ABSTRACT
Throughout the pandemic, digital contact tracing using smartphone applications (or apps) has been endorsed by many authorities across the globe as a tool to limit the spread of COVID-19. Consequently, to deploy contact tracing in large populations, multiple contact tracing apps have been developed and deployed globally. However, due to the relative recency of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the suddenness of the need for contact tracing at this scale, app designers are often left with no systematic guidelines. Designers today lack guidelines on what factors might affect perceptions and adoption of their apps. They also lack a knowledgebase of features that could be appropriate to include in their app for a given context. To address this gap, we conducted a review of the academic literature on attitudes towards and adoption of COVID-19 response apps, as well as a feature review of a diverse set of international tracing apps. Our investigation yielded a set of design patterns which can be used readily by designers of contact tracing apps. Our work lays the foundation to identify opportunities for new contextual feature design and use. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health issue that plays a significant role in morbidity and mortality, especially in immunocompromised patients. It also becomes a serious threat to the successful treatment of many bacterial infections. The widespread and irrelevant use of antibiotics in hospitals and local clinics is the leading cause of AMR. Under this scenario, the study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan, from 2 August 2021 to 31 October 2021 to discover the prevalence of bacterial infections and AMR rates in COVID-19 patients admitted in surgical intensive care units (SICUs). Clinical samples were collected from the patients and we proceeded to identify bacterial isolates, followed by antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) using the Kirby Bauer disk diffusion method and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). The data of other comorbidities were also collected from the patient's medical record. The current study showed that the most common pathogens were E. coli (32%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (17%). Most E. coli were resistant to ciprofloxacin (16.8%) and ampicillin (19.8%). Klebsiella pneumoniae were more resistant to ampicillin (13.3%) and amoxycillin (12.0%). The most common comorbidity was chronic kidney disease (CKD) and urinary tract infections (UTIs). Around 17 different types of antibiotic, the carbapenem, fluoroquinolones, aminoglycoside, and quinolones, were highly prevalent in ICU patients. The current study provides valuable data on the clinical implication of antibiotics consumed by COVID-19 patients in SICUs and the AMR rates, especially with different comorbidities.