Background: Telehealth is delivering health care services remote from healthcare facilities using telecommunications and virtual technology. Egypt is aiming to reach Universal Health Coverage; this increases the demand of telehealth in routine health services. Telehealth benefits are increasing access to expertise in difficultly reached geographical areas with no available medical teams and may be used as fast first aid. It could also minimize costs of hospitals, as patients can be monitored remotely even from home. As for barriers, especially in developing countries, are the unavailable infrastructure and the resistance of patients. Objective: To measure the awareness of telehealth among attendees of primary health care units and their acceptance of application of telehealth. Methodology: This was a cross sectional study among attendees of primary health units. A sample size was calculated to be 162. A valid Arabic interview questionnaire was designed, and 170 questionnaires were filled by attendees. Ethical issues were considered. Results: Awareness percentage of telehealth among attendees was 64.7% while willingness to implement telehealth was 78%. Both awareness and willingness were significantly associated with age groups, residence, socioeconomic status and presence of computer with net access. Conclusion: It is concluded that a large percentage of attendees to primary health care centers are aware of telehealth and are willing to implement it. The major cause of refusal to implement telehealth was due ignorance of using telecommunication devices and the desire to be in close contact with the physicians.

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has affected countless countries all over the world with rapidly increasing case fatality reports and a highly variable clinical course. Since the evolution of the clinical condition of these patients is difficult to forecast, early identification of prognostic indicators is an essential foundation to regulate treatment plans and promptly identify the severity of patients’ conditions. Aim: To assess the correlation between CRP level on admission with the severity of the COVID-19, the risk for ICU admission and the findings in CT chest Method A retrospective cohort study where the clinical data of 276 patients with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infection were collected from El Obour Ain Shams University Specialized Hospital for Isolation records on admission from April 10, 2020 till July 30, 2020. Results Fever was the most common presenting symptom (total number 135; 41.7%), followed by cough (total number 133; 41.2%). High CRP levels were predictive of higher COVID-19 severity and ICU admission (p=0.000). Likewise, CRP levels were higher in patients with more chest affection as denoted by the CT chest findings (p=0.000). Conclusion Serum CRP is a simple and effective prognosticator which casts light on potentially critical patients. Consequently, it can be used to reduce the mortality of patients. Keywords: COVID-19, Hospital, CRP, ICU, severity.

Background: Although chronic kidney disease (CKD) is considered the major cause of morbidity and mortality in hypertension, the recognition and prevention of CKD remain deficient. Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is one of the major health challenges in Egypt. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects approximately 13% of the adult population, resulting in significant morbidity, mortality and health care costs. Patients with more progressive stage 3 or stage 4 CKD experience a high rate of cardiovascular events and death compared to earlier stages of CKD. Aim: This study was performed to determine the prevalence of chronic kidney disease among hypertensive non-diabetics patients attending Primary health care (PHC) Centers in Cairo. Methodology: The study type is a cross sectional study, Study setting: Two Primary Health Care centers (PHCs):Saraya El-kobba and El-Sharabya. Sampling method: Recruitment of participants was done in one day weekly. Any known essential hypertensive patients aged 18 or more registered in the two PHC Centers in Cairo. Results: The prevalence of CKD was 33% among the hypertensive non-diabetic patients. Among CKD participants, the prevalence is more common in females (59.7%) than males (40.3%),in those who completed primary education and the illiterates and low socioeconomic class. Surprisingly, it is more common in patients with positive family history of CKD and patients with ischemic heart disease and the antihypertensive drugs used. Conclusion: CKD has a high prevalence among hypertensive non-diabetic patients, and it has a significant morbidity and mortality among those patients.

Background: Telehealth is delivering health care services remote from health-care facilities using telecommunications. Egypt is aiming for Universal Health Coverage; this increases the demand of telehealth in routine health services. Objective: to measure the awareness of telehealth health care workers of primary health care units and to evaluate the effect of an orientation program on primary health care workers’ awareness and acceptance of application of telehealth. Methodology: This was an intervention study among health care workers. A self-administrated valid questionnaire for health care workers was designed, the questionnaire consists of different domains of knowledge in addition to advantages, disadvantages, security and necessity perceptions. Each domain consists of Likert scale questions of 5 points. The questions were scored as the worst answer (1) and the best (5). A total of 109 questionnaires were filled by participants who spent at least 6 months in primary health care units. Then the health care workers were attended an orientation program and the questionnaire was re-filled once more. A total of 104 was recollected. Ethical issues were considered. Results: 50.5% of health care workers were aware of telehealth; 66.7% of health care workers with master’s degree were aware of telehealth in comparison to 31.8% among those with a diploma, 64.3% of physicians were aware of telehealth while 9.6% of nurses were aware. The score of knowledge and attitude increased from 130±23.538 to 156.49±18.456 after the educational program. Conclusion: Half of health care workers were aware of telehealth; the orientation improved the Healthcare Workers’ knowledge and attitude.

The aim of this meta-analysis is to investigate the effectiveness of chloroquine in treating coronavirus, in general not only novel coronavirus (COVID¬-19), by pooling the results of randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs). Only 28 publications were identified; none of which was a RCT. Identified studies were published between 1987 and March 15, 2020. Of these 28 publications, 7 were published in 2020 and discussed the effectiveness of chloroquine against COVID-19. In conclusion, this meta-analysis could not prove that chloroquine is an effective treatment against coronavirus in general or COVID-19 in particular. Expanded access trials should be encouraged especially that chloroquine is available, cheap and relatively safe drug.