Search

In December 2019, the People's Republic of China and the World Health Organization first reported on a cluster of pneumonia with an unknown cause Nine months later more than 1 4 million people have died from COVID 19 In this work, the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on five nursing homes in Austria, which cared for 889 residents in the first half of 2020, were examined The research question was whether the measures taken were appropriate to prevent an outbreak within the individual facilities To detect previously unrecognized infections, the present study evaluated the prevalence of neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in residents and employees of the nursing homes Following the analysis of blood samples, the prospectively collected data was connected to data from screening examinations and data from contact tracing The present study demonstrated an overall prevalence of neutralizing antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus in nursing homes of 3 7% Whereas the prevalence in those facilities that have never been hit by an outbreak is 0%, the prevalence in those facilities with an outbreak is up to 4 9% Neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 35 persons A retrospective analysis of all 5 included nursing homes demonstrated that upon regular clinical screening in combination with PCRs an infection with SARS-COV-2 was detected in 66 residents and 24 employees from different professional groups In only 25 of the 35 persons with neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 an infection was proven in advance This study suggests that specific measures can prevent transmission within a health care facility Nevertheless, the results also show that a risk reduction to 0% cannot be achieved In preparation for further pandemic waves there is still the need to reduce the probability of a transmission in nursing homes with specific test strategies [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Aging & Disease is the property of JKL International LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use This abstract may be abridged No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract (Copyright applies to all Abstracts )

This paper is general statement about the psychosocial care of refugees, developed by the of the Austrian Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics as well as by the Austrian Society for Social Psychiatry. Reasons of recent wave of refugees and the usual mental disorders among refugees are described. The increasing number of refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants poses a challenge for mental health services in Europe. As a consequence, several expert recommendations were given. As a first step, basic needs of refugees such as regular housing facilities, sufficient nutrition and safety in everyday life should be met. Fast decisions about the applications for asylum and support of social integration through education and employment are essential for mental health. Provision of mental health care should be needs based as described by the intervention pyramid for mental health and psychosocial support as given by the Inter-Agency Standing Committee of the World Health Organization. In addition, culture-specific aspects must be considered in everyday clinical work and the training of health professionals.