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Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a rapidly spreading global emergency, causing significant damage to the global economy and health care. Knowledge and awareness are crucial elements in stimulating self-imposed preventive measures. Objectives: We evaluated the knowledge and awareness about COVID-19 and the practice of hygiene measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus disease. Methods: A prospective observational study was conducted in Karachi, Pakistan, between March 01 and March 25, 2020, using a non-probability consecutive sampling technique. All individuals aged 18 years or above were included in the study. The individuals who had no formal education were excluded from the study. A self-reported questionnaire assessing knowledge, awareness, and practices was distributed among the participants. Results: The mean age +or- SD of the study population was 29.11 +or- 7.8 years. In our study, 424 (98.6%) participants knew that a virus causes COVID-19, and most were knowledgeable about the disease's transmission mode. Higher education status and the medical profession were associated with the better practice of preventive measures. Conclusions: We recommend that knowledge about COVID-19 and preventive measures be spread across the country via electronic media.
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Surveys were conducted in New Jersey, Tennessee, Indiana and Arizona in collaboration with low-income housing agency to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on pest control practices and pest infestations in five states. In total, 39 completed surveys were received. Survey data indicates the majority (77 percent) of housing agencies used contracted pest control services. Only 11 percent of surveyed agencies used in-house staff to deal with pest issues. In-house staff are familiar with the properties and residents. Using in-house licensed staff to manage pest issues has several advantages: it saves the cost of staff escorting contractors one to two days a month in each property;it is more flexible than hiring a con-tractor for scheduling, treating emergency complaints and planning follow-up in-spections and re-treatments;and it is likely much cheaper for in-house staff to conduct nonchemical control procedures such as rodent proofing, decluttering or cleaning compared to contracted services. This study found evidence of decreased pest control cost due at least partially to reduced service visits as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Seventy-six percent of surveyed agencies experienced changes in scheduled services, and all of the changes were pandemic-related policy changes implemented by the housing agencies. The current contracted services generally met the expectations of the housing agencies. Housing managers and residents believe that lack of resident cooperation and property maintenance are responsible for high pest prevalence or control failures. There were increased pest complaints (except bed bugs) and infestations in low-income housing with the greatest increase associated with cockroaches. Despite the continued high pest infestation rates, the current pest control contracts meet the housing agencies' expectations. There remains a strong need to educate housing agency personnel and residents to help them adopt more effective pest management policies and contracts and to reduce the indoor pest infestations significantly.
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Background:The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) misinformation and inadequate access to hygiene and sanitation amenities could hamper efforts to contain COVID-19 spread in resource-limited settings. In this study, we describe knowledge of COVID-19 symptoms and preventive measures, sources of information, and access to adequate handwashing among patients with chronic diseases in three Rwandan rural districts during the onset of COVID-19 in Rwanda.
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This article is the first in a series regarding the Norwegian Rogalands project's prevention and control of bovine coronavirus, Bovine respiratory syncytial virus, bovine coronavirus, digital dermatitis and other infectious diseases in cattle. Hygiene during transport and in the barn environment are emphasized.
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Introduction: Measures to control COVID-19 epidemic are likely to enable the control of other respiratory transmitted diseases.
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Aim: Hand hygiene has become an important building block in the prevention of the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The current study was conducted to determine the hand hygiene habits of healthcare workers and possible risk factors for hand eczema during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: The hand hygiene habits of healthcare personnel working at a university hospital since COVID-19 pandemic started were questioned between December 2020 and February 2021 and they were dermatologically examined to screen for hand eczema.
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In the face of COVID-19, innovation, adaptation, and learning from experience have all been crucial to meeting the needs of those who have been displaced. In order to respond to this new disease, the humanitarian community had to get familiar with COVID-19. It was understood from the beginning that basic hygiene precautions, such adequate handwashing, could aid in preventing its transmission. However, a lot of displacement settings lack the infrastructure needed to put household and community-level infection prevention and control (IPC) measures into place. They might also have inadequate governance structures for overseeing and maintaining WASH services. Some of the hardest-to-reach populations are found in displacement contexts like Ethiopia, Somalia, and South Sudan, where people lack the resources to defend themselves and deal with health threats. Disease vulnerability may be exacerbated by overcrowding and restricted access to proper WASH facilities. In the meantime, xenophobia and stigma can develop due to the fear surrounding COVID-19 as well as the dissemination of false information. As new information became available and lessons were discovered, IOM teams operating in these environments had to modify their Risk Communication and Community Engagement (RCCE) and IPC efforts. Any disaster response has traditionally included funding for capacity building for hygiene promotion to strengthen local responses, but COVID-19 demanded more localisation because of the absence of international travel. It demonstrated how supporting local structures can help solidify hygiene promotion capacities while obviating the requirement for a high degree of international assistance in the event of future outbreaks by highlighting considerable local capacity and willingness in some communities.
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The high risk of contagion and affectation by COVID-19 in industrial workers made it necessary to rethink the hygiene and biosafety protocols already established, with measures such as distancing from jobs, staggering entry and exit times, controls temperature, the supervised use of Individual Protection Elements (PPE's) and epidemiological surveillance on personnel, among others. In this research, the ERBioCov instrument is proposed and validated, which aims to assess the proportion in the implementation of new and traditional hygiene and biosafety protocols, which was applied in industries in Lima, Peru in two periods of 2020 and 2021. According to the values obtained, 80.5% of hygiene and biosafety measures are currently applied by the industries studied in Peru, in contrast to the 68.9% obtained in the initial months of the pandemic in 2020, difference for which a high statistical significance was verified (p=3,93E-06;t -5.887). Among them, the traditional measures had a greater increase in their application between both periods studied, reaching from 65.6% to 80.8% (p=0;t=-6.544) compared to the additional measures, which remained at the range of 78.4% and 79.6% in 2020 and 2021, respectively (p=0.7442;t=-0.326). Likewise, a high rate of prevention against biological risks was obtained, quantified in 28 measures applied in a range of 93% to 100% of the participating industries.
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Slovenia is one of the countries that have been most affected by the autumn/winter 2020/21 wave of the COVID-19 pandemic regarding the incidence and excess mortality among the general population as well as regarding the incidence among health care workers and nursing personnel. The World Health Organization has underestimated the importance of the airborne spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the recommended safety measures have not been entirely sufficient. When people breathe, talk, sing, cough, or sneeze, they emit respiratory droplets of various sizes, most of which are always smaller than 1 m. Respiratory droplets smaller than 5 m stay airborne in indoor spaces for a long time and travel over distances much longer than 2 m. Thus, an infected person in an indoor environment creates an infectious aerosol that may infect other people without close interpersonal contact. This short review presents the mathematical model and internet application by authors from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for calculating the safe time before probable airborne infection occurs in indoor spaces. The importance of ventilation, air filtration, air humidity, and air disinfection by ultraviolet light is briefly discussed. The principles of preventing the airborne spread of SARS-CoV-2 are summarized.
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The purpose of the study is to assess the knowledge on Balanced Nutrition and its practices among pre-school teachers in Subang district, West Java, Indonesia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic (before March 2020 vs. October 2021) and to seek differences in the knowledge and practices of teachers who attended nutrition training and those who did not attend any nutrition training. We evaluated the knowledge and practice of 142 teachers based on 10 messages of the 2014 Indonesian Balanced Nutrition Guidelines, using google online survey platform. The top three messages mostly selected by the teachers were consuming a variety of staple foods (87%), drinking adequate and safe water (87%), and eating plenty of vegetables and fruits (86%), while the least selected were enjoying a variety of foods (41%) and reading food labels (28%). A slight increase was found in teachers who consumed fruits daily, while the practice of washing hands before and during the pandemic was statistically and significantly increased (58% to 72%;p < 0.05). A slight decrease was found in teachers who consumed vegetables and animal protein, as well as performed physical exercise daily. Majority of teachers (80%) participated in some kinds of nutrition training in the last four years. The top three gaps of knowledge between trained and non-trained teachers were on physical activity and maintaining ideal body weight (64% vs. 33%;statistically significant at p < 0.05);limit intake of sweet, salty, and fatty food;and consuming high protein food, with the range between 20 to 35 percentage points. We concluded that teachers acquired knowledge on nutrition to some degree, but its application faced limitations during the pandemic. Dissemination of Balanced Nutrition should continue.
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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) staff across Louisiana distributed a survey to their network of potential program participants and partners who work with people eligible for SNAP-Ed. The survey asked participants to report their attitudes about behaviors used to slow the spread of COVID-19 and preferences for the delivery of nutrition education. Participants also reported their race, age and eligibility for the SNAP-Ed program so that researchers could assess whether attitudes and preferences differed across these categories. Of the 458 participants completing the survey, the majority were white (62%), female (91%), aged 18 to 50 (65%) and eligible for SNAP-Ed (57%). Most agreed that it was important to wash their hands (99%) and physically distance from others (95%) to avoid the coronavirus, but a smaller majority felt that it was important to wear face masks in public (79%). Attitudes toward wearing masks were significantly different across categories of race. African Americans were more concerned about the risk posed by in-person programming and more likely to report that they would prefer live virtual lessons, online quizzes and workbooks compared to white participants. Respondents over 50 were significantly more likely to say it was important to wear masks, less likely to feel uncomfortable covering their faces and more likely to prefer a written or workbook format for nutrition lessons compared to participants under 50. SNAP-Ed-eligible participants did not differ significantly from higher-income participants in their attitudes toward virus prevention behaviors but were more likely to say they would prefer online quizzes as part of virtual nutrition education. Results indicate that it may be appropriate for nutrition education conducted by the LSU AgCenter to occur in person because most potential program participants agree with COVID-19 precautions. In addition, the attitudes and preferences expressed by African American participants indicate that nutrition education for African Americans may better reach participants if it is done virtually rather than in-person.
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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had a major impact on birth care and lactation. The lack of knowledge regarding the transmission mechanisms and the potential risks for the mother and the newborn, even when the vertical transmission of the virus has not been demonstrated, has led to the abandonment of practices such as skin-to-skin and the early initiation of breastfeeding (BF), which offer great benefits for maternal and child health. Taking into account the available scientific evidence and the protective effect of BF, the World Health Organization (WHO), and other organisms recommend, in cases of suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection of the mother, maintaining mother-child contact and BF, adopting preventive measure procedures to minimize the risk of contagion. These measures include hand hygiene, before and after contact with the newborn and the use of a mask. If a temporary separation of mother and child is required, it is recommended to feed the newborn with expressed breast milk. The presence of IgA antibodies against SARSCoV- 2 has been confirmed in the milk of infected women, so BF could reduce the clinical impact of the disease in the infant, if it becomes infected.
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Globally, coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a major public health problem due to its high virulence associated with communities spreading with no definitive treatment and untimely death. Various perceptions have been associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. This study assessed the perception of mitigating strategies and its challenges regarding COVID-19 among residents in Ogun State, Nigeria. A descriptive cross-sectional study design using a multi-stage sampling technique was used to solicit information from 2400 respondents in Ogun State, Nigeria. Data were collected using an interviewer-administered questionnaire from 4th to 15th October 2020. Descriptive statistics were employed for data analysis. Findings of this study revealed that avoidance of social gathering (23.5%), the use of face masks (23.3%), and cleaning of hands with sanitizer (22.7) were the most common mitigation strategies adopted by the respondents in the study area, although full adherence was low. The most strategies to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 were suggested by the respondents. These strategies included regular quarantining affected person(s), practicing basic measures, and going to the hospital with 21.5%, 20.6%, and 19.7% respectively. The results also showed that going to Churches and Mosques, inconvenient time of using face masks and restriction from social gathering and clubbing during COVID-19 pandemic were the most challenges faced in the study area. This study concludes that there should be more provision of medical supplies and palliatives for individuals, health education, the enforcement of preventive measures, and free testing and treatment should receive much recognition.
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Background: COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) is a contagious infection currently affecting people worldwide, including in Indonesia. The spread of this virus is extremely rapid, and the number of deaths continues to rise. Compliance with the health protocol is one method of preventing the spread of COVID-19. The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between generation-Z (gen-Z) knowledge and attitudes toward the use of masks, keeping distance, and washing hands as a means of preventing COVID-19 in religious activities at houses of worship in Palembang. Method: The observational analytic cross-sectional research design with the study's population consists of generation Z members who participate in religious activities in places of worship. The cluster random sampling method yielded 147 respondents. The data collected are primary data obtained directly from the research subjects via a questionnaire and secondary data obtained from the Palembang City Ministry of Religion. They were using the Pearson chi-square test to analyze descriptive data.
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This document seeks to emphasize certain control strategies in public spaces and the home, thus disseminating information on rational use of cleaning and disinfection products. Disinfection is recommended in closed community settings where a case of COVID-19 has been suspected or confirmed in the last 24 h. The risk of fomite transmission can be reduced with consistent mask use, hand hygiene, social distancing, and proper cleaning of surfaces.
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Background and Objectives: Presently world is facing Corona virus disease pandemic. This disease was first identified in Wuhan city of China which spread rapidly to more than 200 countries including India. Rajasthan is a state affected badly with this disease. So this present study was conducted to find out the status of COVID-19 in state and to find out the effects of containment measures taken. Materials and Methods: This record base case series type of study was conducted from reports received of confirmed COVID-19 cases and reported to the IDSP, DMHS from March 2nd 2020 to May 25th 2020, from various reporting units of Rajasthan. Desired information's were collected, compiled and analyzed. Interpretation and Conclusion: There were 7351 laboratory-confirmed case including 4061 recovered cases and 166 deaths. Recovery rate and Case Fatality Rate were found 55.24% and 2.26% respectively. (2.4%) reported. Although patients of all ages were affected with this disease but majority (81.99%) were in 16-60 years of age group. In these positive cases male predominance was also observed with M:F ratio 2.11. Majority of district of Rajasthan were affected with this pandemic having about half of cases in three districts v.i.z. in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur districts. Average Doubling time has increased from 4 days to 18 days as a result of containment measures undertaken in Rajasthan. So these containment measures like social distancing, masking, washing hand frequently etc. Should be taken care of even after lockdown to prevent the COVID-19 infection.
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Background: Due to the pandemic, COVID-19 cases and deaths are increasing unexpectedly and precipitately. More importantly, asymptomatic carriers could infect healthy people through sneezing, coughing, and talking. Therefore, mask usage is required to prevent and control COVID-19. Objectives: This study was aimed at examining the knowledge, attitude, and performance levels (KAP) of the Iranian population regarding mask usage to prevent and control the COVID-19 outbreak during a one-month period from early April to early May 2020.
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The objective was to reflect on the risks of infection by Sars-CoV-2 in the exercise of the role of waste collectors and their safety through preventive actions via health guidelines under the theoretical perspective of Jean Watson. The content presented reflects on the risks of infection by Sars-CoV-2 to which waste pickers are subject on two categorical lines, namely: "The National Solid Waste Policy in force in Brazil and insecurity regarding Sars-CoV-2" and "Actions to prevent Sars-CoV-2 infection through health guidelines associated with the daily life of waste pickers from the theoretical perspective of Jean Watson". It is concluded that the risks to which collectors are subject in their professional practice are minimized through the use of personal protective equipment and by washing and sanitizing hands, but the awareness of these individuals about the importance of adopting preventive measures in an appropriate manner it must be carried out through health guidelines anchored in the Theory of Transpersonal Care, as this presents its development from the subject to the subject.
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Due to the recent outbreak of COVID-19, the problem of protecting the individual against airborne transmission has become of great importance. This transmission occurs when virus-containing droplets enter the respiratory tract. Accordingly, the inactivation of airborne viruses plays significant role in mitigating the threat posed by a human-to-human infectious disease. The use of gas-based treatments such as ozone to decontaminate indoor air containing viruses has been increased. Ozone is a strong oxidizing agent that can be used to inactivate broad-range viruses that might be resistant to other disinfectants. The purpose of the study is to bring attention to the ozonizing of indoor air as a novel treatment for the inactivation of viruses. This review study showed that enveloped viruses (e.g., SARS-CoV-2) are more sensitive to oxidizing agents such as ozone than to non-enveloped viruses. Furthermore, some viruses such as coronaviruses have cysteine containing a sulfhydryl group that reacts with ozone gas. The study indicated that more free radicals will be formed when air humidity is higher, which could lead to higher virus inactivation. Air disinfection by ozone gas can be a promising approach for the viral deactivation of contaminated spaces in hospitals, health-care centers, dental offices, sport clubs, hotels and transportation sector, as well as all other places where viral disease outbreaks occur.