ABSTRACT
Making the entire world extremely nervous, more than the quarter of a year has gone past since the global breakout of deadly respiratory illness, named Coronavirus Disease-2019 (CoViD-19), over nine million people across the globe have already been infected with more than five percent death rate, and the number is still ascending at a tremendously frightening rate. This study has been driven to identify the adequacy and quality of responses from national health facilities in Bangladesh during this epidemic and discern the stimulates that influence the entire system. With an in-depth exercise of a nonparametric statistical method for proficiency weighting, namely the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique, the objective of this study of evaluating the thorough response and performance of the Bangladeshi National Health Service has been placed in efforts to be achieved. With the outcome, the method and operation of assessing the effective responsiveness, capability, and appropriate organization of the national health services (NHS) in Bangladesh during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have been revealed. It has also been specifically identified that this country’s health system does not possess material mastery on input variables;neither do they have strong dominance over output variables. With a view to minimizing the expenditure, they should have decreased input variables alongside enhancing input resources thoroughly to deal with this pandemic with stringent governance. Direction and limitation of future research endeavors in this area may be indicated by this study. National responses across the globe can also be benchmarked. © 2021 International Consortium for Electronic Business. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
SARS CoV-2 is still considered a global health issue, and its threat keeps growing with the emergence of newly evolved strains. Despite the success in developing some vaccines as a protective measure, finding cost-effective treatments is urgent. Accordingly, we screened a number of phenolic natural compounds for their in vitro anti-SARS CoV-2 activity. We found sinapic acid (SA) selectively inhibited the viral replication in vitro with an half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC<sub>50</sub>) value of 2.69 microg/mL with significantly low cytotoxicity (CC<sub>50</sub> = 189.3 microg/mL). Subsequently, we virtually screened all currently available molecular targets using a multistep in silico protocol to find out the most probable molecular target that mediates this compound's antiviral activity. As a result, the viral envelope protein (E-protein) was suggested as the most possible hit for SA. Further in-depth molecular dynamic simulation-based investigation revealed the essential structural features of SA antiviral activity and its binding mode with E-protein. The structural and experimental results presented in this study strongly recommend SA as a promising structural motif for anti-SARS CoV-2 agent development.
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: With the advent of COVID-19 in Pakistan, the already fragmented blood transfusion services (BTS) received a severe blow, putting the lives of transfusion-dependent thalassemia children on stake. This study aimed to assess the impact of the COVID-19 on blood transfusion therapy (BTT) of thalassemia patients and suggest ways to ensure safe and reliable blood supplies amid such health crises. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted from October 2019 (before COVID-19) to July 2020 (during COVID-19) based on the data provided by a thalassemia center, named Help International Welfare Trust, Karachi, Pakistan. SPSS version 24.0 was used for the data analysis. Data were described in the form of means and percentages. RESULTS: There was a significant reduction in the consumption of PRBCs bags after the emergence of COVID-19 (P=0.002). Moreover, the number of thalassemia patients receiving BTT was dropped by 10.56% during the pandemic. There was a strong negative correlation observed between the rising cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan and the number of patients missing their therapy sessions (r=-0.914, P=0.030). A considerable decline in the reserves of all Rhesus-negative blood groups amid the COVID-19 outbreak was also observed. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the already suboptimal care catered to thalassemia patients in Karachi, Pakistan. The fear of the virus contraction coupled with the lockdown and restricted mobility has disrupted the entire transfusion chain from donor to the recipient. Collaborated efforts by the government and healthcare authorities are essential to ensure sufficient blood for thalassemia patients amid the pandemic.