Attitude and practices of personal protective equipment, telemedicine, and social distance among health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic: An international study

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a huge burden on health systems worldwide. Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at the frontline in this battle and personal protective equipment (PPE) is a crucial element for their safety. Objectives: to assess the attitude and practices of PPE among HCWs alongside its availability and toxicities as well as to assess the use of telemedicine, physical barriers, and practice of social distance among HCWs. Methods: A cross sectional online survey was conducted between July and November 2020. Healthcare workers from different countries were invited to participate via emails and social platforms. Results: Out of 384 requested to participate, 119 participants completed the survey. The mean age for the participants was 41.5± 10.4. Females accounted for (n=83, 69.8%). Although 67.2% said they received training for the correct use of PPE, a 69.7% and 79.8% failed to answer the correct order of donning and doffing PPE, respectively;(n=92, 77.3%) mentioned that N95/FFP2 respirators were the kind of masks routinely used for care of confirmed COVID-19 cases and (n=90, 75.6%) claimed that fit testing was done for N95/FFP2 respirators before use. Thirty-nine participants (n=39, 32.8%) said that they extended the use of PPE > 12 hours. Hazmat suit, overshoes, respirators, hair caps, and goggles were the most deficient PPE. The most frequently reported adverse events when working with PPEs were heat intolerance (47.1%), headache (43.7%), pressure areas (32.8%), and extreme exhaustion (31.1%). Regarding other protective measures, (n= 79, 66.4%) said they are maintaining adequate social distance;(n= 64, 53.8%) and (n=66, 55.5%) declared the use of physical barrier and telemedicine, respectively. As regard the attitude, a (n=79, 66.4%) said it is convenient to comply with the recommended PPE when examining COVID-19 cases. Conclusion: Donning and doffing were the most common PPE malpractices. There was a positive attitude towards PPE among the HCWs. There was limited access to telemedicine, physical barriers, and application of social distance inside the healthcare facilities. © 2020 The author (s).

The incidence of moderate and severe COVID-19 at Zagazig University Hospitals: A single center experience in Egypt

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a paramount public health issue. The true statistics about COVID-19 in Egypt are veiled. Aim: To determine the incidence rate of moderate and severe SARS-CoV-2 infection among the patients seeking admission to Zagazig University Hospitals (ZUH), Egypt based on the chest Computed Tomography (CT) COVID-19 Reporting and Data System (CO-RADS) radiological criteria. Methods: All patients aged ≥ 18 years old seeking admission to ZUH between January 1st and March 31st, 2021, were eligible for enrollment in the study if they performed non-enhanced chest CT. Assessment of clinical, laboratory, and chest CT CO-RADS radiological criteria for each patient was carried out. The patients were defined to have moderate or severe COVID-19 if they met CO-RADS 4 or 5 radiological criteria, respectively, in association with the clinical and/or laboratory criteria. Results: A total of 5549 subjects were enrolled in the study. The total number of moderate and severe COVID-19 cases diagnosed at ZUH during January 2021 was 434/1827 with a monthly incidence rate of 23.75;95% CI (21.9-25.8) per 100.000 of the population. The total number of moderate and severe COVID-19 cases during February 2021 was 215/1622 with a monthly incidence rate of 13.25;95% CI (11.7-15). During March, the total number of moderate and severe COVID-19 cases was 416/2100 with a monthly incidence rate of 19.8;95% CI (18.2-21.6). Conclusion: The incidence rate of moderate and severe COVID-19 infection at ZUH is in parallel with the national COVID-19 incidence reports. © 2020 The author (s).

Could seasonal influenza virus vaccine reduce the risk and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection? The first Egyptian experience

Background: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious public health issue worldwide. A safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is a crucial measure to control the current pandemic. Many efforts have been devoted to the development of COVID-19 vaccines. However, the mistrust of COVID-19 vaccines has a negative impact on the willingness to receive the vaccine. Because of the cross-reactivity between influenza and coronaviruses, influenza immunization may be useful in preventing COVID-19 infection. Aim: Assessing the association between seasonal influenza virus vaccination and the acquisition and severity of COVID-19 in Egyptian individuals. Methods: This was an observational retrospective cohort study that included sixty participants who were classified into two equal groups based on their influenza virus vaccination status (vaccinated or not). The primary outcome was the susceptibility to COVID-19 infection and the secondary outcome was the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. Results: Among the unvaccinated group (n=17/30, 56.7%) had a COVID-19 infection compared to (n=8/30, 26.7%) in the vaccinated group (p value =0.02). The calculated OR was 3.6. Regarding the severity of COVID-19 infection, 11 individuals in the unvaccinated group (n=11/17, 64.7%) developed mild infection, (n=5/17, 29.4%) got moderate illness and (n=1/17, 5.9%) developed severe disease whereas (n=6/8, 75%) individuals in the vaccinated group had mild infection and (n=2/8, 25%) developed illness of moderate intensity (p value =0.7). Conclusion: Seasonal influenza virus vaccine seems to have a protective role against the acquisition of COVID-19 infection but does not reduce the severity of the disease. © 2020 The author (s).

Knowledge and Attitude to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic: A cross sectional survey from Egypt

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a serious emerging public health issue and it has been identified as a major risk to human health in 2020. Egypt has more than 100 million population, of whom in poor economic conditions and with low education levels could be vulnerable to COVID-19 infection. Physicians are at the frontiers in battles against the emergence, spread, and control of COVID-19 pandemic. Research data are needed to develop evidence-based strategies to prepare health care systems to deal with the current epidemic. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes to COVID-19 pandemic among a group of Egyptian physicians. Methods: From March 15th to March 25th, 2020, we conducted a cross-sectional online survey using non-probability accessibility sampling technique. The structured questionnaire was distributed online through E-mails and social networks to identify the knowledge and attitude among a group of Egyptian physicians regarding COVID-19 pandemic. Result: The study included 256 physicians. Of the participants, 48% were males 49.6% were females. The mean of total score was (19.6±2.3) out of 23 gained mainly from the social media (50.7%). About 67% of the participants heard of Coronaviruses before this pandemic, 78.5% identified other Coronaviruses. All the participants correctly identified the incubation period and 81.6% correctly identified the typical clinical symptoms. Most of the participants (97.6%) could estimate the fatality of COVID-19. Approximately 95% of the respondents knew no vaccination and 88% correctly answered that no current specific treatment for COVID-19 available. Almost all 98% of the participants knew the recommended general infection control precautions. Most of the participants showed positive attitude, about (97%) agreed that health care workers must avail themselves of all information about the COVID-19. Conclusion: The finding of this survey indicating that, faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, this studied group of Egyptian physicians showed positive attitude and satisfactory knowledge about emerging COVID-19 infection. Recommendations: Although the Egyptian Ministry of Health (MOH) has taken several major steps to prepare the health care system to be ready dealing with COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to develop educational programs to ensure continuous updated knowledge of the physicians. © 2020 The author (s). Published by Zagazig University.

Impact of COVID-19 on Education of Undergraduate Medical Students in Iraq

BACKGROUND: Medical students around the world, especially in Iraq, have expressed their displeasure with COVID-19. AIM: The study's goal was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on the education of Iraqi medical students at the undergraduate level. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included undergraduate students of College of Medicine, University of Baghdad from 1st grade to 6th grade in Iraq using a validated questionnaire from the period of November 18, 2021, till December 2, 2021. Full history was taken including age, gender, and students grade, in addition to Impact of COVID-19 survey questions. The students filled the survey shared on different medical student groups on Telegram, WhatsApp, and Facebook anonymously online. All students were assured of both confidentiality and anonymity, and participation was voluntary. A convenient consecutive sampling method was used with a total sample of 406 students from different grades was collected. A descriptive statistical analysis using SPSS v28 was done. RESULT(S): Median (interquartile range) age of participants was 21 (20-23) years. Most of the participants were female 250 (61.6%). Of a total 406 participants, 362 (89.2%) reported a negative effect of COVID-19 on education of undergraduate medical students. Online medical sessions do not reflect that student knowledge was the most common cause of this negative impact (336 (82.76%), next was reduced study level 305 (75.12%), then more cheating in online sessions 299 (73.65%), less efficiency of professors 281 (69.21%), reduced future healthcare 262 (64.53%), less comfortable online sessions 226 (55.67%), less relation between participants and their colleagues 188 (46.31%), and finally less study time 156 (38.42%). CONCLUSION(S): COVID-19 has a significant negative impact on education of undergraduate medical students in Iraq. Copyright © 2022 Faiq I. Gorial, Bekir Marwan Medhat, Dania Yaseen Ali, Haider Ali Jihad.

A Posititve Discourse Analysis of Mr. Johnson’s Opening Statement During the Pandemic of Covid-19 In

The present study aims at investigating the positive side of Mr. Johnson, the Prime Minister of Britain, during the opening statement of COVID-19. Particularly, it sheds light on the positive constructions that that are employed by Mr. Johnson at three stages: the description, interpretation and explanation. The data in question are analysed descriptively and statistically. It is found that the active voice and the lexical verbs are mostly used in the description stage;the directive, expressive and declarative speech acts are equally used in the interpretation stage. It is concluded that the positive message are appropriately achieved via using the active voice, verbs, the expressive, declarative and directive speech acts in Mr. Johnson’s discourse. © 2022, Association Res Militaris. All rights reserved.

AREDAPPS: Mobile Augmented Reality Development and Learning Framework Based on Augmented Reality Technology for Engineering Drawing Course

Technology in teaching and learning is crucial as we are now focusing on 21st Century Learning. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic has affected many sectors, including education sectors, where most educators are continuously looking for approach and tools to enhance their teaching deliveries to ensure students can still learn effectively even though most of the classes are currently conducted online. Other than that, students also have problems with their visualization skills when learning engineering drawing, which caused a lack of understanding of the content, thus making it even harder for them to learn in this situation. Technology such as augmented reality is a well-received technology application due to its benefit in enhancing users’ learning experiences, enhancing visualization skills, and supplementing materials more effectively. Thus, this paper aims to describe Augmented Reality Engineering Drawing Apps (AREDApps) development process, a mobile augmented reality apps for orthographic projection topic in engineering drawing subject, highlight the students’ perception when using AREDApps during learning and introduce the engineering drawing learning framework based on AREDApps implementation in the classroom. The result indicates that students were mostly satisfied with augmented reality technology to learn orthographic projection. This is because AREDApps helps them supplement the information that cannot be delivered by using modules or PowerPoint presentation such as the three-dimensional representations of the task given to them. The findings of this paper strengthen the facts that augmented reality is a suitable technology to teach complex technical subjects, which requires supplementary materials that can help students to be able to visualize the task effectively. © 2022, ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering.

Differences in Clinical Outcomes between Smokers and Non-Smokers infected with COVID-19.

Cigarette smoking is a risk factor associated with different diseases, claiming millions of lives annually. Smoking status has been studied for a long time and proved to be a major cause of smokers' decreased immunity. In the present pandemic COVID-19 disease, there was an unclear belief about the effect of smoking on patients with COVID-19. Therefore, the current cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate the effect of cigarette smoking on the sequelae of COVID-19. This cross-sectional study involved 200 COVID-19 patients (114 males and 86 females) aged 13-77 years. A number of 87 patients were smokers, and the rest of them were non-smokers. All patients underwent a comprehensive laboratory assessment and diagnosis by full medical history by the physicians. The results indicated a significant difference (P<0.001) between smokers and non-smokers in terms of hypertension, anticoagulant, steroid therapy, pulmonary lesion, oxygen saturation, and duration of disease. As an overall conclusion, it can be stated that COVID-19 is less severe in smokers and they require less intensive treatment.

Prevalence of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder among the General Population of Karachi during COVID-19 Pandemic and its Associated Factors

Objective: Coronavirus pandemic has spread globally. It has affected people mentally and economically. These types of pandemics often lead to post-traumatic stress traumatic syndrome among people. Research data is needed to know the PTSD due to the coronavirus pandemic among the general population. Materials and methods: This study is cross-sectional. Data was collected in 3 days from the general population of Karachi through an online questionnaire regarding age, gender, education, profession, precautionary measures, awareness related to COVID, satisfaction related to COVID, Health information awareness. IESR scale was used to assess post-traumatic stress syndrome. A total of 241 respondents were involved. Results: Moreover, 11.2% had partial PTSD, 4.1% had PTSD and 34.9% had PTSD high enough to suppress the immune system. Among the respondents majority belong to age group 20 to 30, female, student, undergraduate, were aware of COVID, tested positive for COVID, knew someone tested positive for COVID, applied precautionary measures, avoided going out, worried about your family members getting COVID, satisfied with health information available and were aware of health information available. Age group 20 to 30, Male gender, matric education level, housewives, tested positive for COVID, applying precautionary measures, applying social distancing, having present physical symptoms, worrying about your family members getting COVID, was associated with high IESR score and PTSD (p<0.05). Awareness related to COVID-19 and avoiding going out was associated with low IESR scores and were protective factors related to PTSD(p<0.05). Tested positive for COVID, presence of past physical symptoms, satisfaction with health information available, and awareness of health information available were not significantly associated with IESR score and PTSD (P>0.05) Conclusion: During the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic more than half of the respondents reported partial to severe PTSD. Age group 20 to 30, Male gender, matric education level, housewives, tested positive for COVID, applying precautionary measures, applying social distancing, having present physical symptoms of COVID, worrying about your family members getting COVID are the vulnerable groups which need urgent attention related to PTSD. Awareness related to COVID-19 and avoiding going out are protective factors related to PTSD hence these factors can be considered by higher authorities to make psychological policies.

Voice User Interface(VuI) Smart Office Door Application in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic

Nowadays, all countries around the globe are trying their best to prevent the spread of Covid-19 from reaching their people. However, the virus spread is through the transmission of close contact with the infected person and touching a surface that already contains the virus. This project presents Voice User Interface (VUI) Smart Office Door System that interact with the Internet of Things (IoT) to execute the command given by the user. This project use Raspberry Pi as microcontroller which Thonny Python software used for running the coding script of the system. The electrical components such as dc motors and LEDs are connected to General-Purpose Input Output (GPIO) pin of Raspberry Pi and motor driver. One of the dc motors used for controlling the lock and another one used for controlling the door. Blue LED used as locked door notification while green LED used as unlocked notification. Microphone and speaker connect to the Raspberry Pi through usb port and Bluetooth. This system used Google Assistant as its VUI to control the smart door contactless. The user can give the command to the system through microphone to control the output of the system. The purpose of this project is to invent the smart door with IoT technology that help prevent the spread of Covid-19 at the workplaces. © The 2022 International Conference on Artificial Life and Robotics (ICAROB2022).

Internet of Things Based Heart Failure Monitoring System using Radio Frequency Identification

This paper presents an internet of things (IoT) based heart failure monitoring system using radio frequency identification (RFID). It is developed to assist doctors to monitor patient's health conditions with heart failure disease remotely. The monitoring process can be done without having the presence at the hospital especially during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis where the doctor and the caretaker can access the medical record of the patient whenever required. This project employs Arduino Mega as the microcontroller which is interfaced with several sensors as input such as temperature sensor, pulse oximeter sensor and pulse sensor. The patient only needs to place their fingertip on each sensor while the monitoring process is performed to obtain the reading of health data. These data will be sent to the microcontroller to be processed and compared with the threshold value of each sensor. If the data obtained exceeds the threshold value, a notification is sent via Blynk mobile application to notify the doctor or caretaker on the abnormalities of the patient's health condition for further action. ESP8266 Wi-Fi module is used to allow doctor to access and monitor their patient's data from the cloud server using Blynk mobile application. This mobile application displays and notify the health condition of the patient in real time. Besides, the health data also can be exported to Excel for analysis and evaluation. The result obtained from testing the system turned out to be satisfactory in monitoring patient's health condition with an almost accurate reading of health data. © 2021 IEEE.

The Trends of Uveal Melanoma Research in the Past Two Decades and Future Perspectives.

Evaluation of the research trends in uveal melanoma in the past two decades. Data were extracted from the Web of Science database website. VOSviewer and Citespace software were used to analyze the retrieved data. The leading country in terms of output and international collaboration is the USA. Research interest in genetic mutations, molecular pathways, and immunotherapy was remarkable in recent years. Most of the top ten journals are specialized in ophthalmology. In recent years, the hotspots include future perspectives, BAP1 mutation, therapeutic target, and systematic reviews. The keywords with the strongest citation bursts are immunotherapy, outcome, and in situ hybridization. The output of uveal melanoma research increased during the past two decades. Before 2015, the main focus of the research was to facilitate prognostication and metastatic risk stratification. Recently, research has moved to examine the metastatic microenvironment. Future research foci may include exploring the role of different mutations, immunotherapy, molecular alterations, and finding ideal clinical biomarkers.

Impact of a Single-Day Lockdown on COVID-19: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis.

This study evaluated a special form of lockdown that was applied in Jordan: one day of lockdown every week, which was applied on consecutive weekend days (i.e., Friday in Jordan, for 24 hours). We tried to assess the impact of this form of lockdown on the daily number of positive coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases, using interrupted time series analysis. We included the period of March 5 to April 17, 2021, as the period affected by the Friday lockdown, which was applied to seven consecutive Fridays with a total of 168 hours. We used R version 4.0.5 (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) for our analysis. We used Poisson model regression analysis, where the number of positive cases was used as the outcome variable, while the total number of tests, time, and lockdown were used as the predictor variables. We further performed quasi-Poisson regression analysis to confirm the first model. On Poisson model regression analysis, it was found that there was an evidence of an increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases following the intervention of Friday lockdown, with a p value of <0.001 (relative risk, 1.569; 95% confidence interval, 1.549-1.590). On using quasi-Poisson regression, similar results were found with a wider confidence interval. We concluded that a single weekend day lockdown led to an increase in the number of daily cases of COVID-19. Therefore, we recommend authorities to adhere to evidence-based measures or to the WHO recommendations in the dealing with this pandemic.

Near-physiological-temperature serial crystallography reveals conformations of SARS-CoV-2 main protease active site for improved drug repurposing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in 198 million reported infections and more than 4 million deaths as of July 2021 (covid19.who.int). Research to identify effective therapies for COVID-19 includes: (1) designing a vaccine as future protection; (2) de novo drug discovery; and (3) identifying existing drugs to repurpose them as effective and immediate treatments. To assist in drug repurposing and design, we determine two apo structures of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) main protease at ambient temperature by serial femtosecond X-ray crystallography. We employ detailed molecular simulations of selected known main protease inhibitors with the structures and compare binding modes and energies. The combined structural and molecular modeling studies not only reveal the dynamics of small molecules targeting the main protease but also provide invaluable opportunities for drug repurposing and structure-based drug design strategies against SARS-CoV-2.

Political polarization and selective exposure of social media users in indonesia

This study is intended to answer the question of how political polarization is related to social media users posts about Covid-19. The researchers chose health cases related to Covid-19 instead of political issues (e.g. elections) to prove that this political polarization has spread to many areas. The research also wants to see the relationship between this political polarization and selective exposure. Theories applied in this study are polarization, filter bubble, and selective exposure. The study applied two methods: social media network analysis and content analysis. The network analysis included 82,156 posts, while the content analysis was carried out on 4,050 social media accounts. The research outcome proves the occurrence of political polarization. Social media users were divided into two major groups, namely pro-Jokowi and anti-Jokowi. Each group interacted with fellow users who had the same political choices and shared the same message content. Users with certain political choices tend to receive the same information as their political choices, and ignore information from other political parties. Another interesting finding from this study is how this polarization was sharpened by the use of hashtags. Each party (supporters and oppositions of Jokowi) uses hashtags to create solidarity and mobilization from each supporter. Research also proves the validity of the selective exposure and filter bubble hypothesis in the Indonesian context. © 2021 Complex Issues of Cardiovascular Diseases. All rights reserved.

Pharmacological insight into possible treatment agents for the lethal Covid-19 pandemic in Kurdistan region- Iraq

The magnitude of the risks in the face of the COVID-19 disease is increasing every day, and foreshadowing a catastrophe facing humanity. It is clear, the levels of health services in different countries around the world are very different, therefore there will be many health risks in countries that are suffering in terms of health services. The objective of this study was to compare different therapy for patients with severe coronaviruses diseases (COVID-19). Nowadays, different medicines have been used to reduce the severity of symptoms of this disease such as Ribavirin, Chloroquine, Arbidol, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Favipiravir, Remdesivir, Azithromycin, and Sputnik V. These medications are used in every region of the world to make some progress in finding a solution to (COVID-19), including Kurdistan region which is in the north of Iraq. As is the case in most third world countries, the health service is not at the required level, and despite that, we were able to make a comprehensive list of medicines used in many countries of the world and here in Kurdistan, Iraq. In addition to this narrative and comparison of the best medication used to treat this pandemic, we also surveyed the opinions of over 100 people on the medicines discussed in this study throughout their treatment. The medicinal properties of medications used for COVID-19 and the results of their use on humans were studied in this review to promote appropriate medications for the treatment of coronavirus.

TRIzol-based RNA extraction for detection protocol for SARS-CoV-2 of coronavirus disease 2019.

Diagnostic testing is important for managing the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). We developed an optimized protocol for SARS-CoV-2 RNA extraction from the surface of the respiratory mucosa with nasopharyngeal swabs and compared the sensitivity of RNA extraction methods. RNA extraction was performed using three different procedures (TRIzol, QIAamp, VMT-TRIzol) from nine positive SARS-CoV-2 samples. SARS-CoV-2 was detected by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) using a detection kit for SARS-CoV-2 (Sun Yat-sen University). Compared to RT-PCR results, there were no discernible differences in detection rates when comparing the three different extraction procedures. On the basis of these results, the use of TRIzol as a transport medium and RNA extraction method for SARS-CoV-2 detection may be a helpful alternative for laboratories facing shortages of commercial testing kits.