Journal of Health Management

Government communication introduced important lessons during the worldwide experience with the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to apply known efficacious principles of risk and health communication strategies. The purpose of the study is to depict and explore the United Arab Emirates government communication scenario in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic as well as look at the types of strategies, information and messages delivered via digital mediums to handle challenges that are raised based on the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication model. The study includes a qualitative analysis of two government bodies’ digital platforms: ‘The Ministry of Health and Prevention’ (mohap) and ‘Crisis and Disasters Management Authority’. Results indicated that the UAE government used different communication aims and strategies to face the pandemic according to the risk management scenario. In the quarantine phase, communication focused on giving people information about the disease, raising awareness about the disease, motivating health and behaviour change, informing people about government decisions and procedures. In the coexistence phase communication focused on emphasising the necessity of adherence the health measures, providing information on re-work in institutions and commercial centres, involving people in the health and social initiatives, confronting non-compliance with health precautions. Government communication also focused on facing rumours and false information. UAE government communication used digital platforms and social media to address more than 200 nationalities living in the state for ensuring that they adhere to the precautionary measures and coordinate with the authorities. Government communication was committed to a set of values including equality between citizens of the state and residents, societal and individual responsibility, recognising the frontline medical staff and acknowledging their sacrifices. UAE implemented an integrated, coherent and effective scenario to deal with the crisis. It developed risk communication strategies in health communication to manage the COVID-19 crisis by following international standards and also took into account its own political, economic, social and cultural features. The UAE government used many strategies to inform and convince people including clarification of measures strategy, reassurance strategy, ambiguity reduction strategy, behaviour efficacy strategy, correcting misinformation and rumours, advising strategy.

When one talks about a healthcare organisation, in most instances it is an automatic assumption that we are talking about clinical personnel. This article addresses the critical role that non-clinical personnel played during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the authors delineated the critical roles of the marketing department personnel in healthcare organisations. In light of the pandemic, in the future, there will be a greater need for unique training topics that were not even imagined in the years prior to 2020, and using the concepts of marketing, the authors have provided a list of the potential generic topics as well as how to assess its reach, effectiveness and value.

COVID-19 pandemic, the associated economic lockdown and the norms of social distancing have disrupted the business world. Most managers have struggled to make sense of the chaos and complexity around. Health insurance industry mangers are at the forefront of this challenge as new products and services covering COVID-19 had to be launched fast. This was both a market as well as the societal requirement. In the COVID-19 world, in different countries like United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Germany and India, attempts are being made to develop mobile applications for tracking COVID-19 patients. Emerging technologies have been altering the business landscape in most industries. The health insurance industry has also been witnessing the effects of technologies such as wearables technology, big data analytics, cloud technologies, blockchain, machine learning and such others. The advent of these technologies is fundamentally changing the health insurance industry. Given the realities of the COVID-19 world, the health insurance industry is poised at a crossroad of evolution where the industry would become data-intensive and data-driven. Health insurance firms have to enter into interfirm collaboration with wearable technology firms in the conversation on tracking social distancing from COVID-19 positive and potential cases. Health insurance firms might develop a service mechanism which could while maintaining the anonymity of COVID-19 positive or potential cases, ensure that customers who are using the wearable technology products and following social distancing norms are provided favourable premium for COVID-19 related health insurance products in case they were infected. This would be a novel addition to COVID-19 related products of health insurance firms. Deliberating on these aspects in this article, the authors propose a fundamental shift in the strategic orientation of health insurance firms.

This article examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health financing system in Ghana. The COVID-19 pandemic presents two different crises—a health crisis and an economic crisis, and these have implications for the health financing system in Ghana. The pandemic is likely to have adverse effects on the various sources of healthcare financing, including government support, donor support, national health insurance scheme (NHIS) and out-of-pocket payments, which will impact the general delivery of healthcare in the country. Government support to the health sector in general is likely to be rechannelled into fighting the pandemic considering the declining tax and other non-tax revenues as well as huge expenditure commitment. Donor support is also likely to be scaled down and existing funds redirected into dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHIS will be affected, as many subscribers are not likely to renew their health insurance policies because of the fear of contracting the coronavirus when they visit health facilities. Also, the non-attendance at health facilities by health consumers will impact out-of-pocket payments and the hospitals’ ability to generate sufficient internal resources for their operations. A number of useful recommendations are proffered with the aim of improving health financing system in Ghana during and post-COVID-19 pandemic.

This study investigates the relations between COVID-19-related stay-at-home-tendencies and various health insurance coverages of people across US states. To this aim, the K-means clustering and panel regression analysis with cross-sectional dependence are applied. The main empirical finding reveals that various health insurance coverages have different level impacts on COVID-19-related stay-at-home-tendencies. People who are uninsured tend to stay at home the most as compared with people with private, Medicaid, Medicare and military health insurance coverages. As a result, it may be interpreted that uninsured people have serious concerns about affording healthcare costs associated with COVID-19 and, thereby, stay at home. However, people with private health insurance coverages tend to stay at home the least. This may also lead to the interpretation that people with private health insurance coverages feel safer and better protected against the rising risks of this pandemic outside their homes.

On 31 January 2020, World announced COVID-19 as an Emergency Public Health of International Concern. The number of patients in Indonesia continues to grow. Anti-viral in the COVID-19 Drug Information Laboratory in Indonesia are Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Favipiravir, Remdemsivir, Oseltamivir, Chloroquine Phosphate and Hydroxychloroquine Phosphate. Therefore, it is necessary to know the basis and management of its use. An online systematic search was performed on articles published until 30 March 2020. We use search keywords that are tailored to the purpose of writing. All six antivirals were used for the treatment of RNA virus. Chloroquine, Hydroxychloroquine and Remdesivir effectively control the SARS-CoV2 virus invitro. Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Hydroxychloroquine and Oseltamivir have been used clinically for the treatment of SARS-CoV2 virus. In 2020, there are 42 clinical trials of six antivirals. Guidance of the antivirus are from China, Belgium and Indonesia. Its differences are based on the patient’s condition. There is a lack of evidence of six antiviral effectiveness against the SARS-CoV2 virus. It has been used for other RNA viruses. It is supported by a safety profile. In a pandemic situation and the absence of a specific antivirus, the use of the six antiviruses can be done and be useful.

We are in a society where news travels like wildfire. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to reorder our space and time. This article analyses these changes and puts the human race in the face of possible pandemics that are to come. Nowadays, we live in a world outside the normality to which we want to return as soon as possible. Reality shows that many things have changed, and we do not know very well if they are to stay. Concern for health workers has grown in all countries, their great need has been shown in cases like this, and the worst thing is that according to the statistics, the world will be subjected to pandemics of this kind in the coming years. Finding a vaccine or drug capable of fighting, stopping and defeating it is a challenge for the world in general, and science and scientists in particular. This study also shows the struggle of the best scientific centres, and the different paths they have taken, to reach the goal first. Cooperation between all health agencies has become a priority, now more than ever, efforts are being made to achieve the same goal, to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Let us hope that science has arguments to win this battle, the war is still to come.

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has created a crisis with a severe effect on the masses, particularly the young students across the world. Framed by the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study investigates the factors influencing psychological well-being (PWB) of the students in higher education during the peri-traumatic phase of COVID-19. A cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire was employed. The study aimed at prediction and theory building and was carried out in India. Data were collected online from 173 higher education students. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypothesised relationships among the constructs. Results indicated resilience significantly predicts PWB both directly and indirectly. Further, the study revealed perceived distress and PWB are not on the same continuum. This study has a contribution to theory and health promotion. Furthermore, the findings have several practical implications for counselling psychologists, academicians, and mental health workers associated with the higher education sector. These findings will put them in a better position to design interventions to enhance resilience in students in the backdrop of the relevance of both positive and negative mental health during the outbreak of diseases. Based on the findings, future directions were discussed.

The prevalence of child undernutrition in India is among the highest in the world, nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa, with dire consequences for morbidity, mortality, productivity and economic growth (HNP, World Bank). India is home to most malnourished people in the world (FAO, 2015). According to data tabled in the state assembly, 37% of children below 5 years of age are underweight in the state of Rajasthan. A total of 39% of children in Rajasthan under the age of 5 years are stunted, or too short for their age, which shows that they have been undernourished for quite a while (National Family Health Survey-4—Rajasthan factsheet). Region specific magnitude of under nutrition in young children (6–23 months) at the block level is scarce. The present study carried out by IIHMR University, supported by IPE Global could be of use to the Government, policy makers as well as to the development partners working towards the enhanced nutritional status of the children. The specific objectives of the study were to collect demographic and background information about enrolled children (6–23 months) and to assess the anthropometry based nutritional status as far as wasting, stunting and underweight for the children 6–23 months and its determinants. A cross-sectional survey was undertaken. Three stage sampling method was adopted. Three districts were randomly selected from total districts of Rajasthan and from each selected district, four rural blocks/urban slums based on systematic random sampling were enrolled for the study in Stage 1. For Stage 2, for each selected block 10 villages/urban slums primary sampling unit (PSU) were selected. In the third stage, from each PSU six children in the age group of 6–11 months and 12 children from the age group of 12–23 months based on systematic random sampling were enrolled for the study. It was done from the list available to Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)/Anganwadi workers in the respective PSU. Thus, from every district, a sample of 720 respondents comprising two groups of infants was enrolled in the study. Hence, the total sample size for the study was 2,160 for all three selected districts. Socio-demographic and economic indicators of the respondent’s household: Information on the family composition of the household, including age, religion, caste, occupation, income was elicited through pretested semi-structured questionnaire. Anthropometric measurements were taken adopting the standard procedure for the same. WHO Anthro form 3.2.2 programming was utilised for the anthropometric examination to evaluate the magnitude of wasting, stunting and underweight in the enrolled children. A total 92% of the households in the sampled population were the followers of Hinduism. Regarding caste/tribe, around 11% of the households belonged to general category, 16% of the scheduled caste group, while the remaining 28% households were found to be from the scheduled tribe group. The overall pervasiveness of wasting, stunting and underweight was 16.9%, 58.1% and 34.2%, respectively. In case of severe wasting, stunting and underweight among children, it was 6.4%, 36.7% and 12.9% individually. It was revealed that prevalence of undernutrition was higher in males as compared to females in all the three districts. In Rajasthan, existing nutritional status of children, including wasting, stunting and underweight is a cause of concern which may get aggravated due to the current pandemic of COVID-19. Some studied shows that ‘poorer households are much more likely to report much less income during April than richer households compare to income during January and February’. To protect the vulnerable groups, especially women and children, from the effects of this nutritional crisis, there is an urgent need for high-frequency surveillance of vulnerable populations and inter sectoral convergence across segments, including health, agriculture, education, water and sanitation, social protection, commerce and livelihood.

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a Pandemic and a global public health emergency. The eventual scope and consequences of this outbreak are uncertain at present as the condition is swiftly evolving. The purpose of this article is to cumulate existing published data and researches, identify the challenges with reference to India and develop a comprehensive preventive plan to prevent the spread of this deadly pandemic. The authors explored WHO situation dashboards, the web portal of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India and press reports of different countries, published literature on coronavirus transmission, textbooks, scientific and medical journals and several other sources to identify ongoing challenges in the fight against COVID-19 in India. After an exhaustive literature search, 15 ongoing challenges in the fight against novel COVID-19 especially with reference to India have been identified. After a thorough analysis of all these challenges along with the lessons from the International community, a preventive plan has been established to be devised by different agencies from our personal perspectives to overcome the challenges which may assist decision-makers in the prevention and control of COVID-19 in India.