Laos’ Prevention And Control Measures Against The Outbreak Of COVID-19 And Evaluation Of Their Effects

At the end of 2019,a major emerging infectious disease coronavirus pneumonia(Corona Virus Disease 2019,referred to as "COVID-19"),ravaged the world,not only seriously affecting people’s health,its impact on the global economy has continued to this day.As a small landlocked country in Southeast Asia,Laos is naturally unavoidable from the impact of the pandemic COVID-19.Fortunately,the country’s institutional advantages and international cooperation have contributed to the fight against the pandemic.The title study aimed to sort out the specific measures that Laos has taken in epidemic prevention and control since the outbreak of COVID-19,to evaluate the effects of these measures,to analyze the perception and attitude of Lao people towards the government’s epidemic prevention and control,and to put forward feasible suggestions to further improve the level of epidemic prevention and control in Laos.Documentary analysis and descriptive epidemiologic methods were adopted to sort out the prevention and control measures reported in literature,and the epidemic characteristics of COVID-19 distribution,including the incidence rates,numbers of cures and deaths in Laos.In addition,a total of 20 questions regarding Laotian perception and attitude towards the prevention and control against COVID-19 have been designed for the typical survey.Questionnaires were delivered through face-toface interview with 261 study subjects.Data collected from questionnaire survey were recorded and sorted with the application of “Wen Juan Xing” APP.Statistical graphs like ring charts,bar charts,line charts,pie charts and statistical tables were applied to visually display the survey results.Based on documentary analysis and descriptive epidemiologic study combing the results derived from questionnaire survey,it was found that the current epidemic prevention and control in Laos has obtained certain achievement,but there were certain shortages to be improved as well.It was found that the government’s ability to allocate materials was insufficient,there were loopholes in field epidemiologic survey,the professional knowledge and professional ability of Laotian epidemic prevention personnel were not strong enough,there was unbalanced allocation in the grass-roots prevention and control work,and the Lao’s people showed certain psychological panic towards the pandemic.In response to these problems,the following suggestions were proposed: further strengthening the supply of materials,using big data technology to improve the accuracy of case finding,balancing the gap between urban and rural prevention and control measures,intervening in people’s psychological status,and increasing regional scale on COVID-19 screening and viral nucleic acid test.These findings and suggestions should be able to advance the prevention and control of COVID-19 and other emerging infectious diseases with the aim of further protecting the life,health and safety of the Lao’s people,and providing policy guarantees for the country’s economic development.