Arbovirus and its potential to lead the next global pandemic from sub-Saharan Africa: What lessons have we learned from COVID-19?

Risk and predisposing factors for viral zoonoses abound in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region with significant public health implications. For several decades, there have been several reports on the emergence and re-emergence of arbovirus infections. The lifetime burden of arboviral diseases in developing countries is still poorly understood. Studies indicate significant healthcare disruptions and economic losses attributed to the viruses in resource-poor communities marked by impairment in the performance of daily activities. Arboviruses have reportedly evolved survival strategies to aid their proliferation in favorable niches, further magnifying their public health relevance. However, there is poor knowledge about the viruses in the region. Thus, this review presents a survey of zoonotic arboviruses in SSA, the burden associated with their diseases, management of diseases as well as their prevention and control, mobility and determinants of infections, their vectors, and co-infection with various microorganisms. Lessons learned from the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic coupled with routine surveillance of zoonotic hosts for these viruses will improve our understanding of their evolution, their potential to cause a pandemic, control and prevention measures, and vaccine development.Copyright © GERMS 2022.

The investigation of modification in structural flexibility and coordination modes in a solvent free ?-diketone Cu(II) complex by crystal structure and DFT studies

Coordination-driven self-assembly in inorganic complexes is a viable methodology to construct supramolecular coordination complexes. Crystal engineering of beta-diketone Cu(II) coordination complexes can be achieved via the host-guest complexation method. The effect of metal-ligand interactions (coordination polyhedra) on the su-pramolecular framework has been analysed by crystal structure and computational studies. A new crystal form of a Cu(II) complex with 4,4,4-trifluoro-naphthyl butanedione has been identified and characterized using various spectroscopic techniques. X-ray diffraction studies unveiled that complex 1, [Cu(TFNB)2], crystallized in the monoclinic (P21/n) space group and its solvent-induced crystal forms, complex 2, [Cu(TFNB)2DMSO] (Database Identifier: IVAKIC), and complex 3, [Cu(TFNB)2DMF] (Database Identifier: ZOCHOR), which were reported earlier, are in the triclinic (P 1) crystal system. The previously reported crystal forms (complexes 2 and 3) are examples of a single crystal coordinated solvent exchange (SCCSE) transformation. In complex 1, the beta-diketone molecules are attached to the metal ion in an equatorial form with a perfect square planar geometry, whilst complexes 2 and 3 feature a slightly distorted square pyramidal geometry with chelated donor oxygen atoms of the beta-diketone ligands in equatorial sites and the crystallizing DMSO and DMF solvents are apically coordinated to the metal centre, respectively. Interestingly, the oxygen donors of the beta-diketone ligands in complex 1 are inclined in a trans configuration, whereas in the solvent-induced pseudopolymorphic forms of complexes 2 and 3, a cis configuration is observed. The variation in the supramolecular framework with the coordination geometry in different crystal forms is analysed using the crystal structures and compared with quantum computational (Hirshfeld surface, enrichment ratio, energy framework, NCI index model and DFT) results. Molecular docking analysis was performed for all the complexes against the SARS-CoV2 main protease to explore the structur-e-property relationship.

A framework for manufacturing system reconfiguration and optimisation utilising digital twins and modular artificial intelligence

Digital twins and artificial intelligence have shown promise for improving the robustness, responsiveness, and productivity of industrial systems. However, traditional digital twin approaches are often only employed to augment single, static systems to optimise a particular process. This article presents a paradigm for combining digital twins and modular artificial intelligence algorithms to dynamically reconfigure manufacturing systems, including the layout, process parameters, and operation times of numerous assets to allow system decision -making in response to changing customer or market needs. A knowledge graph has been used as the enabler for this system-level decision-making. A simulation environment has been constructed to replicate the manufacturing process, with the example here of an industrial robotic manufacturing cell. The simulation environment is connected to a data pipeline and an application programming interface to assist the integration of multiple artificial intelligence methods. These methods are used to improve system decision-making and optimise the configuration of a manufacturing system to maximise user-selectable key performance indicators. In contrast to previous research, this framework incorporates artificial intelligence for decision -making and production line optimisation to provide a framework that can be used for a wide variety of manufacturing applications. The framework has been applied and validated in a real use case, with the automatic reconfiguration resulting in a process time improvement of approximately 10%.

Evaluation of Neutrophil Percentage to Albumin Ratio as Predictor of Mortality in Patients with Covid-19

Background: Inflammatory acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is caused by the COV-2 virus. Neutrophils have been implicated in the pathophysiology of the COVID-19 pandemic since its inception, particularly in individuals with advanced disease. This is confirmed by a large number of studies. Method(s): The study included 200 patients, of whom 100 were in the critical group (group 1) and 100 were in the non-critical group (group 2). White blood cell (WBC) percentage, neutrophil count, albumin, and demographic information were recorded. Neutrophil percentage x 100 /Albumin (g/dl) was used to construct the neutrophil count to albumin ratio (NPAR). To determine whether the measure may be utilized as a predictor for mortality, the NPAR is then compared between groups 1 and 2, as well as between discharge and mortality groups. Result(s): Age and gender had no statistically significant differences in either group. There were no significant variations in the median (IQR) values of neutrophil count (89 vs 91.25), WBC (15.65 vs 14.9), and NPAR (41.3 vs 43.7) between the two groups. Significant differences in albumin (3.330.521 vs. 3.10.51) were identified between the critical and non-critical groups. Conclusion(s): According to our research, the COVID-19 patients' NPAR is a poor predictor of mortality. More study is still required to verify and elucidate the clinical implications of these findings.Copyright © 2023 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.

Mental health training needs of physicians in Bangladesh: Views from stakeholders

Bangladesh is a lower-middle-income country with a high burden of mental health conditions and inadequate health systems. Prior research in similar settings has found that training physicians in mental health literacy can contribute to reducing the mental health treatment gap and strengthening the mental health care pathway. This study explores the need for mental health training for physicians by gathering stakeholders' perspectives and proposes recommendations for designing a mental training program in the context of Bangladesh. Key informant interviews were conducted among psychiatrists (n = 9), and mental health entrepreneurs (n = 7);one focus group discussion was conducted with psychologists (n = 8);and one-on-one interviews were held with physician (n = 17). Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, all interviews were conducted online, recorded and transcribed. Transcriptions were analyzed thematically, utilizing both an inductive and deductive approach. The data analysis from forty-one stakeholders generated three major themes and eight subthemes. Stakeholders perceived that the inadequate mental health system and low mental health awareness among physicians significantly contribute to the mental health treatment gaps. Stakeholders emphasized the need to include mental health training for physicians to increase skills related to identification and management of mental health conditions. Stakeholders suggested some basic components for the training content, feasible modalities to deliver the training, and implementation challenges. Recommendations included utilizing online training, ensuring interesting and practical content, and incorporating certification systems. At a systems level, stakeholders recommended including a mental health curriculum in undergraduate medical education, capacity building of other healthcare workers and increasing awareness at the policy level. There is clear agreement among stakeholders that implementing mental health training for physicians will promote universal health coverage and reduce the mental health treatment gap in Bangladesh. These findings can support creation of policies to strengthen the care pathway in countries with limited resources.Copyright © 2022 The Authors

Digital Twins-Based Internet of Robotic Things for Remote Health Monitoring of COVID-19 Patients

The deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has highlighted the importance of remote health monitoring (RHM). The digital twins (DTs) paradigm enables RHM by creating a virtual replica that receives data from the physical asset, representing its real-world behavior. However, DTs use passive internet of things (IoT) sensors, which limit their potential to a specific location or entity. This problem can be addressed by using the internet of robotic things (IoRT), which combines robotics and IoT, allowing the robotic things (RTs) to navigate in a particular environment and connect to IoT devices in the vicinity. Implementing DTs in IoRT, creates a virtual replica (virtual twin) that receives real-time data from the physical RT (physical twin) to mirror its status. However, DTs require a user interface for real-time interaction and visualization. Virtual reality (VR) can be used as an interface due to its natural ability to visualize and interact with DTs. This research proposes a real-time system for RHM of COVID-19 patients using the DTs-based IoRT and VR-based user interface. It also presents and evaluates robot navigation performance, which is vital for remote monitoring. The virtual twin (VT) operates the physical twin (PT) in the real environment (RE), which collects data from the patient-mounted sensors and transmits it to the control service to visualize in VR for medical examination. The system prevents direct interaction of medical staff with contaminated patients, protecting them from infection and stress. The experimental results verify the monitoring data quality (accuracy, completeness, timeliness) and high accuracy of PT’s navigation. Author

The Logic of Practice and Development Opportunities of Digital Transformation of Education

"Digital transformation of education” is a hot topic of present educational reform and the development tendency of future educational innovation. Digital transformation of education, as a process stressing technology-driven educational innovation and reform, boasts the importance of development in its birth and practice. It is driven jointly by social and cultural transitions, the impetus of technical innovation, the guidance of national policies, and the endogenous development of the education system. The logic of practice of the transformation can be regarded as the behavior choice dominated by value and intentions, and the underlying generation principles in practice comprise the "problem-driven + concept-led” principle, the "system evolution + innovative breakthrough” principle, and the "value assessment + iterative optimization” principle. At present, under the background of constructing the new ecology of a smart society and a high-quality education system, and under the pressure of COVID-19 pandemic, the transformation faces golden development opportunities. Nonetheless, the present transformation practice still has some differences from the expected value orientation. Therefore, it is required to research and develop a mature digital education model or framework, carry out a national digital education preparation campaign, work for pilot schemes for the transformation at all levels and of all kinds, attach importance to theoretical research on education relating to the digital transformation of education, and more actively embrace the new wave of educational reform worldwide.

Acute Kidney Injury after Covid 19 Infection in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients of Bangladesh: Retrospective Study

Introduction: COVID 19 pandemic has caused unprecedented devastation worldwide. Spectrum of Covid 19 illness is wide and variable. Risk of mortality is increased in chronic kidney disease patients, during coronavirus disease. CKD is an independent risk factor for poor outcome. AKI is also common in COVID-19 patients who are hospitalized. This study was undertaken to see the outcome of Covid-19 infection in CKD patients. Method(s): This retrospective observational study was carried out in the Kidney Foundation Hospital and Research Institute, Bangladesh from January 2021 to July 2022. One hundred CKD patients who were on regular follow up in the outpatient department and developed COVID-19 as confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test underwent chart review after they consented to be part of the study. Their clinical parameters, treatment regiments and laboratory investigations were noted in a data collection sheet. Data was analyzed by Statistical Analysis Software. Result(s): The mean age of the patients was 55.2 years. Of them 43% were female. Diabetes mellitus was the most common comorbidity, seen in 65% of the patients. 24% were CKD stage 4 or 5 prior to the onset of COVID-19, rest were of earlier stage. Hospitalization was required in 65.3% patients;41.1% required oxygen, steroid given in 19.8% patients,8.4% required ICU transfer. 7 patients died, all of respiratory failure. Treatment with antiviral, biologics like Tocilizumab and plasma exchange was not commonly done. AKI developed in 28% of the patients during the course of the illness. Males were more prone to develop AKI (p = 0.23). People with longer duration of symptoms had higher incidence of AKI (p < 0.0001). AKI incidence did not vary according to baseline eGFR (p = 0.16). Among those who developed AKI, 17.9% required temporary dialysis and 7.1% went on to develop end stage kidney disease. Interim outcomes such as hospitalization, oxygen requirement, ICU transfer and death did not vary according to development of AKI. Conclusion(s): People with chronic kidney disease and other comorbid conditions are at higher risk for more serious COVID-19 illness. In our study it has been shown that a significant proportion of CKD patients developed AKI after COVID 19 infection of which a number of patients develop end stage kidney disease and required renal replacement therapy. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023

CRIRES+on sky at the ESO Very Large Telescope: Observing the Universe at infrared wavelengths and high spectral resolution

The CRyogenic InfraRed Echelle Spectrograph (CRIRES) Upgrade project CRIRES+ extended the capabilities of CRIRES. It transformed this VLT instrument into a cross-dispersed spectrograph to increase the wavelength range that is covered simultaneously by up to a factor of ten. In addition, a new detector focal plane array of three Hawaii 2RG detectors with a 5.3 μm cutoff wavelength replaced the existing detectors. Amongst many other improvements, a new spectropolarimetric unit was added and the calibration system has been enhanced. The instrument was installed at the VLT on Unit Telescope 3 at the beginning of 2020 and successfully commissioned and verified for science operations during 2021, partly remotely from Europe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The instrument was subsequently offered to the community from October 2021 onwards. This article describes the performance and capabilities of the upgraded instrument and presents on sky results. © 2023 The Author(s).

The nexus of environmental, social, and governance practices with the financial performance of banks: A comparative analysis for the pre and COVID-19 periods

This study aims to examine the impact of ESG practices on the financial performance of the banking industry of Pakistan during the pre and COVID-19 periods. The data were collected from the annual reports of selected banks for the pre-COVID-19 period (2018) and the COVID-19 period (2020). Results of the t-test show that there is a significant difference in ESG disclosures between the pre and during-COVID-19 periods. The regression analysis shows that the formative ESG factor positively affected the financial performance of the banking industry during the pre-COVID-19 period. While the reflective factors (environmental and social) positively affected the financial performance of the banking industry in the pre-COVID-19 period. During the COVID-19 period, the formative factor of ESG was found to have a significant positive impact on the financial performance of the banking industry. Similarly, in this period, the reflective factors (social and governance) were also found to have a significant positive impact on the financial performance of the banking industry. Interestingly, environmental sustainability negatively impacted the financial performance during the COVID-19 period. It indicates that the banking industry ignored environmental sustainability practices during the COVID −19 period, negatively affecting their financial performance. It suggests that ignoring environmental sustainability practices will deteriorate financial performance following the COVID-19 period. These results have profound policy implications for practitioners and policymakers in the banking industry, which are discussed. © 2023 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

The effect of the 'COVID-19' pandemic on eating disorders

Studies reveal an increase in hospital admissions among adolescents with eating disorders (ED) during the pandemic. In this study, we aimed to reveal the change in ED admissions during the pandemic in Hacettepe University Ihsan Dogramaci Children's Hospital Division of Adolescent Medicine. Medical records were retrospectively analyzed in two periods, June 2019-February 2020 (before the pandemic) and June 2021-February 2022 (during the pandemic). Patients diagnosed with ED during these periods were compared. While the patients diagnosed with ED were 1.2% (46/3708) before the pandemic, it was 2.2% (69/3149) in the pandemic (p=0.003). There was an increase in the diagnosis of atypical anorexia nervosa and male ED during the pandemic, but it was not statistically significant (respectively, before and during pandemic 6.5% vs 17.3, p=0.280;2.2% vs 11.6%, p=0.065) This study showed an increase in ED admissions during the pandemic in our clinic, emphasizing the impact of the pandemic on the onset of ED in adolescents.

Donors' attitude towards fundraising efforts in UAE during COVID-19 pandemic: the moderating role of ethics

Purpose: This study aims to explore the antecedents of donors' attitudes toward fundraising campaigns to fight COVID-19 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the pandemic crisis. This manuscript identified how moderating effects of ethical dimensions can strengthen the relationship between trust in charity and charity projects with their attitude to raise funds to mitigate pandemic repercussions. Design/methodology/approach: This study follows a quantitative approach by administering survey instruments to collect the data from the sample of respondents. A total of 391 responses were obtained adopting snowball sampling and analyzed through structural equation modeling (SEM) to derive meaningful results for path analysis. Findings: The findings of this study indicate that certain insights need to be considered to trigger the donors' attitude toward raising or participating in charity-oriented campaigns, especially during pandemic situations. For instance, organizing more transformable processes in charity projects and establishing more trust factors among donors is highly essential in charity activities. Similarly, promoting ethical dimensions of the donors toward supporting the vulnerable more effectively and encouraging them to participate or organize philanthropic activities certainly benefit and support this noble cause. Practical implications: This study will help the government and nonprofit organizations in devising their campaigns for raising funds. The findings of this study suggest that ethics is an important consideration and driver for donors in philanthropy-serving organizations and individuals. Originality/value: This research contributes to the literature on donation and philanthropic studies focusing on fundraising campaigns attitudes during COVID-19. This study contributes influential factors and attitudes of individuals and organizations toward charity and philanthropic service. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Word embeddings for topic modeling: An application to the estimation of the economic policy uncertainty index

The quantification of economic uncertainty is key to the prediction of macroeconomic variables, such as gross domestic product (GDP), and is particularly crucial in regard to real-time or short-time prediction methodologies, such as nowcasting, where a large amount of time series data is required. Most of the data comes from official agency statistics and non-public institutions, but these sources are susceptible to lack of information due to major disruptive events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, it is very common nowadays to use non-traditional data from different sources. The economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index is the indicator most frequently used to quantify uncertainty and is based on topic modeling of newspapers. In this paper, we propose a methodology to estimate the EPU index that incorporates a fast and efficient method for topic modeling of digital news based on semantic clustering with word embeddings, allowing us to update the index in real time, which is something that other studies have failed to manage. We show that our proposal enables us to update the index and significantly reduce the time required for new document assignation into topics. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Analysis Of COVID-19 Effects On Wellbeing - Study Of Reddit Posts Using Natural Language Processing Techniques

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to negatively impact people's mental health worldwide. Due to the rise in unemployment, loss of income, and lack of social interaction, people are now more likely to feel lonely, go on fewer outings, and dread the unexpected nature of viral transmission. Meanwhile, Public Health authorities are interested in monitoring people's mental and emotional well-being. In this paper, natural language processing is used to analyze human sentiments concerning the COVID-19 pandemic that has been dangerously affecting individuals' mental and physical well-being for more than two years now. Even though several waves of COVID-19 have passed, of which the first and third waves i.e., the initial pandemic period from 20th March 2020 and the rise of the Delta variant from January 2020 had the most impact on the mental health of individuals, this is further evident by the results of this paper. This research focuses on how severely this virus has affected people's mental health and emotions. After processing the data i.e., cleaning, formatting, and removing irregularities from the data, feature engineering models are applied to acquire the results. The results through VADER (valence-aware dictionary and sentiment reasoning) indicate an increase in overall negative sentiments between two mentioned periods. Additionally, the NRC-EIL (National Research Council of Canada - Emotion Intensity Lexicon) analysis showed that 'fear' and 'sadness' occurred during those times. © 2022 IEEE.

An analytics approach to health and healthcare in citizen science communications on Twitter

Background: Citizen science is a growing practice in which volunteers, including non-scientists, conduct or contribute to research by collecting and analyzing data. The increasing importance of citizen science in the last years has led to an increased interest in detecting how citizen science can contribute to scientific advancements in different areas. Recent research shows that citizen science has become a means of engagement between scientist and the public, encouraging scientific curiosity and promoting scientific knowledge. Methods: In this article, we report on how to apply computational analysis techniques to Twitter messages to reveal the impact of citizen science in health-related areas. The main objectives are (1) to characterize central topics of these discussions, and (2) to identify particularly important actors in these social media networks. Results: For the topics, our findings suggest that sustainable development goals, technologies and health, and COVID-19 are those most addressed by the users. Other topics represented in the data are cancer, public health, mental health, and health and well being of sea and earth living creatures related to sustainable development goals. Conclusion: Based on our results, those entities or actors who are most cited and retweeted are Twitter accounts of projects and not primarily individual professionals or citizen scientists. © The Author(s) 2023.

Smarter Movement Control Application

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has devastated the entire globe in a short period of time and was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11th, 2020. It rapidly increased in fatality rate and has become an international public health crisis, culminating in social and economic calamity. However, mobile applications are being introduced globally to minimize the coronavirus's continuous spread by tracing people's circulation or mobility using digital software and smartphones. There is no digitally equipped tool that monitors the movement of the people, particularly in the public places. This work on Smarter Movement Control Application (SMCApp) aims to develop methods that will assist Malaysian people to move around with the aid of mobile tracing application. Therefore, the SMCApp was designed and developed as a mobile application software which stands to improve compliance with the mandated SOP measures across the country, as well as to provide digital support to those who wish to travel to various parts of the country. As a result, it is concluded that the usage of Smarter Movement Control Application (SMCApp) is hoped to bring about safe and effective movement of people throughout these two regions, as it will constantly alert individuals of any suspicious close-contact or the state of the location. Once the application is in effect, with at least 90% of users installing the App on their smartphones, it is projected to increase tranquility and elevate compliance with SOP measures. © 2022 IEEE.

Application regularity of medicinal and dietary substances for patients during COVID-19 rehabilitation

Objective: This study focused on the application regularity of medicinal and dietary substances (MDS) of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) diet therapy during rehabilitation, in order to help patients with Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) reduce sequelae and improve their life quality. Methods: The official websites of the national and provincial health committees, the website of the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, the China BioMedical Literature Database (CBM), China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), China Science and Technology Journal Database (VIP), and Wanfang Database were used to search the keywords, such as “coronavirus” “novel coronavirus pneumonia” “COVID-19” “protocol” “guideline” “consensus” and “rehabilitation period”. The search time was from the establishment of databases to July 31, 2022. The prevention and control protocols of various provinces and cities were manually supplemented and screened out. The information on the frequency, property, flavor, meridian tropism, and efficacy of MDS was collected for association rule analysis through the Apriori algorithm. Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed using the Euclidean distance and longest distance. Results: A total of 18 protocols were screened out, including 56 lists of TCM diet therapy, and 47 kinds of MDS with a frequency of 132 times during the rehabilitation of COVID-19. Among them, six lists of diet therapy were collected from national websites, 26 from local government websites, and 24 from social and academic institution websites. The intended population can be divided into seven categories including normal recovery, lung-spleen Qi deficiency, deficiency of both Qi and Yin, spleen-stomach weakness, deficiency of Yang Qi, kidney Qi deficiency, and blood deficiency. Shanyao (Dioscoreae Rhizoma) and Lianzi (Nelumbinis Semen), followed by Dazao (Jujubae Fructus) were used most commonly in MDS, with mainly flat property, sweet flavor, and spleen and lung meridians in meridian tropism. Besides, deficiency-tonifying drugs were commonly used in MDS. Through association rule analysis, 12 groups of association MDS pairs were obtained. The pair of Yiyiren (Coicis Semen) and Chenpi (Citri Reticulatae Pericarpium) had the highest Lift value, and Yiyiren (Coicis Semen) was used most frequently in the MDS category for eliminating pathogenic factors. The results of complex network analysis showed that the core MDS were Yiyiren (Coicis Semen), Shanyao (Dioscoreae Rhizoma), Huangqi (Astragali Radix), Fuling (Poria), and Dazao (Jujubae Fructus). Three core categories were classified by cluster analysis, including the category of strengthening spleen, nourishing kidney, and grasping Qi, the category of removing phlegm, abating panting, and regulating Qi, and the category of strengthening the middle-energizer and reinforcing Qi. Conclusion: Based on the TCM theory, most patients during the rehabilitation of COVID-19 are in a state of lingering pathogens due to deficient vital Qi. TCM diet therapy is based on the principle of “giving both reinforcing and reducing treatment”, and the MDS combinations focus on both reinforcing the health Qi and eliminating pathogenic factors. The diet therapy mainly uses the MDS with flat property and sweet flavor, which belongs to deficiency-tonifying drugs, adding suitable MDS of pathogen-eliminating drugs according to different situations. The ultimate goal is to promote lung inflammation absorption, improve pulmonary fibrosis, increase immunity, reduce the occurrence of sequelae, and improve life quality. © 2022 Digital Chinese Medicine

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice Among Covid-19 Health Care Workers A Quantitative Study on the Covid 19 Health Care Workers of Sindh Infectious Disease Hospital Karachi Pakistan

Background: As per the World Health Organization (WHO), the coronavirus diagnosis 2019 (COVID-19) increase in the prevalence has turned into a pandemic, to date world has witnessed 5 waves of COVID- and it has now infected over 200 countries / regions, resulting in over 7.5 million infections and 4,19,568 fatalities worldwide Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices among COVID-19 Health care workers of COVID-19. Methodology: This was cross sectional studyand carried at Sindh Infectious Disease Hospital and Research Centre (SIDH & RC), a specialized COVID-19 hospital. Data will be collected through questionnaires and the respondents will be healthcare workers (doctors/medical practitioners and nurses) dealing with COVID 19 patients. Data was analysed by the SPSS version: 21. Result(s): In total, there are 111 participants;56.8% of them are male COVID-19 health care workers Most of the Healthcare worker age range was 21-30 years. The received responses from 3 persons aged 51 and older, which represented 2.7% of the total population. The knowledge attitude and practices among the COVID-19 health care workers and all of them found that Awareness of COVID-19 among medical professionals is high. As people age, they get a more mature perspective on COVID19 infection, which in turn leads to more responsible behavior. Conclusion(s):89% of the healthcare professionals who were evaluated have the necessary understanding of COVID-19. On the basis of the findings of this research, future efforts to increase awareness and educate people can more effectively target specific knowledge and practice gaps. Copyright © 2022 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.

The Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic Process on Covid-19 Phobia , Secondary Traumatic Stress Level and Quality of Sleep in Healthcare Professionals: A Cross-Sectional and Comparative Study

Purpose: The study was conducted to determine the effect of the pandemic process on COVID-19 phobia, secondary traumatic stress levels and quality of sleep in healthcare professionals working in a primary healthcare institution and a pandemic hospital. Material and Methods: Thus comparative study was conducted with the participation of a total of 249 healthcare professionals, including 130 from a pandemic hospital and 119 from primary healthcare institutions. The data were obtained using a Personal Information Form, the Coronavirus 19 Phobia (CP19-S) Scale, the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results: It was determined that the mean score in the CP19-S somatic subscale was 10.72 +/- 4.76 for the healthcare professionals working in the primary healthcare institutions and 12.18 +/- 5.07 for those working in the pandemic hospital, and the difference between the mean scores was statistically significant (p=0.021).The STSS total mean score was 40.86 +/- 14.45 in the healthcare professionals working in the primary healthcare institutions and 46.45 +/- 16.07 in those working in the pandemic hospital, and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (p=0.004).The PSQI total mean score was 9.48 +/- 3.39 in the healthcare professionals working in the primary healthcare institutions and 11.06 +/- 3.99 in those working in the pandemic hospital, and the difference between the mean scores was statistically significant (p=0.001). Conclusion: It was determined that the healthcare professionals working in the pandemic hospital experienced more COVID-19 phobia and secondary traumatic stress and also had worse sleep quality in comparison to the healthcare professionals working in the primary healthcare institutions.