Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has spread rapidly across the globe, greatly affecting how humans as a whole interact, work and go about their daily life. One of the key pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) that is being utilised to return to the norm is the face mask or respirator. In this review we aim to examine face masks and respirators, looking at the current materials in use and possible future innovations that will enhance their protection against SARS-...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has stressed health-system capacity and human resources and is about to decimate the pharmaceutical supply chain of injectable anaesthetic drugs, which has already been under severe strain for decades. As most countries are now emerging from their lockdowns, one of the main challenge is to reboot the entire healthcare system and the surgical care delivery in a detrimental context.
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Abstract

To control the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent its resurgence in areas preparing for a return of economic activities, a method for a rapid, simple, and inexpensive point-of-care diagnosis and mass screening is urgently needed. We developed and evaluated a one-step colorimetric reverse-transcriptional loop-mediated isothermal amplification assay (COVID-19-LAMP) for detection of SARS-CoV-2, using SARS-CoV-2 isolate and respiratory samples from patients with COVID-19 ...

Continuing chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatment in cancer patients with Covid-19 is not a risk to their survival, a study suggests.

It also recommends further research into the drug hydroxychloroquine, which appeared to benefit some patients.

The findings, from 890 infected cancer patients in the UK, Spain, Italy and Germany, could help identify who is most at risk from coronavirus.

Breast cancer patients had half the death rate of other patients.

The Imper...

The Lancet publishes an article talking about how COVID-19 affects in obesity.Data from France and the UK have showed a disproportionately higher prevalence of obesity in patients with COVID-19 admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICUs) compared with general population data. About 10% of ICU patients in the UK have a BMI of 40 kg/m2 or more, and evidence shows increased mortality among this group. The UK Government advice for those with a BMI of at least 40 kg/m2 is to be particularly stringent ...

Bariatric/metabolic surgery was paused during the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of social confinement and the interruption of this surgery on the population with obesity has been underestimated, with weight gain and worsened comorbidities. Some candidates for this surgery are exposed to a high risk of mortality linked to the pandemic. Obesity and diabetes are two major risk factors for severe forms of Covid-19. The only currently effective treatment for obesity is metabolic surgery, which...

“Stronger Together” campaign to highlight importance of psychosocial support during times of stress and crisis





BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, July 27, 2020 – The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) today launched the “Stronger Together” campaign to assist communities in promoting mental wellbeing and positive coping strategies during times of stress and crisis.

The campaign, which is launched as countries of the C...

The concept that medical facilities and health workers might be an important contamination route in the pandemic has brought to consequences and attitudes for the population as well for legislators. In the pandemic period, most of the patients requiring intervention for gastrointestinal malignancy are in emergency, no‐deferrable conditions. We reviewed the results of operative endoscopy to treat emergencies secondary to gastrointestinal malignancy during the lock down period in Italy, fro...

We're now more than seven months into the coronavirus pandemic that has upended the lives of most of Earth's inhabitants. And while it is true that the scientific community has learned many things about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the disease it causes, Covid-19, there are also many gaps in our understanding.
One big mystery: Why do some people get very sick and even die from their illness, while other similar people show no symptoms and may not realize they've been infected at all?We kno...

LitCovid is a curated literature hub for tracking up-to-date scientific information about the 2019 novel Coronavirus. It is the most comprehensive resource on the subject, providing a central access to 37529 (and growing) relevant articles in PubMed. The articles are updated daily and are further categorized by different research topics and geographic locations for improved access. You can learn more at Chen et al. Nature (2020) or our FAQ, and download our data here.


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Introduction
The rapid global spread of COVID‐19 presents an unprecedented crisis for the surgical community. We aimed to identify specific and ongoing challenges in the surgical community by reviewing the current available literature on COVID‐19 and surgery and analysing the social media.
Methods
The literature was reviewed following the PRISMA statement on PUBMED library, searched on May 23nd 2020, using “COVID‐19”, “COVID 19” with “surgery” syntax.

Social media analysis foc...

An article talking about Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery during COVID-19 pandemic. 
The purpose of this study was to achieve consensus amongst a global panel of expert bariatric surgeons on various aspects of resuming Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery (BMS) during the Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A modified Delphi consensus-building protocol was used to build consensus amongst 44 globally recognised bariatric surgeons. The experts were asked to either agree or disagree with ...