ISSN 2348-1218 (print) International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations ISSN 2348-1226 (online) Vol. 9, Issue 4, pp: (1-7), Month: October - December 2021, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
A Literature Review on Technology for handling COVID-19: Infection Control 1
Pacharada Pentrakulchai Triamudomsuksa School
Abstract: Due to the pandemic of Coronavirus disease, many medical workers like doctors, nurses, and others working in a risky place were infected. The safety and working conditions of those people were not safe enough to prevent them. Moreover, there were also problems about lack of preventative equipment and many healthcare workers experienced stress and pressure while working. As a result of this global pandemic, plenty of technologies were developed to help deal with the problem. This research reviewed healthcare technologies which can be utilized to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 and can also be used to lower other problems faced by healthcare workers as well. I selected the technologies based on the efficiency proven by particular countries using them and analysed whether they can be adopted in Thailand to reduce those problems. Using technologies can boost up the safety environment in hospitals, prevent the spread of disease, reduce the number of infected workers and also provide better duty of care for patients. The stress and working time of medical professionals also decreased. Keywords: Coronavirus disease, infection prevention and control, healthcare technologies.
1. INTRODUCTION As we all know, we had been fighting with the COVID-19 pandemic since 2019. COVID-19 or commonly known as Coronavirus disease is a contagious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It transmits when people breathe in air contaminated by droplets and small airborne particles. The risk of breathing these in was highest when people were in close proximity, but they could be inhaled over longer distances, particularly indoors. Transmission could also occur if splashed or sprayed with contaminated fluids, in the eyes, nose or mouth, and, rarely, via contaminated surfaces. The use of face masks or coverings had been recommended in public settings to minimize the risk of transmissions. This disease could infect a wide range of cells and systems of the body, especially the respiratory system. It was most known for affecting the upper respiratory tract (sinuses, nose, and throat) and the lower respiratory tract (windpipe and lungs). The lungs were the organs most affected by COVID-19 because the virus accessed host cells via the receptor for the enzyme angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which was most abundant on the surface of type II alveolar cells of the lungs. Many countries implemented measures to reduce the spread of disease. For instance, lock down, quarantine, closing the places where people were crowded and so on [1]. Indeed,in this situation frontline workers like doctors, nurses, medical staff had to work harder and protect themselves as best as they could as this disease spread fast and easily. Moreover,they were the most risky group because they were close to the infected patients everyday and worked in a place with high probability of exposure to those viruses. According to the information from the Department of Disease Control on 12 July 2021, there were about 721,000 health care workers in Thailand and 700,000 of them (97 per cent) were vaccinated. 707 of the vaccinated group were reported infected while the other 172 healthcare workers infected had not been vaccinated yet. While the previous report on 26 January showed that 25 medical workers were infected. When comparing the lastest infected figure with the 26 January 2021, the number of medical staff rose significantly. This reflected that what we had now in terms of healthcare safety systems in hospitals was not enough to protect them [2]. Fortunately, the development of technologies had been developed in an unprecedented way. More and more innovations had been created to help mitigate the situation. Many technologies had been specially designed to help reduce the spread of Covid-19 in hospitals. Most of them were adapted from basic knowledge of some branches of science and engineering. Therefore, this research focused on the adoption of these technologies of how they could be used to help prevent and control infection so that they had lower risk of infecting Covid-19 and the number of infected medical workers decreased or disappeared as a consequence.
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