ABSTRACT
Objectives: Many studies have been conducted on ferritin, fibrinogen, D-dimer, and neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), which are biochemical tests, to determine the severity and prognosis of the disease in the early period of coro-navirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection. We aimed to determine the compatibility of these easily accessible and affordable tests with computed tomography (CT) in determining the severity of the disease at an early stage. Methods: This study was carried out retrospectively on 79 patients. In all patients, nasal and pharyngeal swabs were collected and tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA with reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay. The severity of the disease was determined by computed tomography imaging. According to lung involvement, patients who were found to have a severe infection and divided into the severe group (n=26), and those with milder symptoms were divided into the non-severe group (n=53). The demographic information and laboratory parameters of the patients were obtained from the medical records of the hospital. Analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciencesversion 23.0 for Windows. Results: NLR (8.36±2.45;3.3±2.04 p<0.001), ferritin (ng/mL) (736.1±240.2;374.7±248.4 p<0.001), fibrinogen (mg/mL) (725.7±84.9;416.5±186.1 p<0.001), D-dimer (ug/mL) (3.68±1.42;1.55±1.16 p<0.001), and C-reactive protein (CRP) (mg/ dL) (81.1±11.9;27.9±13.8 p<0.001) levels were found to be significantly higher in the severe group than the non-severe group. In addition, CRP (mg/mL) levelswere positively correlated with NLR (r=0.607 p<0.01). Receiver operator curve analyses were carried out to assess the efficacy of NLR, ferritin, fibrinogen, and D-dimer parameters. Conclusion: These results suggest that NLR, ferritin, fibrinogen, and D-dimer may be useful biomarkers for the early detection of critical cases of COVID-19 infection, paralleling CT findings. These available tests can benefit clinicians in low-resource settings where access to complicated diagnostic methods may be limited. © 2023, Kare Publishing. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic had one obvious and undeniable difference compared to its predecessors: It occurred in the age of information and technology. Although many factors such as advanced technologyscience, wide possibilities, traditional and social media may seem like an advantage over previous pandemics at first glance, we witnessed that this also caused major problems in the dissemination of information right at the beginning of the pandemic. Such that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared at the Security Conference- Munich in February 2020 (WHO, Munich Security Conference, 2020);"But we're not just fighting an epidemic;we're fighting an infodemic." They introduced the word "infodemic" into our lives, which is not really new but we have not heard it for a long time. In other words, they gave a name to this situation citing fake news "spreads faster and more easily than this virus," which will have affected our lives. In conclusion, information pollution is a great threat to all measures taken to bypass the pandemic process with the least damage and therefore harms the well-being of people. We aim to gain insight into human behaviors and attitudes that are caused by the digital infodemic during the pandemic process. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Objective: As approval of one of many coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccines' use for pregnancy is getting closer, vaccine hesitancy may take place in pregnant individuals for this new vaccine. Our study aimed to evaluate vaccine acceptance and factors affecting vaccine acceptance in case of an approved COVID-19 vaccine for pregnant individuals. Material and Methods: Our study was designed as one group, cross-sectional, prospective study. Sample consisted of pregnant individuals who didn't have any chronic illnesses and didn't contract COVID-19 in the last 6 months. In-person style survey was used to collect data about demographics, knowledge about COVID- 19 disease and it's effects on pregnant individuals, vaccine acceptance and reasons for acceptance or refusal. Results were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-square test and Shapiro-Wilk test of normality using Number Cruncher Statistical System. Results: Among 250 participants, 183 (73.2%) reported they wouldn't accept COVID-19 vaccination if there was a safe and effective vaccine approved for use in pregnancy. Main reasons of refusal were the belief that vaccine hadn't been studied on humans enough or that it might have adverse effectes on baby and/or pregnant individual. Only factor associated with vaccine acceptance was found to be knowing someone who had severe COVID-19 disease (p=0.022). Conclusion: Our study shows that vaccine hesitancy rates may be high among pregnant individuals when a COVID-19 vaccine is approved for use in pregnancy. The main reason for vaccine hesitancy is safety concerns.