COVID-19 AFFECTS MENTAL HEALTH OF ONE IN TWO
▶ Support in great demand but not easy to access, says global report
More than half of the respondents in a seven-country survey felt that the Covid-19 pandemic had harmed their mental health, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Thursday.
The global pandemic is worsening existing mental healthproblems, triggering new ones and making access to mental health services even more scarce, the ICRC found.
The report, titled: The greatest need was to be listened to: The importance of mental health and psychosocial support during Covid-19, found that 51 per cent of adults believed that Covid-19 harmed their mental health.
It was released before World Mental Health Day on Saturday, and surveyed people in Kenya, Yemen, Bangladesh, Niger, the Philippines, Colombia and Italy about mental health needs during the pandemic.
Respondents were worried about losing their loved ones, becoming ill themselves and health systems being overburdened.
These concerns were exacerbated by lockdowns, quarantines and social distancing, which had socio-economic effects they struggled to deal with.
For those with existing mental health conditions, getting treatment has become more difficult.
People who contracted the virus told of the stigma attached to them and their families, and how it prevented them from seeking treatment.
“The Covid-19 health crisis has exacerbated the psychological distress of millions of people already living through conflicts and disasters,” said Robert Mardini, the ICRC’s director general.
“Lockdown restrictions, a loss of social interaction and economic pressures are all impacting people’s mental health and access to care. Mental health is just as important as physical health, especially in crisis situations, when mental health needs are especially critical.”
Almost two thirds of respondents agreed that taking care of mental and physical health has become more important since the onset of the crisis, as the number of cases worldwide rose to more than 36.5 million and the death toll passed a million. The ICRC recommended urgent and targeted action to provide mental health and psychosocial support to people affected by the pandemic.
This includes governments providing access to timely and accurate information about the disease and its spread, adding mental health services to any response to the pandemic and prioritising support to medical and frontline staff.
“When the spotlights go out, we have to be there to shed some light,” said Fabio Specchiulli, a psychologist at the Italian Red Cross. “Perhaps the darkness will remain the same, but it will become more bearable.”
Mental health programmes are some of the least expensive interventions, said Jagan Chapagain, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
“But they have a lifesaving and priceless impact on the lives of people who need them,” he said. “Now, more than ever, we must invest in mental health and psychosocial support for everyone – communities and carers alike – to help people cope, rebuild their lives and thrive through this crisis.”
Three quarters of people infected with the coronavirus in the UK were asymptomatic on the day they were tested, and more than 86 per cent had none of the main signs of infection, researchers say.
A study analysed data collected from more than 36,000 people in the three months from April to June.
Of those, 115 returned positive tests. Twenty-seven, or 23.5 per cent, of them were symptomatic. The remaining 88, or 76.5 per cent, reported no symptoms at all.
At the time of testing, most of those infected, 86.1 per cent, had none of the main symptoms of Covid-19, such as a cough, fever or loss of taste or smell.
The survey was based on data collected by Britain’s Office for National Statistics.
It routinely tests people across the UK to estimate the prevalence of the disease.
The authors of the study, conducted at University College London, said the data suggested symptoms are “poor markers” of the presence of Covid-19.
“Thus, 76.5 per cent of this random sample who tested positive reported no symptoms, and 86.1 per cent reported none of those specific to Covid-19,” the authors wrote in Clinical Epidemiology.
“A more widespread testing programme is necessary to capture ‘silent’ transmission and potentially prevent and reduce future outbreaks.”
But it is not known how many of those surveyed were pre
symptomatic, as opposed to asymptomatic.
Some people who have no signs of the disease when they are tested go on to develop symptoms later.
In a study published in Jama: The Journal of the American Medical Association, of 303 infected people in South Korea in March, 110, or 36.3 per cent, were asymptomatic at the time of testing positive.
But 21 of this cohort, 19.1 per cent, went on to report symptoms of the disease.
“The median interval of time from detection of Sars-CoV-2 to symptom onset in presymptomatic patients was 15 (13-20) days,” the study authors wrote.
Irene Petersen was an author on the study and is professor of epidemiology and health informatics at UCL.
She told The Guardian that while people studied may have gone on to develop symptoms,
silent transmission was a risk.
“At the moment, the focus is on people who have symptoms, but if you are not catching all those who are asymptomatic or presymptomatic it may be really difficult to get outbreaks down in time, before they get out of control,” she said.
Experts estimate the true prevalence of asymptomatic Covid-19 infections to be about 40 per cent.
Last week, UCL researchers said loss of smell was a “highly specific” symptom of the virus that may be a more reliable indicator than a cough or fever.
Researchers at the university polled 590 people who lost their sense of taste or smell earlier in the year.
Of those surveyed, 80 per cent had Sars-CoV-2 antibodies, suggesting a previous infection.
Up to 40 per cent of the group did not report having a cough or fever.