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We retrospectively report a case of rapid exchange of a percutaneous radiologic gastrostomy tube (balloon-occluded type catheter) via off-label use of a pigtail catheter for nutrition supply during a very early episode of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in an outpatient clinic. This case demonstrates that minimally invasive percutaneous procedures might be provided safely and effectively under appropriate precautions for preventing COVID-19 transmission during the pandemic.Copyright © 2023, Society of Gastrointestinal Intervention.
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The coronavirus pandemic is a global health emergency which has had widespread unforeseen mental health consequences. Those with borderline personality disorder are predisposed to poor coping strategies to manage such stress and require intense psychological input which was not widely available during the peak of the pandemic. It is likely that the coronavirus outbreak has had a significant impact on the mental stability of such patients aggravating deliberate self-harm behaviours. A 20-year old psychiatric in-patient with borderline personality disorder, held under Section III of the mental health act, presented to the adult plastic surgery team in Bristol with localised infection of her right forearm. Foreign bodies were easily palpable and imaging revealed linear metal objects. The patient reported that she had removed metal strips from her collection of face masks and inserted them into her forearm as an act of deliberate self-harm. The patient was taken to operating theatre for removal of these foreign bodies under general anaesthetic. After twenty-four hours of antibiotics she was discharged safely back to the psychiatric ward. Despite the epilogue of the COVID-19 pandemic facemasks are still mandatory within the hospital setting. Clinicians need to be aware of these unusual circumstances where a form of protective equipment was deconstructed to cause actual bodily harm. The purpose of this report is to promote awareness of this type of injury especially in those suffering from mental illness. The authors would suggest an alternative mask without any form of metal.
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Since December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has harmed social, financial, and work life. The novel coronavirus has caused problems in all business sectors, including Information Technology(IT). Many Projects have been stopped or delayed due to the impact of this pandemic. Most of the companies recognized the importance of IT to achieve competitive advantage and to survive. Companies are investing a lot of money in IT projects. More than 60% of IT project fail. Lack of professional IT project management is one of the main reasons for that fail. Managing IT projects is a complex problem. Crises such as COVID 19 and uncertainty are increasing the complexity and challenges in IT projects management. This paper investigates what are the IT project management Key success factors required during and after the Pandemic. Secondary data were collected from literature review in the field of IT project management. an online questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from 107 IT firms. 323 respondents were participated. It is concluded that the following Key success factors are required: e-communication, centralization of data, online project monitoring, designing new policies and guidelines for incorporating new work culture, gaining and establishing project risk management exercises, especially cybersecurity and data protection by gaining access to the latest tools, establishing a culture for strict usage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to help project managers complete projects safely, and top management support. © 2023 IEEE.
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The COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), which has been instrumental in providing efficient and effective protection against exposure to the virus for its users. The widespread use of face masks has highlighted the shortcomings of single-use PPE, in particular, the fit of a mask has a large impact on its effectiveness. The research presented in this paper focuses on automatically determining the fitness of masks on an individual with any face structure. The approach in this paper is to use IoT sensors attached to PPE masks in order to detect the tightness and fit of the mask. This approach was tested using three different types of commercially available masks and showed that it is feasible to detect their tightness and fit of them. This study concludes that IoT-based methods can be used effectively to improve the safety of PPE masks. © 2022 IEEE.
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This special issue comprises 8 articles that explore various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic from mathematical, statistical, and biological perspectives. The two articles in the mathematics category discuss optimal control strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Italy and Jakarta, Indonesia, using quarantine, testing, and medical treatment. The statistics category features 4 articles that investigate the impact of temperature on the spread of COVID-19 in Gulf countries, the development of novel hybrid models for predicting COVID-19 in Kuwait, forecasting using basic reproduction number dynamics to analyze the pandemic's data, and a comparison of the multi-state models to assess the effect of antiviral treatment on SARS-CoV-2 infectious disease progression. The final 2 articles in the biology category focus on the bioinformatic analysis of antiviral medicinal compounds against SARS-CoV-2 proteases and the filtration efficiency of face masks and veils as protective measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The coronavirus disease, also known as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 virus has changed the characteristics of many methods used by healthcare providers. These modifications aimed to provide safety and reduce the risk of virus transmission. Some of the recommendations to reduce the risk of aerosol transmission during the intubation are usage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and video laryngoscopy (VL). After satisfactory preoxygenation, along with sedation and paralysis of the patient, modified rapid sequence induction is the recommended technique. Intubation timing and period should be arranged well in order to minimize aerosol spread. During intubation, barrier devices, such as screens and intubation boxes should be considered. Patient coughing during intubation can generate aerosols and should be avoided. Gentle airway manipulation is assured. It is prudent to use VL rather than direct laryngoscopy for intubation because VL increases the distance between the healthcare worker's face and the patient's face, which may minimize the risk of contamination. In this narrative review, we aimed to focus on protective measures and modifications occurred during COVID-19 pandemic. Copyright (C) 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.
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The COVID-19 pandemic brought a period of high consumption of protective masks and an increase in their waste. Therefore, it was necessary to look at possibilities for their disposal. This article is focused on the disposal of FFP2 masks in the form of pellets blended with sawdust. Further, their ash melting behavior was observed. The method of ash preparation can impact the resulting values of melting temperatures. Therefore, this article investigates the resulting values of ash melting temperatures determined during different ash preparations, such as temperatures (550 °C and 815 °C) and ash size (non-sifted, smaller than 50 µm and 100 µm). All measured deformation temperatures were higher than 1100 °C and even higher than 1200 °C for some samples. Moreover, the presence of FFP2 masks in pellets only insignificantly affected the values of melting temperatures compared to pure wood pellets. The measured values also showed that increasing the temperature of ash preparation from 550 to 815 °C can increase the resulting values of melting temperature. The most significant proportion of the fraction size on the resulting melting temperatures was observed for beech with 5% and 10% of masks at an ash temperature of 550 °C and for spruce with 10% of masks at an ash temperature of 815 °C. © 2023 by the authors.
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The global outbreak of COVID-19 results in the surge of disposable sanitary supplies, especially personal protective face masks. However, the charge dissipation of the electret meltblown nonwovens, which predominate in the commercial face mask filters, confines the durability and safety of commercial face masks. Furthermore, most of the face masks are made from nondegradable materials (such as PP) or part of their degradation products are toxic and contaminative to the environment. Herein, a type of face mask with biodegradable and highly effective PLA bi-layer complex fibrous membrane as filter core is reported. The prepared PLA complex membrane possesses a high-filtration efficiency of 99.1% for PM0.3 while providing a favorable pressure drop of 93.2 Pa. With the PLA complex membrane as the filter core, our face mask exhibits comparable or even higher wearability to commercial face masks, which further manifests our designed PLA complex membrane a promising filter media for face masks. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to the Korean Fiber Society.
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During the COVID-19 outbreak, many healthcare workers (HCWs) have been infected because they failed to comply with the correct process of donning and doffing personal protective equipment (PPE). Based on this, we develop a gesture-controlled system that not only can train HCWs but also can give HCWs real-time guidance during the process of donning and doffing PPE. It can effectively prevent the infection of HCWs. We first use the hand detection algorithm to locate the position of the HCWs, helping them to enter the proper area. Then they can use our gesture recognition algorithm to control the playback of the videos which guides them in donning and doffing PPE. We verify the effectiveness of the system through a series of experiments. The results show the great value of our system in the protection of HCWs. © 2022 IEEE.
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Background: The health-care system has encountered exceptional circumstances, experiencing unique challenges, and manifesting as acute challenges in health-care services due to the spread of COVID-19. Aims and Objectives: The present study aimed to report the difficulties faced by the anesthetists while performing a cesarean section under the subarachnoid block (SAB) in COVID-19 patients at a dedicated COVID Level 3 hospital. Materials and Methods: Twenty healthy anesthetists (six consultants and 14 postgraduate) aged 20-40 years performed 60 elective or emergency cesarean sections of known COVID-19-positive gravida patients aged 20-35 years with no comorbidity and no spine abnormality under the SAB. Anesthetist;s responses to the challenges faced while performing procedures wearing the Level 3 personal protective equipment were recorded using a pre-structure self-administered questionnaire. To quantify the intensity of these problems, all the physical and psychological difficulties were graded as mild, moderate, and severe. Results: In the present study, 75% experienced moderate-to-severe sweating, and 60% experienced moderate-to-severe headaches. A total of 45% experienced moderate-to-severe breathlessness. Though there was little difficulty in communication among doctors and staff, almost 75% of anesthetists faced it. The fear of contracting the disease and spreading it to the family members was expressed by 75-80% of anesthetists. Conclusion: The present scenario has increased physical stress and other psychological problems among health workers. Therefore, hospital support with regular psychological counseling sessions is needed for healthcare workers to cope with the current situation.
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The U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) 3D Print Exchange is a public, open-source repository for 3D printable medical device designs with contributions from clinicians, expert-amateur makers, and people from industry and academia. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NIH formed a collection to foster submissions of low-cost, locally manufacturable personal protective equipment (PPE). We evaluated the 623 submissions in this collection to understand: what makers contributed, how they were made, who made them, and key characteristics of their designs. We found an immediate design convergence to manufacturing-focused remixes of a few initial designs affiliated with NIH partners and major for-profit groups. The NIH worked to review safe, effective designs but was overloaded by manufacturing-focused design adaptations. Our work contributes insights into: the outcomes of distributed, community-based medical making;the features that the community accepted as "safe"making;and how platforms can support regulated maker activities in high-risk domains. © 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).
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Coronavirus 2019 is considered the health disaster of the century and has caused a wave of global panic. Healthcare professionals were at the forefront of this pandemic to provide quality care respecting the safety of patients and the environment. The objective of this study is to determine the preventive measures applied by healthcare professionals towards patients and the environment to combat Covid19. The study was realized during April and May 2020 at the public hospital dedicated to the care of Covid patients in central Morocco in Meknes. Convenience sampling was used to collect the data. 104 people participated in the study, including 61 (58.7%) nurses and 12 (11.5%) doctors. Also, 73 (70.2%) of the healthcare professionals were men and 35 (33.7%) contracted the Coronavirus during their healthcare activity. According to the participants, the causes of this infection lie mainly in their interaction with their professional environment (71.4%). The main preventive measures applied by healthcare professionals were regular hand washing and wearing 104 masks (100%), of which 88 (84.6%) used the FFP2 mask and wore personal protective equipment. However, healthcare professionals were found to adopt other environmental practices, including surface disinfection 95 (91.3%), ventilation and sterilization of premises 46 (44.2%), maintenance and sterilization of equipment 78 (75%), and effective management of hospital waste 75 (72.1%). The study concluded that the preventive measures applied by the professionals were sufficient and complied with global recommendations to minimize the risk of contamination and maintain a healthy healthcare environment for themselves and their patients. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Facemasks are personal protective equipment worn to reduce the risk of the transmission of Covid-19. University students and teachers/lecturers in Serbia are required to wear facemasks in class at all times. However, such practice may cause challenges in student-teacher communication. We present students' experiences regarding speech intelligibility in the educational setting. We distributed an anonymous online questionnaire among students from various universities. Speaking with a facemask in class creates communication challenges for teachers and students alike. Students claim that teachers often have difficulties understanding students who speak wearing masks;teachers often ask students to repeat the sentence, and teachers often ask students to speak louder. Similarly, when teachers talk with their facemasks, students often report not hearing or understanding teachers back. In turn, students would ask teachers to repeat the sentence and raise voices. Students pay more attention to teachers' facial expressions, hand gestures, body language, and tone of voice. Students tend to engage their non-verbal interaction skills more often to facilitate communication. We further discuss the differences regarding students' gender and the type of facemask typically worn. We express concern that the inability to communicate clearly may cause annoyance and frustration in the academic setting. © 2022 Internoise 2022 - 51st International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering. All rights reserved.
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We previously reported on our experience of an in-person Scottish Photobiology Service (SPS) patient engagement event in 2019 and of its utility in defining what matters to patients with photosensitivity. We identified key issues with delays in referral from primary care, lack of availability of peer support and a need for disease-specific information to raise awareness of photosensitivity for family and employers. Through a follow- up workshop, we identified a workstream of activities planning to address these issues, which were modified by the subsequent COVID-19 pandemic. However, we successfully moved our programme to a virtual platform, and we report on our progress. Twice-yearly virtual TEAMS patient engagement half-day events, attended by patients and staff, provided patients with a forum to discuss with each other issues that they have identified as being important to them. These ranged from the isolation, anxiety and embarrassment associated with photosensitivity, dealing with friends who do not understand their condition, through to coping mechanisms and practicalities, such as sourcing sun protective clothing, dealing with sports activities and photoprotective measures in schools. The virtual events have received extremely positive feedback both in terms of content and utility for patients, as well as the convenience of the virtual format. To supplement these activities, we have also distributed twice-yearly SPS newsletters since 2020, initiated at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure our patients knew we were there for them, despite the challenges of the pandemic and, again, this was most positively received. Regarding delays in referral from primary care, patient feedback indicated that this was mainly due to not being taken seriously, possibly due to a lack of understanding of photosensitivity in community care. We are addressing this by developing a 'photosensitivity red flag' poster for distribution throughout primary care in Scotland to raise awareness of the symptoms to look out for in photosensitivity conditions. Finally, we have also embarked on creating a series of diseasespecific podcasts. These involve an informal discussion between a patient with photosensitivity and a consultant photodermatologist, with a mediator present, to raise awareness of the true impact of a range of photodermatoses on many aspects of life. We demonstrate this ongoing programme of diverse patient engagement and educational activities in photodermatology, to highlight the model of a multifaceted hybrid approach to provide additional support for patients with photodermatoses. Acknowledgments: we wish to acknowledge all our SPS patients, their families and staff for their invaluable contributions.
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Due to COVID-19 disease, children of all ages seem susceptible to COVID-19;thus, preventing children from COVID-19 disease is a serious duty. One of the preventive strategies in children is the behavior of mask-wearing. Recently, many parents have stated concerns to doctors and social media about whether masks may be harmful for their children. Incorrect news about the negative effects of face masks has also been increasing. Therefore, this letter aims at answering the most common and most important parents' worries about children's wearing face masks.
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Background: The correct use of face masks is one of the most effective ways to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections. Objectives: This study aimed to develop a valid and reliable measure to assess attitudes and behaviors related to mask use in social settings. Methods: A methodological study was conducted with 489 people aged 18 years and older. Data were collected using a sociodemographic information form and the Mask Use Scale. The data were evaluated using descriptive statistics, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, dependent-samples t-test, Pearson correlation analysis, and Cronbach's alpha internal consistency coefficients. Results: Of the 48 items in the draft scale, 10 items with item-total correlations below 0.30 were removed from the scale. All remaining items had positive and significant item-total correlation coefficients (p < 0.001). Mean scores in the test and retest showed no significant difference (p > 0.05). Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .76 for the mask use subscale, .77 for the hygiene subscale, .78 for the cloth mask subscale, .77 for the requirement subscale, .80 for the mask selection subscale, and .93 for the entire scale. Concluison: The Mask Use Scale is a valid and reliable tool and can be used to determine adults' attitudes and behavior related to the use of face masks in social settings.
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Healthcare providers' preparedness and response plans are crucial to effectively cope with infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19. These plans need to provide strategic and operational actionable insights to guarantee the availability of essential resources when needed. This study uses a simulation-optimization approach to (i) determine an optimal replenishment policy to restock personal protective equipment (PPE) items, and (ii) determine proactive demand planning for critical resources such as the number of beds, and ventilators. This model leverages a Simio-MATLAB integration to complete simulation and optimization tasks. © 2022 IEEE.
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Plastic pollution is one of the most severe environmental and human health threats. Based on a linear model, our current economic system uses plastics as a primary resource to make products such as plastic bags and bottles. However, these products are not recycled into secondary resources. Instead, they are thrown away when they become unusable. In contrast, the circular economy considers plastic waste as an opportunity to create social, economic and environmental value. This model uses plastic waste as a raw material to produce new items. This research demonstrates that the circular economy contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 17 using the results of action and observatory research within the PlastiCity project. As part of PlastiCity, partners developed new products made from recycled plastic such as recycled face shields. This chapter describes our efforts in developing a business case for recycled face shields and deploying the PlastiCity ecosystem to improve collaboration and partnerships. This study suggests that the development of an ecosystem can facilitate collaboration between stakeholders in the plastic value chain and hence contribute to implementing circular business models. This research also demonstrates how the circular economy can respond rapidly to health-related societal challenges, such as the unavailability of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continued unabatedly, many global supply chains involved in manufacturing and distributing personal protective equipment often failed to meet surge demand due to production capacity limits. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing medical mask supply chain in Taiwan was decentralized, but immediately following the outbreak in 2020, the government of Taiwan established a centralized virtual company that integrated production, distribution, and sales. We use an exploratory empirical case study to gain insights into Taiwan's innovative public-private collaboration and the relationship between collaborative activities and supply chain resilience. This paper examines how a ten-fold growth, from 1.88 million to 20 million, in the daily production of medical masks, and their equitable distribution was achieved within four months of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results indicate that the public-private collaboration through a government-led centralized supply chain mitigated the impacts of unpredictable disruptions, built supply chain resilience, and ensured mask availability to the public. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Introduction: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic put the health system in Mexico to the test. The rapid conversion to "COVID hospitals" and the difficulties already faced by public health institutions, such as the saturation of health services, lack of hospital structure and person-al protective equipment, had a negative impact on the working conditions and health of primary care physicians in COVID areas. Background: To identify the factors that affected the working conditions and health of physicians who worked in COVID areas in public health institutions in Mexico. Methods: A bibliographic review was carried out, six different databases were consulted, readings on the discussion of occupational health of physicians in COVID areas were included, and nine articles were selected. Results: The working conditions were described as precarious: lack of personal protective equipment, working hours of more than ten hours, and absence of a contract. In terms of health, this group of professionals was found to suffer from stress, anxiety, fear and anguish. Conclusions: The participation and cooperation of physicians, health authorities, governmental sectors, involved institutions and associations, the involvement of public policies, the health system and the society can join efforts to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections, as well as the rate of contagion and comorbidities. All these actions will make it possible to re-duce the stress levels and work overload of health professionals.