Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.
1. Living Practice Points from ACP: Advice on Use of N95, Surgical, and Cloth Masks to Prevent COVID-19
@acpinternists, @annalsofim
The American College of Physicians (ACP) issued new Practice Points on the effectiveness of N95 respirators, surgical masks, and cloth masks for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in addition to standard precautions (such as hand washing, gloves, etc.) in both healthcare settings and community settings. In the health care setting, ACP says that healthcare personnel should wear N95 respirators when in close contact with suspected or known COVID-19 patients. ACP also says that all healthcare personnel, patients, and visitors who are not in close contact with patients with suspected or known COVID-19 should use surgical masks in healthcare settings to reduce the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection. ACP says asymptomatic or symptomatic persons in community settings should follow community and statewide public health guidelines for mask use, which should take into account factors such as local demographics (e.g., high risk populations), epidemiologic data (e.g., reproduction rate, daily case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths), and exposure context (e.g., number of people, indoor vs outdoors, ventilation etc.). Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3234.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. To speak with someone from ACP, please contact Andy Hachadorian at Ahachadorian@acponline.org.
2. White Coats for Black Lives: The Time Has Come for Action
@valstonemd, @BrighamWomens
The author from Brigham and Women's Hospital discusses actions academic medical centers and their leaders should take toward eradicating racism at their institutions. She stresses that transforming academic culture is essential to the care of black patients and to provide a robust community of support for black medical students, trainees, and faculty. Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-4280.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Valerie E. Stone, MD, MPH, can be contacted directly at vstone@bwh.harvard.edu.
3. COVID-19 Across Africa: Epidemiologic Heterogeneity and Necessity of Contextually Relevant Transmission Models and Intervention Strategies
@JohnsHopkinsSPH, @TwahirwaOlivier, @sdbaral
Authors from John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health discuss the COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent. The authors describe why the international community should be hesitant in developing forecasts and prevention strategies for COVID-19 in the absence of integration of African data. Input from leadership of African institutions should be considered, as they have a long history of effective measures to mitigate infectious diseases, such as Ebola, Zika, malaria, and dengue, among others. Read the full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-2628.
Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read full text. The lead author, Jean Olivier Twahirwa Rwema, MD, MPH, can be reached directly at jtwahir1@jhu.edu.
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Journal
Annals of Internal Medicine