COVID-19 Delta Wave Caused Early Overburden of Hospital Capacity in the Bulgarian Healthcare System in 2021

Томов, Л; Batselova, Hristiana; Velikova, Tsvetelina

doi:10.3390/healthcare10040600

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Interestingly, during the subsequent waves, i.e., Omicron, the cases of MIS-C dropped off significantly. Along with the increased cases of MIS-C during the Delta wave in Bulgaria, we also demonstrated that the Delta wave overburdened our country's hospital capacity [76].…”

Section: Liver Involvement During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 53%

SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Gastrointestinal Symptoms of COVID-19: 2023 Update

Slabakova,

Gerasoudis,

Miteva

et al. 2023

Gastroenterology Insights

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The gastrointestinal (GI) tract may be a significant entrance or interaction site for SARS-CoV-2; therefore, the gut mucosal immune system participates in virus interaction as a first-line physical and immunological defense, leading to GI involvement and symptoms. This review focuses on the GI symptoms associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection while providing specific results on variant-specific signs and syndromes related to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pattern of symptoms changed during the virus evolution, since the data provided a current and thorough picture of the symptoms experienced by SARS-CoV-2 infected people, and variations in symptom patterns occurred as the Alpha, Delta, and Omicron variants have spread. Since the beginning of the pandemic, GI symptoms have been linked to SARS-CoV-2 infections, even though most infected people do not report them. For example, diarrhea (28.2%) was the most frequently reported GI symptom in the early phase of the pandemic. The most observed GI tract symptoms during COVID-19 were anorexia (loss of appetite), nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, usually in at least one-third of the patients. Mesenteric ischemia and GI bleeding were less observed but more severe. While GI symptoms are not associated with increased mortality, they complicate the disease, increase the duration of the illness, and result in worse outcomes. Nevertheless, it is accepted that symptoms between variants differ significantly, i.e., the Omicron variant causes milder COVID-19 than the Delta. Still, the rate of GI symptoms has declined in the following variant-dominated phases of the pandemic (Alpha: 19.4%, Delta: 17.9%, Omicron: 13.8%), which was also demonstrated for other GI signs associated with COVID-19.

show abstract

Section: Liver Involvement During Covid-19mentioning

confidence: 53%

SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Gastrointestinal Symptoms of COVID-19: 2023 Update

Slabakova,

Gerasoudis,

Miteva

et al. 2023

Gastroenterology Insights

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As our analysis shows, school closures were a vital part of the containment of previous waves[ 32 , 33 ]. For that reason, not only children with their intense contacts but children via schools were drivers of the pandemic waves up to and including Delta[ 34 ]. Although there are summer waves from children to adults (2020 and 2021), they are transient and reflect migrations from cities to villages and tourist destinations, while autumn and winter waves show stable trajectories while schools are opened and turn after the closures – which our model I captured.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Role of children in the Bulgarian COVID-19 epidemic: A mathematical model study

Томов¹,

Batselova²,

Lazova³

et al. 2023

World J Exp Med

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

BACKGROUND The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic affects all aspects of our lives, including children. With the advancement of the pandemic, children under five years old are at increased risk of hospitalization relative to other age groups. This makes it paramount that we develop tools to address the two critical aspects of preserving children's health – new treatment protocols and new predictive models. For those purposes, we need to understand better the effects of COVID-19 on children, and we need to be able to predict the number of affected children as a proportion of the number of infected children. This is why our research focuses on clinical and epidemiological pictures of children with heart damage post-COVID, as a part of the general picture of post-COVID among this age group. AIM To demonstrate the role of children in the COVID-19 spread in Bulgaria and to test the hypothesis that there are no secondary transmissions in schools and from children to adults. METHODS Our modeling and data show with high probability that in Bulgaria, with our current measures, vaccination strategy and contact structure, the pandemic is driven by the children and their contacts in school. RESULTS This makes it paramount that we develop tools to address the two critical aspects of preserving children's health – new treatment protocols and new predictive models. For those purposes, we need to understand better the effects of COVID-19 on children, and we need to be able to predict the number of affected children as a proportion of the number of infected children. This is why our research focuses on clinical and epidemiological pictures of children with heart damage post-COVID, as a part of the general picture of post-Covid among this age group. CONCLUSION Our modeling rejects that hypothesis, and the epidemiological data supports that. We used epidemiological data to support the validity of our modeling. The first summer wave in 2020 from the listed here school proms endorse the idea of transmissions from students to teachers.

show abstract

“…However, if the infection is severe or when the clinical symptoms worsen over time, the patient will require hospitalization for follow-up and for more invasive management of symptoms or complications. During epidemics, such as the recent outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), when many patients became infected and their number continued to rise over several weeks, the pressure on health systems, including hospitals, increased dramatically (1)(2)(3). This increased pressure was also transferred to the nursing and medical staff while they had already been chronically stretched to the limit in most countries because of a continuous scarcity of resources (4)(5)(6).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Large-scale real-life implementation of technology-enabled care to maximize hospitals' medical surge preparedness during future infectious disease outbreaks and winter seasons: a viewpoint

Sener

Haenen²,

Smits³

et al. 2023

Front. Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Hospitals can be overburdened with large numbers of patients with severe infectious conditions during infectious disease outbreaks. Such outbreaks or epidemics put tremendous pressure on the admission capacity of care facilities in the concerned region, negatively affecting the elective program within these facilities. Such situations have been observed during the recent waves of the coronavirus disease pandemic. Owing to the imminent threat of a “tripledemic” by new variants of the coronavirus disease (such as the new Omicron XBB.1.16 strain), influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus during future winter seasons, healthcare agencies should take decisive steps to safeguard hospitals' surge capacity while continuing to provide optimal and safe care to a potentially large number of patients in their trusted home environment. Preparedness of health systems for infectious diseases will require dynamic interaction between a continuous assessment of region-wide available hospital capacity and programs for intensive home treatment of patients who can spread the disease. In this viewpoint, we describe an innovative, dynamic coupling system between hospital surge capacity and cascading activation of a nationwide system for remote patient monitoring. This approach was developed using the multi-criteria decision analysis methodology, considering previously published real-life experiences on remote patient monitoring.

show abstract

COVID-19 Delta Wave Caused Early Overburden of Hospital Capacity in the Bulgarian Healthcare System in 2021

Cited by 6 publications

References 11 publications

SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Gastrointestinal Symptoms of COVID-19: 2023 Update

SARS-CoV-2 Variant-Specific Gastrointestinal Symptoms of COVID-19: 2023 Update

Role of children in the Bulgarian COVID-19 epidemic: A mathematical model study

Large-scale real-life implementation of technology-enabled care to maximize hospitals' medical surge preparedness during future infectious disease outbreaks and winter seasons: a viewpoint

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About