Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has transformed the world since the beginning of 2020 and has produced many changes in key aspects of healthcare delivery. The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 has been seen as the promoter of many dramatic changes, especially in the medical field, having a huge impact on health systems around the world. Both patients and healthcare professionals have been subjected to a new stress factor that has resonated strongly in everyday life. This leads to an increased risk of association of psychological disorders, especially for patients suffering from chronic diseases, as they have already had a history of psycho-vulnerability. Patients with known chronic pathologies therefore have several concerns about important issues in the future, therefore, they are associated with an increased risk of occurrence of psychological phenomena. The present research represents an observational study, with a prospective case-witness type, carried out over a period of 2 years, between 2019 and 2020. The patients included in this research are part of the databases of the Children’s Pneumology Department of “Sfântul Spiridon” Pneumoftiziology Hospital of Galati and in the TB (Tuberculosis) Clinics in Galati County, being patients diagnosed and treated in these departments. We aimed to study the association between the presence of tuberculosis and depressive disorders reported in children aged 7-18 years, during 2019 and 2020 and in addition, to expose the results of the psychological effects of the pandemic on these chronic patients. We finally hypothesized that depression, but also the symptoms associated with them, will have a significantly higher incidence among patients with tuberculosis during the Covid pandemic.
Highlights
One of the main factors for which the year 2020 will remain in the common memory is represented by the pandemic caused by the SARS CoV2 virus
There has been information that, in many countries, the pneumonologists and experts in infectious diseases and public health, together with ICU specialists, are or have been relocated to the front line to ensure the fighting against COVID-19 pandemic (Stop TB Partnership, 2020)
The ultimate goal of this research was to demonstrate the null hypothesis that depression will be significantly more common among patients diagnosed with clinically manifest TB during the COVID-19 pandemic
Summary
One of the main factors for which the year 2020 will remain in the common memory is represented by the pandemic caused by the SARS CoV2 virus. The numerous vulnerabilities were highlighted (Sandu, 2020a; 2020b), as well as the lack of elements of crucial importance for the medical system, a situation in which we were all confronted with the necessity to face many challenges (Alagna et al, 2020; Damian et al, 2020; Dara et al, 2020) Another extremely important change was the obligation to replace, as far as possible, the clinical examinations, respectively the “in person” meetings, with telephone consultations and to conduct various activities based on the Internet, in the virtual environment (Stop TB Partnership, 2020; Sandu, 2020c). The socio-economic consequences of this pandemic have had as direct implications the following: the contribution to the aggravation of the precarious situation in which many patients find themselves, the deepening of shortages, the appearance of malnutrition and of the morbidity and mortality related to this factor (Saunders & Evans, 2020)
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