Since the outbreak of COVID-19, public health officials have investigated whether the GHS Index could be used to assess the performance of countries during the current pandemic. In a research study looking to do just this, the GHS Index was found to have a positive correlation with COVID-19 associated morbidity and mortality rates in 178 different countries.
Despite this observation, these researchers found that this positive association had a limited value in determining a country’s ability to deal with a global pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has overwhelmed healthcare systems around the world, having a knock-on effect on the diagnosis and treatment of other diseases.
Social distancing and lockdowns have reduced diagnosis rates of infectious diseases such as seasonal influenza, as would be expected with reduced social contact.
However, individuals have avoided seeking help for other health problems due to lockdowns and avoidance of medical settings, leading to reduced diagnosis and treatment despite the problem still being there. Meanwhile, even in diagnosed cases, treatment for diseases and conditions such as cancer had to be postponed in many cases due to the immediate threat of COVID-19 consuming health systems and their resources.
Scientific research around the world has also focused on COVID-19, potentially delaying research and breakthroughs on other diseases.
The most common characteristics associated with the novel infectious COVID-19 include respiratory symptoms including cough, fever, respiratory problems, and, in certain cases, atypical pneumonia. Outside the respiratory system, SARS-CoV-2 also appears to affect the cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and urinary systems.
In addition to these symptoms, various neurological manifestations have been observed following infection by SARS-CoV-2. Some examples of these manifestations include hypoxia, dyspepsia, encephalitis, meningitis, and acute cerebrovascular disease. It has been suggested that these neurological effects are due to direct infection of the brain, a virus-induced hyper inflammatory response, hyper coagulation, and post-infectious immune-mediated processes. As a result, these neurological effects can lead to a wide range of psychological issues ranging from depression, anxiety, fatigue, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In addition to having a direct impact on COVID-19 patients, the mental health of both health care providers and non-infected members of the general population has also been dramatically changed during the pandemic.
Health care providers, for example, are at a high risk of infection to the virus, as well as COVID-19 related traumatic events. Furthermore, healthcare workers who must quarantine are at a greater risk of avoidance behaviors and more severe symptoms of PTSD as compared to the public.
Additional barriers to control the spread of COVID-19 include community resistance to outbreak mitigation efforts including travel restrictions, use of face masks in public, and social distancing, hospital transmission rates, and a general lack of crucial funding and resources.
One of the most significant lessons that can be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of political will in its role in protecting people from epidemics. The COVID-19 outbreak also awakened much of the global population to the broken and overextended health systems in many parts of the world.
To ensure that the world is better prepared for the next new infectious agent, public health systems must remain committed to developing adequate surveillance programs, prompt diagnostic techniques, and robust research initiatives that can detect and understand the basic biology and treatment, if necessary, of new organisms
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