ABSTRACT
The present global situation of COVID-19 pandemic has broke through regional, revolutionary, philosophical, spiritual, social, and educational barriers. By utilizing an interconnection of network, an Internet of Things enabled medical system is useful for regular monitoring of COVID-19 patients. It also aids in improving patient experience and reducing re-hospitalizations. The arrival of the IoT has effect on reducing healthcare costs and enhancing the treatment outcome of affected patients. As a result, the goal of this study is to analyze and emphasize the overall applicability of the well-established IoT concept by providing a conceptual outlay to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 Author(s).
ABSTRACT
In the last month of 2019, a new version of Corona disease was observed in Wuhan (China) which is known as Covid-19. Several models have been proposed to predict disease treatment. The SIR model is considered one of the simplest models for the prediction of pandemic disease. This means susceptible (S), infected (I), and recovered (R) populations. The SIRD model is yet another method that includes one more equation, i.e., the number of deaths (D). This paper proposed a control law for the first time to prevent the progression of the disease. The proposed control law is based on the SIRD model and uses the feedback linearization method for the Covid-19 nonlinear model. The goal of control in this model is to reduce the number of people infected with the Covid-19 and the number of deaths due to the disease. Delay in treatment of infected people and percentage of people who should be treated are investigated as two important parameters. The results show that with the treatment of infected people in the first weeks, the number of people infected decreases by 96.3% and the number of deaths by 93.6% © 2022 IEEE.
ABSTRACT
Background: During the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic it is a priority that employees need to be protected from infection risks and business activities need to be ensured. New virus variants with increased infection risks require an advanced risk strategy. Material and methods: Several standard measures, such as testing, isolation and quarantine are combined to form a novel risk strategy. Epidemiological model calculations and scientific knowledge about the course of SARS-CoV2 infectivity are used to optimize this strategy. The procedure is implemented in an easy to use calculator based on Excel. Layout in practice and results: Alternative combinations of measures and practical aspects are discussed. Examples of calculations are used to demonstrate the effect of the discussed measures. Conclusion: The quarantine calculator derived from these principles enables even nonspecialists to perform a differentiated risk analysis and to introduce optimized measures. Targeted testing routines and alternative measures ensure staff availability.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Italy was the first country to largely experience the COVID-19 epidemic among other Western countries during the so-called first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Proper management of an increasing number of home-quarantined individuals created a significant challenge for health care authorities and professionals. This was especially true when considering the importance of remote surveillance to detect signs of disease progression and consequently regulate access to hospitals and intensive care units on a priority basis. OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we report on an initiative promoted to cope with the first wave of the COVID-19 epidemic in the Spring/Summer of 2020, in the Autonomous Province of Trento, Italy. A purposefully built app named TreCovid19 was designed to provide dedicated health care staff with a ready-to-use tool for remotely monitoring patients with progressive symptoms of COVID-19, who were home-quarantined during the first wave of the epidemic, and to focus on those patients who, based on their self-reported clinical data, required a quick response from health care professionals. METHODS: TreCovid19 was rapidly developed to facilitate the monitoring of a selected number of home-quarantined patients with COVID-19 during the very first epidemic wave. The app was built on top of an existing eHealth platform, already in use by the local health authority to provide home care, with the following functionalities: (1) to securely collect and link demographic and clinical information related to the patients and (2) to provide a two-way communication between a multidisciplinary health care team and home-quarantined patients. The system supported patients to self-assess their condition and update the multidisciplinary team on their health status. The system was used between March and June 2020 in the province of Trento. RESULTS: A dedicated multidisciplinary group of health care professionals adopted the platform over a period of approximately 3 months (from March-end to June 2020) to monitor a total of 170 patients with confirmed COVID-19 during home quarantine. All patients used the system until the end of the initiative. The TreCovid19 system has provided useful insights of possible viability and impact of a technological-organizational asset to manage a potentially critical workload for the health care staff involved in the periodic monitoring of a relevant number of quarantined patients, notwithstanding its limitations given the rapid implementation of the whole initiative. CONCLUSIONS: The technological and organizational model adopted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic was developed and finalized in a relatively short period during the initial few weeks of the epidemic. The system successfully supported the health care staff involved in the periodic monitoring of an increasing number of home-quarantined patients and provided valuable data in terms of disease surveillance.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was first reported in Wuhan, China and is now a pandemic affecting over 218 countries and territories around the world. Nepal has been severely affected by it, with an increasing number of confirmed cases and casualties in recent days, even after 8 months of the first case detected in China. As of 26 November 2020, there were over 227,600 confirmed cases of COVID in Nepal with 209,435 recovered cases and 1,412 deaths. This study aimed to compile public data available from the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), Government of Nepal (GoN) and analyse the data of 104 deceased COVID-19 patients using IBM SPSS (Version 25.0). Additionally, this study also aimed to provide critical insights on response of the GoN to COVID-19 and way forward to confront unprecedented pandemic. Figures and maps were created using the Origin Lab (Version 2018) and QGIS (Version 3.10.8). Most of the reported cases were from Bagmati Province, the location of Nepal's capital city, Kathmandu. Among deceased cases, >69% of the patients were male and patients ≥54 years accounted for 67.9% (n = 923). Preliminary findings showed respiratory illness, diabetes, and chronic kidney diseases were the most common comorbid conditions associated with COVID-19 deaths in Nepal. Despite some efforts in the 8 months since the first case was detected, the government's response so far has been insufficient. Since the government eased the lockdown in July 2020, Nepal is facing a flood of COVID-19 cases. If no aggressive actions are taken, the epidemic is likely to result in significant morbidity and mortality in Nepal. The best way to curb the effect of the ongoing pandemic in a resource-limited country like Nepal is to increase testing, tracing, and isolation capacity, and to set up quality quarantine centers throughout the nation. A comprehensive health literacy campaign, quality care of older adults and those with comorbidity will also result in the effective management of the ongoing pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/prevention & control , Communicable Disease Control/organization & administration , Adolescent , Adult , Age Distribution , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/mortality , COVID-19 Vaccines , Child , Child, Preschool , Communicable Disease Control/methods , Contact Tracing , Developing Countries , Female , Government Regulation , Humans , Immunization Programs , Infant , Male , Middle Aged , Nepal/epidemiology , Quarantine , SARS-CoV-2 , Young AdultABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Most patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19) who show mild symptoms are sent home by physicians to recover. However, the condition of some of these patients becomes severe or critical as the disease progresses. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate a telemedicine model that was developed to address the challenges of treating patients with progressive COVID-19 who are home-quarantined and shortages in the medical workforce. METHODS: A telemedicine system was developed to continuously monitor the progression of home-quarantined patients with COVID-19. The system was built based on a popular social media smartphone app called WeChat; the app was used to establish two-way communication between a multidisciplinary team consisting of 7 medical workers and 188 home-quarantined individuals (including 74 confirmed patients with COVID-19). The system helped patients self-assess their conditions and update the multidisciplinary team through a telemedicine form stored on a cloud service, based on which the multidisciplinary team made treatment decisions. We evaluated this telemedicine system via a single-center retrospective study conducted at Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, China, in January 2020. RESULTS: Among 188 individuals using the telemedicine system, 114 (60.6%) were not infected with COVID-19 and were dismissed. Of the 74 confirmed patients with COVID-19, 26 (35%) recovered during the study period and voluntarily stopped using the system. The remaining 48/76 confirmed patients with COVID-19 (63%) used the system until the end of the study, including 6 patients whose conditions progressed to severe or critical. These 6 patients were admitted to hospital and were stabilized (one received extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support for 17 days). All 74 patients with COVID-19 eventually recovered. Through a comparison of the monitored symptoms between hospitalized and nonhospitalized patients, we found prolonged persistence and deterioration of fever, dyspnea, lack of strength, and muscle soreness to be diagnostic of need for hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: By continuously monitoring the changes in several key symptoms, the telemedicine system reduces the risks of delayed hospitalization due to disease progression for patients with COVID-19 quarantined at home. The system uses a set of scales for quarantine management assessment that enables patients to self-assess their conditions. The results are useful for medical staff to identify disease progression and, hence, make appropriate and timely treatment decisions. The system requires few staff to manage a large cohort of patients. In addition, the system can solicit help from recovered but self-quarantined medical workers to alleviate shortages in the medical workforce and free healthy medical workers to fight COVID-19 on the front line. Thus, it optimizes the usage of local medical resources and prevents cross-infections among medical workers and patients.