COVID-19 VACCINE IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) may be more susceptible to certain infections including COVID-19. There are concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of the current available COVID-19 vaccines among IBD patients. The aim of this study is to perform a systematic review regarding the willingness of IBD patients to receive these types of vaccines, assess the reported adverse events and the efficacy of the vaccine among IBD patients. METHODS Medline, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases were reviewed since inception till November 11th, 2021, by two independent reviewers. Relevant conference s were manually reviewed to identify additional studies. Studies that reported the willingness or rate of COVID vaccination, the adverse events, and/or efficacy of the COVID vaccine among IBD patients were included. Efficacy was defined as the ability of a vaccine to produce detectable antibodies. Meta-analysis was performed using a bivariate random-effects model. RESULTS 2049 studies were identified through database search and additional 10 conference s were extracted. 24 studies, with the majority (79%) from North America or Europe were included. Four studies reported the rate of adverse events of vaccines ranging from 39% to 74% after the first and second doses of vaccine, respectively. Pooled estimates of nine studies showed that only 59% of IBD patients (95% confidence interval (CI):39%-79%) were willing or had already received a vaccine. Pooled estimates of six studies showed the vaccine was 96% (95% CI: 92%-99%) effective in creating seroconversion in IBD patients. Three studies reported the incidence of break-through infection following COVID vaccination;The pooled estimates showed no statistically significant difference between the risk ratio of IBD patients versus healthy control (Risk difference:0.02 (95%CI: -0.02, 0.06), P-value:0.3). Mean values of antibody level were statistically significantly lower in IBD patients receiving immunosuppression compared with those who were not on immunosuppression (Standardized mean difference: -0.38 (95% CI: -0.58, -0.18), P-value:0.002). CONCLUSION COVID vaccines are protective against preventing COVID-19 infection in IBD patients. However, patients on immunosuppression may have reduced response and could benefit from a booster dose. More importantly, there should be more efforts in encouraging IBD patients towards vaccination. Additionally, is scarce data and further studies are required to assess the global effect of the COVID vaccine in IBD patients, particularly in underdeveloped countries. (Figure Presented)

Modified COVID-19 Indian and international dataset for automatic prediction of risk in an individual using machine learning models using a mobile APP

COVID-19 is a major problem not only impacting the health but also the economic development of countries around the globe. Therefore, automatic COVID-19 diagnosis and risk prediction in an individual is very significant in preventing pandemic and also for proper medication. This paper adopts five machine learning models intended to predict the risk of having COVID-19. The existing datasets- the Indian COVID-19 dataset and the International COVID-19 Dataset have been systematically modified to include negative COVID-19 patient data and also facilitate feature learning. The modified datasets are experimented with models like logistic regression, Naive Bayes, k-nearest neighbours, random forest, and neural network. Further, a comparison is done in these models on the basis of score obtained in prediction on the two datasets. The whole model is also implemented as a Mobile APP to be used in real-time.

Mainstreaming agricultural biodiversity in traditional production landscapes for sustainable development: The Indian scenario

Mainstreaming biodiversity in production landscapes ensures conservation and sustainable use of agricultural biodiversity, the key objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the projects supported by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Global Environment Facility (GEF). Mainstreaming integrates biodiversity in existing or new programs and policies, both cross‐sectoral and sector‐specific. The conventional model of agricultural production with limited diversity in production systems and use of high chemical input has taught us a valuable lesson as it is adversely impacting the environment, the essential ecosystem services, the soil health and the long term sustainability of our food systems. Using a qualitative participant observation approach, our study investigated four distinct traditional Indian production landscapes to gage (i) the farming communities’ response to institutional policies, programs and agricultural biodiversity‐related activities in traditional Indian production landscapes and (ii) opportunities and challenges for sustainable development in smallholder traditional Indian farming systems. Results indicate that the top‐down decision‐making regime is the least effective towards achieving sustainable development in traditional Indian farming landscapes and that farmers’ experiential knowledge on participatory biodiversity management, maintenance and use for sustainable development are of critical importance to India’s agriculture and economy. Reclaiming agriculture’s spiritual roots through organic farming and locally grown food emerged as key, including the need for designing and implementing a more sovereign food system. Revisiting traditional smallholder farming under the COVID‐19 pandemic and lessons learned for repurposing India’s agricultural policy are also highlighted. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.