Glycyrrhizic acid: a potential drug against COVID-19

Pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 has seriously threatened human life and health worldwide and caused a large number of deaths. Viral infection and acute inflammation are important causes of death, so it is particularly important to combine antiviral therapy with anti-inflammatory therapy. Glycyrrhizic acid, the main component of the glycyrrhizic root extract, has a wide range of pharmacological effects as well as high efficiency and low toxicity, its preparation has been widely used in the treatment of chronic hepatitis and other diseases. Glycyrrhizic acid can regulate the expression and release of a variety of cytokines and play a significant anti-inflammatory effect. At the same time, glycyrrhizic acid also showed significant inhibition towards a variety types of viruses. Therefore, the potential application of glycyrrhizic acid as COVID-19 treatment should be explored.

Pedestrian epidemic coupling modeling and simulation based on social force model

In order to meet the global common needs of COVID-19 epidemic containment, it is particularly important to establish a pedestrian walking model considering the interaction between pedestrians and epidemic situation, aiming at the problem of massive epidemic spread caused by pedestrian aggregation in public places. In this paper, based on the social force model, the authors established the pedestrian movement model under the epidemic background firstly. Then, according to the characteristics of COVID-19 epidemic, an infection model is established to simulate the single person's dynamic behavior of infection, thus, the pedestrian walking model with population epidemic coupling is proposed. Finally, the spread law of the epidemic situation was simulated by using computer simulation technology. The results showed that pedestrian flow rate, coverage rate of pedestrian protection measures, pedestrian spacing and pedestrian walking speed were the key factors affecting the spread of the epidemic. When the pedestrian flow rate was 1700 person / h, the number of infected persons within 500s had reached 27. Therefore, the control of pedestrian flow rate can be the most important direction of epidemic containment.

Depression and its relationship with quality of life in frontline psychiatric clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic in China: a national survey.

This was a national survey that determined the prevalence of depressive symptoms (depression thereafter) and its relationship with quality of life (QOL) in frontline clinicians working in psychiatric hospitals in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. Depression and QOL were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire nine items (PHQ-9) and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-brief version (WHOQOL-BREF), respectively. Multivariable logistic regression analyses and analysis of covariance were used. A total of 10,516 frontline clinicians participated in this study, of which, 28.52% (n=2,999) met screening criteria for depression. Compared to those without depression, clinicians with depression had a lower quality of life (F(1, 10515) =2874.66, P<0.001). Higher educational level (OR=1.225, P=0.014), if the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital catchment area surpassed 500 (OR=1.146, P=0.032), having family/friends/colleagues who were infected (OR=1.695, P<0.001), being a current smoker (OR=1.533, P<0.001), and longer working hours (OR=1.020, P=0.022) were independently associated with higher risk of depression. Living with family members (OR=0.786, P<0.001), and being junior clinicians (OR=0.851, P=0.011) were independently associated with lower odds of depression. The results showed that depression was common in frontline psychiatric clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Timely assessment and effective interventions of depression for frontline clinicians in psychiatric hospitals were warranted.

Management strategy of oral mucosal diseases during the epidemic of Corona Virus Disease 2019 / 口腔疾病防治

Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has broke out in 29 countries and regions in the world in a short period since December 2019. Various measures of prevention and control have been taken all over China. At present, the epidemic situation shows a positive trend, however, there are still a few new comfirmed cases in some area of China. So the job and thinking of epidemic prevention still cannot be relaxed. As an important specialty of stomatology, the risk of cross infection is high in oral medicine. Establishing an effective system of pre- inspection and triage and adopting strict measures of prevention and control are essential. According to the prevention and control situation of COVID- 19, the characteristics of hospital infection, pre examination, protective measures, the home management strategies of oral mucosal diseases during the epidemic period and the differential diagnosis between COVID-19 and common oral muco- sal diseases with fever were summarized and recommended in this paper.

Disease Burden from Coronavirus Disease 2019 Symptoms Among Inpatients at the Temporary Military Hospitals in Wuhan: A Retrospective Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study (preprint)

Background: Since the advent of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, in most parts of the world, people are still at risk of the disease. We aimed to establish a set of disability weights (DWs) for COVID-19 symptoms, evaluate the disease burden of inpatients, analyze the characteristics, and influencing factors of the disease. Methods: The symptoms were identified by literature review and medical staff questionnaire. DWs of COVID-19 symptoms were determined by the person-trade-off approach proposed by the World Health Organization. The extracted medical records data of 2,702 randomly selected inpatients with COVID-19 at three temporary military hospitals in Wuhan, China, were analyzed and used to calculate the disability adjusted life years (DALY). Means DALY between gender and age groups were tested by analysis of variance. Multiple line regression models were used to determine the relationship between DALY and age, gender, body mass index, length of stay, symptom duration before admission, and native place. Results: For the DALY of each inpatient, severe expiratory dyspnea and mild cough and sore throat had the highest (0.399) and lowest (0.004) weights, respectively. The average synthetic DALY and daily DALY were 2.29±1.33 and 0.18±0.15 days, respectively. Fever and fatigue contributed the largest DALY at 31.36%; nausea and vomiting, and anxiety and depression contributed the least at 7.05%. There were significant differences between gender and age groups in both synthetic and daily DALY. Age, body mass index, length of stay, and symptom duration before admission were strongly related to both synthetic and daily DALY. Conclusions: COVID-19 and its symptoms could cause heavy disease burden. Although the disease burden was higher among females than in the males; however, their daily disease burdens were similar. Life value differs for different age groups; taking the changing life value with age into account; the disease burden in the younger population was higher than that in the older population. Besides, treatment at the hospitals relieved the disease burden efficiently, while delay in hospitalization could worsen it. Therefore, deployment of adequate medical resources for early hospitalization of patients with moderate or severe symptoms is needed by the public health authority.