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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage and disproportionately affect BIPOC, we keep count of the death toll around the world, in the U.S., in our own communities and in our own families. How can we have a "wish to live,” while so many around us die? Does a space exist between fateful (faithful) optimism present in Aretha Franklin's, "Mary Don't You Weep?” and the ever-present power structure, that as Reverend Al Sharpton noted, has always had its knee on our necks? More concretely, how do we reconcile what Aisha Durham discusses as "weathering and wounded,” as we sit in the space of being both and not wanting to endure much more. This piece articulates some of the conversations that we have stumbled upon, worked through and raged against from the space of our collective homes and fatigued spirits. It addresses notions of Afro-Pessimism and the intersection of Black Feminist Theory, the role that grief plays in Black Feminist praxis, the role of Diaspora in the historical imagination, and asks the question, "Did COVID and the state-sanctioned killings of Black people make us Afro-Pessimists?”
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Background: Telemedicine is the delivery of Health Care Services using information and communication technologies. Most models of Telemedicine in developed countries involve high-cost infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions have highlighted the importance and the necessity of an economically viable model of telemedicine for resource-poor countries like India. Methods: We conducted a prospective study to assess the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of low-cost model of Telemedicine services for regular follow-up as well as for triaging. A combination of WhatsApp/email using smartphones and Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system was used to provide Telemedicine services. At the end of the e-consult, the patient/ parents were asked to rate their experience on a scale of 0 to 10. Results: A total of 155 children and 865 consults were included. The mean age of the children was 8.5 years. Forty-four consultations were given to 12 (7.7%) International patients. Thirty-eight (24.5%) patients were seen for the first time via Teleconsultation and the remaining 117 (75.5%) were follow-up patients. The most common diagnosis was Nephrotic Syndrome (51.6%) followed by Chronic Kidney Disease (21.9%), Urinary Tract Infection (10.3%), Kidney-transplant follow-up (6.4%), Acute Glomerulonephritis (3.8%), and Acute Kidney Injury (2.6%). Twenty-three patients were advised admission after the Teleconsultation and the remaining 122 children were advised follow-up e-consults. The mean satisfaction score reported for e-consults was 9.4. Conclusion: Our low-cost Telemedicine model offered a viable modality for delivery of Paediatric Nephrology Services during lockdown period and can be replicated by pediatricians practicing other subspecialties as well.
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Most of the research on migration has focused on the scale and effects of people exodus from rural to urban areas rather than on rural areas as recipients of migrants, especially foreign migrants. This study aims to analyse employment of foreigners in agriculture and food processing sectors of selected developed countries, with particular emphasis on the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. It first reviews existing literature on ideas and theories about human migration through the history of economic and social thought. This theoretical background lies in the economic, social, health, demographic and integrated theories and concepts of migration that help understand the pull and push causes as well consequences of current international migration processes. Next, this article presents some facts about the employment of foreigners in agriculture and food processing in developed countries traditionally affected by severe labour shortages in these sectors, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on employers and workers. The results reveal that labour shortages and labour exploitation are amongst the most frequent and relatively consistent issues associated with immigrant workers in the agri-food industry. During COVID-19, these problems were exacerbated and complemented with the workers' health risk due to coronavirus clusters on farms and at food-processing plants.
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The COVID-19 pandemic induced a global recession and tipped millions into extreme poverty. In low-income countries, Russia's invasion of Ukraine is expected to further deepen poverty and worsen food insecurity. This article describes the wide range of socio-economic impacts which these overlapping crises are having on the various world regions and calls on the international community to take common, determined action.
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INTRODUCTION: Knowledge of local and regional antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is crucial in clinical decision-making, especially with critically ill patients. The aim of this study was to investigate the rate and pattern of infections in valvular heart disease patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) at the Salam Centre for Cardiac Surgery in Khartoum, Sudan (run by EMERGENCY NGO). METHODS: This is a retrospective, observational study from a single, large international referral centre (part of a Regional Programme), which enrolled patients admitted to the ICU between 1 January and 31 December 2019. Data collected for each patient included demographic data, operating theatre/ICU data and microbiological cultures. RESULTS: Over the study period, 611 patients were enrolled (elective surgery n = 491, urgent surgery n = 34 and urgent medical care n = 86). The infection rate was 14.2% and turned out to be higher in medical than in surgical patients (25.6% vs. 12.4%; p = 0.002; OR = 2.43) and higher in those undergoing urgent surgery than those undergoing elective (29.4% vs. 11.2%; p = 0.004; OR = 3.3). Infection was related to (a) SOFA score (p < 0.001), (b) ICU length of stay (p < 0.001) and (c) days from ICU admission to OT (p = 0.003). A significant relationship between the type of admission (elective, urgent surgery or medical) and the presence of infections was found (p < 0.001). The mortality rate was higher among infected patients (infected vs. infection-free: 10.3% vs. 2.1%; p < 0.001; OR = 5.38; 95% CI: 2.16-13.4; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Hospital-acquired infections remain a relevant preventable cause of mortality in our particular population.
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COVID-19 pandemic has created a severe impact on all aspects of life over the last two years. Bangladesh, a third-world developing country, also had to face the consequences of the pandemic. As time passed, people from all lines of works had to find their ways to survive in this situation. This study focuses on the impact on Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industries of Bangladesh due to the 2019-ncov (Novel Coronavirus 2019) and highlights the adaptation of these FMCG Supply Chains to the "new normal". Our study indicates that the FMCG sector has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic due to several difficulties. To overcome these problems, industry leaders have taken several initiatives prioritizing workers' health, keeping customer demand in mind. In addition, the Government also launched long-term loan schemes to help the industries fight back the situation. To accomplish this research, secondary data analysis based on previous articles, documents, news articles, various company annual reports and researches in the relevant field has been reviewed and analyzed. © 2022 ACM.
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This article reports recent data on international trade, such as trends in World food import bill, import volumes, and its decomposing changes. Recent trends in agricultural exports and food export volumes in both developed and developing countries were also presented.
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During this uncertain time while the whole globe faces the pandemic of COVID-19, humanity has become aware of the importance of agriculture in general, as well as of food selfsufficiency. Regardless of huge development in all industry sectors, agriculture is still affected by several adversities and faces the requirements regarding the sustainable eco-system, climate changes, biodiversity, production innovations. Assuming the lack of financial resources is one of the major problems agriculturists face, as well as one that could impact the resolving of other problems, finding a proper source of funding could be crucial for agriculturists, whether individuals (families) or cooperatives. The EU funds have a great role in that context, assuring the vital resources through the common agricultural policy. Standing on the transition from one financial perspective (2014-2020) to another (2021-2027), a fresh capital seeks proposals that are in line with the set objectives. This paper aims to present the success of chosen countries in withdrawing the EU funds from 2014 to 2020 and the analysis among those countries with special emphasis on the EAGF and EAFRD. It also gives some possible areas in agriculture which should be given due attention since they are acceptable for funding. The manuscript deals with available funds intended for agriculture and covers the main objectives of the EU common agricultural policy. To present the former allocations, but also with an emphasis on the new ones, a comparative analysis has been conducted on a sample of 10 selected central and south-east European countries. To get an insight on the allocations from the most significant funds aimed at agriculture, the analysis has been conducted for 6 years from the last financial perspective, as well as for the new 2021-2027 financial perspective. The analysis has been conducted using both absolute and relative values. Research results show that developing countries benefit a lot from the EU cohesion policy and there is a room for further improvements in national agricultural policies.
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During the pandemic, stress is caused by the imbalance between the individual's perception and external environmental demands. Studies have shown that psychological stress is closely related to anxiety, depression, and physical conditions such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer. Students at universities face many stressors, including the volatile environment, lifestyle changes, academic burdens and interpersonal relationships, all of which can lead to significant psychological dysfunction. In particular, they are vulnerable to the stress that most university students in developing countries have to cope with, for themselves and their families, to fight the Covid-19 infection. The sample of this descriptive cross-sectional study consisted of 141 undergraduate health science students from Trakya University in the north west region of Turkey. The study was conducted April 2021 to July 2021. The sociodemographic characteristics of the university students were evaluated. Health sciences students, from the perspective of the Turkish cultural context;we identified the stress levels that have been elevated due to Covid-19. In addition, from the high perceived stress levels due to Covid-19, which is associated with anxiety and depression;We have seen that school success is negatively affected in university students. Many issues related to health science students have been discussed many times in the literature. However, our current research in a goal-oriented context;"students who will work with infections and may even encounter new pandemics";self-regulation and an approach that jointly develops the solution.
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As the whole country is aware of a virus which changed and put both developed and developing country into a trouble. The most popular and deadly virus is the novel corona virus which made the whole world stay in our home. Knowing the seriousness of this virus our government took various initiatives and imposed various rules and regulations to protect the life of all the human beings. As a result there occurred a lockdown which shut all the industries, factories, transportation between states, countries and this resulted in the huge loss to government as well the private sectors. Almost all the sectors like aviation, banking, defence and security all were put into a bubble with no other alternate and with an only motto to save human life. The impact of novel corona virus and its impact on Indian economy and who it affected the growth of the nation in gross domestic product (GDP).
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This paper reviews the emerging literature on food systems and food supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic. Four themes are explored: consumer demand and retail market effects;supply-side shocks;food system and supply chain resilience;and developing countries and food insecurity. The effect of demand-side shocks is explored, including the sudden shift in expenditures from food service to food retail. Longer-run structural changes in the food retailing landscape include the expansion of online food delivery. The effect of supply-side shocks is examined extensively in the literature, including short-run adaptations as supply chains pivoted from the food service sector to food retail, along with supply-side disruptions due to labour force outbreaks of COVID-19. Resilience is a common theme in the literature, at both food system and food supply chain levels. While a variety of perspectives are offered, most assessments point to a surprising degree of resilience and adaptability, while identifying the points of vulnerability. The pandemic increased food insecurity through the effect on household incomes from reduced labour mobility, lockdowns, and a contraction in economic activity. These effects were particularly prominent among vulnerable populations in developing countries. Significant attention has been paid to the short- and medium-run effects of the pandemic on food systems, with further research needed to understand any longer-term structural changes that may arise. The COVID-19 pandemic offers lessons for the robustness of food systems and the importance of timely, well-informed policy responses in preparation for future global shocks.
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This paper aims at estimating the economic vulnerability of developing countries to disruptions in global value chains (GVCs) due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It uses trade in value-added data for a sample of 12 developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America to assess their dependence on demand and supply from the three main hubs China, Europe and North America. Using first estimates on COVID-19-induced changes in final demand and production, we obtain an early projection of the GDP effect during the lockdowns that runs through trade in GVCs. Our estimates reveal that adverse demand-side effects reduce GDP up to 5.4 per cent, and that collapsing foreign supply puts an even larger share of countries' GDP at risk. Overall, we confirm conjecture that the countries most affected are those highly integrated in GVCs (South-East Asian countries). We argue, however, that these countries also benefit from a well-diversified portfolio of foreign suppliers and demand destinations, possibly leading to a cushioning of economic downswing because COVID-19 stroke major hubs at different times.
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We are still in the early stage of 21st century and the two pandemics Spanish flu and COVID-19 are the presentative pandemics in 20th and 21st centuries, respectively. The Spanish flu pandemic raged from 1918 to 1920, just after World War I. It was the first influenza pandemic worldwide;since then, humankind has experienced many such pandemics. Spanish flu is caused by a virus. However, since virology was not well established at that time, the new clinical system was needed to cope with "unknown pathogen";during the pandemic, high infection rates were recorded, but our predecessors managed to somehow tackle the situation. With respect to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, both the virus and its genome were clarified quickly. Nonetheless, it has turned out to be quite an intriguing infectious disease, with the high rates in developed countries, such as the US and those in Europe, which have aging societies, and low rates in developing countries such as those in Africa, where the population is largely young. Here, I compared and discuss the two pandemics, COVID-19 and Spanish flu.
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On top of a decade of exacerbated disaster loss, exceptional global heat, retreating ice and rising sea levels, humanity and our food security face a range of new and unprecedented hazards, such as megafires, extreme weather events, desert locust swarms of magnitudes previously unseen, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Agriculture underpins the livelihoods of over 2.5 billion people, most of them in low-income developing countries, and remains a key driver of development. At no other point in history has agriculture been faced with such an array of familiar and unfamiliar risks, interacting in a hyperconnected world and a precipitously changing landscape. And agriculture continues to absorb a disproportionate share of the damage and loss wrought by disasters. Their growing frequency and intensity, along with the systemic nature of risk, are upending people's lives, devastating livelihoods, and jeopardizing our entire food system. This report makes a powerful case for investing in resilience and disaster risk reduction, especially data gathering and analysis for evidence informed action, to ensure agriculture's crucial role in achieving the future we want.
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Rising global hunger in recent years has prompted calls for a broad reckoning over what is wrong with global food systems. Our changing climate has added urgency to the crisis. Many experts warn that our current agricultural practices are undermining the resource base - soil, water, seeds, climate - on which future food production depends. Now the global COVID-19 pandemic threatens to further exacerbate food insecurity for many of the world's poor. Africa is projected to overtake South Asia by 2030 as the region with the greatest number of hungry people. An alarming 250 million people in Africa now suffer from "undernourishment", the U.N. term for chronic hunger. If policies do not change, experts project that number to soar to 433 million in 2030. A growing number of farmers, scientists, and development experts now advocate a shift from high-input, chemical-intensive agriculture to low-input ecological farming. They are supported by an impressive array of new research documenting both the risks of continuing to follow our current practices and the potential benefits of a transition to more sustainable farming. The new initiatives have been met with a chorus of derision from an unsurprising group of commentators, many associated with agribusiness interests. They dismiss agroecology as backward, a nostalgic call for a return to traditional peasant production methods which they say have failed to feed growing populations in developing countries. For such critics, the future is innovation and innovation is technology: the kinds of commercial high-yield seeds and inorganic fertilizers associated with the Green Revolution. This paper explores the ways in which this innovation narrative flips reality on its head, presenting Green Revolution practices of the past as if they were new innovations. It does so through the lens of the battle for Africa's food future, examining the disappointing results from the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA). In contrast, the real innovations in Africa are coming from soil scientists, ecologists, nutritionists, and farmers themselves who actively seek alternatives to approaches that have been failing small-scale farmers for years. A wide range of farmer organizations, scientists, and advocates offer a broad and diverse array of ecologically-based initiatives based on sound science. These are proving far more innovative and effective, raising productivity, crop and nutritional diversity, and incomes while reducing farmers' costs and government outlays.
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The pandemic of COVID 19 having spread to more than 200 countries across the globe it is time to rethink strategies to contain the spread of the disease. The virus being novel and the natural history still incompletely understood the world seems to be in hit with the panic button. Seeing no race, gender, social class the virus has affected both developed and developing countries alike. However, to understand if existing measures followed are going in the right direction, we need an understanding of the existing situation in countries across as well as our own. The study attempts to analyze the trend patterns around the world especially focusing on China, US, the neighbouring countries of India and then looks into the patterns of COVID 19 in India.
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The screening center enforces international protocols for safeguarding the health of both patients and staff. This means that before each consult, residents don sterilized surgical caps, masks, goggles and gloves;changing these after each patient;and taking care to properly remove and dispose of these in separate, sterile receptacles for each item. Standard surgical hand-washing techniques are used and exams are performed at a distance of three feet, with the patient's back to the resident or specialist. After each screening, all equipment and the exam room are disinfected. As the world continues to struggle against the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 evidence from a variety of contexts shows that certain factors are fundamental in the fight against this common enemy, including: the political will to prioritize public health, community participation and cooperation in prevention measures, and the early case detection that leads to timely treatment. With an accessible universal system rooted in community-based, primary health care and deep reserves of trained and experienced health professionals, Cuba was better prepared than many developing countries when COVID-19 struck-despite material scarcity, sometimes acute. From the beginning of the outbreak, time-saving efforts to seek out every suspected case were made possible by the willingness of thousands of trained medical students, with previous experience, to conduct total-population active screening. Honing their skills in the field, based on humanistic principles and ethical commitment to population and individual health, bodes well for their futures and that of their patients.
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Online learning is an educational process which takes place over the internet as a form of distance education where the learners and the instructors are not in the same place. Due to COVID-19 pandemic circumstances, online learning played an indispensable role in education programs, where most of the educational institute shifted towards online learning platform to up keep the academic activities. For a developing country like India, the use of ICT in education process still poses many challenges and it is not clear about its effectiveness. The research study focuses on agricultural students' opinion about online learning method which was conducted using social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic situation. For the purpose, an online survey was conducted among 60 randomly selected undergraduate students who had attended the online classes. The results indicated that majority of the students (91.70%) preferred to use smart phone for online learning. Most of them viewed that live classes with quiz at the end of each class helps in effective learning. Majority of the students opined that more interaction during online classes makes it interesting, whereas network connectivity related issues in rural areas makes it a challenge for students to make use of online learning initiatives. However, in agricultural education system, many courses are practical oriented, conducting practical classes in online mode may not be possible. Hence, there is a need to device a hybrid mode of learning. The results of the study can be helpful in making online learning more effective.
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OBJECTIVE: To explore the pandemic situation of COVID-19 among global health care workers, and to compare the effect of infection control and prevention methods among health workers in various countries. METHODS: Infection rates of health care workers in 5 developed and 5 developing G20 countries were calculated. The spatial, temporal, population distribution and risk factors for COVID-19 prevalence among health care workers were analyzed, and the data were compared between China and other countries. RESULTS: There are differences in the spatial and temporal distribution of health care worker infection between developed and developing countries. The infection rates of health care workers in 5 developed countries are generally lower than those in 5 developing countries. Mainland China's health care worker infection rate did not exceed 0.040% which is much lower than those of the 10 G20 countries selected in this study. CONCLUSION: Global medical staff are at risk of infection and China has achieved good results in infection prevention and control. China's experience is worth learning from, and the prevention and control work of medical workers around the world needs to be strengthened.
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Since mass COVID-19 testing may be challenging for resource-scarce settings, effective disease management in developing countries need to resolve to different measures, which can be identified and prioritised by understanding health seeking behavior of a country's population. As the common practice of many developing nations' citizens is contacting local pharmacists and nonofficial health providers firstly when having health problems, these local health gatekeepers should be involved as first point of case detection, while accurate information regarding COVID-19 prevention and control can also be delivered through them in timely manner. Utilising local health gatekeepers has indeed been at the core of current success story of Vietnam in COVID-19 management. One of the examples of how understanding health seeking behavior of population can result in effective strategies for detecting and controlling SARS-COV-2 infections is the case of Vietnam. A low middle income country with health system facing numerous constrains, Vietnam has so far managed to keep the number of SARS-COV-2 confirmed infected cases at 382 and no mortality as of 18 July 2020, through effective utilization of the network of nonofficial, community-based health facilities and pharmacies, based on the knowledge that majority of the Vietnamese population would prefer going to these local, nonofficial health workforce when having health problems. They believe that current success The story will encourage similar resources around the world to pay more attention health-seeking behaviors of their populations and their impact on disease management when developing and implementing measures to monitor and detect COVID-19.