TUS: Midlands Nursing and Health Blog: April 2020

Thursday, April 23, 2020

The Challenge of Tracking COVID-19’s Stealthy Spread

As our nation looks with hope toward controlling the coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) pandemic, researchers are forging ahead with efforts to develop and implement strategies to prevent future outbreaks. It sounds straightforward. However, several new studies indicate that containing SARS-CoV-2—the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19—will involve many complex challenges, not the least of which is figuring out ways to use testing technologies to our best advantage in the battle against this stealthy foe.

The first thing that testing may help us do is to identify those SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals who have no symptoms, but who are still capable of transmitting the virus. These individuals, along with their close contacts, will need to be quarantined rapidly to protect others. These kinds of tests detect viral material and generally analyze cells collected via nasal or throat swabs.

The second way we can use testing is to identify individuals who’ve already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, but who didn’t get seriously ill and can no longer transmit the virus to others. These individuals may now be protected against future infections, and, consequently, may be in a good position to care for people with COVID-19 or who are vulnerable to the infection. Such tests use blood samples to detect antibodies, which are blood proteins that our immune systems produce to attack viruses and other foreign invaders.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Coronavirus diaries are helping people cope. They’re also a research gold mine

Just weeks ago, Jason Kirin, a circus performer in Pittsburgh, was juggling flaming spheres for Facebook Live, trying to make the most of the coronavirus crisis after it had led to the cancellation of all his spring shows.

Days later, Kirin got sick. He turned to one of the few outlets that kept him sane: his online diary.

Day 1 Sat 3.21: I started to get aches and pains I wasn’t used to. Joints mostly. Things started to ache in weird ways…. These pains were not in any way normal.

Day 2 Sun 3.22: Same.

Read More at the LA Times

Thursday, April 16, 2020

Stories, songs and iPads: how care home residents are staying connected in lockdown

Covid is a nightmare,” says Kristy Smith, manager at St Mary’s care home in Suffolk, “but it has brought humanity to such a beautiful point with kindness. I think it has brought out the absolute best in people.”

Care workers are on the coronavirus frontline and many have reported their concerns over severe shortages of personal protective equipment. But Smith has been keen to ensure that spirits are kept high among the 49 residents at the home near Ipswich.

Visits from families, activity providers and the local community are an integral part of daily life in a care home. But during lockdown, providers are using other ways of keeping residents connected.

“We know how important it is that people can stay in touch with their friends and relatives,” says Sara Livadeas, chief executive of the Fremantle Trust. “Knowing that someone cares about you is a basic human need. It also provides reassurance to relatives who have entrusted the care of their loved ones to others.”

Read More at the Guardian

Lockdown in Italy: personal stories of doing science during the COVID-19 quarantine

Italy is at the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. More than 100,000 people have been infected in the country (including at least 8,956 health-care workers) and more than 11,000 have died. Lombardy, the region of northern Italy around Milan, is the area most affected so far. Northern Italy went into emergency lockdown on 8 March, and the government expanded the quarantine to the entire nation three days later.

The lockdown will last until at least 3 April — and probably longer. Many scientists have had their professional lives upended because they are sequestered at home or, if they can still go into work, they cannot collaborate in person with colleagues. Here, four researchers in northern Italy describe how they are navigating the lockdown.

Read more at Nature

Positive stories raising a smile amid the coronavirus lockdown

Even though the coronavirus crisis is spreading around the world, there have been moments of positivity and light relief to get us through.

From a socially distant dancing street to personal messages left for waste collection crews and even picnic tables for squirrels.

Here are some of the stories raising a smile during these unprecedented times:

Socially distant dancing

Elsa Williams' street has the right idea on how to get through a lockdown – socially distant dancing in the street.

Every day at 11am, a local fitness instructor, Janet Woodcock, leads the boogie for 10 minutes and it seems most of the Cheshire neighbourhood gets involved.

From elderly residents and children, to families and couples, people get out, enjoy the fresh air, do some exercise and most importantly stay two metres apart as they boogie down during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Prepare for a 'new normal' as lockdown restrictions ease: Monday's COVID-19 WHO briefing

Lockdowns must be lifted strategically, and not all at once, said WHO officials at a briefing on 13 April 2020.
Countries with lower numbers of cases can begin easing restrictions.
Social distancing and handwashing need to continue longer term.

Half the world has been under some form of lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19. While many are eager to see restrictions lifted, especially as numbers stabilize in some countries, we must remain patient and vigilant, said officials at the World Health Organization (WHO) briefing on Monday 13 April.

Suddenly Feeling More Alone and More Single During CV-19 Lockdown?

1. Review quality of connection

As humans, we are wired to connect with others but the quality of this connection is important. During this difficult time, you will have to become much more creative regarding how you can substitute this very human need. .......

2. Top up on self-compassion

You may also need to top up on self-compassion. As a singles and couples coach, if I could offer you any personal tip it would be to swot up on your own ability to connect........

Coronavirus: London photographer captures life in lockdown

A photographer whose work has been put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic has taken to the streets of east London to capture people's lives in lockdown.

Adam Isfendiyar, from Tower Hamlets, London, posted on a local Facebook group asking for volunteers for his "window portraits".

He said within hours he was inundated with messages and within two days he had 80 people signed up for photo shoots.

Coronavirus in London: latest updates

"Travelling from house to house on bike, I manage to cover four to five people within the hour and collect their personal stories and experiences of life in lockdown," he said.

See and read more at BBC News

We could be vastly overestimating the death rate for COVID-19. Here's why

A lack of adequate testing means many of those who have been infected with the coronavirus will not appear in official statistics.

This suggests that many estimates for its mortality rate are much too high.

We need to build better systems for sharing and reporting data.

Public health epidemiology is the science of counting to prevent disease and promote health. We count the number of new cases of a particular disease; this is the incidence. Then we count how much a disease has spread in a population; this is the prevalence.

When it comes to COVID-19, counting is a challenge. Despite all the news articles and reports, we know very little about the incidence or prevalence of this new disease. And as is always the case: ignorance breeds fear. In my hometown of New York City and elsewhere one fear is on just about everyone’s mind: death rates here appear to be considerably higher than rates reported elsewhere.

Or are they? Using patient data from China, public health officials initially estimated that 80% of COVID-19 cases are either asymptomatic or have mild disease. Given that hospital beds, health workers, and test kits are in short supply, only highly symptomatic people are advised to go to the hospital. Because of lack of adequate testing, including in the United States, in many places only hospital patients are now counted as cases. The people who do not feel seriously ill stay home, recover quietly, and are never counted. This matters because they do not appear in any of the official statistics.

Irish HSE librarians have developed a very useful Covid-19 resource

Irish HSE librarians have developed a very useful Covid-19 resource. There are guidelines, links to relevant publications, and evidence summaries on topics of importance to health professionals.

General Guide

Clinical Guidance

Evidence Sources

Summaries of Evidence

Ireland: Health Protection Surveillance Center

Lenus Covid-19 collection

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Why can’t the world’s greatest minds solve the mystery of consciousness?

Philosophers and scientists have been at war for decades over the question of what makes human beings more than complex robots

One spring morning in Tucson, Arizona, in 1994, an unknown philosopher named David Chalmers got up to give a talk on consciousness, by which he meant the feeling of being inside your head, looking out – or, to use the kind of language that might give a neuroscientist an aneurysm, of having a soul. Though he didn’t realise it at the time, the young Australian academic was about to ignite a war between philosophers and scientists, by drawing attention to a central mystery of human life – perhaps the central mystery of human life – and revealing how embarrassingly far they were from solving it.

The brain, Chalmers began by pointing out, poses all sorts of problems to keep scientists busy. How do we learn, store memories, or perceive things? How do you know to jerk your hand away from scalding water, or hear your name spoken across the room at a noisy party? But these were all “easy problems”, in the scheme of things: given enough time and money, experts would figure them out. There was only one truly hard problem of consciousness, Chalmers said. It was a puzzle so bewildering that, in the months after his talk, people started dignifying it with capital letters – the Hard Problem of Consciousness – and it’s this: why on earth should all those complicated brain processes feel like anything from the inside? Why aren’t we just brilliant robots, capable of retaining information, of responding to noises and smells and hot saucepans, but dark inside, lacking an inner life? And how does the brain manage it? How could the 1.4kg lump of moist, pinkish-beige tissue inside your skull give rise to something as mysterious as the experience of being that pinkish-beige lump, and the body to which it is attached?

Thursday, April 9, 2020

Self-isolation fatigue and the art of survival

Many, many phrases have come into my mind lately as I struggle with the isolation incurred by the threat of Covid-19 – namely that “the cure is worse than the disease” but also Nietzsche’s sage warning of the danger of staring into the abyss and the abyss staring back at you.

I don’t do well being cooped up. My mental health is taking a pummelling.

The words of Helen Steiner Rice’s oft quoted poem, This Too Shall Pass, have become something of a mantra for me in the past couple of weeks as I’ve tried to adjust myself to a life that feels as if it is telescoping downwards on a daily basis.

Every morning now, mentally willing the power of repetition to inform and calm my bewildered psyche, I stand staring at my reflection in the bathroom mirror and chant:

If I can but keep on believing
What I know in my heart to be true,
That darkness will fade with the morning
And that this will pass away, too

According to psychologists, whether you are disposed to believe it or not, constant repetition will trick your brain into taking what you’re saying as gospel and inform your body’s billions of cells accordingly.

Personally, listening to The Prodigy’s Firestarter at 10+ is more in tune with my inner turmoil at present but I tried chanting a la Keith Flint at the mirror and it did not have the desired calming effect on my central nervous system.

After returning from a work trip to Pittsburgh, which was unceremoniously cut short due to Trump’s flight ban, I’m currently on lockdown with my parents who are in their 70s. With a lengthy list of medical conditions between us we are classed as “highly vulnerable” and going more than slightly stir crazy thanks to this newly imposed (but I am sick of repeating, temporary) world order...

Tuesday, April 7, 2020

‘This is war’: Irish health workers on their Covid-19 crises

My car has been christened the corona wagon, and is off limits to all except me. All of my overnight gear and name badge, radiation badge and ID stay in the car when I get home from work. No hugs until after a shower. My scrubs are gingerly handled and put straight into the washing machine to be washed at 60 degrees. After being initially told to change our scrubs every time we encountered a suspect patient, we are now being advised that the scrubs will run out and to start bringing a set home to wash them ourselves.

The simplest things bring me to the brink of tears. I saw the medical students graduate early yesterday, and how they were hugging and cheering on the steps. I was so happy for them, and so apprehensive of what lies ahead.

I go from being self-obsessed, to knowing I will be fine and that this will pass. The offers coming into the hospital of free snacks, free Supermacs, and free car wiper and light bulb replacements also make me want to shed a tear. I feel like to do so would offer a bit of relief from the weird nervous energy building up inside.

Now Is The Perfect Time To Start Meditating, And Science Proves It

Between the coronavirus pandemic, an uncertain future both economically and environmentally, it’s not a stretch to say that these are times filled with stress, anxiety and worry unlike what many of us have experienced before.

But with tens of millions around the world being asked to shelter in place for weeks if not months to come, it could also be an excellent opportunity to cultivate a new habit that recent research has shown can reduce anxiety while improving your memory and focus.

Some of you will not be surprised to learn that I’m talking about meditation.

A study by researchers at New York University found that less than fifteen minutes of meditation a day for eight weeks can reduce anxiety, fatigue and mood disturbance.

The study published last year in the journal Behavioural Brain Research involved groups of people between the ages of 18 and 45 with little or no experience meditating.

Elsevier OA resources on Covid

Elsevier are providing a meaningful contribution to accelerate the fight against the coronavirus. Building on the Elsevier Elsevier COVID-19 Information Center set up at the start of the outbreak, Elsevier are now enabling full text and data mining through channels such as the NIH’s PubMed Central and the WHO database for free and without copyright limitations. Please see further examples here.

7 April World Health Day: Support Nurses & Midwives

7 April 2020 is the day to celebrate the work of nurses and midwives and remind world leaders of the critical role they play in keeping the world healthy. Nurses and other health workers are at the forefront of COVID-19 response - providing high quality, respectful treatment and care, leading community dialogue to address fears and questions and, in some instances, collecting data for clinical studies. Quite simply, without nurses, there would be no response.

In this International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, World Health Day will highlight the current status of nursing and around the world. WHO and its partners will make a series of recommendations to strengthen of the nursing and midwifery workforce.