Citation

Agoston DV. Front. Neurol. 2021; 12: e752937.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fneur.2021.752937

PMID

34987462

PMCID

PMC8720751

Abstract

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been referred to as the "silent epidemic" but given its substantial and recurring impact on global health, it should be renamed to the "silent pandemic". The COVID-19 pandemic has majorly impacted biomedical research of TBI; experimental and clinical studies have either slowed or halted and resources have been reallocated, thus resulting in a "lost year" for the TBI field. However, the pandemic can serve as an inflection point. The conceptual and technical lessons that can be learned from COVID-19 and could lead to clearer classification, improved diagnosis, and potentially improved treatment efficacy of TBI are presented in this paper.

These are very challenging times for all mankind as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been infecting the entire global population. There are already lessons learned, and even more to come after the pandemic ends, with profound effects on virtually every aspect of our lives, the economy, work, social life, and health care. Major crises, wars, and pandemics have historically forced humanity to learn, adapt, and come up with solutions by developing new technologies, business models, and even entire industries. They have also spurred major advances in biology through better understanding of diseases, identification of pathogens and their pathomechanisms, and development of novel treatments. The same is happening now during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the scientific progress is astonishing...

Language: en

Keywords

COVID-19; TBI; applications; definitions; diseases; lessons; pandemics epidemics