We examined the awareness of and practices regarding patients' rights in one of the general hospitals in South Egypt. This cross-sectional study incorporated a convenience sample of the hospitalized patients and their companions (N = 292), as well as the actively working medical care providers (MCPs) at the time of data collection, 72 physicians and 48 nurses. Pretested structured questionnaires inquired about the way in which patients' rights are perceived by and exercised through the lived experiences of the sample group. An in-depth interview about patient rights' practices was conducted with the study hospital's highest-level manager. Three quarters of the patients and companions did not know about the list of patients' rights, compared to about half of the physicians and nurses--77%, 44%, and 48% respectively. Among those patients and companions who were knowledgeable about the list of patients' rights, mass media was their main source of knowledge, about eight times greater than their next source, placards on the hospital wall. The proportion of the physicians who stated undergraduate curriculum as a source of their knowledge was almost half that of the nurses. Strategies to promote awareness among MCPs, and to ensure effective supervision from both the Ministry of Health and local managers, should precede mass community patients' rights awareness efforts.

This research is the first in Egypt to apply the re-engineering approach to public health systems. Developing user-friendly models for service improvement is an added value.

In December 2019, a new coronavirus, now labeled as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, induced an episode of acute atypical respiratory illness started in Wuhan, Province of Hubei, China. The illness triggered by this virus was called coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19). The infection is spread within humans and has triggered a global pandemic. The amount of death tolls continues to increase and a growing number of countries have been driven to create social barriers and lock-ups. The shortage of tailored counseling remains an issue. Epidemiological researches have shown that elderly patients are more vulnerable to serious diseases, while children tend to have milder symptoms. Here, we checked the latest understanding of this disease and found a possible explanation of the potential sequel and the expectations for the future.