To investigate knowledge and practice of Brazilian public primary and secondary health care dentists during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

An online questionnaire with sociodemographic and COVID-19 knowledge questions was used.

A total of 4048 dentists working in the Brazilian public primary and secondary health care system were investigated; 4024 (99.41%) believe that COVID-19 can be transmitted through dental procedures. A fair level of COVID-19 symptoms knowledge by these dentists was observed (3.76±1.27 of 6.00), as well as the skepticism in personal protective equipment (3382; 83.55%) and biosafety procedures (3278; 80.98%) used as an efficient form of COVID-19 transmission prevention. Country region, performance of social distancing, dental specialty, the use of personal protective equipment, and biosafety preventive measures influenced the likelihood of dentists to perform dental treatment, either elective or urgent, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The need of extra preventive barriers for dental treatment may bring an extra financial stress in the Brazilian public primary and secondary health care system, as well as in the patient-dentist relationship, which may have to be reframed. Internationally accepted public guideline policies regarding dental treatment safety, as well as the technological development of preventive tools, are needed to deal with the challenges brought by COVID-19.

Public health and emergency management agencies play a critical role in addressing the needs of vulnerable populations in preparation for and in response to emergencies. Identifying and leveraging community assets is a way to address such needs. This study focuses on the development of a process and tools to engage community leaders in sharing their knowledge about their community characteristics and assets useful for emergency planning.

We conducted interviews with community leaders across five study sites with the goal of understanding what type of local knowledge community leaders are able to share in regard to emergency preparedness. Based on the interview results we developed and tested a mobile application as a mobile friendly directory of community assets.

We identified two main types of local knowledge about community assets for emergency preparedness: communication-based and trust-based local knowledge. We created an application to facilitate the sharing of such knowledge. Community leaders were able to share local knowledge across four areas: communication-based assets, trust-based assets, spatial-based assets and personal-preparedness assets.

Community leaders’ engagement in preparedness efforts is important to identify community assets that can be leveraged to address the needs of the most vulnerable segments of a community.

The aim of this study was to implement pediatric vertical evacuation disaster training and evaluate its effectiveness by using a full-scale exercise to compare outcomes in trained and untrained participants.

Various clinical and nonclinical staff in a tertiary care university hospital received pediatric vertical evacuation training sessions over a 6-wk period. The training consisted of disaster and evacuation didactics, hands-on training in use of evacuation equipment, and implementation of an evacuation toolkit. An unannounced full-scale simulated vertical evacuation of neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the training. Drill participants completed a validated evaluation tool. Pearson chi-squared testing was used to analyze the data.

Eighty-four evaluations were received from drill participants. Forty-three (51%) of the drill participants received training and 41 (49%) did not. Staff who received pediatric evacuation training were more likely to feel prepared compared with staff who did not (odds ratio, 4.05; confidence interval: 1.05-15.62).

There was a statistically significant increase in perceived preparedness among those who received training. Recently trained pediatric practitioners were able to achieve exercise objectives on par with the regularly trained emergency department staff. Pediatric disaster preparedness training may mitigate the risks associated with caring for children during disasters.

Exceptional children, like other children, have the right to be educated in a safe environment. Disasters are considered as serious issues regarding safety and security of educational environments. Following disasters, vulnerable groups, especially children with handicaps and disabilities are more likely to be seriously injured. Thus, the present study aimed to evaluate the safety and disaster risk assessment of exceptional schools in Tehran, Iran.

The cross-sectional study was conducted in exceptional schools in Tehran, 2018. First, 55 exceptional schools in all grades were selected based on census sampling method and evaluated by using a checklist designed by Tehran Disaster Mitigation and Management Organization (TDMMO) and Ministry of Education in 2015. The data were analyzed using Excel software and statistical descriptive tests.

Based on the results, school facilities are worn and have unsafe elevators (least safety: 7.69%), yards (least safety: 9.52%), laboratories (least safety: 16.67%), libraries (least safety: 24.24%), fire extinguishing systems (least safety: 28.99%), and storage rooms and kitchens (least safety: 33.33%) which require immediate considerations. In total, the safety of exceptional schools in this study was 70.13%, which suggests medium-risk level.

The educational settings must be reconsidered, along with identifying the risk and safety at school. In addition, a standard should be established for evaluating safety, especially in exceptional schools.

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused many problems in the health sector. Effective and safe vaccines are the only tool to combat the COVID-19 disease. Researchers and regulatory agencies have made efforts to develop such vaccines and healthcare professionals were prioritized for the vaccination program as first-line care providers. Considering this prioritization, we aimed to assess the physicians’ perceptions regarding the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.

An interview-based study was conducted from May 5 May to November 5, 2021 (6 months) in a teaching hospital in the capital city of Islamabad, Pakistan.

Among the 200 physicians who agreed to participate in the interview, 74% were male. A total of 94% did not experience any side effects after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, regardless of the type of vaccine; 6% experienced side effects. Furthermore, 90% of physicians were afraid of side effects due to the high number of vaccine doses.

Conclusively, physicians had a positive perception regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Healthcare authorities and related departments must take precautions to ensure the effective and safe COVID-19 vaccine to change the perceptions of physicians who had a negative perception. This will not only reduce the reluctance among physicians regarding administering COVID-19 vaccine, but will also boost and facilitate the vaccination program for the general public as well.

In March 2018, the US Department of Defense (DOD) added the smallpox vaccination, using ACAM2000, to its routine immunizations, increasing the number of persons receiving the vaccine. The following month, Fort Hood reported a cluster of 5 myopericarditis cases. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the DOD launched an investigation.

The investigation consisted of a review of medical records, establishment of case definitions, causality assessment, patient interviews, and active surveillance. A 2-sided exact rate ratio test was used to compare myopericarditis incidence rates.

This investigation identified 4 cases of probable myopericarditis and 1 case of suspected myopericarditis. No alternative etiology was identified as a cause. No additional cases were identified. There was no statistically significant difference in incidence rates between the observed cluster (5.23 per 1000 vaccinated individuals, 95% CI: 1.7–12.2) and the ACAM2000 clinical trial outcomes for symptomatic persons, which was 2.29 per 1000 vaccinated individuals (95% CI: 0.3–8.3).

Vaccination with ACAM2000 is the presumptive cause of this cluster. Caution should be exercised before considering vaccination campaigns for smallpox given the clinical morbidity and costs incurred by a case of myopericarditis. Risk of myopericarditis should be carefully weighed with risk of exposure to smallpox.

Emergency medicine specialists working in the Republic of Turkey Ministry of Health public hospitals are assigned voluntarily or compulsorily along the Turkey-Syria borderline due to the operational conditions. In accordance with this study’s purpose, methods and overcoming problems of emergency medical specialists working at border points are addressed.

The case study design is used as a qualitative research method in this research. Within the context of content analysis, 2 themes and 7 subthemes are created in line with the identified subproblems. Under these themes, the problems experienced by physicians, solutions to them, and recommendations for physicians who will start to work along the borderline are presented with codes and anecdotes.

The results of the study indicate that the problems experienced by physicians working in the border regions are centred on environmental conditions, operation of the system, and security issues. The methods for coping with such problems focus on effective communication and the support of colleagues. The basic suggestion of the participating physicians to improve the system is that the emergency medical specialists who run the border service should undergo training that can be useful for adapting to war conditions. Despite experiencing personal and familial challenges, these physicians express that they feel happy and at peace in their work.

For the physicians assigned to work along the borderlines, high efficiency can be obtained if they are given preassignment training and provided with effective personal communication combined with personal rights adjustment.

The objectives of this study is to predict the possible trajectory of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread in the United States. Prediction and severity ratings of COVID-19 are essential for pandemic control and economic reopening in the United States.

In this study, we apply the logistic and Gompertz model to evaluate possible turning points of the COVID-19 pandemic in different regions. By combining uncertainty and severity factors, this study constructed an indicator to assess the severity of the coronavirus outbreak in various states.

Based on the index of severity ratings, different regions of the United States are classified into 4 categories. The result shows that it is possible to identify the first turning point in Montana and Hawaii. It is unclear when the rest of the states will reach the first peak. However, it can be inferred that 75% of regions will not reach the first peak of coronavirus before August 2, 2020.

It is still essential for the majority of states to take proactive steps to fight against COVID-19 before August 2, 2020.

Iran is exposed to a wide range of natural and man-made hazards. Health-care facilities can play a significant role in providing life-saving measures in the minutes and hours immediately following the impact or exposure. The aim of this study was to determine the preparedness of health-care facilities in disasters and emergencies.

This cross-sectional study was conducted in Damghan, Semnan Province, in 2019. The samples consisted of all the 11 health-care facilities located in Damghan County. A developed checklist was used to collect the data, including 272 questions in 4 sections: understanding threatening hazards, functional, structural, and nonstructural vulnerability of health-care facilities. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21.

The results revealed that the health-care facilities were exposed to 22 different natural and man-made hazards throughout the county. The total level of preparedness of the health-care centers under assessment was 45.8%. The average functional, structural, and nonstructural vulnerability was assessed at 49.3%, 31.6%, and 56.4%, respectively.

Conducting mitigation measures is necessary for promoting the functional and structural preparedness. Disaster educational programs and exercises are recommended among the health staff in health-care facilities.

To evaluate food and water storage practices in the United States, including the extent that government emergency preparedness guidelines were followed.

Qualtrics panelists (n = 572) completed a 142-item online survey in August 2014. Cognitive interviews (n = 5) and pilot data (n = 14) informed survey development. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze quantitative data. Open-ended responses related to water storage preparation were classified into 5 categories.

Many respondents reported being somewhat or well prepared to provide food and water for their households during a large-scale disaster or emergency. Only 53% met Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) guidelines to have water last at least 3 days. Based on respondents’ self-report, it appeared that those who prepared personally-filled containers for water did not carefully follow FEMA instructions. Most respondents had non-perishable foods available, with 96% meeting the FEMA guidelines of at least 3 days of storage.

Households were generally prepared to provide food and, to a lesser extent, water in emergency situations, but were not consistently following FEMA guidelines. Additional easy-to-follow, evidence-based information may better help citizens accurately implement food and water storage emergency preparedness guidelines.

Emergency departments should improve their preparedness for mass casualty incidents (MCIs) through periodic drills. These exercises are conducted while maintaining regular care. The aim of this study was to determine the impact of a disaster drill in a pediatric emergency department (PED) on real patients’ waiting times.

On September 10, 2019, a 4-h disaster drill was conducted in the PED of a tertiary pediatric hospital, with minimal staff reinforcement (2 nurses). Cases were real patients that came to the PED during the drill. The patients that visited the PED the day before were the control group. Variables analyzed were: age, sex, destination, triage level, time-to-triage, time-to-physician, length of PED stay, and percentage of patients visited within the optimal time according to triage level.

Sixty-eight patients (case group) and 63 patients (control group) were analyzed; both groups were comparable except for the median age. There were no differences in time-to-triage, time-to-physician, and length of PED stay between the 2 groups. The percentage of patients visited within optimal time according to triage level was higher in the case group.

Conducting an MCI drill in the PED, with minimal staff reinforcement, was not detrimental to real patients’ waiting times.

The current study was conducted to assess disaster preparedness of hospitals in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.

A descriptive cross-sectional study of all hospitals in the Eastern Region of KSA was conducted between July 2017 and July 2018. The included hospitals were selected using convenience sampling. The questionnaire was distributed together with an official letter providing information about the aim and objectives of the study as well as ethical issues guiding their participation in the exercise.

All the included hospitals had a disaster plan that was completely accessible by all staff members. About 70% of the included hospitals established an educational program on disaster preparedness once per year. Assessment of hospital disaster preparedness was conducted using disaster drills in 62 (n= 98%) of the hospitals. However, only 9.5% of the hospitals had post-disaster recovery assistance programs like counseling and support services.

Most hospitals involved in this study had sufficient resources for disaster management; however, the overall effectiveness of hospitals’ disaster preparedness was slight to moderate. Some recommendations to improve hospitals’ disaster preparedness should be proposed, including improved staff training and testing, better communications and safety procedures, and adoption of a holistic approach for disaster management.

Emergency Risk Communication (ERC) is known as 1 of the important components of an effective response to public health emergencies. In this study, we aimed to investigate the preparedness of the Primary Health Care Network (PHCN) of Iran in terms of the ERC.

This study was conducted in 136 Primary Health Care Facilities (PHCFs) affilated to Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, Iran. Data in terms of ERC were collected using a checklist developed by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The findings of the study revealed that 65.9% of the PHCFs had low preparedness in terms of the ERC, 33.3% had a moderate level and 0.8% had high preparedness in this regard. There was a significant difference between the level of ERC and the history of crisis in the past year, PHCF type, and the education level of the responsible employees in the crisis unit in the PHCF.

The results showed that the PHCFs studied need to increase their capacity and capability in the field of ERC. Further efforts to provide ERC components may increase the preparedness of PHCN in Iran in terms of the ERC.

The aim of this study was to correlate the clinical, laboratory, and radiographic characteristics of patients with a confirmed diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disease, with fatal outcome.

We reviewed chest X-ray (CXR) features, clinical, and laboratory data of patients with reverse transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. The relationship with mortality was investigated by fitting a logistic regression model.

A total of 246 patients were included (170 males; mean age, 63 y). Most of the patients had 1 or more comorbidity (62%); fever (95%), and cough (60%) were the most common symptoms; CXR detected abnormalities in 88.6%, mainly showing ground-glass opacities (GGO) (90%) with bilateral (64%) and peripheral (46%) distribution.

Multivariate analysis showed that age (P < 0.001; mortality of 59% in patients >66 y old; 5% at a younger age) and consolidation at CXR (P = 0.001; mortality of 11% with positive CXR; 2% in those without) represented the 2 most significant independent risk factors of mortality. Chronic pathologies, such as diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and peripheral GGO at CXR also showed a significant correlation with mortality.

We identified predictive factors for the fatal outcome of COVID-19 patients. The prognostic value of these findings can be useful for optimal patient management and resource allocation.

The objective of this study was to assess the current breaking point of crisis surge capacity of trauma services in Qatar and to develop a mitigation plan.

The study utilized real-time data from the National Trauma Registry. Data was explored cumulatively by weeks, months and a year’s interval and all trauma admissions within this time frame were considered as 1 ‘Disaster Incident.’

A total of 2479 trauma patients were included in the study over 1 year. The mean age of patients was 31.5 ± 15.9 and 84% were males. The number of patients who sustained severe trauma which necessitated Level 1 activation was 16%. The emergency medical services (EMS) surge attained crisis of operational capacity at 5 months of disaster incident for priority 1 cases. Bed capacity at the floor was the first to reach operational crisis followed by the ICU and operating room. The gap in the surge for surgical interventions was specific to the specialty and surgery type which reached operational crisis at 3 months.

The study highlights the surge capacity and capability of the healthcare system at a Level 1 trauma center. The identified gaps in surge capacity require several key components of healthcare resources to be addressed across the continuum of care.

Lack of mask use during large public events might spread COVID-19. It is now possible to measure this and similar public health information using publicly available webcams. We demonstrate a rapid assessment approach for measuring mask usage at a public event.

We monitored crowds at public areas in Sturgis, SD using a live, high-definition, town-sponsored video stream to analyze the prevalence of mask wearing. We developed a rapid coding procedure for mask wearing and analyzed brief (5 to 25 min) video segments to assess mask-wearing compliance in outdoor public areas. We calculated compliance estimates and compared reliability among the human coders.

We were able to observe and quantify public behavior on the public streets. This approach rapidly estimated public health information (e.g., 512 people observed over 25 minutes with 2.3% mask usage) available on the same day. Coders produced reliable estimates across a sample of videos for counting masked users and mask-wearing proportion. Our video data is stored in Databrary.org.

This approach has implications for disaster responses and public health. The approach is easy to use, can provide same day results, and can provide public health stakeholders with key information on public behavior.

The aim of this study was to use a mixed-method analysis to investigate the associations between qualitative themes found in written responses and quantitative reported level of stress after Hurricane Sandy.

A survey was conducted among World Trade Center Health Registry enrollees 5-12 mo after Hurricane Sandy. This study included 1202 participants who completed the free-response section and answered the question on how stressful their experiences were with Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. Content analysis was used to generate qualitative data. Mixed-methods analysis was performed using a 1-way analysis of variance test for bivariate comparisons of qualitative thematic codes and the quantitative outcome of mean Sandy stress scores.

Seven themes emerged from the qualitative analysis. The themes of lack of information, negative emotional response, and financial stress had higher quantitative mean Sandy stress scores compared with other themes. The theme of patriotism/gratitude had an overall lower quantitative Sandy stress scores than other themes.

Qualitative and mixed-methods research on mental health outcomes after a disaster add new depth and findings to the existing literature. Using such methodologies to identify modifiable factors, such as improving communication during a disaster, may confer better mental health outcomes after a disaster.