Covid-19 Awareness in Kuwaiti Hospitals

Abstract

As of 14 th July 2020, 12,964,809 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) and 570,288 deaths had been reported globally. In Kuwait, the numbers stood at 55,508 confirmed cases and 393 deaths. The disease seems to be hitting hard on the country despite the measures that have been put in place. The current study sought to examine healthcare workers HCWs awareness and perceptions of coronavirus disease in Kuwait hospitals. A prospective study design was used to examine the development of the disease among 28 HCWs between mid-May and the start of June 2020. The primary findings were as follows; most of the study participants had attended lectures/ discussions on COVID-19, only few HCWs could identify the incubation period of the novel coronavirus. However, the majority could identify the most common symptoms of the disease as fever, cough, headache, sore throat, runny nose, and skin rashes. Most of the HCWs were aware that the virus transmitted through contact. A good number of the study participants also identified pneumonia, respiratory failure and death as complications associated with coronavirus disease. The study recommends running health education programs in Kuwait to promote knowledge on the coronavirus and help the HCWs develop positive attitudes and uphold important practices.

Preparedness Assessment of Physicians during Coronavirus Disease-19 Pandemic: A Cross-sectional Study

“…This result is supported by other studies, one study conducted by Alshammari et al who aimed to assess HCWs awareness and perceptions of COVID in Kuwait hospitals where they included 28 HCWs, another study by Acharya et al who aimed to assess the KAP of Nepali medical and dental practitioners on infection control during the COVID-19 pandemic through an online circulated questionnaire, and one more conducted by Bhagavathula et al who conducted a survey among 453 HCWs to asses knowledge and perceptions towards COVID-19 infection where almost all of the participants in the three studies were knowledgeable that hand hygiene, covering the nose and the mouth while coughing reduces the risk of transmission of COVID-19 infection. It is worth noting that this high level of knowledge regarding prevention of COVID-19 infection would help in combatting the current pandemic among HCWs in particular and the public in general [30], [31], [32].…”

COVID-19 Knowledge and Perception Among HealthCare Professionals in Two Arabian Gulf Countries

“…Around 43% of the participants were uncertain about the symptoms of COVID-19 and surprisingly almost half of the participants were not aware of skin rash as a symptom of COVID-19. From the literature a study found that 32.1% could not identify skin rashes as a symptom related to covid-19 (Alshammari et al, 2020). Moreover, some healthcare professionals reported the availability of a vaccine.…”

“…Recent research was conducted to measure the awareness and understanding of healthcare professionals about COVID-19. However, the research used a small sample size compared to similar research, indicated that the outcome must be interpreted with caution (Alshammari et al,2020). With the above literature in mind, the aim of this study was to investigate healthcare professionals' knowledge and perceptions about COVID-19 in two Arabian gulf countries -Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.…”

“…The emergency committee stated that COVID-19 could be controlled by timely identification, isolation, prompt treatment and the integration of a highly efficient contact management system (Sohrabi et al,2020). No recent evidence from randomized controlled trials suggests any new treatment for those suspected or known to have COVID-19 disease (Alshammari, 2020). The FDA authorized the use of some medications approved for other diseases to be ISSN 0975-2366 DOI: https://doi.org/10.31838/ijpr/2021.13.01.015 used to treat hospitalized patients with COVID-19 when no other options are available.…”

“…Two malaria drugs (hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine) and an antiviral drug, remdesivir, have been authorized for this emergency use (FDA, 2020, NIH, 2020. Favipiravir, a drug extensively tested for Ebola disease has been included in a number of ongoing trials, together with other antiviral drugs, such as lopinavir/ ritonavir (Alshammari, 2020).…”