treatment Team (HTT), South West London and St. George's Mental Health NHS Trust. We hypothesised that demographics and illness characteristics of patients would differ before and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and that concerns about possible infection with COVID-19 influenced the decision to be referred to the HTT. Additionally, we hypothesised that there would be fewer face-to-face contacts during the initial months of the pandemic.MethodsRoutinely collected data from the trust's electronic records (RiO) were compared from the 15th March – 15th May in both 2019 (control) and 2020 (early pandemic). Patients could have a maximum of 1 variable absent to be included in the study and should have been under the care of the WHTT for longer than 2 days. Overall, 301 patients were included in this study, 181 from 2019 and 122 from 2020. Variables compared were: marital status, age, sex, ethnicity, diagnosis, referral source, referral urgency, referral reason, referral weekday, count seen (number of contacts with a clinician), face-to-face contacts, and length of stay.ResultsThe demographic variables: age, sex, marital status, and ethnicity were not significant. Likewise, the length of stay of patients, referral reason, and referral weekday were also not significant. However, during the early pandemic, there was an increase of 11% in the diagnosis of psychotic disorders/psychotic episodes (p = 0.039). Further, the referral urgency of patients within the 2020 period was significantly raised (p=>0.01). The referral source of patients was significantly different with an increased number of patients having been referred to the HTT from the ward (p = 0.017). The mean interactions (count seen) between patients and clinicians significantly lessened from 2019 to 2020, 12.8 Vs 10.2 (p = 0.008). Moreover, the percentage of face-to-face contact had also decreased from 2019 to 2020, 56.1 Vs 46.6 (p = 0.007).ConclusionOverall, less patients received care from the home treatment team during the first wave of the pandemic. Age, marital status, sex, ethnicity, length of stay, referral reason, and weekday were not significant. On the contrary, the diagnosis of patients, count seen, face-to-face contacts, referral urgency, and referral source were statistically significant. These findings reflect a different referral pattern to the Wandsworth HTT during the initial months of the pandemic accompanied with fewer face-to-face and other interactions overall.
ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Within a short period, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) spread all over the globe and became the first pandemic of the present century. Early diagnostic tools and effective drugs are urgently needed to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on current literature, we provide recent updates on SARS-CoV-2 biology, available diagnostic methods, and therapeutic options for the management of COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A literature survey was done using Google and PubMed and Web of Science to summarize the current updates on this topic. RESULTS: Current coronavirus diagnostic tests are reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR), and reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) which detects the presence of specific genome sequence of virus. Existing antiviral drugs or new therapeutic options such as neutralizing antibody or plasma therapy are mostly used to restrict the virus growth with a limited success. CONCLUSION: As there is no specific treatment or vaccine available to limit the infection of SARS-CoV-2, we need to rely on the existing way to limit the disease. The first priority to fight COVID-19 is development of early diagnostic tools so that infected persons can be identified and further viral transmission can be blocked. Evaluation of existing drugs or identification of new therapeutic entities becomes the major challenge to deal with the present pandemic.