Social and self-stigma during COVID-19 pandemic: Egyptians' perspectives.

BACKGROUND: Social stigma associated with infectious diseases existed throughout the history of pandemics due to fears of contagion and death. This study aims to assess social and self-stigma resulting from COVID-19 infection and other associated factors in Egypt during the pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 533 adult Egyptians via an online questionnaire. The questionnaire included social stigma toward current and recovered COVID-19 patients and the negative self-image of being a COVID-19 patient. RESULTS: The mean calculated overall COVID-19-related stigma score for the studied sample was 4.7±3.1. The highest reported stigma category was mild stigma: Social stigma towards current COVID-19 patients (88.2%), Social stigma toward recovered COVID-19 patients (64.2%), Negative self-image for being a COVID-19 patient; perceived self-stigma (71.6%) and total stigma score (88.2%) respectively. The overall stigma score was negatively associated with a higher level of education and getting information from healthcare workers and positively associated with getting information from social networks. CONCLUSION: Social and self-stigma related to COVID-19 infection was mild from the Egyptian perspective but found in a large proportion of the population and mainly affected by getting information from healthcare workers or through social media and being more among those with lower education levels. The study recommends more legislative control on social media for disseminating health-related information and conducting awareness campaigns to counteract these adverse effects.

COVID-19 Pandemic Preparedness in Egypt's Teaching Hospitals: A Needs Assessment Study.

INTRODUCTION: Regular collection and monitoring of data describing the dynamics of the utilization of healthcare services, especially in teaching hospitals (TH), which provide model quality medical services, are critical for COVID-19 pandemic preparedness. METHODS: The researchers analyzed data and information derived from service statistics reports from June 1st to July 15th, 2020 in terms of hospital resources, as well as utilization patterns of beds, ICU, and ventilators, for 11 screening hospitals affiliated with the General Organization of Teaching Hospitals and institutes in Egypt assigned by the Ministry of Health and Population to provide medical care for COVID-19 patients. Hospital indicators in terms of COVID-19 screening services, as well as utilization patterns of inpatient beds, ICU beds, and ventilators were computed. RESULTS: A total of 78,869 non-medical personnel and 2,176 medical personnel were presented with COVID-19 triage symptoms. Investigations conducted in the targeted 11 hospitals delineated that 22.2% of non-medical personnel and 27.9% of medical personnel were COVID-19 PCR-confirmed cases. The inpatient bed occupancy rate was 70% for non-medical patients and 67% for medical staff patients. For ICU, the bed occupancy rate was 92 % for non-medical patients and 88% for medical patients. Among the confirmed cases, 38% of medical patients utilized a ventilator vs. 36% of medical personnel cases. Hospital ranking according to utilization pattern among non-medical personnel, Hospital H ranked first in terms of the high load of screening services. Hospital C ranked first regarding the number of confirmed cases, whereas Hospital D ranked first for high ICU utilization among all teaching hospital ICU cases. With respect to medical personnel, Hospital G ranked first for the high load of screening services for the total studied cases. Hospital G ranked first for the number of confirmed cases. Hospital B ranked first regarding high ICU utilization among all teaching hospital ICU cases. CONCLUSION: Teaching hospitals have demonstrated preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic by maintaining an inpatient bed occupancy rate of 70% or less and ventilator utilization at <40% of confirmed cases. However, the ICU bed occupancy rate was more than 90% indicating a shortage of resources. In addition, there is variance across hospitals regarding caseload for resource reallocation decisions.

Violence and sociodemographic related factors among a sample of Egyptian women during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Violence against women is a worldwide problem that affects different social and economic classes, and this violence has almost increased with pandemics as the COVID-19 pandemic. The present survey aimed to assess the prevalence of violence against women in Egypt during the COVID-19 pandemic and to identify the relationship between sociodemographic factors and violence exposure. A total of 509 women were recruited using a self-completion e-form questionnaire. RESULTS: The prevalence of violence experienced by women was (43.8%); the most common type was the emotional representing (96.0%) of exposed women, while sexual violence was the least common (13.5%). Violence exposure was affected significantly by residence governorates, husbands' working status, reduced husbands' working hours, and history of violence exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Violence against women in Egypt was increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, which raises the need for a strong and urgent anti-violence program to control this problem.

Assessment of knowledge, attitudes, and precautionary actions against COVID-19 among medical students in Egypt.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has become a significant public health threat. Therefore, the purpose of this survey was to assess knowledge, attitudes, and precautionary measures related to COVID-19 among college students. METHODS: A convenient sample of 3263 volunteers responded to a self-administered electronic questionnaire during the period from October to December 2020. The knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) score level was calculated with a range of 0-34 points. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 21 (+/-1.2) years, 69% were female, and 60.3% were urban. The majority of respondents received information about COVID-19 symptoms (93.9%), how to protect yourself (92.5%), and how it is transmitted (86.8%). The most cited sources of information were social media (75.7%), and the most credible were government websites and international organizations. More than half (65%) expressed concern regarding contracting COVID-19, and 89.2% believed that COVID-19 is a dangerous infection due to the rapid spread of the virus. The mean total KAP score was 26.1 (+/-4.2), which differed significantly between gender groups and residential areas. Logistic regression analysis showed that volunteers with good knowledge were 1.3 and 1.0 times more willing to volunteer and maintain a physical distance than those with less knowledge. Female students were 40% less likely to volunteer than males, yet they were 1.8 times more cautious about practicing protective measures such as washing their hands with soap and water than male students. Classifying the COVID-19 pandemic as a serious infection, urban communities have twice been careful to wear masks outdoors and maintain a social distance of at least 2 m from one another compared to rural inhabitants. CONCLUSION: The current survey revealed that medical students have good knowledge regarding COVID-19, a positive attitude towards the use of protective measures, which were necessary to limit the spread of the disease. However, improvement is still required, and community education should occur as usual with a commitment to utilizing all the strategies that can support knowledge to improve and change attitudes as well as practices of the population.

Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection among healthcare workers in a non-COVID-19 teaching university hospital.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the published reports on COVID-19 emphasized that health care workers (HCWs) get infected more than the general population representing one of the most vulnerable groups. However, that the real percentage of HCWs infected by SARS-CoV-2 in Egypt remains unknown. The researchers conducted the current study to assess seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 IgG among HCWs working in a hospital with no SARS-CoV-2 patients, and to identify the potential factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 IgG seropositivity. DESIGN AND METHODS: The current study is a cross-sectional study carried out among 455 HCWs at Cairo University Hospital. The researchers administered a questionnaire shortly before the SARS-CoV-2 rapid test is performed using closed-ended question format to obtain information on demographic data of the study participants including age, sex, specialty, clinical information including questions about medical conditions, and. history of previous exposure with a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19, and history of COVID-19- compatible symptoms during the previous 14 days (cough, sore throat, runny nose, fatigue, shortness of breath, fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, anosmia, ageusia, and chills). RESULTS: We screened 455 HCWs for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, 31.4% were in the high-risk group, and 68.6% in the low-risk group. The overall IgG seroprevalence was 36 (7.9%) (95% CI 5.8 to 10.8). The IgG seroprevalence was significantly higher in low-risk group 11% (35/312) versus high-risk group 0.7% (1/143), p<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: Low seropositivity rates for SARS-CoV-2 among HCWs is suggestive of lack of immunity and we are still far from herd immunity.