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As the world faces a new health crisis threatening people with the spread of Covid-19, this study aims to summarize the key information of Covid-19 related to disease characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and prevention along with the lessons learned from Thailand.

The narrative review was synthesized from various sources such as the World Health Organization; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Ministry of Public Health and other related news; articles in ScienceDirect, PubMed, Google Scholar; and the author's perspective regarding the lessons learned from Thailand with keywords of “Covid-19” and “Coronavirus” from January to August 2020. Google Trends was used to set common questions.

Covid-19 is the seventh family of coronaviruses that cause various symptoms related to respiratory systems. The disease can be treated through general and symptomatic treatment, by using antiviral drugs. As of July 2020, there are four potential vaccine candidates ChAdOx1 nCoV-19, mRNA-1273, Ad5-nCOV and BNT162b1. The recommendations for Covid-19 prevention are physical distancing, face masks, eye protection and hand washing. Thailand is now considered as low-risk for Covid-19 possibly because of (1) soft policy by government actions, (2) village health volunteers, (3) integration of technology and (4) fact-based communications.

This study summarized the key points about Covid-19, clarified some misunderstandings and shared strategic actions from Thailand, which can be adapted according to the different capacities and situations in other countries.

Blood donation knowledge of healthy young students is crucial to donate blood voluntarily and regularly in long-term. This study aimed to determine the influencing factors on the blood donation knowledge, to identify gaps of blood donation knowledge and reasons for not donating blood among university and college students in Yangon, Myanmar.

Cross-section survey (May 2019) was conducted in students of Yangon Technological University (YTU) and National Management Degree College (NMDC) with the use of quota and convenience sampling method. The questionnaires covered sociodemographic characteristics, blood donation knowledge and reasons for not donating blood.

Total 320 students (129 males and 191 females) with age of 18 to 23 years old participated. Previous blood donation had statistically significant influence on blood donation knowledge scores (ß = 0.396, p < 0.001). Gaps of knowledge between nondonors and blood donors were recorded, especially in universal recipient blood groups, Rh blood groups, blood donation interval, eligibility criteria, transfusion-transmitted infections (TTIs), amount of blood removed in donation, benefits of blood donations and misbelief of infections from blood donation. Top three reasons for not donating blood among nondonors were (1) no opportunity, (2) fear to donate and (3) still underage to donate.

Blood donations programs should extend awareness-raising programs in academic society and population at large. Raising awareness should focus on the knowledge gaps such as donor eligibility, interval of blood donations, TTIs and benefits of donating blood to recipients.