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Education plays a critical role in promoting preventive behaviours against the spread of pandemics. In Japan, handwashing education in primary schools was positively correlated with preventive behaviours against COVID-19 transmission for adults in 2020, during the early stages of COVID-19. The following year, the Tokyo Olympics were held in Japan, and a state of emergency was declared several times. Public perceptions of and risks associated with the pandemic changed drastically with the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines. We re-examined whether the effect of handwashing education on preventive behaviours persisted by covering a longer period of the COVID-19 pandemic than previous studies. A total of 26 surveys were conducted nearly once a month for 30 months from March 2020 (the early stage of COVID-19) to September 2022 in Japan. By corresponding with the same individuals across surveys, we comprehensively gathered data on preventive behaviours during this period. In addition, we asked about the handwashing education they had received in their primary school. We used the data to investigate how and to what degree school education is associated with pandemic-mitigating preventive behaviours. We found that handwashing education in primary school is positively associated with behaviours such as handwashing and mask wearing as a COVID-19 preventive measure but not related to staying at home. We observed a statistically significant difference in handwashing between adults who received childhood handwashing education and those who did not. This difference persisted throughout the study period. In comparison, the difference in mask wearing between the two groups was smaller but still statistically significant. Furthermore, there was no difference in staying at home between them. Childhood hygiene education has resulted in individuals engaging in handwashing and mask wearing to cope with COVID-19. Individuals can form sustainable development-related habits through childhood education.
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PurposeThis study evaluates the impact of online menus and perceived convenience of online food ordering on consumer purchase intention and shows how a desire for food creates a relationship between an online menu and a customer's purchase intention. Suggestions for management are proposed to design an effective menu to improve business performance in the competitive market in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThe paper follows a quantitative method. Quantitative research aims to analyze and critically evaluate the research question(s) to discover new factors.FindingsFindings indicate a positive relationship between menu visual appeal (MV), menu informativeness (MI), desire for food (DF), the perceived convenience (PC) of ordering food online and intention to purchase (PI). The attractiveness of images and information is a significant factor affecting diners' desire to eat, while the demand for food and the convenience of ordering food online are also factors affecting purchase intention.Practical implicationsThe study confirms the importance of online menus to purchase intention. Economically, when supply and demand are reasonable, the market is stable and technology develops. In terms of social, hygiene, attractiveness and price factors, it is helpful to have an overview. Research is the premise for further studies with factors from menu to customer trust.Originality/valueThe study provides a solid foundation for further studies on restaurant menu elements as well as a new perspective on how restaurants improve their dishes.
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Bu çalışmada pandemi sürecinde devletin rolü ve işlevleri Fransa ve Türkiye örnekleri üzerinden karşılaştırmalı olarak ele alınmaktadır. Kovid-19 pandemisinin kamu sağlığı güvenliği açısından yarattığı aciliyet, şok ve kriz ortamı, kamusal otoritelerin önlem alma pratiklerini dönüştürürken her ülkenin, sınırlarını ve güvenlik politikalarını yeniden gözden geçirmesine yol açmıştır. 1980'lerden itibaren refah politikalarından rekabetçi politikalara geçiş, ulusal sınırların esnekleşip uluslararası sermayeye açılması;küreselleşme ve kozmopolitleşme yönünde güçlü bir irade olduğu sanısını yaratmıştır. Ancak pandeminin yarattığı koşullara verilen tepki bunun aksi yönde sonuç vermiştir: Korumacı ekonomi politikalarının, gelir dağıtıcı yaklaşımının yanı sıra ulusal sınırların ve milliyetçi reflekslerin yükselişine şahit olunmuştur. Bu çalışmada bu gelişmelerin pandemi dönemi ile sınırlı ve geçici bir refleks olmayıp post-pandemik toplumsal koşullarda da süreceği iddia edilmekte ve bu süreci anlamak için devletin dönüşümü üzerinden bir okuma önerilmektedir. Çalışmada, hukuki bilgi ve belgelerin yanı sıra aktörlerin açıklamaları ve basına yansıyan haberler incelenmekte ve bahsi geçen dönüşümün sebepleri, mahiyeti ve olası sonuçları betimleyici ve yorumlayıcı yöntemle ele alınmaktadır.Alternate :In this study, the role and functions of the state in the pandemic process are discussed comparatively through the examples of France and Turkey. The urgency, shock, and crisis environment created by the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of public health security have led each country to reconsider its borders and security policies while transforming the precautionary practices of public authorities. Since the 1980s, it has been assumed that there was a strong will for the transition from welfare policies to competitive policies and the flexibility of national borders for strengthening globalization and cosmopolitanism. However, the reaction to the conditions created by the pandemic resulted in the opposite direction: The rise of national borders and nationalist reflexes, as well as the protectionist economic policies and income distribution approach, were witnessed. In this study, it is claimed that these developments will not be a temporary reflex limited to the pandemic period but will continue in post-pandemic social conditions. In addition, it will be suggested that an analysis of the transformation of the state in a historical process is crucial to understand this process. In addition to the legal information and documents, the explanations of the actors and the news will be examined, and the reasons, nature, and possible consequences of the transformation will be discussed with a descriptive and interpretive method.
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The beginning of 2020 was an extraordinary event for the whole world. This is because almost all parts of the world are hit by the Covid-19 outbreak which causes unrest and has a big impact on every field. The COVID-19 pandemic makes people have to maintain their health by washing their hands, maintaining distance, not crowding, and maintaining cleanliness (Abidin, et al., 2021). Buhungo (2012) explained that environmental cleanliness is a condition where the environment is free from various kinds of dirt and disease that can cause losses to the community, both from activities and the environment. The condition of the COVID-19 pandemic forces every community to maintain cleanliness, both their personal hygiene and also the cleanliness of their environment. To provide assistance to the community, especially in the village of Kedisan Kintamani, the Faculty of Economics and BEM-FEB Universitas Pendidikan Nasional (UNDIKNAS) Denpasar collaborate in holding community social activities which are also under the auangan of LP2M and the Dean of FEB UNDIKNAS. The community social activities were held with the theme "Economy Social Care". This activity aims to help the community around Kedisan Kintamani village in maintaining the cleanliness of their surrounding environment. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Social Science (2720-9938) is the property of Ridwan Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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One of the most significant and well-publicized prevention practises for Covid 19 is hand cleanliness. Face masks and social withdrawal are useless without good hand hygiene. The healthcare professionals can only intervene and raise awareness to enhance the public's hand hygiene practises after they are aware of the public's perceptions of and barriers to hand hygiene. A private dental facility had 150 outpatients participate in this cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Ten questions addressing various facets of hand hygiene and perceived obstacles made up the survey. The information from Google Forms was then imported into SPSS Version 15 using Excel. Data were presented as frequencies and percentages after the chi square test, and a p value of 0.05 or less was regarded as statistically significant.. In our study, 92.62 percent of outpatients at a private facility said that they continue to take measures against COVID19. 83.89% of our patients agreed that good hand hygiene habits are crucial for preventing COVID19. Whereas 38.26% of outpatients claimed to only wash their hands for 30 seconds, 33.56% of outpatients claimed to wash their hands for a full minute. In contrast to the 48.32 percent who said hand sanitizer is best and important for hand hygiene, 51.68 percent of outpatients said soap and water is best and essential for hand hygiene. According to the study's findings, the participants had a reasonable understanding of hand hygiene and its significance. Yet, there is a need for greater awareness of the finishing details on touch surfaces. Thus, it is advised that media-based propaganda and awareness campaigns have a positive impact and should be kept up, with a stronger focus on the finer points. © 2023 IEEE.
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PurposeBetween 2020 and spring 2022, health safety was the new pressing concern among the risks at major events. It seemed that it – respectively hygiene as part of infection control – was as important as event safety if an event in Germany was to be approved. Problems aroused in terms of an equal implementation in practice. This article therefore addresses how safety and hygiene aspects interacted during event planning and implementation phases.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on qualitative data from a German research project. They use results from eleven semi-structured expert interviews and four field observations at major events. One guiding assumption in the content analysis is that there are major interrelations between event and health safety concepts, which become visible during planning and the implementation of event-related technical, organisational and personal measures.FindingsThe empirical data shows that hygiene is not perceived as an integral part of event safety, but rather as a disconnected pillar beside the "classical” event safety. This is reflected in an imbalanced attention as well as in separate, disintegrated concepts. This disconnectedness leaves room for unwanted interplays between event and health safety as well as potential legitimacy facades.Originality/valueMost studies to date focus on the effectiveness of hygiene concepts and impacts of COVID-19 on the event sector in general without taking a closer look at interactions between event safety and health safety.
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Background: Hand washing is vital to prevent the spread of the agent from person to person during epidemic periods and to reduce the impact of the pandemic on people's lives, health, livelihoods and health system. Objective: This study was conducted to examine the hand hygiene behavior of adults during the COVID-19 pandemic period. Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was completed between 15 October 2020 and 30 November 2020 via Google Forms with 627 adult individuals. The data were collected with a questionnaire form created by the researchers as a result of the relevant literature review. Results: During the pandemic period, 91.4% of the participants stated that the habit of hand washing increased. It was observed that handwashing status of participants during the pandemic process changed in terms of age group, gender and those who considerg hand hygiene important in combating the epidemic (p<.05). When handwashing behavior of the participants during the COVID-19 pandemic was examined, it was found that only 14.5% of the participants washed their hands before entering a toilet. Nearly all of the participants (96.7%) stated that they wash their hands after using a toilet, 92.7% after coming from outside, 84.1% after shopping, and more than half (52.2%) after meeting with friends or relatives. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, awareness of adult individuals about the importance of proper hand hygiene has changed. Handwashing behaviors of individuals in the society change during the pandemic period and this requires the attention of health professionals in particular. © 2023, Dokuz Eylul University. All rights reserved.
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The spread of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has made online learning more common worldwide than ever before. However, recent research showed that higher-education students in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) were exposed to cyber threats and attacks during online learning that affected their attitudes toward online learning, despite a high level of cybersecurity infrastructure and digital capabilities in KSA universities. There were several calls for enhancing higher-education students' cyber-hygiene awareness to improve their cybersecurity behaviours, develop healthy cyber-hygiene habits, and ensure positive attitudes toward online learning amid COVID-19. The current research developed an integrated cyber-hygiene model for improving this behaviour entitled the quadruple "E" approach (QEA), which includes four stages: educate (E1), explore (E2), execute (E3), and evaluate (E4). The research compares students' cyber-hygiene behaviour and attitude toward online learning pre- and post-implementation of QEA. A sample of 446 bachelor students distributed between females and males in four public KSA universities was adopted during the academic year 2021. The results showed statistically significant differences in students' cyber-hygiene behaviour and attitude toward online learning pre- and post-adoption of the QEA. Students showed more positive cyber-hygiene behaviour and attitudes toward online learning post-QEA adoption than pre-QEA implementation. In addition, female students have more positive behaviour and attitudes than their male counterparts post the adoption of QEA. The current research stimulates positive cyber-hygiene behaviour and enhances attitudes toward online learning in universities, which have implications for the sustainability of KSA higher education, particularly in relation to SDGs 4 and 10.
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Introduction: taught The most important lesson COVID-19 pandemic is basic hygiene practices. It is important to understand hygiene practices among patients during first wave, when meager knowledge about the management of COVID-19 was available. To assess the adopted behavioral practices Objective: and predictors for COVID-19 infection among screened individuals during the 1st wave. A cross- Method: sectional study included COVID-19 screened individuals attending COVID -19 screening OPD at Mumbai. Total 950 participants were interviewed telephonically using convenient sampling method. Logistic regression nanalysis was performed. A total 950 respondents participated, with median age of36 Results: years (range:18yrs to 83 years). Respondents, RTPCR positive or quarantined were 36%. Analysis concludes that practices of having seen or read about hand hygiene, face hygiene, maintaining social distancing, cough etiquettes and enforcement of strict lockdown were significantly associated with lower risk of COVID-19 infection (p value <0.05). Hygiene Practices were followed correctly by more than 50% of this Conclusion: cohort however few individuals were able to answer knowledge related questions correctly. Simple hygiene practices like face hygiene, cough etiquettes, social distancing, strict following of lockdown and having seen or read information on hand washing were predictors of COVID-19 infection. The study highlights the need for quick and rigorous attempts to educate people during a state of a health emergency.
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To summarize thepractice and experience of targeted food hygiene security measures in a major field activity of the army in order to provide references for diverse tasks. Considering the characteristics of heavy activity, field operations and the influence of COVID-19, a series of support measures related to food hygiene surveillance were strengthened. The first measure was review of recipes, health management and training of employees, procurement and storage of raw materials, warehouse management, processing and manufacturing management, disinfection of tableware, as well as food sample retention. Secondly, the control points that probably cause spread of COVID-19 in the phase of food service industry were analyzed, then relevant supervision and guidance were carried out from the aspects of employees and diners, foods of cold chain logistics, environment and emergency response plan. Finally, in order to assure the safety of food processing and crowd-gathered diet in the field, the following measures were guided to adopted including selecting the site of cooking and dining properly, cleaning the environment, making dishes using pure water and semi-manufactured foodstuff, keeping food sanitation in the course of transport and dinning, as well as supervising the robot machines for cooking automatically. The main experiences were listed as follows: promoting food safety awareness of the principal and the employees of the canteen, enhancing legal enforcement capacity and technical capacity of health supervisors, focusing on new risks related to food safety as well as reinforcing the management of health supervisors and employees in the field.
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Introduction: Respiratory infections including Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection spread through droplet infections. Hence standard precautionary measures like handwashing and use of masks are essential to prevent transmission of these infections in healthcare setting. Aim: To determine the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on awareness level of resident doctors on prevention of spread of infective respiratory secretions. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among two subsequent batches (year 2019-20 and 2020-21) of resident doctors at a medical college hospital, from February 2020 to September 2020. The 2019-2020 batch of resident doctors worked as residents from March 2019 to March 2020 and were considered as pre-COVID-19 batch. The 2020-2021 batch of resident doctors had their training period from April 2020 to April 2021 and were considered the COVID-19 batch. A pretested semi-structured questionnaire consisting of 14 questions to evaluate the awareness on prevention of spread of infective respiratory secretions was administered. The responses were evaluated, marks awarded and summated. Results: The response rate of pre-COVID-19 batch was 85% and that of COVID-19 batch was 86%. The mean (standard deviation) score obtained by the COVID-19 batch was 9.91 +/- 3.42 which was significant higher than that obtained by the pre-COVID-19 batch which was 7.1 +/- 1.83. The score obtained by COVID-19 batch for 11/14 questions was significantly higher compared to the pre-COVID-19 batch. Conclusion: A significant improvement was seen in the knowledge level in prevention of spread of infective respiratory secretions among resident doctors after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Objective This S2k guideline of the German Society for Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG) and the German Society of Perinatal Medicine (DGPM) contains consensus-based recommendations for the care and treatment of pregnant women, parturient women, women who have recently given birth, and breastfeeding women with SARS-CoV-2 infection and their newborn infants. The aim of the guideline is to provide recommendations for action in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic for professionals caring for the above-listed groups of people. Methods The PICO format was used to develop specific questions. A systematic targeted search of the literature was carried out using PubMed, and previously formulated statements and recommendations issued by the DGGG and the DGPM were used to summarize the evidence. This guideline also drew on research data from the CRONOS registry. As the data basis was insufficient for a purely evidence-based guideline, the guideline was compiled using an S2k-level consensus-based process. After summarizing and presenting the available data, the guideline authors drafted recommendations in response to the formulated PICO questions, which were then discussed and voted on. Recommendations Recommendations on hygiene measures, prevention measures and care during pregnancy, delivery, the puerperium and while breastfeeding were prepared. They also included aspects relating to the monitoring of mother and child during and after infection with COVID-19, indications for thrombosis prophylaxis, caring for women with COVID-19 while they are giving birth, the presence of birth companions, postnatal care, and testing and monitoring the neonate during rooming-in or on the pediatric ward.Copyright © 2023. Thieme. All rights reserved.
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Based on a participatory study design, this article describes how a group of family members of people deprived of liberty (PDL) experienced the COVID-19 control measures implemented in Mexico's prisons. We conducted 28 in-depth interviews and analyzed them using ATLAS.ti. We found that the measures implemented in Mexican prisons to avoid the spread of COVID-19 focused mainly on suspension of visitation and PDL confinement. The isolation imposed on PDL impacted their living conditions, making them more vulnerable to contracting COVID-19 due to lack of access to essential services, food, and hygiene supplies. Visit restrictions and PDL isolation also impacted PDL relatives' health and socioeconomic conditions. Our findings indicate that the consequences of COVID-19 control actions in Mexican prisons differ according to the gender and jurisdiction of PDL. Women in federal prisons were more isolated, while those in local ones were more deprived of basic supplies. Imprisoned women's isolation has especially severe effects on the mental and physical health of their elderly parents and children. The results show how the measures adopted to control COVID-19 outbreaks in Mexican prisons have exacerbated the preexisting systemic violence experienced by PDL and their families and how they have failed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in these settings. These findings provide support for the health-informed penal reform of Mexican prisons.
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Introduction: Hand Hygiene is an essential method to preclude infections in all healthcare environments. Education is essential to advance hand hygiene performance amongst nurses and nursing students. The aim is to find out the usefulness of a self-paced online hand hygiene course on the knowledge, attitude and practice of nursing students by evaluating student performance in post-tests. Methods: The study employed a quasi-experimental design in which data were collected using two questionnaires from undergraduate nursing students and they were exposed to interactive lectures and online activities related to risks, benefits, and key recommendations for hand hygiene. The following two surveys were used, Hand Hygiene Knowledge Questionnaire for Health-Care Workers;and Handwashing Assessment Inventory. Data were collected through pre-post tests. Results: Nurses reported a significant change for the better in hand hygiene comprehension, attitude, and performance of hand hygiene behaviours. The present study revealed a significant increase in hand hygiene knowledge belief, attitude, and outcomes among university students after participating in the training intervention. The majority of participants in the pretest rated their knowledge level as poor. Conclusion: Interactive training and online learning courses on hand hygiene could be used to influence the beliefs, attitudes and behaviours of students to bring about the desired change in hand hygiene practice. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Malaysian Journal of Medicine & Health Sciences is the property of Universiti Putra Malaysia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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The New Zealand Institute of Environmental Health (NZIEH) is a nongovernmental institute for all environmental health professionals in New Zealand. In 2021, NZIEH held its annual conference as an online virtual event for the first time. One inclusion to the program was an evolving outbreak scenario delivered in installments including "injects" of information (i.e., inserts of information relevant to the scenario) that mimic the evolution of a real-life epidemiological outbreak investigation. Questions were posed to attendees related to each added information inject. The scenario also included discussion in virtual breakout rooms that allowed attendees to network and reach consensus before responding to questions;discussions were also initiated by the scenario facilitators. Details of the scenario, its aims, evaluation of success, and limitations of this approach are discussed.
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Findings revealed that hygiene is not perceived as an integral part of event safety, but rather as a disconnected pillar beside traditional event safety measures and that event and health safety measures strongly influence each other, both positively, but often also negatively as event organisers are often concerned with how to get their events successfully through the approval process rather than focussing on the safety aspects. Acknowledging the prevalence of disability in its various forms in society and highlighting the fact that existing research exploring inclusive events and disabled people as event participants focuses mostly on the challenges faced by attendees, the author offers a refreshing perspective by exploring the potential that these events have and the opportunities they bring to people with disabilities and the wider community. [...]the author embraces the argument suggested in the call for papers of this special issue that events provide opportunities to determine new paths, make the future less fearsome, allow more positive outcomes and uses this description to define what they propose to be "revolutionary futures”. In an exploratory case study inspired by a hermeneutics approach and combining different methods of data collection, the author explores the perspectives of attendees, volunteers, event staff and organisers to investigate if the event can indeed create revolutionary futures.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced governments across the globe to take infection-control actions by and large unforeseen and unforeseeable in their constitutional frameworks. Several measures forcing restrictions on travel, business operations, labour, healthcare and/or the education system have characterised public policy in most of them. A fair number of those restrictions adopted in the form of government or legislature decisions are labelled as 'lockdown measures'. This article examines two recent cases ruled upon by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo (CCK or Court), whose primary aim was to pronounce on whether the Kosovo government's lockdown measures were compatible with the criteria authorising a limitation of fundamental rights. These two cases present an outstandingly activist attitude of the Court in controlling government behaviour in times of a pandemic outbreak, by primarily questioning the state's negative obligations in the face of freedom of movement, right to private and family life, and freedom of assembly;whereas positive obligations of the state with regard to the right to life and its associated right, the right to health, were neglected altogether. The article concludes that the mechanical interpretation which the two Court cases drew neither contributes to a richer substantive human rights protection, nor functionally elevates the concept of human rights in times of pandemic. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of International Journal of Human Rights is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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ContextOral health knowledge is fundamental to ensure all healthcare teams achieve holistic patient care within community settings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, dentists were redeployed to district nursing teams to support wider healthcare service demands, where patients exhibited poor oral health and deficits in staff oral health knowledge were observed.During restoration and recovery of services, three post-graduate dental trainees launched a trust wide training needs analysis amongst non-dental professionals working across Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. This identified a lack of confidence in providing mouthcare and oral health advice to patients. As a result, the team created the Oral Health Ambassador Programme, placing oral health leadership with local nursing team leads and providing the resources to champion oral health for patients in their care. Creation of an online training module supported a deficit in oral health training.Issue/ChallengeWorking within a domiciliary setting provided a unique opportunity to experience first-hand the challenges nursing teams face in providing oral health care to their patients. Leading in a novel environment meant incorporating oral health into a holistic care plan whilst overcoming the time restraints of an already stretched workforce during a global pandemic.Assessment of issue and analysis of its causesOn return to service, a trust wide oral health training needs analysis was created and distributed to all patient facing non-dental staff across BCHC. To maximise stakeholder engagement and response rate, promotion via trust publications and senior endorsement within each division was essential.The results of the training needs analysis were used to design a community specific oral health training package and led to the creation of the ‘Oral Health Ambassador' scheme. Results were disseminated alongside the launch of the training package to district nursing teams and presented regionally to 300 trust leaders at the senior leadership brief and to multidisciplinary colleagues at trust quality improvement forums.ImpactResults of the training needs analysis identified that 90% of respondents had concerns about patient oral health. Despite this, 68% had received no previous oral health training. The main barriers to provision of mouthcare and delivery of oral health advice were lack of training, time, insufficient patient cooperation and lack of equipment. A likert scale identified lower confidence levels in providing support for patients with learning difficulties or challenging behaviour and in accessing resources to support patients and families.InterventionThe Oral Health Ambassador scheme was created with the patient and healthcare provider at its core. The survey results provided key themes for learning which were used to divide the online learning into modules, making specific topics easily accessible. Dedicated time was provided to ensure training was part of the working day.To incorporate learning into their daily practice, a local lead was identified in each team as the Oral Health Ambassador, bridging the gap between dental and nursing teams and acting as a direct link for dental support within nursing teams. Oral Health Ambassadors are leading team training and raising resource awareness.Oral health boxes were created and delivered to teams providing an easily accessible wealth of oral resources for providers, patients and families. Equipment was included with information for use and adaptability for individual patient need.Involvement of stakeholders, such as patients, carers or family members:Stakeholder mapping included direct input from district nurses and Health Care Assistants. Piloting the scheme across a variety of sectors provided reassurance that the training would benefit all allied health professionals across the trust.Key MessagesCommunity healthcare staff have a unique opportunity to support oral health needs of vulnerable community patients. Redeployment provided a unique opportunity to lead in changes for oral health pr motion in the community and create local leads, Oral Health Ambassadors, that can continue to champion oral health post pandemic.Lessons learntWhilst dental teams took initial responsibility, passing this onto local leads will create key ambassadors within the teams, passionate about improving patient oral health and providing support for peers to do the same.Measurement of improvementPreliminary data taken from online learning pre-and-post knowledge survey shows an improvement in knowledge and increased confidence levels. Further feedback awaits.Strategy for improvementFollowing on from a successful launch of the scheme, the team suggests creation of an oral health mobile app would allow a wealth of up-to-date information, guidance and resources at the click of a finger.
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We retrospectively analyzed spatial factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated community deaths i.e., brought-in-dead (BID) in Lusaka, Zambia, between March and July 2020. A total of 127 cases of BID with geocoordinate data of their houses were identified during the study period. Median interquartile range (IQR) of the age of these cases was 49 (34-70) years old, and 47 cases (37.0%) were elderly individuals over 60 years old. Seventy-five cases (75%) of BID were identified in July 2020, when the total number of cases and deaths was largest in Zambia. Among those whose information regarding their underlying medical condition was available, hypertension was most common (22.9%, 8/35). Among Lusaka's 94 townships, the numbers (median, IQR) of cases were significantly larger in those characterized as unplanned residential areas compared to planned areas (1.0, 0.0-4.0 vs 0.0, 0.0-1.0;p=0.030). The proportion of individuals who require more than 30 minutes to obtain water was correlated with a larger number of BID cases per 105 population in each township (rho=0.28, p=0.006). The number of BID cases was larger in unplanned residential areas, which highlighted the importance of targeted public health interventions specifically to those areas to reduce the total number of COVID-19 associated community deaths in Lusaka. Brought-in-dead surveillance might be beneficial in monitoring epidemic conditions of COVID-19 in such high-risk areas. Furthermore, inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) might be associated with such distinct geographical distributions of COVID-19 associated community deaths in Lusaka, Zambia.Copyright © Amos Hamukale et al.
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Antimicrobial resistance is caused by and exacerbates social and health inequalities. Human and animal antimicrobial use is contributing as much as societal failures to dispose of and manage our waste and respect our environment. A multisector, multidisciplinary approach is required to resolve these issues.Copyright © ERS 2023.