Introduction: Today, COVID-19 pandemic is still the most critical problem in the global health agenda. Since the awareness of the public in general and particularly awareness of those with comorbidities, such as cancer, determine the rate of mortality, the primary goal of this study was to assess the knowledge, perceptions and attitude of the patients with cancer towards the COVID-19 pandemic. The secondary objective of this study was also to measure the effect of COVID-19 on cancer patients' ongoing treatments. Methods: This study recruited 300 oncology patients through an outpatient community-based oncology clinic in one of the 30 major cities of Turkey, which had taken a lockdown at weekends during April 2020. A questionnaire measuring the knowledge, attitudes and preventive behaviour was completed by each patient either face-toface or through telephone survey. Results: In general, participants had a positive attitude towards protective measures. No delay for current cancer treatments or appointments has been observed in 98% of patients. More than half of the patients(52.3%) were using some kind of nutritional supplement to increase their body resistance. Nearly two-third of patients could not identify the three most common symptoms of COVID-19 (fever, cough, dyspnoea), and half of them were not aware of the routes of transmission (by contact and droplets). It was observed that patients with stage 1 cancer were tend to stay at home, while patients with stage 4 cancer were prone to leave their houses for the hospital at a higher ratio. The rate of people leaving houses was significantly higher for male patients and for patients with a university degree, whereas patients who were older than 65 were tend to go only to the hospital when they leave their houses. Conclusion: This study suggests that routine follow-up and guidance for cancer patients seems to provide significant benefit to increase the knowledge and awareness of patients with cancer.
Aim: This study aimed to assess the impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) phobia and related factors on attitude towards COVID-19 vaccine in cancer patients. Methods: A prospective cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 300 adult patients using a validated COVID-19 Phobia Scale (C19P-S) and related survey to determine the factors affecting vaccine acceptance between May–June 2021. Results: Regarding the COVID-19 vaccine willingness, 86.7% accepted vaccination, 6.3% were hesitant and 7% refused vaccination. Patients that accepted vaccination had significantly higher C19P-S scores in general, and in psychological and psychosomatic subdivisions. Univariate analysis revealed that increased age, being retired, and being married were significantly associated with willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Conclusion: The majority of patients had high coronophobia levels which were associated with increased willingness for the COVID-19 vaccines. Minimizing negative attitudes towards vaccines will most likely be achieved by raising awareness in the cancer population about COVID-19 vaccine.
Negative pressure pulmonary edema (NPPE) is a form of noncardiogenic pulmonary edema that typically occurs in response to an upper airway obstruction, where patients generate high negative intrathoracic pressures, leading to a pulmonary edema especially in the postoperative period. Here, we report a case of NPPE following general anesthesia that can easily be misdiagnosed as COVID-19 both radiologically and clinically during this pandemic. Twenty-year-old male was presented with sudden onset respiratory distress, tachypnea, and cyanosis just after the rhinoplasty surgery under general anesthesia. Chest radiography and thoracic computed tomography scans revealed the bilateral patchy alveolar opacities with decreased vascular clarity that looks similar to COVID-19 radiology. Negative pressure pulmonary edema is a sudden onset and life-threatening complication following general anesthesia particularly after head and neck surgery in young healthy individuals. It is a clinical condition that cannot be diagnosed unless it comes to mind. While both NPPE and COVID-19 cause hypoxemia and respiratory distress, as well as ground-glass opacities in the chest computed tomography, those opacities in NPPE appear mostly in central areas, whereas those opacities are mostly seen in peripheral areas in COVID-19. Furthermore, while NPPE cause decreased vascular clarity, COVID-19 causes vascular dilatations in the areas of opacities. Those differences together with medical history of the patient is crucial to differentiate these 2 similar identities. Negative pressure pulmonary edema requires an immediate recognition and intervention, therefore, we would like to raise the awareness of clinicians for such condition to avoid possible mistakes during the pandemic situation.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought countries’ health services into sharp focus. It was drawn to our group’s attention that healthcare workers (HCWs) had a lower mortality rate against higher COVID-19 incidence compared to the general population in Turkey. Since risk of exposure to tuberculosis bacillus among healthcare workers are higher than the population, we aimed to investigate if there is a relationship between BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure history with COVID-19 severity in infected HCWs. This study was conducted with 465 infected HCWs from thirty-three hospitals to assess the relationship between COVID-19 severity (according to their hospitalization status and the presence of radiological pneumonia) and BCG and Mycobacterium tuberculosis exposure history. HCWs who required hospital admission had significantly higher rates of chronic diseases, radiological pneumonia, and longer working hours in the clinics. Higher rates of history of contact and care to tuberculosis patients, history of tuberculosis, and BCG vaccine were observed in hospitalized HCWs. HCWs who had radiological pneumonia had a significantly increased ratio of history of care to tuberculosis patients and a higher family history of tuberculosis. The findings from our study suggest that the lower mortality rate despite the more severe disease course seen in infected HCWs might be due to frequent exposure to tuberculosis bacillus and the mortality-reducing effects of the BCG vaccine.
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