Is it Possible to Control the Infection through the Internet?

Dear Editor,

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), a terrifying pandemic that has plagued the world for more than 2 years and continues to infect and kill people, mutations in its spheres, especially the omicron sphere, has accelerated the incidence of infection and death. According to the World Health Organization on February 25, 2022, more than 5 million COVID-19 deaths were reported worldwide.[1]

In addition to the shocking statistics of cases and deaths of this disease worldwide, health advice such as observing social distance, using masks, and injecting existing vaccines, the paths of social, educational, and economic activities of the communities are based on the Internet and applications. Therefore, it can be said that in this period, the Internet is for the absence of people in previous places and providing services at home to prevent people from being present in the community and to reduce the transmission process in the community, and this shows a new path in controlling disease and infection. At the onset of COVID-19 disease in the world, the lack of awareness and information about the disease confused health centers, health policy makers, and the public.

Awareness of the disease and the community’s adaptation to the disease lasted more than 2 years and led to an increase in mortality in various communities. However, the experience of COVID-19 showed that the Internet platform can help and support the health system in crises. We always consider infection control as measures that require the intervention of health centers, especially hospitals, and always include the patient, nurse, and physician, and through the fight against the infectious agent, early diagnosis, quarantine, isolation, and treatment of patients, but it seems that the Internet and cyberspace can provide a good platform for infection control. Such conditions will make infection control easier, cheaper, and more manageable. Therefore, it can be said that health policy makers can increase the correct information in the community when creating crises and acute situations that threaten the community by creating rapid response systems on the Internet, as well as creating educational blogs and applications. The necessary training should be provided to the community in the form of text messages, short messages, videos, and posters, and such a process will practically increase the public awareness at the lowest cost.

In this case, the Internet, in addition to being able to help maintain the morale of the people in the community by providing accurate statistics, teaching ways of transmitting the disease, educating patients’ symptoms, and strategies to prevent the transmission of the disease, can reduce the spread of disease in the community. It is also possible to provide conditions to facilitate infection control in the community through the management of people through these systems and applications, and the disease control process to move out of the previous bed-based conditions and be available to the community.

Authors’contributions

MM and MRB contributed to the design and prepared the manuscript.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.