Faculty of Pharmacy at Damascus University- and Faculty of Pharmacy at Saarland University, in Germany, participate in UNESCO Conference in Paris for Social Sciences and COVID-19 Pandemic.

The Faculty of Pharmacy at Damascus University and the Faculty of Pharmacy at Saarland University, in Germany, participated in UNESCO Conference in Paris for Social Sciences and COVID-19 Pandemic, entitled:
Corona in the Time of War: A Cross-sectional Study from Syria

Participants from Damascus University and Saarland University are:
Afraa Razouk, Ahmad Yaman Abdin, Prince Yeboah, Werner Pitsch, Jawad Nasim, Mohammad Maarouf, Claus Jacob

Abstract

In recent years, Syria has been facing serious humanitarian challenges. The 10 year-long ongoing conflict has taken massive toll on the Syrian healthcare infrastructure. The situation is further compounded with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. To counteract the consequences of such fragile healthcare systems, “flatten the curve” of Covid-19 and save lives, preventive and prophylactic public health interventions focusing on the knowledge, attitudes and practices of the population become important. A cross-sectional study employing an interview-structured questionnaire was carried out in four different cities in the Syrian Arab Republic, including Damascus, Hama, Aleppo and Dayr Ez Zawr (n=2568). The Syrian population reported good knowledge of various aspects of Covid-19 (73.4%.), high levels of self-efficacy, low levels of social and anticipated stigmas and moderate practicing of preventive measures. The multilevel regression analysis demonstrated a positive association between the knowledge of the population of Covid-19 and practicing the preventive measure. Willingness to be vaccinated was low and relying only on traditional means of public health communication would be limited. Local and global stakeholders should work together to render the Covid-19 vaccines available immediately with no restrictions and informed mass-vaccination public campaigns are a must.