Action Against COVID-19; Medical Students' Response IFMSA-Egypt Newsletter, 2020, issue #1
Word from IFMSA-Egypt Executive Board 2019-2020 Dearest IFMSA Egypt Family, Over the years, IFMSA Egypt and all of its Local Committees have been exerting tremendous efforts in our focus areas, acting as agents of change within their local communities. Through capacitating medical students, promoting health awareness within the general public sector, or advocating for causes they believe in, the impact they've been making is evident and applaudable. Some of these efforts came to the light; were seen and acknowledged, but some others were not as lucky. However, this is about to change. We, in IFMSA Egypt, want to amplify our members’ voices, provide them with a platform where they can showcase their local efforts, and have them recognized and celebrated. We want to create a space where we can inspire and empower one another, and explore areas for collaboration, spreading our impact even further. With all of that being said, it is with great pleasure that we publish IFMSA Egypt Newsletter in its First Edition, under the theme "Action Against COVID-19; Medical Students' Response". This edition aims to put our response to a global pandemic -as medical students- under the spotlight, highlighting efforts conducted on both national and local scales since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic. We applaud all efforts conducted and encourage you to continue being advocates for health. Regards, Menna Zohny On behalf of IFMSA-Egypt Executive Board 2019-2020
Egyptian Youth Initiative In December 2019, cases of severe pneumonia of unknown etiology were reported in Wuhan, China. The novel coronavirus was eventually identified. The number of reported cases has rapidly increased in Wuhan and expanded to other Chinese cities. Later on, and by the start of 2020, same cases have been reported outside China. On 11th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced this disease as a pandemic. On 14th of February 2020, Egypt reported its first COVID-19 case. From here, we as Egyptian Youth organization working on the public health field, took our social responsibility and tried to work on spreading knowledge and awareness and help breaking the transmission chain. IFMSA-Egypt, hand in hand with EPSF, ENNSSA, EUPTS and under the supervision of the National Population Council and UNICEF-Egypt, started the Egyptian Youth Initiative fighting against COVID-19. The initiative goal was to contribute in renewing and refreshing the current status of Youth in the national strategy of Egypt including leadership, innovation, and skills. Moreover, it aims to strengthen the youth critical role in the community, participating in decision making and fighting against crisis situations such as COVID-19, supporting country-level action to increase the meaningful engagement of youth within the Egyptian communities. In May 2020, the Capacity Building phase which aims to build the Capacity of 75 medical and paramedical students in Egypt’s universities began. It served to increase their knowledge about delivering education on COVID-19 through providing learning opportunities using online platforms and tools to fulfill learning objectives and ensure full engagement and interaction with the program. On the other hand, The Executive Board of the Coalition has been working on advocating for more meaningful youth engagement in public health issues in different high level meetings with HE Dr. Tarek Tawfik Deputy Minister of health. This initiative is another proof that Youth are a valuable resource and network during crises and public health emergencies. Investing in them during these times and equipping them with knowledge will assist countries in tackling COVID-19. It’s now the time for Egyptian authorities to put their trust in youth and give them the chance to take an equal seat on the table in all public health issues.
IFMSA Egypt on National Television in Light of COVID19 It is deeply within our vision as socially active medical students that we should not stand by and watch as thousands of citizens are endangered by illness and, hence, when we saw that a global pandemic is almost upon us, we knew that we must take action. Therefore, as a part of IFMSA Egypt’s effort to battle the novel coronavirus pandemic, and with our vision towards more effective awareness with the new social distancing instructions, 3 interviews were conducted on national television and aired live on channel 2. The first interview took place on the 26th of March and hosted Dr. Mahmoud Masoud, current IFMSA Egypt president, and Miss Nada Nasr, current IFMSA Egypt NPO. They briefly introduced the organization, our roles in raising awareness and educating the public, as well as our role in facing the new pandemic. The then proceeded to give general information about the disease and brief advice so as to stay safe and protect ourselves and our loved ones. The second interview had Miss Arwa Hany, IFSMA-Egypt FSDD, and Miss Dina Tarek, current First Aid for All National Coordinator, and took place on the 1st of April. They further discussed the precautions that should be taken but focused more on the psychological aspect of the issue. They addressed aspects relating the pandemic to the general mental health and the kind of stress it may cause, then provided some tips with regard to how to maintain your mental and emotional health. They also discussed the proper behaviors towards anyone who is suspected or confirmed to have the disease. A third interview was held with Dr Maha Nasr, and Dr Mahmoud El Feki, IFMSA Egypt alumni and current general practitioners on the 28th of May. During that interview, they discussed the roles of physicians in the light of the ongoing events and shared some of their experiences from the front lines as well as their needs and requirements as doctors to perform better and reach their full potential in helping the public such as a steady supply of PPE and assurance that they will find a place to be treated if they themselves were to catch the infection from one of their patients. They then provided basic information about the process of suspecting and diagnosing patients with covid19 as well as the proper use of masks by the public. The series of interviews were not only an amazing step in the continuous efforts meant to face the new pandemic and to raise awareness with minimal social interactions, but also a step to improve the public image of physicians.
Keeping the Doors of Learning Open IFMSA-Egypt House of Webinars
Although COVID19 has stopped us from gathering, we -IFMSA-Egypt Team Officials- did not allow it to stop us from connecting, building our capacities, and engaging together from the safety of our homes. The House of Webinars is our first of its kind idea of an extensive online camp; it happened in 2 waves comprising a month of interesting topics and new skills, which took us back to the vibes of our camps that we used to conduct physically before the pandemic. The pandemic was a reminder for us to build the capacities and invest in the knowledge and skills of our members. The house of webinars 1 and 2 covered a variety of topics that are essential for our members, to cope with the world during the pandemic; starting from discussing COVID19 from a public health perspective, passing through its implications on different vulnerable groups, health equity, reproductive health, family planning, Mental Health, and more. Moreover, It was an exceptional chance to burnish the skills of our members in Leadership, Advocacy, Research, Fundraising, and Project management; The fundamental skills that keep our organization spreading the community awareness, reaching a change and making an impact in our society. 30 online training sessions with more than 50 experienced speakers from IFMSA International Team, and experts from external organizations such as the International Organization of Migration and the National Population Council who kept the learning doors open for more than 1000 participants -not only from Egypt but also from all over the world- in our IFMSA-Egypt house! This astonishing camp proved that online training can genuinely help during times like this. Thanks to the internet and technology, training materials are easier to reach, learning is more innovative, and most importantly they can keep us together creating a continuous environment of debates and discussions, sharing our thoughts, and knowledge. There’s no doubt that we will witness a new jumpstart for online learning even after the end of the COVID19 pandemic and we encourage whoever is reading this article to keep the learning doors open and better utilize this gift in continuous development.
Maa’ Baa’d Initiative; Youth Mental Health Under Lockdown Lockdown, global pandemic, serious disease that kills thousands, deteriorating economy and global health and a lot of news that has been chasing many of us, especially young people. And because we believe that in unusual situations we must be the first one to maintain the integrity of mental and physical health of young people. The "Maa' Baa'd" is a youth initiative that represents four youth organizations IFMSA-Egypt (International Federation of Medical Students Association-Egypt, Y-Peer, EPSF (Egyptian Pharmaceutical Students Federation, EADS (Egyptian Association of Dentist Students). aiming to raise awareness of the psychological symptoms caused by the lockdown resulting from the pandemic of COVID-19. Stress during an infectious disease outbreak can include Fear and worry about your own health and the health of your loved ones Changes in sleep or eating patterns, Difficulty sleeping or concentrating, Worsening of chronic health problems, Worsening of mental health conditions Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. Maa' Baa'd aims to contribute in Providing Mental, Emotional and Psychosocial Support Of Youth Aged 16-35 to improve mental health status and decrease the prevalence of mental Symptoms in Egypt in emergency Situations like Covid-19 and Clarify the critical changes that tackle the Youth resulting from coping with the situation by the end of July 2020. And this had been done by: 1. Provide awareness content through social media platforms about mental health symptoms, vulnerable groups, stigma, self-stigma and peer pressure in pandemic times, provide tips about coping mechanisms and maintaining mental health status through online platforms. 2. Hold an online webinar with specialists to explain such a situation and how to deal with. 3. Hold online training for members of the general youth giving them basic skills as psychological first aid, soft skills needed to support their mental and physical status. 4. Build interactive space through online platforms including challenges, competitions, etc. with youth community. 5. Create a video including our message and responsibility towards the community including youth from different backgrounds all over Egypt. 6. Hold online sessions targeting the youth and advocating for their role as a cornerstone in the current situation. 7. Conducting an online survey about mental health status during COVID19 Pandemic in Egypt and using the results to advocate for youth role as an essential cornerstone in crisis situations. Such collaborations put emphasis on the role of youth in addressing their needs, advocating for health, and facing unprecedented circumstances to come out stronger.
Research at the Center; the One Way Out Facing an unprecedented illness, it was crucial to understand in order to act, which is why, during the COVID-19 crisis, medical students started to have a strong desire to learn and a lot of curious questions waiting to be answered. As a part of this passion, IFMSA Egypt collaborated with “COVID-19 MENA Research Response Team” and participated in 4 studies: “Medical students' participation in health response to COVID-19”: Motivated to have answers about the extent to which medical students may share responsibility alongside medical staff during this crisis, as well as to be able to evaluate our solutions if this pandemic lasted for a long period. “Medical student attitudes and satisfaction about medical education measures during the COVID-19 pandemic”: Curious to know the positives and negatives of the E-learning techniques used during this pandemic, how to improve them, and the possibility to set a plan of how the world will graduate medical staff if we face any other emergencies during the upcoming period. “Knowledge and awareness of medical students on COVID-19” A study to evaluate how medical students deal with COVID-19, their knowledge about infection control measures, if they share this knowledge with their relative contacts and friends and how far we can depend on them to extend infection control awareness. “Impact of COVID-19 on mental health”: Physiological disturbances affect all populations worldwide, social distancing makes us miss handshakes and hugs. Death all over the world affects our energy. Losing family and friends with no chance to say goodbye with no funerals is so painful for all of us. This study aims to measure our mental health, and how it was affected by everything going on around us in the world, and how to reverse this effect, to get up and to go on.
Four passionate IFMSA-Egypt members joined these research projects, hoping that with research at the center, humanity can find a way out of this pandemic.
Medical Students: Social Accountability in The Light of COVID-19 Pandemic “Fake news has become a second pandemic”- Nature. While medical practitioners are on the frontlines in fighting the first pandemic, It’s our responsibility as medical students to take the lead in fighting the second pandemic and save people's lives. “WHO announces COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic” it all started from there. The world went into chaos; spreading misinformation everywhere, which had a tremendous impact on people that may be greater than the pandemic itself. While healthcare workers are doing their best in the direct confrontation of this pandemic, we as medical students and future healthcare providers realise the fundamental role we have towards our community. Thus we conducted a campaign to raise awareness about different aspects of the pandemic which aimed to contribute in reducing the negative effects of COVID-19 pandemic in our community through many phases and all available online activities and tools. Our first focus area were rumors, as an infodemic can cause a disaster. Thus, it was necessary to deliver the correct scientific information to the general public in the most simplified way. We used two methods: A Broadcast on our Facebook page in which the rumor is mentioned and corrected in an easy, simple and amusing way, and posting a poll to showcase the right choices that people need to make in presented situations. In addition, there were also many rumors about vaccines and medications that were proclaimed to work, which drove us to start a discussion on the reality behind each drug. A recent review of research published in The Lancet discussing the psychological impact of quarantine found that “quarantine” is linked with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, confusion and anger. We focused on the importance of stability of mental health during quarantine in one of our campaign’s phases. We not only tackled how to enjoy your time during quarantine but also how to be productive and continue learning. We started by creating an event on Facebook which was a combination of learning and entertainment through interactive links, sharing talents and online challenges. We also shared people's experiences on how they spent their time while staying home through funny videos and photo albums to make others interact with us and find creative ideas to cope with the current situation. Throughout this phase, we kept raising the awareness on how to keep your mental health sound, sharing positive hashtags and challenges on different social media platforms, in order to make sure that our message reached the largest possible number of social media users. There were unfortunate events happening around us like the burying of the patients and the violence against healthcare workers. This led us to design a content that aimed to showcase the meaning of social stigma and stigma related to COVID-19 pandemic and its underlying causes and consequences on the physical and mental health of the population. We highlighted doctors' admirable roles and how this stigma negatively affected them. We also discussed the many difficulties and inequalities that came to the surface due to the pandemic. -COVID-19 Awareness Campaign Team: Rana Elbayar, Aya Khokha, Ebthal Abdelhakim, Amany Essa, Omar Qassem, Moaz Elbarojy, MSSA Mansoura
Act Like an Advocate Before December 2019, the world knew what threatens humanity. On top of the list, there are nuclear weapons and cancer. Long or short list, people knew that the threats are either in human hands or can be dealt with. People had fears, but they knew what to fear. The real question is not whether we can deal with Covid-19 or not; but what kind of Pandora's Box did Covid-19 open? What Covid-19 crisis revealed includes: the incompetence of countries' systems in emergencies, inadequacy of healthcare, fragility of economy, illiteracy and unawareness, and absence of all these systems in some countries; but the worst is ignorance. Now, the world knows the truth of fearing the unknown. This burdened everyone, especially the youth, being the economy's insurance, the future developers, and the pioneers in awareness. We felt this responsibility as a student-run organization in BSSS-Benha. We were panicking; the whole world was, but we can influence the community. First, we need to sort our priorities. While the whole world shifted to the internet and different media, people needed reliable sources. First priority was to tell people where and from whom they can get correct information and instructions. Nobody was ready for quarantine; social distancing, staying at home for long periods, and only connecting through internet are not the social climber best circumstances. Mental health was a major concern, so everyone can stay calm, mentally safe, and active. Schools and universities started to look for online platforms to provide the educational content. This was a new concept and raised some technological issues. Our plan was a campaign that covers all the concerns and shows sympathy as we all are in the same boat. It was 8 posts represented by the 5 committees. SCOPH shared websites of WHO and other reliable sources of information and clarified the importance of quarantine for healthy individuals and hospital isolation for cases. SCOME opened the minds to the E-learning world and how to get the best from the internet. SCORA reflected on the dangers of staying home with abusive members and how to seek help when needed. SCORP shed the light on mental health and mental illness during quarantine and how to stay healthy; and tackled the stigma prospective of the society towards Covid-19 cases. SCOPE/SCORE informed people how to travel the world from home by sharing the websites and channels available online for the famous art works or sightseeing areas. To deepen our impact on our community we extended our plan; we encouraged our colleagues to share the number of days they stayed safely at home. We collected many photos of BSSS members from their homes in one picture to tell them we are still together. We also started working online kicking off by a Share Your Inside session to support our community members.
We were able to learn how to adapt and how help people around us. That gives us hope that the world will adapt and this shall pass. Now, the world knows that what lies beyond the unknown is unexpected, but this is an opportunity to learn how to act when you are not prepared because sometimes you will have to face the unexpected. - Benha Students’ Scientific Society [BSSS-Benha]
Empowering Inspiration at the Time of a Pandemic MSSA-Menofia has been empowering the inspiration of medical students and our local society for more than 25 years now. And believing in our vision and role towards our society and social responsibility as a part of our local community we started spreading the awareness in February about COVID-19 using the information the WHO was releasing to tell people more about the virus, how it can be transmitted and how to protect yourself and your beloved ones from getting it. Then in March, we wanted to do more impact regarding spreading the information about the virus as people started to freak out about the virus because their knowledge about it is almost non-existing, so we started to talk with our Vice dean for environmental affairs and community development in our faculty to conduct awareness campaign in other faculties and schools, but unfortunately the lockdown happened after the COVID-19 was declared as a pandemic. During that time we have seen a lot of misconceptions circulating the internet on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp groups, so we gathered all this wrong information and made a campaign to correct them in a “Myth and fact” format and some of those albums went viral that we were contacted by the Delta TV channel to do an interview about our efforts as youth in the pandemic and as medical students in our society. We talked about us as an organization, our work during the pandemic and gave some of the WHO recommendations that we need to stick to especially youth who thinks they are immune to the virus. We believe in intersectionality and how it exists in everything we do especially our work in IFMSA and advocacy work, so we made regular posts about how COVID-19 is affecting not only our right to health but also other aspects of our life like human rights and SRHR. So we talked about the non-communicable and communicable diseases in relation to COVID-19, COVID-19 and pregnant women and the measures they need to take to protect themselves and their children, COVID-19 and domestic violence, stigma around COVID-19 and finally talk about our role as health workforce during the pandemic and having a discussion with our audience about some ethical dilemmas on what was happening in the US regarding doctors making the choices who gets the ventilators and who doesn’t according their life expectancy. Mankind has always proven to be the strongest species out there; going through wars, catastrophes and pandemics. But this only happened by showing our kind human nature and our solidarity to keep going, as we are all in this together. -Menofia Students’ Scientific Association [MSSA- Menofia]
COVID-19 and PMSA’s Quarantine “We are in this together and we will get through this, together.” -UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. On March 11, 2020, World Health Organization announced that COVID-19 is recognized as a pandemic. Since that time PMSA has started taking crucial steps to cope up with the global concern of raising public awareness about the precautions that must be taken to fight COVID19 and lessen its transmission. Accordingly, PMSA started a campaign that included 10 posts and 4 videos aimed to raise public awareness discussing various serious issues such as symptoms of COVID-19, the importance of social distancing and how to protect themselves from the virus based on most updated sources. Moreover, PMSA has come up with an exceptional idea where we established a bot service on our page messages to answer the public questions about COVID-19, which was updated daily by the changed the page profile latest information about the virus, aiming and hoping that they get PMSA picture on 16th of March the right information from a trusted and reliable source and a contribution from us in reducing the misleading information spreading at that time. The messages concerned answering the most searched questions such as “What is COVID-19”, “What are the symptoms of COVID-19”, “What should we do if someone is a suspicious case” and “What are the statistics of COVID-19 worldwide and in Egypt” as well. Believing from us that our members are the source of PMSA’s strength and its main pillar, we have been keen on improving their mental health and keeping their spirit up. So, we launched “PMSA Webinars” by conducting multiple online sessions discussing many topics such as work life balance session, how to be charismatic and psychological 1st aid session, aiming at uplifting and boosting their self-esteem during this hard time. And last but not least, we were concerned about letting them make good use of their time staying at home, so we provided them with research and C.V writing sessions. We also conducted other sessions targeting to teach them to get the scientific information from trustworthy sources such as how to appraise evidence-based research during these times and the confirmed medical information about COVID-19.
PMSA’s page messages bot service reached 240 subscriber
Hopefully we all will be safe from the virus and this pandemic will end soon. -PortSaid Medical Students Association [PMSA-Portsaid]
Discovery of Mysterious Scientific research is the beam of light to have the vague mysteries solved. FMSA always seeks to help the society overcome its challenges and whatever hampers its development. But how can we determine these challenges precisely?
It is not reliable to depend on anticipation. We believe that Scientific research is the key. It is the engine of social development. Society needs might seem mysterious, therefore Scientific research is the beam of light to have these vague mysteries solved. It can precisely determine the society needs, thus we can target them in our campaigns. For example, we can conduct a study to measure the impact of COVID 19 outbreak on mental health or search for a published peer reviewed study and decide whether the society needs awareness about mental health or not. Subsequently, the campaigns will grasp the public attention and leave a positive impact on the society. Besides, working this way will help us make smarter choices and save effort and time that could be wasted on a useless campaign. Pursuant to that, we have made a partnership with an organization concerned with research named FMRA "Fayoum Medical Research Association". FMRA provided experts in research methodology to work together on studies exploring the society's needs. Also, FMRA will provide training to FMSA members to raise their experience in research. In FMSA we dedicate ourselves to what gives our efforts true meaning and purpose and makes a positive difference in society. It is a journey with a society whose needs differ rapidly. We are committed to keep updated with these needs based on scientific research and try our best to overcome any challenge. -Nada Khaled Abdelsattar, FMSA - Fayoum
Public Health Defenders On 11th March, COVID-19 was declared to be pandemic by the WHO, thus concerning its alarming level or spread and severity AMSA-AzharCairo stopped all its students’ activities and put all efforts in collecting data from trusted resources and spreading awareness about the pandemic. This was launched by AMSA LPO “Mr. Loay Tarek”, who immediately assembled a team of 21 members and set clear objectives and outline of the awareness campaign under the name of “public health defenders”, the goals included; collecting data, tracking COVID-19 history and updates and promoting the public awareness. The outline of the campaign was thoroughly set and divided into phases in which each was set to a goal and achieved an objective, the team was divided into subgroups, each with a task. First was data collection was done form (WHO-CDC- Egyptian Ministry of Health) by dividing the topic into major headlines to search for and extracting the gist, also discussing public health issues, history and details of Coronaviruses and COVID-19, symptoms, infection control and common questions, Diagnosis, Treatment and statistics. Secondly, the content was simplified and put into a manual and it was published locally to educate the LC members and to begin the first part of awareness. Furthermore, the awareness wasn’t only via online platforms but each members was assigned to aware and increase the knowledge of 5 family members or friend about (prevention methods, symptoms, self-isolation, reassuring and stigma to attain the best outcome possible , Concerning the online awareness campaign, it was composed of 14 posts on social platforms and vital subjects were presented under the headings (pregnant and infant VS COVID19, Antiseptics, Symptoms and the difference between influenzas and COVID-19, when should we wash our hand? AND Awareness about the importance of staying at home), and a target of 100,000 was reached. Finally, with the cooperation of "Life Makers association" AMSA LPO conducted a comprehensive online session about the topic. In conclusion, the success of the campaign wouldn’t have been accomplished if it wasn’t for the dedication of the LPO and the team assigned to the mission and as we still live with the pandemic our efforts are still high to keep the safety measurements and aware the public. -Azhar Medical Students’ Association [AMSA-Azhar Cairo]
Staying grounded amidst instability As I try and try again to formulate my thoughts on the pandemic as a med student and a human terrified of an enemy, I can’t say anything but that I was determined not to go unnoticed by the world , after many months of quarantining, I have found two images that helped me stay grounded in the chaos; Firstly, it's just as walking on a tight rope 50 feet above the air. Just as the news broke out of a pandemic expectedly, an influx of questions flooded WHO websites, governments and social media and while, yes we knew the basics of washing our hands and keeping 6 feet away from others at all times so many questions were left uncertain, unknown and misinformation were spread like wildfire, I experienced the feelings of a gymnast would experience at the being of the line fearing the nerve-racking fall; fear, anxiety and everything got overwhelming. However, as I got the privilege of attending multiple webinars of house of webinars hosted by IFMSA on the subject of COVID-19 from taking special care to vulnerable groups as children and refugees to what we as medical students can do to protect ourselves and our loved ones. In a traditional Egyptian home like mine, if you just enter med school automatically your family announces that you’re a doctor on your first day of college so instead of being tongue tied at every question my family throws at me, due to attending these webinars I managed to answer some of their questions, cast away any myths about the virus while at the same time declaring my ignorance at the things I am not certain of instead of hopping on the bandwagon of spreading misinformation. All of this is a testament of reassurance that the line is easier to cross than I thought. Secondly, in a sense we all are professional jugglers, the only difference between us and jugglers that perform for an audience is that they juggle tangible balls or bowling pins while we have to constantly juggle work, family, relationships, both mental and physical health and etc.. each one of us is an expert at this juggling two or more vital aspects of life. However, once the pandemic arrived all of sudden every ball dropped as panic rose and slowly as a world we had to pick them up again and relearn how to juggle and replace bowling pins with easier now safer balls to grasp: from substituting attending to lectures and classes in universities and schools to online classes, and learning how to connect with the world through screens instead of seeing friends and family. Before the outbreak in Wahun, no one knew a pandemic would reshape our lives so soon, the undeniable fact is anything can happen anywhere, given the circumstances and this pandemic is one of the landmarks of history that proves that people have the ability to adjust to any circumstances to ensure our health and the health of our loved ones are not compromised. -Dina Abdel Hamid Abdel Kader, ASSA-Alexandria
Global Health In COVID19 Pandemic “We're not just fighting an epidemic; we're fighting an infodemic” - WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom With the ongoing rapid rise in COVID19 cases in Egypt, myths about the virus have been spreading on all social media platforms, while people are not realizing the consequences of their frivolous actions towards the virus. Therefore, we felt that it’s our duty as medical students and members of the AUSSS-SCOPH committee to start educating the public about the coronavirus by disseminating the right information and clarifying what are the proper responses towards this pandemic, by organizing webinars, awareness videos and online campaigns. To bust the myths around COVID19, we prepared videos titled “COVID19: Fighting an infodemic”. We collected data from the WHO and CDC websites. Then, thanks to an excellent media team, 2 great videos- in English & Arabic - were posted on multiple social media platforms. Moreover, In our webinar “Global Health in COVID19 pandemic”, our NCDs coordinator, discussed DM, IHD, and hypertension, regarding their definition, symptoms, risk factors, prevention, and control. As well as the impact of COVID19 on these patients, smoking cessation counseling and the dangers of ecigarettes were mentioned too.
Also, our AMR coordinator started with a brief introduction to the origins of resistant bacteria, its rapid transmission, and its increasing effects and burdens on healthcare services. Then, she discussed the impact of the current pandemic on the AMR situation which includes increased overuse and an industrial shift from working on new antibiotics to developing vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. She concluded by shedding light on AMR as a global health threat that requires collective global action on various levels similar to the COVID-19 response since it could be the next pandemic. What's more, our Mental Health Coordinator addressed one of the most important aspects of this pandemic which is the effect of lockdown and the fear of contracting the disease on our mental wellbeing. Therefore, she discussed some positive coping mechanisms. Also, she tried to clarify misconceptions that have developed towards healthcare workers and how we could support them instead of stigmatizing them. Furthermore, we have noticed that OCD patients are one of the important vulnerable groups during this period, since the emphasis on handwashing and sanitizing everything several times adds up even more to their anxiety, and so we created an awareness video explaining clearly what is OCD, how it could be aggravated due to this pandemic, and finally how they could manage their disorder during this period.
The closing session was given by SCOPH EMR Regional Assistant, who focused on the impact of the pandemic on another public health issue which is Planetary Health. Beginning with its definition, challenges, and global combat actions. Then ending with the positive impact of quarantine on climate change. Finally, to take it a step further we have participated in the National Youth Network Alliance against COVID-19 pandemic which partners with UNICEF and WHO-Egypt to effectively launch the largest youth-led initiative all over Egypt. We aim with this partnership to come together and work cooperatively, to have a greater national impact in the foreseeable future. -Bayan Maged,Rana Hany,Yasmin Osama; AUSSS- Ain Shams
What COVID-19 Taught Us By May, 2019, Our elections were done and the New Executive and administrative board have been elected. 30th of August,2019, Our handover process was accomplished but we were never prepared or taught how to work, advocate and achieve impact when facing a Pandemic! Being in Lockdown for more than 100 days now made us unable to continue our mission for this year and for a moment the whole world stopped including us, our families, friends and our LC. But we realized we must accept infinite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope and we will succeed only if we are ambitious, determined and above all united in a comprehensive and coherent approach. So we started planning our local COVID-19 Online campaign all together EB, Board and members in the belief that it’s a catastrophe that not only concerns us all but also requires our attention and efforts as medical students in the field of Advocacy and we achieved success. So what remained, is resuming our work. We launched our very first initiative ‘MMSA’s Trainings’ for ALL!’ And since then we have been delivering a bunch of online sessions discussing wide spectrum of topics, relevant or irrelevant to COVID-19 for the sake of encouragement to our members to stay home while holding on small achievements and in order not to lose our gains throughout the past year and to be back on track after the pandemic. What we learnt... You have to overcome the Resistance! We used to face a certain type of resistance; community, political contexts.. etc, but today we opened our eyes to a brand new type of resistance. It kept us questioning ourselves and evaluating the process we have been regulating our work with for the past 10 years. Was it ready for such a situation? Did we have proper risk management regulations? How can we prepare upcoming members for such struggles? For the upcoming period, we will be maintaining the initiatives we began, we will motivate our members and keep our spirit high to advocate for our new worldwide cause; COVID-19 crisis. -Must Medical Students’ Association [MMSA-MUST]