Building Pathology and COVID-19: A Literature Review and Commentary on Field Hospital Setting

In 2019, there was an emerging disease, namely Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19). This disease firstly emerged in Asia before there was a worldwide spreading. COVID-19 is highly contagious. The pandemic results in more than 100 million infections worldwide (by the end of January 2021). Each country has to have a good public health plan to correspond with the increasing number of the patient. To correspond with the rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 patients, finding for sufficient space for patient care is needed. The presently available number of hospitals might be limited and it usually requires an urgent setting of the new building for management of the situation. The field hospital is usually set. In this work, the authors performed a retrospective literature review to summarize the available data on building pathology and COVID-19. The aim of the study is about the quality of the field hospital buildings and the defects in the buildings. The standard databases, SCOPUS and PubMED are used for literature searching. The derived publications are summarized and extracted for a conclusion. According to the literature analysis, there are very few publications on the topic of building pathology of a field hospital for COVID-19 containment. The role of field hospital in outbreak management is confirmed in thee literature. However, the specific report regarding building pathology of field hospital is limited. The newly constructed field hospital is usually in the rapid emergency mode. Based on the present analysis, it can show that there is a lack of concern on building pathology of the field hospital. Due to the rapid construction of field hospitals for COVID-19 outbreak management, the quality control and standardization are important. Further researches on the building pathology and quality management of field hospital are recommended.

The implications of religious event and holidays on the transmission of SARS-CoV2 : the impact of behavioral changes on transmission

IntroductionThe risk factors for transmission of SARS-CoV2 have been widely studied and it was evident that a population’s behavior has a direct effect on the risk of transmission. Public health measures and regulation are largely kept to control and direct these behaviors. In this study, we describe the change in transmission in SARS-CoV2 in relation to demographics before and after two major religious events: “Eid Alfitr” and “Ashura”MethodsThis is a national observational study conducted in Bahrain in September 2020 to compare the number and demographics of all newly diagnosed cases before and after Eid Alfitr (religious holiday) and Ashura religious event. A 10 day period before the event was compared to a 10 day period after the event by ten days. Data on the number of tests, number of new cases, their demographics (age, gender, nationality) and presence of symptoms were collected and analyzed.ResultsThere was significant increase in the number of COVID-19 cases after both Eid Alfitr (1997 more cases, with a 67% increase) and Ashura (4232 more cases with 2.19 times more cases). The majority of new cases after the religious events were found in local Bahrainis, from 472 cases to 2169 cases after Eid, and from 2201 to 6639 cases after Ashura. The rise was most notable in females (increased by 4.89 times after Eid and by 2.69 times after Ashura), children (increased by 4.69 times after Eid and by 5 times after Ashura) and elderly above the age of 60 years (increased by 5.7 times after Eid and by 3.23 times after Ashura).ConclusionIt is evident that religious events and holidays have important implications on the transmission of SARS-CoV2. This increased in transmission is related mainly to the behavior of the population in those days. Children, female, and elderly were the most affected categories due to these events. A thorough public health plan to limit the spread of the infection at these events should be planned and implemented ahead of time.

Adoption of local public health plan for better health and quality of life in Belgrade

Issue Development of public health plan for the City of Belgrade, facilitate multisectoral participation and encourage local government to incorporate public health planning into integrated planning framework, including funding. Description of the Problem According to Public Health Low, adopted in Serbia in 2016 and Public health strategy (2018), Council for Health, as a professional body of the City government, was obliged to prepare draft of the Plan. Members of the City Council are representatives from different sectors: health care, public health, private sector, child care, education and civil society. Based on data and information from relevant institutions and organizations, situation analysis and health profile of the City have been prepared during 2018. Results Public health plan for the City of Belgrade has been drafted for a time period from 2020 to 2026, aligned and within time frame of the National public health strategy. Plan included: mission, vision, objectives, activities, responsible institutions, funding sources and indicators for monitoring. Focus was on health promotion and empowerment of citizens to adopt healthy lifestyle as well on investment in environmental sustainability, poverty and inequalities reduction and minimizing risks to human health and well-being. On December 2019, Belgrade City Assembly adopted this document, with full responsibility for implementation and budgeting specific programs and projects from 2020. Lessons Multisectoral working group, with clear defined scope of work, supported by regulations, encouraged and managed by experts in the field, highly motivated to be creator of changes is prerequisite for successful and productive public health planning process. Key messages Public health planning enabled communication and cooperation among experts and decision makers and represented a whole-of-local government approach to public health. Document is used as a resource and model for the other cities and municipalities.

Albert Dent and the Free Southern Theater: Intergenerational Civil Rights Cooperatives and the Fight Against Racialized Economic Inequality

Chapter four follows African American activists generational shift away from black-run Rochdale businesses toward racial justice cooperatives that experimented with communist rhetoric, non-hierarchical collective structures, and African diasporic spiritual and aesthetic practices. Between the 1930s and 1940s, Albert Dent fused southern civil rights activism and global cooperative philosophy to create the Flint-Goodridge Hospital insurance cooperative and public health plan for black patients. Collaborating with white southern New Deal liberals allowed Dent to implement black economic justice and self-advocacy at the city and state level. Between the 1960s and 1980s, writer and playwright Tom Dent incorporated his father’s coalitional strategies into the leftist Free Southern Theater Collective’s cooperative vision. While based in black Ninth Ward and Central City neighborhoods, it worked with local and national antipoverty officials and non-profit organizations to expand a southern network of theatrical, producer, and consumer cooperatives empowering impoverished African Americans without replicating capitalism’s abuses.