The substantial awareness role of web-based and social media platforms in developing countries during a pandemic scenario: the example of COVID-19. (3rd June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Abdul-Baki, Mohammad-Nasan; Dhemesh, Yaseen; Alasadi, Lugien; Alsuliman, Tamim
• Is Part Of: Journal of public health. Volume 42:Number 3(2020:Sep.)
• Page Start: 642
• Page End: 643
• Publication Date: 2020-06-03
• Subjects: Public health -- Periodicals; Public health -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; Medical policy -- Periodicals; Medical policy -- Great Britain -- Periodicals; 362.1
• DOI: 10.1093/pubmed/fdaa075
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-3842

Abstract

Abstract: Background: During the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19, social media platforms have shown effectiveness in information dissemination. Delivering evidence-based medical knowledge and trustworthy recommendations is a difficult mission for classical entities, especially in a war-torn country with a fragile health system. In this context, the role of non-governmental scientific organizations was proven, filling the gap between original scientific sources and a non-English speaking population. Methods: We reviewed an example of an organization named Syrian Researchers, which publishes based-on-reliable-sources of scientific content and has massive reachability across Middle East and beyond. Results: We strongly believe that this model is a simple and suitable approach that may be helpful for other low-income or war-torn countries in the context of health-related disasters. Conclusions: This subject is of high importance and we believe that this approach may ameliorate public health knowledge, thus, participate in defying the COVID-19 consequences.