How Dr. Michael Everest’s contributions have made a difference.
LOS ANGELES, CA, June 16, 2020 /Neptune100/ — Public health services in many countries have been completely or partially disrupted by Covid-19. According to the World Health Organization, more than half of the countries surveyed have experienced disruption in hypertension and diabetes treatments because of coronavirus. Cancer treatment has also been affected in 42% of the countries.
The Novel Coronavirus Has Upended Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
Medical practitioners are in unchartered waters for delivering cancer care and treatment in this era of Covid-19. This is one of the most challenging times in the history of cancer treatment.
Cancer screening services have been put on hold in several countries. This puts many lives at risk because treatment is usually effective when cancer is diagnosed early. With millions of Americans no longer being screened for cervical, breast, and bowel cancers, a significant number of early cancers will be undetected.
Many people are avoiding health services during this pandemic period; therefore, people with signs and symptoms of cancer are not coming forward and seeking the necessary healthcare. This will affect public health long after the pandemic is over.
Cancer treatment has been severely disrupted in hospitals across the United States. Surgery has been hit worst; doctors have to explain to patients the risks vs. the benefits of undertaking surgery in this period. Patients who require major cancer surgery cannot have it because there are no ICU beds if surgical complications were to occur.
Chemotherapy cannot be carried out as it is deemed too risky. In some cases, the lack of staff makes it impossible to carry out chemotherapy. Therefore, cancer patients need to use alternative treatments such as radiotherapy and hormone therapy. However, these alternative therapies cannot work for cases of non-hormone responsive, faster-growing cancers.
Over 50% of Heart Disease Patients are Staying Away From Hospitals
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, the number of heart disease patients seeking medical care has dropped by over 50%. This is the strongest evidence that this pandemic is seriously affecting public health. Fear of catching the virus makes people to avoid seeking life-saving treatment for life-threatening heart diseases.
Covid-19 Has Affected Rehabilitation Services
Covid-19 has made it necessary to shift or discontinue rehabilitation services; this decision has serious implications for the future. Because of this pandemic, the period of inpatient rehabilitation care has been reduced with home-based rehabilitation being emphasized. Professional inpatient rehabilitation care is required to help reduce disability by optimizing cognitive and physical functioning. This disruption in rehabilitation care may result in morbidity and increased disability.
In some cases, rehabilitation services are being suspended since many aspects of rehabilitation care require physical contact such as fitting a new limb after amputation and helping a patient to develop balance techniques after a stroke. Coronavirus is spread through physical contact. Rehabilitation personnel from Belgium to Argentina are being redeployed to meet emerging Covid-19 issues leaving very few professionals to deal with disability rehabilitation.
Dr. Michael Everest is leading the Way in Fighting Coronavirus
Dr. Michael Everest and Agata Everest are committed to advancing medical research with the goal of finding treatments for viral infections that pose a significant public health risk including Ebola, coronavirus, H1N1 virus, and HIV/AIDS. Dr. Michael Everest and his nonprofit donated $1million to help fund the next-generation medical research that will help to improve health and wellbeing.
The Bottom-Line
The first case of coronavirus in the US was reported in January 2020, an arrival from Wuhan, China. Since then, American healthcare workers have been actively combating the virus. So far, there have been over 600,000 recoveries. In a recent banquet, Dr. Michael Everest announced additional funding to his nonprofit to help with coronavirus research.
