ABSTRACT
Introducao: A doenca falciforme (DF) e uma condicao genetica frequente no Brasil caracterizada pela presenca da hemoglobina S nas hemacias. No inicio da pandemia do novo coronavirus, houve receio de que pacientes com DF tivessem maior risco de desenvolver doencas mais graves em decorrencia dessa infeccao viral. Contudo, dados publicados ate o momento nao apresentam consenso sobre o real impacto da DF na evolucao da infeccao pelo SARS-CoV-2 e muitos sao os questionamentos sobre a prevalencia da COVID-19 nesta populacao. Como essa populacao e imunossuprimida, a infeccao pelo novo coronavirus pode ser uma condicao associada a maior morbimortalidade, sendo importante compreender como este virus pode afetar os pacientes com DF. Objetivos: relatar os casos clinicos de duas pacientes com DF e COVID-19 atendidas no ambulatorio do Hemocentro de Belo Horizonte da Fundacao Hemominas. Material e metodos: o diagnostico da COVID-19 e os dados sobre sua evolucao clinica e laboratorial foram acessados por consulta aos relatorios de atendimento ambulatorial. Este estudo foi aprovado pelo Comite de Etica em Pesquisa da Fundacao Hemominas, CAAE: 36853820.5.0000.5118. Resultados: Caso 1 - paciente do sexo feminino, 20 anos, homozigota SS, apresentou anemia sendo necessaria a realizacao de transfusao de concentrado de hemacias e suplementacao de oxigenio. Nao estava em regime de hipertransfusao e nao fazia uso de hidroxiureia. A angiotomografia do torax revelou trombo em ramo segmentar para lobo medio;derrame plural bilateral, maior a esquerda;e importantes consolidacoes pulmonares em lobos inferiores. Foi coletado swab da nasofaringe para pesquisa do SARS-CoV-2 e por meio de RT-qPCR foi confirmada a COVID-19. A paciente apresentou melhora clinica e recebeu alta. Caso 2 - paciente do sexo feminino, 61 anos, com hemoglobinopatia SC deu entrada no hospital com dor no corpo e fraqueza. Nao estava em regime de hipertransfusao e nao fazia uso de hidroxiureia. Tinha historia pregressa de sindrome toracica aguda, retinopatia e hepatite C. Permaneceu internada no hospital para suplementacao de oxigenio e tratamento com dexametasona e enoxaparina. Foi coletada amostra de swab da nasofaringe para realizacao de RT-qPCR para SARS-CoV-2 e o resultado foi positivo. Apos 5 dias de internacao, a paciente recebeu alta. Discussao: Diferente do esperado, as pacientes com DF e infeccao pelo SARS-CoV-2 apresentaram evolucao clinica favoravel, uma vez que nenhuma apresentou quadro clinico grave da COVID-19 e ambas se recuperaram da infeccao. Conclusao: Nossos dados sugerem que a DF nao aumentou o risco de desenvolver formas graves de COVID-19 nas pacientes. Embora esse achado seja corroborado por relatos de caso em diferentes paises, ainda sao necessarios mais estudos para avaliacao dos fatores de maior gravidade pela COVID-19 em pacientes com DF, a fim de reduzir possiveis desfechos desfavoraveis nessa populacao. Copyright © 2022
ABSTRACT
Vaccine immunization is considered a true milestone in public health by contributing to the reduction, protection and prevention of numerous communicable diseases and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic it is no different. However, among the different expressions of the denialism of the coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19), are the fake news and information regarding the vaccine, making it difficult to adhere to immunization due to "fake news". Therefore, the present study aimed to present the educational actions that have popular health education as a reference, which were used in favor of adherence to vaccination in Brazil, and that are cited in the scientific literature. For this, a systematic review of scientific literature was carried out, using descriptors and search strategies: "Health Education AND COVID-19 Vaccines" and "Health Education AND Immunization", in the online databases Virtual Health Library (VHL) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) - with the filters "Brazil", and publications from 2020, until December 2021, in the languages "Portuguese", "English" and "Spanish" and "article". The results point to different strategies of popular health education (HPS), such as: (i) conversation wheels in public health services;(ii) messages and electronic journals forwarded to SUS users by Primary Health Care;(iii) explanatory videos forwarded by public schools;and (iv) posters made available in public buildings in different municipalities. It is concluded that dialogical HPS contributes to the intellectual emancipation of citizens, making them able to decide about themselves, safely, when facing health situations.
ABSTRACT
This article describes the research carried out in 2021, which aimed at investigating how professors of Drawing and Plastic Arts faced the challenges that arose during the period of social isolation, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. There were 16 participants. The answers given to eight questions, submitted for analysis, revealed their initial difficulties and the didactic strategies they adopted. The investigation brought to light their mistakes and successes in an attempt to adapt to the online system. They also expressed what this experience meant to them and the expectations they had resuming in-person classes. Despite being a small group, the sample showed that the work carried out remotely was an opportunity for expressive learning.
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The article reflects on how the health crisis caused by Covid-19 has been dealt with in Italy at the level of childcare services. After having reconstructed the national political and normative framework, the attention is focused on the Tuscan reality. The aim is to illustrate on the one hand some experiences in the Tuscany Region during the lockdown to guarantee a continuity in the educational relationship at a distance and on the other hand to show the Tuscan educational services have reacted to the restart of the educational year 2020-21. The first aspect is reconstructed through a reconnaissance of materials placed on the web, while the second aspect is documented through the results of a survey conducted by us and which involved the educational services of the Cooperative Arca. The result is a dynamic picture that highlights the efforts of the educational staff both in management of routines and in the search for new ways of relating to families.
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Coffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world and an important international agricultural commodity, but the increasing use of single-serve coffee machines has led to major environmental concerns, as they produce non-biodegradable solid waste called technofossils, which are considered anthropogenic markers of the technosphere in the Anthropocene. Currently, Brazil is the world's largest coffee producer and the second largest consumer of this beverage. In this study, we evaluated the production of solid waste (biodegradable and technofossil) by the three most commonly used coffee preparation methods in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic: the "Brazilian coffee brewing method" (with cloth filter), electric coffee machine (with paper filter) and machines using single-serve Keurig Cups (R) (K-Cups). K-Cups produce a total waste mass 56% and 42% higher than those generated by the methods using the "Brazilian coffee brewing method" and the electric coffee machine, respectively. The K-Cups produce about 10 times more technofossil waste than the other two methods, but have a nearly equal distribution among all their generated waste (biodegradable: 50.5% and technofossil waste: 49.5%), with no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). On the other hand, the "Brazilian coffee brewing method" and the one using an electric coffee machine, basically produce biodegradable solid waste, predominantly 93.5% for the "Brazilian coffee brewing method" and 84.0% for the one using an electric coffee machine, respectively. The technofossil residues generated mainly by the method that uses K-Cups are difficult to recycle, which poses increasing environmental risks if these solid residues are inadequately treated in the environment. This fact is worrisome, since during the COVID-19 pandemic a significant increase in the generation of municipal solid waste (>10%) was observed, as well as a significant increase in coffee consumption in Brazilian and worldwide households.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 is one of the most contagious diseases in the 21st century. Therefore, there's an emerging need to contrive an accurate, gradual new method to identify this deadly virus. Apropos, we present 'Smart assistance to ease the process of COVID-19/pneumonia detection' mobile application that can use to identify covid-19 contemplating patient's symptoms, health history, breathing information, chest CT scan and chest X-ray images. Stage 1 of the proposed application will prognosticate the danger level of the patient utilizing symptoms, breathing information, health history using machine learning techniques. Recognition and drawing out of patient's health background information by engaging the user to maximize the accuracy of the outcome is the main objective of this stage. Stage 2 of the application will identify COVID-19 by a chest X-ray/CT scan image, and it predicts the danger level using deep learning techniques. Classify the image to predict the danger level for COVID-19 is the main objective of this phase. Subsequently, all the predictions are sent to a physician and validate the outcome. Finally, patient will be notified about the results. This automatized application is built with the intention of reducing the cost of covid-19 identification tests like PCR tests and to give precise results as soon as possible. Our motive is to show that the proposed application could be a finer alternative for already existing COVID-19 identification tests. As a result, we achieved the best accuracy of 92%, 96% for CT scan, X-ray images classification and 94.08%, 74.19% accuracy for health history information analysis and breathing information analysis. We also achieved 94%, 71% accuracies for the COVID-19 prediction model and severity level prediction model based on symptoms. © 2021 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared that the epidemic of the new Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was out of control and had become a global zoonotic pandemic. Consequently, more than 190 countries have implemented measures to contain the outbreak of the disease, including the Lockdown, mainly to avoid the saturation of their health systems. Humanity found itself in an unprecedented disruptive moment, in which basic education was compelled to change, compulsorily. the traditional paradigm of the teaching-learning process and to adopt emergency remote teaching, mediated massively by technological alternatives. In the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro, it was decreed that there would be no loss of school days during the year 2020. Therefore, teachers of Chemistry, Physics and Biology were forced to develop assignments and digital skills online, for which they were not prepared. In the private education network in Rio de Janeiro, science teachers had more favorable technological conditions, as well as a better return from synchronous and asynchronous online activities by students and family. In spite of these factors, the exacerbation of fatigue and professional exhaustion have been reported. In the federal education network, basic education classes were cancelled in 2020, as a pedagogical policy to mitigate the inequalities within the students. On the other hand, in the state education network, which is responsible for education of nearly 500,000 students in the state of Rio de Janeiro, classes were not cancelled. Among the numerous approaches adopted by teachers of Chemistry, Physics and Biology at the state network, the creation of 36 video classes that were broadcast on an open television station and on TV ALERJ stands out. An exponential drop was observed in the visualizations of the video classes, which may result in the loss of the scientific literacy quality of high school students. In this way, they may become more vulnerable to fake news and fake sciences and may have a worse formation as citizens and a poor critical sense.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: At the end of 2019 in Wuhan-China, atypical pneumonias were reported;a new coronavirus was the cause. It was designated as SARS-CoV-2 and is responsible for millions of infections and thousands of deaths worldwide. Pregnant women are a vulnerable population against viral infections of the respiratory tract due to the physiological changes at this stage. Objectives: To carry out a bibliographic review to identify the impact of SARS-CoV2 infection during pregnancy and its relationship with maternal complications. Methods: A review of the information in the Medline / Pubmed, BVS and Scopus databases is carried out, using the terms COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, pregnancy. Analysis and synthesis of the information: Pregnant women generally have mild forms of the disease, however, there is evidence in the reviewed literature that these women have high risk of complications, such as preterm delivery and fetal distress, which is why it is required maternal and fetal monitoring. Likewise, no evidence of vertical transmission has been found. Conclusions: A vigilance of both the mother and her product is required during the disease period because there is risk of fetal distress and preterm delivery. The evidence found is not enough to suggest a possible vertical transmission and its impact on the newborn, so vaginal delivery is considered appropriate as the first choice, and reserving cesarean delivery only when obstetrically necessary. © 2021, Editorial Ciencias Medicas. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
This study aimed to raise coping strategies to deal with social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The spread of the Covid-19 virus has turned into a pandemic as it spread throughout the world, leading to mobility restrictions for billions of people who have faced varying degrees of confinement. This situation has led to extreme emotions of fear, sadness, and feelings of anxiety, with impacts on people's psychological health. Research has shown that the ability to adequately regulate one's own emotions is important for mental physical, and social health and it is relevant to study how people deal with their emotions in stressful situations, such as the current context of isolation in the pandemic. A questionnaire was applied electronically to 463 participants from all over Brazil over the age of 18 years. Data analysis was qualitative, based on responses to an open item that asked about coping strategies to deal with social isolation. The results showed the use of varied strategies to minimize stress and increase well-being. Cognitive reassessment, the search for social support, and distraction were highlighted.
ABSTRACT
A novel infectious disease was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, and later named as COVID-19. In a few weeks, the epidemic became a pandemic and by the end of March 2020, half of the world was under some form of lockdown. The main goal of this work is to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic as a consequence of the main characteristics of Anthropocene, as well as the evidences of the human impact on the environment after the outbreak of the new coronavirus and the adoption of restrictive measures in many countries around the world. Urbanization, industrialization, globalization, climate change, deforestation and also social inequalities, mainly in middle- and low-income countries, which in general have weaker health systems and limited capacity to handle a rapid rise in cases, are contributing to an emerging global health crisis. Several examples of the environmental impacts are presented. Some examples of the decrease of primary atmospheric pollutants (mainly fine particulate matter and NO2) are discussed as well as other negative impacts, such as the increase in ozone tropospheric concentrations and medical waste. As a global phenomenon in the "Age of Humans", the COVID-19 pandemic requires the urgent and coordinated effort of all countries to overcome the crisis. The pandemic is an opportunity to take advantage of the spirit of cooperation, to embrace the socio-environmental diversity and arrive at a necessary common global agreement to manage the future of Earth collectively.
ABSTRACT
Aim: To evaluate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate and graduate students of the Dental School of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo. Methods: Three questionnaires were used: sociodemographic, WHO Abbreviated Quality of Life Inventory, and General Anxiety Disorder-7. Data were analyzed using Graph Pad Prism 7a (α = 5%). Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis and Dunn post-tests were used for statistical comparisons. The Spearman test was used as the correlation test. Results: 257 students responded to the online form that assessed their quality of life and anxiety level. On a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the best quality of life, the average obtained was 64.71 (± 13.36). In addition, 87.6% of the students rated their quality of life as good or very good. 74.7% reported good or very good health. The anxiety analysis resulted in an average of 10.04 (± 4.5), indicating moderate anxiety levels. There was an inversely proportional correlation between age and degree of anxiety (p = 0.008, r = -0.1628) and self-perceived learning and student commitment (r = 0.69). Conclusion: Despite the good quality of life and the students’ good self-perception of health, they showed a moderate degree of anxiety during the social distancing caused by COVID-19, also demonstrating a decrease in interest and commitment during distance education. © 2022,Brazilian Journal of Oral Sciences. All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
The objective of this work was to evaluate the relationship between factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and depression, anxiety, and stress (DAS) in dentists. Factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated using a questionnaire and scores of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scales-21 were measured. The differences between the DAS scores based on the factors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic were tested through the successive application of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA, alpha = 0.05). After a sample size calculation, 998 participants with a mean age of 39.39 (+/- 11.69) years were included. The effect size indicated that changes in sleep quality (eta2 = 0.161), eating habits (eta2 = 0.057), and physical health (eta2 = 0.051) were the ones that most negatively affected DAS scores. The highest DAS scores were observed in professionals who lived with someone at high-risk for COVID-19 (p < 0.001) and in those who did not engage in leisure activities during the pandemic (p < 0.001). Dentists who worked on the frontline against COVID-19 had higher scores of anxiety and stress (p = 0.029). The highest scores for anxiety, depression, and/or stress were seen in dentists living with someone at high-risk for COVID-19, who acts on the frontline, who does not practice in leisure activities during the pandemic, who completely changed eating habits, quality of sleep and physical health during the pandemic. In general, DAS levels of dentists were associated with factors related to the COVID-19 pandemic.