Effectiveness and Controversy of Convalescent Plasma Therapy for Coronavirus Disease 2019 Patients

Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) began to spread, it remains pandemic worldwide. The European Medicines Agency's human medicines committee and Food and Drug Administration have only granted a conditional marketing authorization for remdesivir to treat COVID-19. It is essential to apply other valuable treatments. Convalescent plasma (CP), donated by persons who have recovered from COVID-19, is the cellular component of blood that contains specific antibodies. Therefore, to determine the feasibility of CP for COVID-19, the effectiveness and controversy are discussed in depth here. It is suggested that CP plays a certain role in the treatment of COVID-19. As a treatment, it may have its own indications and contraindications, which need to be further discussed. Meanwhile, it is critical to establish a standard procedure for treatment from CP collection, preservation, transport, to transfusion, and conduct some large sample randomized controlled trials to confirm the transfusion dosage, appropriate time, frequency, and actively prevent adverse outcomes that may occur. © 2022 Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery Inc.. All rights reserved.

Designing Spellcasters from Clinician Perspectives: A Customizable Gesture-Based Immersive Virtual Reality Game for Stroke Rehabilitation

Developing games is time-consuming and costly. Overly clinical therapy games run the risk of being boring, which defeats the purpose of using games to motivate healing in the first place [10, 23]. In this work, we adapt and repurpose an existing immersive virtual reality (iVR) game, Spellcasters, originally designed purely for entertainment for use as a stroke rehabilitation game-which is particularly relevant in the wake of COVID-19, where telehealth solutions are increasingly needed [4]. In preparation for participatory design sessions with stroke survivors, we collaborate with 14 medical professionals to ensure Spellcasters is safe and therapeutically valid for clinical adoption. We present our novel VR sandbox implementation that allows medical professionals to customize appropriate gestures and interactions for each patient's unique needs. Additionally, we share a co-designed companion app prototype based on clinicians' preferred data reporting mechanisms for telehealth. We discuss insights about adapting and repurposing entertainment games as serious games for health, features that clinicians value, and the potential broader impacts of applications like Spellcasters for stroke management.

Spatial and temporal differentiation of global COVID-19 vaccine development, circulation and vaccination

Using the data of global COVID-19 vaccine development, ordering, donation and vaccination, and through GIS and other technical methods, this paper depicts the development, circulation pattern and their dynamics of global COVID-19 vaccine. In order to provide a cognitive basis, this paper further discusses the spatial and temporal differentiation of global COVID-19 vaccination. The conclusions are as follows: (1) The global development pattern of COVID-19 vaccine is not balanced, with three cores in Western Europe, North America and Asia as a whole. Among them, the United States, China and the UK are the representative countries for the development of COVID-19 vaccine. (2) In the early stage, the global COVID-19 vaccine ordering was mainly distributed among developed countries in Western Europe and North America. Nevertheless, with the continuous expansion of the global ordering network, the ordering of COVID-19 vaccine has gradually expanded to Asian, African and Latin American countries. On the whole, the global COVID-19 vaccine ordering has formed two expansion modes, including directed expansion and non-directed expansion. (3) China and the United States are the two core countries of the global COVID-19 vaccine donation network. The United States mainly donates vaccines to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America and other countries that have close relationship with the United States. China mainly donates vaccines to South Asia, Southeast Asia, West Asia and Africa. The donation of COVID-19 vaccine is mainly affected by the contact and relationship between countries, the national strategies and the need to fulfill international obligations of donor countries, but their focuses are different. (4) The development, ordering and donation pattern of global COVID-19 vaccine determines the evolution of global vaccination pattern. The vaccination process in developed countries in Western Europe and North America is ahead of most Asian, African and Latin American countries, but the gap is gradually narrowing. China's vaccination rate has jumped from a higher to the highest level, making China a representative of developing countries. © 2022, Science Press. All right reserved.

Epidemiology of covid-19 in non-core infected regions based on patient movement trajectories – A report from Chongqing, China (11 january – 21 february 2020)

Epidemiological characteristics of COVID-19 in non-core infected regions were identified to provide evidences for prevention and management of COVID-19 epidemic in China. Data collected through an online reporting system were age, gender, source of infection, date of disease occurrence, date and type of primary medical examination and treatment, and classification of COVID-19, mode of infection and clinical symptoms. Confirmed COVID-19 patients (n = 518) constituted male:female ratio of 1.19:1, 30-75 years of age (82.74%), and with clustered cases significantly higher than sporadic cases, percent close contact transmission during dining being highest (39.30%), 88.89% of the patients having a latent period of 2-14 days, duration from primary medical examination to diagnosis ranging from 1 to 16 days, and 43.83% of the patients having fever or cough. In order to prevent further spread of COVID-19 epidemic, measures should be taken to increase detection and isolation of infection sources, reduce unsafe contact behavior, and impose 14-day quarantine of suspected contact individuals together with periodic tests of SARS-Cov-2 infection. © 2020, SEAMEO TROPMED Network. All rights reserved.

A Regression Model for Short-Term COVID-19 Pandemic Assessment

COVID-19 has rapidly spread around the world in the past few months, researchers around the world are working around the clock to closely monitor and assess the development of this pandemic. In this paper, a time series regression model is built to assess the short-term progression of COVID-19 pandemic. The model structure and parameters are identified using COVID-19 pandemic data released by China within the time window from 22 January to 09 April 2020. The same model structure and parameters are applied to a few other countries for day ahead forecasting, showing a good fit of the model. This modeling exercise confirms that the underlying internal dynamics of this disease progression is quite similar. The differences in the impact of this pandemic on different countries are largely attributed to different eternal factors. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

An SEIR Model for Assessment of COVID-19 Pandemic Situation

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic spread to the UK in early 2020 with the first few cases being identified in late January. A rapid increase in confirmed cases started in March, and the number of infected people is however unknown, largely due to the rather limited testing scale. A number of reports published so far reveal that the COVID-19 has long incubation period, high fatality ratio and non-specific symptoms, making this novel coronavirus far different from common seasonal influenza. In this note, we present a modified SEIR model which takes into account the latency effect and probability distribution of model states. Based on the proposed model, it was estimated in April 2020 that the actual total number of infected people by 1 April in the UK might have already exceeded 610,000. Average fatality rates under different assumptions at the beginning of April 2020 were also estimated. Our model also revealed that the R0 value was between 7.5–9 which is much larger than most of the previously reported values. The proposed model has a potential to be used for assessing future epidemic situations under different intervention strategies. © 2020, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.