Challenges facing COVID-19 in rural areas: An experience from Lebanon.
COVID-19
Crisis management
Pandemic
Rural health
Journal
International journal of disaster risk reduction : IJDRR
ISSN: 2212-4209
Titre abrégé: Int J Disaster Risk Reduct
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101613236
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
01 Feb 2021
01 Feb 2021
Historique:
received:
20
07
2020
revised:
14
11
2020
accepted:
04
12
2020
pubmed:
16
12
2020
medline:
16
12
2020
entrez:
15
12
2020
Statut:
ppublish
Résumé
The COVID-19 pandemic first affected Lebanon on February 21st, 2020, and one month later it reached Bcharri, a small remote town in northern Lebanon. When similar rural areas with under-equipped facilities and financial limitations are affected, outcomes could be catastrophic, raising the need for meticulous preparation and rapid response. In our study, we describe the different measures taken to prepare this town for the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as our rapid response after the first case was confirmed. We emphasize the distinctions and the needs of rural areas when facing such threats, and the importance of a proactive community and local initiatives. We also detail our contact tracing strategy and massive testing campaign, as well as our early management of patients infected with COVID-19. We hope that our experience can be reproducible in areas with similar rural settings, during the COVID-19 pandemic and future outbreaks.
Identifiants
pubmed: 33318917
doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.102013
pii: S2212-4209(20)31515-6
pmc: PMC7726740
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Pagination
102013Informations de copyright
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts
The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.
Références
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