UNAIR NEWS – 2019-2020 will be a year that is always remembered by the world’s population, including Indonesians as in 2019, a disease from a virus was found and in March 2020 it has attacked more than 200 countries in the world.
The world health organization WHO published that Coronavirus is a group of viruses that can cause disease in animals or humans. Several types of Coronavirus are known to cause respiratory infections in humans, ranging from cold coughs to more serious ones such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
A new type of coronavirus causes the disease we know as corona virus disease 2019 or COVID-19. This COVID-19 was first discovered during an outbreak in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. In just four months the disease had spread widely causing WHO to declare a global pandemic. The main way the spread of this disease is through the droplets of the respiratory tract produced when coughing.
The risk of transmitting COVID-19 from people with no symptoms at all is very low. However, many people who contract COVID-19 only experience mild symptoms, especially in the early stages. The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, fatigue, and dry cough.
Some patients may experience pain and ache, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat or diarrhea. The symptoms experienced are usually mild and appear gradually.
Some infected people do not show any symptoms and still feel healthy. Most, which is about 80 percent, infected people recover without the need for special treatment. About 1 in 6 people who contract COVID-19 suffers from severe pain and difficulty breathing, especially in the elderly and people with pre-existing medical conditions. People with high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes are more likely to experience more serious illness.
Until April 2020, COVID-19 has infected more than 2.7 million people worldwide, with 8,211 confirmed cases in Indonesia, and 690 confirmed cases in East Java. World data states that the ratio of healing to death is 4 to 1, whereas in Indonesia is 1 to 2 cases.
With the rapid spread of this virus and also the high number of deaths caused by coronavirus, it becomes a ‘sexy’ news issue and will attract many readers, inspires many news that cannot be justified or hoaxes, especially in Indonesia where the level of literacy is still low enough to seek clarification of a story.
This fear of COVID-19 with great commotion from news either true or not pose a high risk of stress. This is in line with the opinion of Abdurachman, Professor of Universitas Airlangga’s Faculty of Medicine published in the March 27, 2020 in Tempo Daily entitled “Corona, Respiratory, and Anxiety Threat”.
In the article, it was conveyed that COVID-19 can cause anxiety which can worsen the condition in the community and also have adverse effects on health. It can suppress the immune system which is the main defense weapon of the human body against coronavirus.
In his article, Prof. Abdurachman also invited the readers to emulate the spirit of ‘Jiao Wuhan’, by building an optimism against anxiety and embracing the belief in winning against this pandemic.
This issue inspired the Department of Public Dental Health (IKGM) of Faculty of Dental Medicine, Universitas Airlangga in collaboration with the team of kelola.net.
“COVID-19 can greatly worsen the situation in society, this can be caused by the emergence of excessive anxiety due to too much exposure to news, causing people to become more fragile and stressed. It even has a negative impact on the body, “said Dr. Taufan Bramantoro, drg., M. Kes, Head of FKG UNAIR Department of Public Dental Health (IKGM).
According to Taufan, the problem is that there is stress that is felt and there is also not felt, but both of them have a negative impact on the body. “Came an idea to develop tools to measure stress levels while providing solutions that were also released by the World Health Organization or WHO,” he continued.
The measuring tool is a web-based measurement tool so it is very practical and can be accessed anytime and anywhere just by accessing https://kelola.net/kelola-stres/ from a gadget or laptop .
“Stressful conditions also potential to worsen the condition of people who are actually healthy, so they need to be controlled,” said Taufan.
CEO of Kelola.net Farkhan Azmi, drg., M. Kes said that by identifying stress levels and knowing solutions according to WHO directives, the level of anxiety in society in general can be reduced. Meanwhile, for those people under surveillance (ODP), patients under treatment (PDP), as well as confirmed patients, the tool is expected to improve their hopes of recovery.
“This measurement is the result of our collaboration, kelola.net with the FKG UNAIR Department of Public Dental Health and the Indonesian Society of Dental Health Specialization (IPKESGIMI),” continued 2006 FKG alumnus. (*)
Author: Aryo D Kusumo, drg
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
