Association of COVID-19 severity with vitamin D and blood group

Abstract: Vitamin D is a hormone which plays a vital role in immune response regulation, including the prevention of inflammation and autoimmunity. Insufficient vitamin D may increase the risk of infection. Vitamin D deficiency is not the only factor linked to an elevated risk of COVID-19 infection. Recent studies have discovered a link between SARS-COV-2 infection risk and blood type. This study was aimed to examine the association of vitamin D and blood groups with the severity of COVID-19. A retrospective study was conducted on 224 confirmed COVID-19 patients, aged between 18 and 89 years old. Patients were divided into three groups (asymptomatic, moderate, and severe cases), and serum 25(OH)D concentration and blood group were analyzed for all the patients. Data of the severe cases were obtained from Souq Althalath Isolation Center, Tripoli, Libya, while moderate and asymptomatic cases were obtained from Abushusha Polyclinic and Aldahmani COVID Filtration Center, during 22nd February 2021 and 28th April 2021 and serum 25(OH)D concentration and blood group were statistically analyzed for all the patients. The percentages of males andfemales were found to be 47.3% and 52.7%, respectively. Disease severity was distributed as follows: 12.5% asymptomatic, 44.6 % moderate and 42.9% severe. Most of the severe cases had vitamin D deficiency (88.5%). Among the severely ill patients, 39.6% had blood group A and 09.4% had group O, while 22.9%, and 28.1% had blood group B and AB, respectively. In contrast, among the asymptomatic patients, only 7.1% had group A and 85.7% had group O. Overall, the difference in the distribution pattern of blood group in the three severity categories was highly significant (p < 0.001). The prevalence of Rh positivity among asymptomatic, moderate and severe cases was 78.6%, 76.0%, and 60.4%, respectively. This study concludes that insufficient vitamin D levels might influence the severity of COVID-19. COVID-19 patients with blood group A and those who are Rh-positive could be more vulnerable to developing COVID-19 severity

Awareness of Libyan Students and Academic Staff Members of Nanotechnology.

At the present time, nanotechnology is involved in every aspect of scientific life and its applications are being integrated into the economy, industry, trade and medicine. The world will require a skilled work force of more than two million nanotechnologists by 2015. The rapid advance in all fields of nanotechnology has led to integrate nanotechnology courses in high schools, institutes and university curricula all over the world. However, nanotechnology has not as, yet been integrated within the Libyan curricula at any level. Thus, this study focuses and explores the awareness of the academic staff and students in Tripoli (Alfateh) University about nanotechnology and nanoscience. Moreover their readiness to integrate the basics and applications into Libyan education curricula. The results show that education level and work place have an effect on the knowledge of the participants on nanotechnology, where about 65% of PhD degree holders knew about nanotechnology and were keen to learn and integrate this technology in the education system. Around 40 % of the participants’ information about Nanotechnology were gained from the internet while only 17% had obtained information from their own readings. The majority of the participants (60%) supported the idea of introducing nanotechnology studies to the curricula at pre-graduate stage. However, 29% believed that it should be integrated only in postgraduate studies, and only a few of the participants (11.3%) advised that a continuing education program would be the proper way to study nanotechnology. This study showed that relatively little awareness about nanotechnology is seen among Libyan staff members and students. However, the majority of the participants have realized the importance of the field of nanotechnology and its application, and were eager to learn more about this advanced technology. Based on the preliminary study regarding the opinion and readiness of participants of the current study, it is believed that the integration of nanotechnology and nanosciences in Libyan curricula at different levels of education is an inevitable step to meet the very rapid advances in the field of nanotechnology and its applications.