Journal of Health Sciences and Surveillance System
Volume:9 Issue: 3, Jul 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenging health problem around the world. At time of this study, the pandemic is still underway, so prevention and control are of great importance. This review provides a comprehensive examination and analysis of the literature related to the challenges of controlling COVID-19.

In this narrative review study, the search was performed on international databases including PubMed, Scopus and Embase, using relevant keywords. The resulting articles and texts were reviewed and screened, and then the relevant information was extracted.

The number of patients who are thought to have contracted COVID-19  is much higher than that in the SARS and MERS epidemics. Despite a lower mortality rate, COVID-19 has caused more deaths. One of the challenges that have made the control of the disease more difficult  include the emergence of multiple viral mutations. In this review, it was found  that the best course of action comprises continuous monitoring of disease-related indicators as part of a series of measures taken together to ensure their effectiveness.

It is recommended that governments should form international partnerships in their efforts to overcome the pandemic, and that preventive and control measures should be taken simultaneously. Introduction Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) started in December 2019 in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China, and one of China's main transportation hubs, and spread to other parts of the world (1, 2). One of the main reasons for the spread of the disease was the intense migration of Chinese people during New Year celebrations (1). With the rise of international trade, epidemics of new infectious diseases such as COVID-19 are able to spread more rapidly than ever before (3). On December 31, 2019, China announced the outbreak of the disease, at the time named 2019-nCoV, to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2, 4). On February 11, 2020, the WHO adopted a new name called coronavirus disease (COVID-19). In acknowledgement of the genetic structure of the virus, the International Committee on Virus Classification renamed 2019-nCoV as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (5). On January 30, 2020, the WHO announced that the outbreak was a public health emergency of international concern (5, 6) and in March 2020 classified it as a pandemic (7, 8). COVID-19 has been declared the sixth international public health emergency and, therefore, requires the public, health professionals and governments to work together to prevent its spread worldwide (5). Rapid production and sharing of knowledge at the international level is one of the useful measures for disease control that has been done (9). One of the greatest fallacies of the 21st century is that infectious diseases are disappearing, which is not the case (10). The COVID-19 epidemic has become a challenging health problem for many countries around the world (8), and as of 28 February 2021, it was estimated that there were 113,472,187 cases of the disease, 2,520,653 deaths, and about 91 million cases of recovery reported worldwide (11, 12). Although more than a year has passed since the beginning of this epidemic, the disease has not yet been controlled and no specific treatment has been found for it (13), so measures related to its prevention and control are very important. The aim of this study was to examine and characterize the global challenges of controlling COVID-19, and to provide comprehensive recommendations for action.

As a physiological event, menopause is an important milestone in women's lives. Numerous studies have shown the negative impact of this stage of women's lives on their quality of life.The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of education about physical activity via social networks on the quality of life of menopausal women.

This randomized controlled trial was conducted at Khormoj, Southwest of Iran, in 2018 on 54 menopausal women (27 experimental group (EG) and 27 control group (CG)). For the EG, a WhatsApp group was created and, every week, three educational written messages, clips, or pamphlets about physical activity and its importance during menopause were sent for 10 weeks. The study outcome (quality of life) was measured via Menopause-Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL) at the onset and one  month after the intervention. Data were analyzed through SPSS 19,  using independent and paired T-tests.

One month post-intervention, there was a significant difference between the EG and CG groups in the total quality of life, and vasomotor, physical and sexual dimensions compared to the CG group (p <0.05). Between the baseline and one month post-intervention, a greater increase in quality of life was observed in the EG than in the CG, giving a mean difference of -10.52 (p <0.0001).

The present study showed that holding an educational program using the WhatsApp social network enhanced quality of life of menopausal women.

Decreasing and preventing isolation and social loneliness among the elderly are important fields for policymaking and action commitment in social health. Evidence shows that the nature and spectrum of an individual’s social network including the quality and quantity of social relations and contact frequency can affect the old people’s health considerably. Social participation leads to a decrease in mortality and depression and improves people’s cognitive function. Since few interventions on assessment of the effect of social participation on old people’s loneliness have been done, this study was conducted to determine the impact of the educational program of social participation on the feeling of loneliness.

This is a quasi-experimental study based on convenience sampling method, on 239 elderly people aged ≥60 years living in rural regions of Baiza. The intervention was held for the intervention group during five weeks  through five 60-80 minute educational sessions. The data were collected by CCHS-SP and UCLA Loneliness Feeling Questionnaires before and after the intervention in the experiment  and control groups. The data were analyzed usingSPSS (version19).

The significance level was assumed 0.05 in statistical analysis. After one month of educational intervention program, the mean score of social participation increased in the intervention group from 6.17±3.86 to 17.98±3.84 after the intervention. The findings showed a remarkable improvement in loneliness feeling scores of the mentioned group form 62.24±.7.53 to 28.86±6.88 after the intervention (p <.001). The studied cases in the control group experienced no significant changes in the two mentioned variables.

This study revealed a reduction in the feeling of the elderly in rural areas by predicting, improving, and modifying behaviors related to social participation and forming self-help groups in rural communities.

Frailty syndrome involves a complex combination of the natural process of getting old with different medical problems. Different indexes have been designed for each physical, mental, and social dimensions of frailty. Fried’s five-item index of frailty syndrome checklist is one of the most applicable scales to screen frailty. This study aimed to determine a psychometric index of frailty and the cut-off points for the Iranian elderly population.

In a cross-sectional and psychpmetric study, 249 frail elderly people were selected among members of two Iranian Army Retirees Clubs in 2019. This was a cross-sectional-psychometric study which aimed at  determining the psychometric index and cut-off points of a brief checklist of 5-item FSC among Iranian adults older than 60 years old and comparing this to prior results in different countries.

The data were analyzed by ANOVA, multi-variable regression, confirmatory, and exploratory factor analysis, and ROC analysis via SPSS 25 and AMOS 24. The validity of the study findings was determined by internal validity, high correlation of 5 questions, confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis of 3 subdomains with a clarity value of 0.87, and high goodness of fit index (GFI).

The determined cut-off points were compatible with those of Fried’s prior study. The designed tools used in this study evaluated frailty syndrome of the Iranian elderly in elderly rehabilitation studies with high confidence. The application of the tool would provide caregivers and policymakers with additional information as to caring for this population.

Oral and Maxillofacial (OMF) injuries constitute a multifaceted public health threat in Sri Lanka. Surveillance of OMF injuries has become crucial for planning and monitoring of preventive and control strategies. A pilot project was undertaken aiming at strengthening the OMF injury surveillance system at National Dental Hospital (Teaching) Sri Lanka (NDHTSL).

The current interventional study with pre- and post-evaluation was conducted from March 1, 2020 to May 31, 2020 at NDHTSL. Pre-intervention assessment was performed to identify the deficiencies in the injury surveillance system. Subsequently, a novel OMF injury surveillance system was introduced and implemented at NDHTSL. The interventions were conducted over a period of 3 months, following which a post-intervention assessment was performed to assess the success of the interventions.

The previous injury surveillance system had many deficiencies, such as lack of comprehensiveness, not specific to dental trauma, lack of data flow and high respondent burden, etc. Interventions included development of a novel OMF injury surveillance form, circulating comprehensive guidelines on the new system and awareness program for relevant staff. Quality indicators of injury surveillance demonstrated improvements from pre-intervention stage to post-intervention stage, such as coverage from 2.7% to 72.2%, completeness from 95% to 100%, and accuracy from 66% to 100%. The perceptions and satisfaction of the dental surgeons on OMF injury surveillance system was significantly improved by the intervention (p≤0.001).

  The strengthened OMF injury surveillance system was deemed efficient and effective. Further studies are warranted at different service levels prior to island wide expansion of the present system by incorporation and integration of it into the existing National Injury Surveillance System.

In 2014, Health Transformation Plan (HTP) started in Iranian health system to improve productivity of health organizations. The aim of the present study was to assess the employees’ productivity in health centers after HTP.

This cross-sectional study with analytical approach was carried out in Zahedan University of Medical Sciences in 2018. 150 health workers were selected using census method. Data were collected by Hersey & Goldsmith Workforce Productivity Questionnaire. For the data analysis, descriptive and statistical methods such as Pearson correlation 2-tailed, one-way ANOVA, T-tests and regression model were used.

Our findings showed that 96% of health workers were female. Mean score of productivity was 63.8±12.7, which is in the moderate level. Besides, we found a significant negative relationship between productivity and job experience of the employees (P = 0.021, F = 2.975).

In this study, productivity was at a moderate level. It seems with better motivation of the staff, there might be an improvement in productivity.

The aim of this study was to provide a suitable system for disposal of hospital waste and design and construction of a safe device for infectious waste using a combination of chemical and mechanical methods.

 This research is a laboratory study and based on the existing problems, design and construction of a decontamination device for hospital infectious waste was performed by combination of chemical and mechanical methods in a closed reactor. To determine the appropriate mixture of different compounds of sodium hydroxide with lime and sodium carbonate with lime, three treatments were selected and used.
 

The results of this study showed that the decontamination waste device by chemical and mechanical methods was effective in eliminating 98% of bacterial, fungal, and viral contaminants. The results showed that the neutralization rate for total bacterial contamination of the coliform, pathogenic viruses, Escherichia, Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella, and Shigella using a 30% ratio was related to the chemical composition of lime and sodium hydroxide, lime and sodium carbonate, respectively. In the designed device, the best temperature, humidity and pH conditions were determined to be 15°C, 45% and 12.8, respectively.

 The results of the decontaminated waste tests revealed that the simultaneous application of physical and chemical methods can be used as a safe and suitable alternative in infectious waste disposal systems.

Ascaris worm, as one of the commonest helminthic infections, constitutes a major public health challenge and concern in the majority of developing countries. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of Ascaris worm infection and its associated risk factors among primary school children in Lambata community to determine the prevalence of Ascaris infection, age, gender and associated risk factors among them to create awareness and effective management program. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted between January 2019 and November 2020, in nine selected primary schools in Lambata community. A total of 303 stool samples were collected using random sampling to determine the prevalence of Ascaris infection using stool smear technique. The socio-demographic data were collected, using a structured interview questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using simple percentages, OR and chi-square analytical methods. Out of the 303 screened stool samples, 156 (51.5%)  had Ascaris infection. The most infected age-groups were 11-12 years old (73.8%; OR = 2.11) and 9-10 years (57.1%; OR = 2.01), while 6-8 year old subjects had the lowest rate (42.3%; OR = 1.00) of infection. Males (65.9%; OR= 2.00) were more infected than their female (39.9%; OR = 0.09) counterparts (p <0.05). Age, educational status / occupational status of parents, and defecation habits were significantly(p <0.05) associated with the prevalence of Ascaris infection. With the overall prevalence of 51.5% of Ascaris infection among the subjects, there is an indispensable need for health education promotion and coordinated de-worming of the primary school children in this community

The spread of urbanization and industrialization, as well as changes in lifestyle and consumption patterns in recent years, especially in developing countries, has led to the production of huge volumes of pollution in urban and industrial areas. How to plan and manage them is one of the issues and problems in the world today. And if the environment is not taken into account at the same time as the industrialization of a society, not only will economic development not be achieved, but there will be many problems so that sometimes the long-term benefits of an industry are spent on compensation.

The isa descriptive-analyticalstudy. Various steps were taken, including the results of statistical analysis, Delphi questionnaires, analysis of validity and reliability of the research, and extraction of influential factors affecting the performance of the ROP unit of Abadan Oil Refinery in 2019 until 2020. Finally, the results of weighting and ranking of effective strategic parameters in decision-making, decision-making and policy-making processes of different items including factors (components), criteria, sub-criteria, and strategic plans are presented. Using Expert Choice 2000 software, we weighed the parameters, and Cronbach's alpha was determined to be 0.932.

The results of weighting and ranking of effective strategic parameters in the decision-making process and policymaking of various items are presented.Finally, the component of human environment around the refinery with a weight priority of 0.288 in the first rank, the component of natural environment, the HSE component of the refinery with a weight of 0.244 in the second rank, and the components of technical characteristics and conditions of the refinery with a weight of 0.112 were in the third place.

In this case study, we found thatthe greatest need for management was specific to the human environment, such as land use and development plans around the refinery, and the state of air and soil pollution and water resources.

Nowadays, information and communications technology (ICT) has deeply influenced different aspects, especially healthcare sector.(1) Increasing public awareness and expectations has encouraged healthcare providers to use modern technologies to improve service quality.(2) Health technologies provide useful information for improving planning,  implementing, monitoring, and policy making based on evidence (3). In fact, an electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users. While an EHR contains the medical and therapeutic histories of patients, an EHR system is built to go beyond standard clinical data collected in a provider’s office and can be inclusive of a broader view of a patient’s care.(4) From the beginning of applying family physician and rural insurance program in Iran, different software packages have been developed for making EHR; however, due to technical and structural constraints and also different personal motivations, it is removed from the registration process and recording data in the early stages .(5) After implementing the health transformation plan (HTP) in 2014, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) launched the health integrated system (SIB) in 2016 with the aim of recording the EHR of households. SIB system follows valuable goals such as applying electronic health record, creating a national health information base, and providing referral systems in the family physician plan. Now, all health workers such as supervisor, general practitioners and dentists, health care providers, midwives, dietitians, mental health and social workers at the first level of service delivery record information on the SIB system. The information that is registered by users on SIB system are as follows: demographic information, disease reporting, physicians' visit, medical history, medications, vaccinations, and radiology and laboratory results. (6) After four years of SIB implementation at the comprehensive health centers, health centers, and health houses, the significant strengths of this system are:(5) • Possibility of supervision and direct and online evaluation by all managers in the health system • Establishment of a comprehensive EHR system for individuals from birth to end of life • Exclusion of the paper and bureaucratic system and quick extraction of health statistics • Application of new care guidelines and instant access of users On the other hand, constraints of the SIB systems are: • Extensive data recording and time-consuming nature of service registration in the system • Absence of proper internet infrastructure, especially in rural areas   • Increase in the possibility of unrealistic data entry by compulsion of officials in order to increase service recordings • Incompatibility of certain system information with community needs and local preferences and specific diseases in each region of the country, and also lack of connection of SIB system information between specialized and sub-specialized centers after five years from the establishment of this system in Iran. Therefore, for successfully implementation of the system in the health field, it is recommended that we should provide hardware infrastructure, rationalize the number of required services in the system in the first years and then add other services in the long term, hold regular training courses, encourage family physicians as primary caregivers of services at the first level to accept this system, and record the information(7). E-health not only could increase the wellbeing of user, but also the pressure on the health care system could be somewhat relieved. By introducing the SIB, we have expanded the toolkit of user-centered design methods for e-health development. The method facilitates easy communication with novices about a future e-health technology, the identification of factors that can hinder or support end-user acceptance of a future e-health technology, and early and cheap possibility for testing functional design decisions (8). Keywords: Information, Health transformation plan, family physician Iran Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable Consent for publication: Not applicable Availability of data and material: Not applicable Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Funding: Not applicable Authors' contributions: All authors have contributed in all sections of the manuscript preparation. Acknowledgements: Not applicable Study highlights: Although Integrated Health System has limitations, by taking some measures, it can be useful for health care system of Iran.