The risks encountered by healthcare professionals in the global COVID-19 outbreak: the importance of protection
Abstract
The Novel Coronavirus Desease (COVID-19), which started on the 31st of December 2019, with the notification of cases of unknown pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, was declared as a pandemic in order to increase the general protective measures in terms of its spreading rate and its effect on human health, and entered the group of pandemic diseases in history. COVID-19 infected 25 million people in about 220 countries during this 8-month period, and it became the 21st century's most life-threatening epidemic, being responsible for the death of 852.758 people (at the time of writing). The number of infected medical personnel in the COVID-19 outbreak is unprecedented in modern history due to the high amount of data (10%) that only includes this 4-month period. Problems such as the healthcare professionals being at the forefront of the fight against the epidemic, a lot of uncertainty at the beginning of the epidemic and the intense stress created by it, delay of measures to be taken, problems in the implementation of these measures, intense working hours, lack of information and lack of equipment are some of these risks. It is very important for healthcare professionals to protect their own health principally in order to fight this epidemic. This review has been prepared to draw attention to the risks faced by healthcare professionals in the COVID-19 outbreak, the repercussions of the infection, and to highlight the protection of healthcare professionals from infection.
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References
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