POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN A SAMPLE OF EGYPTIAN CORONAVIRUS DISEASE 2019 PATIENTS

Abstract

ince December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases of unknown etiology was reported in Wuhan, China, known as the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it has spread from Wuhan to other cities in China and rapidly spread around the world causing millions of cases and thousands of deaths (Wang et al., 2020). Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak an international public health emergency on January 30, 2020, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Egypt's health ministry announced the first case in the country at Cairo on 14 February & declared partial lockdown on March 25th (Eurosurveillance Editorial, 2020). Available data suggests that 5–20% of patients with COVID-19 develop critical illness that is characterized primarily by acute respiratory distress syndrome (Wu and McGoogan, 2020). In the absence of a medical cure for COVID-19, the global response is a simple public health strategy of isolation for those infected or at risk, reduced social contact to slow the spread of the virus, and simple hygiene such as hand washing to reduce the risk of infection (Edirippulige & Bai, 2020), while the primary intervention of isolation may well achieve its goals and is a risk for worsening anxiety and depressive symptoms (Smith, 1985).