Simba Hannah, Ngcobo Silindile
Department of Global Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
Independent Researcher, Cape Town, South Africa.
Front Glob Womens Health. 2020 Oct 19;1:570666. doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2020.570666. eCollection 2020.
In December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged as a health crisis in Wuhan, China, and was later declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. As it spread and its death toll increased, on the 11th of March 2020 it was declared a pandemic at 4,369 deaths worldwide, and cases and deaths have since surged. With gender disparities already known to leave women and their health at the margins of society during outbreaks, it is important to understand how COVID-19 affects women's health. In this article, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic can create vulnerabilities for women and their health and further exacerbate long-existing inequalities and social disparities. These include gender-based roles, economic and food security, violence, work pressure, and access to health and healthcare facilities. These issues have significant repercussions on the physical and mental health of women. To focus our lenses on these issues, we draw lessons from three specific examples of past outbreaks: 1918 Flu pandemic, Zika virus disease, and Ebola virus disease. We conclude by stating how public health responses and strategies for COVID-19 can be inclusive to women's health.
2019年12月，新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19）在中国武汉爆发，成为一场健康危机，随后世界卫生组织（WHO）宣布其为国际关注的突发公共卫生事件。随着疫情蔓延，死亡人数增加，2020年3月11日，全球死亡人数达4369人，该疾病被宣布为大流行病，此后病例数和死亡人数激增。鉴于在疫情爆发期间，性别差异已导致女性及其健康处于社会边缘地位，了解COVID-19如何影响女性健康非常重要。在本文中，我们将讨论COVID-19大流行如何给女性及其健康带来脆弱性，并进一步加剧长期存在的不平等和社会差距。这些方面包括基于性别的角色、经济和粮食安全、暴力、工作压力以及获得医疗保健服务的机会。这些问题对女性的身心健康产生重大影响。为了聚焦这些问题，我们从过去三次疫情爆发的具体实例中吸取教训：1918年流感大流行、寨卡病毒病和埃博拉病毒病。我们最后阐述了针对COVID-19的公共卫生应对措施和策略如何能够兼顾女性健康。
