In the Wuhan Province of China, in December 2019, the novel coronavirus 2019 COVID-19 has caused a severe involvement of the lower respiratory tract leading to an acute respiratory syndrome. Subsequently, coronavirus 2 SARS-CoV-2 provoked a pandemic which is considered a life-threatening disease. The SARS-CoV-2, a family member of betacoronaviruses, possesses singlestranded...
Currently, there is not any specific effective antiviral treatment for COVID-19. Although most of the COVID-19 patients have mild or moderate courses, up to 5%-10% can have severe, potentially life threatening course, there is an urgent need for effective drugs. Optimized supportive care remains the mainstay of therapy. There have been more than 300 clinical trials going on...
COVID-19 pneumonia has high mortality rates. The symptoms are undiagnostic, the results of viral nucleic acid detection method PCR can delay, so that chest computerized tomography is often key diagnostic test in patients with possible COVID-19 pneumonia. In this review, we discussed the main radiological findings of this infection.
Coronavirus disease COVID-19 was firstly reported at the end of 2019. The disease rapidly spread all around the world in a few months and was declared a worldwide pandemic by WHO in March 2020. By April 9, there were 1,436,198 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world, nearly with 6% mortality rate. This novel infectious disease causes respiratory tract illness that may generally...
Coronavirus disease 2019 COVID-19 stands out as the major pandemic that we have experienced in the last century. As it affects every social structure, it brought the importance of intensive care support once again to the agenda of healthcare system after causing severe acute respiratory syndrome. The precautions to be taken against this virus, where our knowledge is extremely...
In the COVID-19 pandemic, which affects the whole world, healthcare professionals HCP are at high risk of transmission due to their direct contact with patients with COVID-19. Therefore, how to ensure the triage of the patient with acute respiratory symptoms should be determined in advance, the contact distance should be arranged to be at least 2 m, COVID-19 suspect or diagnosed...
On January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a public health emergency of international concern and, in March 2020, began to characterize it as a pandemic in order to emphasize the gravity of the situation and urge all countries to take action in detecting infection and preventing spread. Unfortunately, there is no medication that has been approved by the FDA, gone...
It seems that coronaviruses take an important place in the 21th century history. Five of seven human coronavirus was isolated in this century. Unfortunately, last three of them entered our life with a fear of outbreak, pandemic or death. Last human coronavirus which emerged world from Wuhan China, SARS CoV-2 and its clinical expression, Coronavirus disease COVID-19 recently taken...
Infectious diseases remain as the significant causes of human and animal morbidity and mortality, leading to extensive outbreaks and epidemics. Acute respiratory viral diseases claim over 4 million deaths and cause millions of hospitalizations in developing countries every year. Emerging viruses, especially the RNA viruses, are more pathogenic since most people have no herd...
Coronaviruses (CoVs) cause a broad spectrum of diseases in domestic and wild animals, poultry, and rodents, ranging from mild to severe enteric, respiratory, and systemic disease, and also cause the common cold or pneumonia in humans. Seven coronavirus species are known to cause human infection, 4 of which, HCoV 229E, HCoV NL63, HCoV HKU1 and HCoV OC43, typically cause cold...
Quarantine and isolation are public health measures used for centuries to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. Quarantine is separation of persons who have been exposed to an infection but asymptomatic, while isolation is separation of infected patients. Voluntary quarantine is preferred, but if necessary, it can be mandatory. These implementations can lead to restrictions...
Beginning from China on December 2019, COVID-19 epidemic has spreaded all over the world in a short period of time and has been a pandemic. In challenge with this pandemic quarantine technique has been used widely after tens of years. In the course of the pandemic, many countries evacuated their citizens from affected regions and combined the evacuation with quarantine process...
Pandemics have had very important consequences in human history. Lots of people lost their lives and countries have been intensively affected in terms of socioeconomic problems. Unfortunately, avoidance of pandemics and limiting the spread are still currently not always possible. Maybe the most important factor for this is the increasing frequency of traveling. Increasing airline...
Background/aim: Individuals infected by the Covid-19 potentially are at risk of health and economic well-being. Today, the Covid-19 is a global issue, and the world economy can be interpreted as almost at the standstill. In this context, this study aims to discuss the potential first reactions of short and long term global economic impacts of the pandemic through sectors by...
Along the centuries, novel strain of virus such as influenza produces pandemics which increase illness, death and disruption in the countries. Spanish flu in 1918, Asian flu in 1957, Hong Kong flu in 1968 and swine flu in 2009 were known pandemic which had various characteristics in terms of morbidity and mortality. A current pandemic is caused by novel corona virus originated...
Background/aim: Coronavirus Infectious Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is now a pandemic spreading in most countries including Turkey. Materials and methods: The current knowledge of COVID-19 and the virus causing it, SARS-CoV-2, was reviewed. The epidemiology and control in different countries was compared and the differences discussed. Results: The population attack rates and case...
Nobody can be fully prepared to a pandemic. Of course there are signs of it, the scientists can predict, alarming speeches can be made. But there are always alarmist people around, maybe that is why sometimes even the most serious warnings may be not considered by the authorities on time. The first patients may be lost without a proper diagnosis. When everybody realizes that...
Our first COVID-19 case in Turkey was a 44-year-old male who referred to the hospital on March 9, 2020. The first related death occurred on March 17, 2020. Preparedness for the pandemic has been ongoing before the first case was detected. The National Pandemic Plan was published in 2006. The Pandemic Influenza National Preparedness Plan was available after being updated in light...
This special issue of the Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences is dedicated to providing scientific advances in the process of better understanding the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 infection. The special issue is published in a special time in which science-based approaches, cocreation-based collaboration, and the effective utilization and integration of competences...
Background/aim: To adapt the Sunnybrook facial grading system SFGS into Turkish and perform validation and reliability studies on the Turkish version. Materials and Methods: The original English version of the SFGS was translated into Turkish by performing a linguistic validity study based on international standards. The evaluators comprised 6 physicians. Evaluations were...
Background/aim: Body esteem BE is defined as the self-evaluation of one's own body or appearance. The Body Esteem Scale for Adolescents and Adults BESAA consists of three subscales: BE-appearance, BE-weight, and BE-attribution. Though initially developed for adolescents and adults, the use of the scale has recently increased in health-related research on children. This study...
Background/aim: Studies have shown an increased depression rate in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus T2DM compared to the normal population. It is now acknowledged that patients suffer from distress rather than depression. Our aim was to validate the Turkish version of the Diabetes Distress Scale DDS and to show distress levels of the participants. Materials and methods: The...
Background/aim: Adnexal torsion is a common gynaecological emergency, and considered to be a problem mostly in reproductive-age women. To evaluate the effect of metformin and detorsion treatment on reducing ovarian reserve in an ovarian torsion model. Materials and methods: Twenty-four nonpregnant, Wistar Hannover rats were included in the study. Animals were divided into 3...
Background/aim: Aspartame APM, L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methylester is a low-calorie, nonsaccharide artificial sweetener widely used in foods and beverages. When metabolized by the body, APM is broken down into aspartic acid, phenylalanine amino acids, and a third substance, methanol. Since the amino acid phenylalanine serves as a neurotransmitter building block affecting the...
Background/aim: Multiple sclerosis MS is an autoimmune disease characterized by neurodegeneration or demyelination; the relapsing-remitting phase of MS is characterized by acute exacerbation of disease activity. The most commonly used noninvasive approach to assess autonomic function is the determination of heart rate turbulence HRT and heart rate variability HRV . The aim of...