Non-pharmaceutical behavioural measures for droplet-borne biological hazards prevention: Health-EDRM for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic

ABSTRACT

IntroductionNon-pharmaceutical interventions to facilitate response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a disease caused by novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, are urgently needed. Using the WHO health emergency and disaster risk management (health-EDRM) framework, behavioural measures for droplet-borne communicable disease, with their enabling and limiting factors at various implementation levels were evaluated. Sources of dataKeyword search was conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, Medline, Science Direct, WHO and CDC online publication database. Using OCEBM as review criteria, 105 English-language articles, with ten bottom-up, non-pharmaceutical prevention measures, published between January 2000 and May 2020 were identified and examined. Areas of AgreementEvidence-guided behavioural measures against COVID-19 transmission for global at-risk communities are identified. Area of ConcernStrong evidence-based systematic behavioural studies for COVID-19 prevention are lacking. Growing pointsVery limited research publications are available for non-pharmaceutical interventions to facilitate pandemic response. Areas timely for researchResearch with strong implementation feasibility that targets resource-poor settings with low baseline Health-EDRM capacity is urgently need.