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… a novel public health concept. They were implemented for the first time in China in February, 2020, to tackle the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The Fangcang shelter hospitals in China were large-scale, temporary hospitals, rapidly built by converting existing public venues, such as stadiums and exhibition centres, into health-care facilities. They served to isolate patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 from their families and communities, while providing medical care, disease monitoring, food, shelter, and social activities.
(tags: fangcangs hospitals covid-19 buildings architecture emergencies china pandemics medicine)
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‘This document has been created to share information across the numerous projects that are working to create mobile apps to help contact tracers fight COVID-19. Many technologists who are designing privacy-preserving apps and tools for this process are new to contact tracing, and want to ensure that their work is solidly grounded in the work that public health professionals are doing around the world. This document aims to collate questions, statistics and experiences to ensure that apps are relevant and well-designed.’
(tags: docs gdocs contact-tracing privacy apps coding tech covid-19 collaboration)
Vitamin D supplementation recommended to help fight COVID-19 in Ireland
‘Epidemiological studies, including several meta-analyses, have shown that people with low vitamin D levels have a higher risk of acute respiratory tract infection and community-acquired pneumonia. While these data do not necessarily infer causality, multiple molecular mechanisms have been identified by which vitamin D deficiency impairs resistance to viral respiratory tract infection. There are also a significant number of studies, including several meta-analyses, which have indicated that vitamin D supplementation may reduce the likelihood of acute respiratory tract infection, and decrease its severity and duration where such infection does occur. These respiratory tract infections may include Covid-19. Proposed Protective Mechanisms against Covid-19: In this regard, vitamin D supplementation has been shown to suppress CD2614, a cell surface receptor which is thought to facilitate entry of the Covid-19 virus into the host cell. There is also good evidence that enhanced vitamin D status may protect against the critical immunological sequelae which are thought to elicit poorer clinical outcome in Covid-19 infection. These include prolonged interferon-gamma response, and persistent interleukin 6 elevation, a negative prognostic indicator in acutely-ill pneumonia patients, including those with Covid-19.’
(tags: covid-19 health medicine vitamins vitamin-d supplements)