The Prophylactic Effect of Vitamin C and Vitamin B12 against Ultraviolet-C-Induced Hepatotoxicity in Male Rats.

Ultraviolet C (UVC) devices are an effective means of disinfecting surfaces and protecting medical tools against various microbes, including coronavirus. Overexposure to UVC can induce oxidative stress, damage the genetic material, and harm biological systems. This study investigated the prophylactic efficacy of vitamin C and B12 against hepatotoxicity in UVC-intoxicated rats. Rats were irradiated with UVC (725.76, 967.68, and 1048.36 J/cm2) for 2 weeks. The rats were pretreated with the aforementioned antioxidants for two months before UVC irradiation. The prophylactic effect of vitamins against UVC hepatotoxicity was evaluated by monitoring the alteration of liver enzyme activities, antioxidant status, apoptotic and inflammatory markers, DNA fragmentation, and histological and ultrastructural alterations. Rats exposed to UVC showed a significant increase in liver enzymes, oxidant-antioxidant balance disruption, and increased hepatic inflammatory markers (TNF-α, IL-1ß, iNOS, and IDO-1). Additionally, obvious over-expression of activated caspase-3 protein and DNA fragmentation were detected. Histological and ultrastructural examinations verified the biochemical findings. Co-treatment with vitamins ameliorated the deviated parameters to variable degrees. In conclusion, vitamin C could alleviate UVC-induced hepatotoxicity more than vitamin B12 by diminishing oxidative stress, inflammation, and DNA damage. This study could provide a reference for the clinical practice of vitamin C and B12 as radioprotective for workers in UVC disinfectant areas.

"Medical student syndrome”: a real disease or just a myth?—a cross-sectional study at Menoufia University, Egypt

BackgroundA widely held belief is that "Medical student syndrome” is frequently experienced by young medical students, that is, they experience the symptoms of the diseases they are studying or fear of having such illness. A hypothesis is that because medical students constantly learn about life-threatening conditions and diseases, they experience persistent fear and stress regarding having a severe medical condition, an anxiety-related illness called nosophobia.ResultsAlthough medical students scored an average of 14.14 on a scale measuring potential nosophobia a, the difference between their scores and those of non-medical students, who scored an average of 0.11, is significantly higher (p 0.001). According to the presented analysis, non-medical and medical students exhibit distinct levels of nosophobia. The analysis of responses to hypochondriacal behaviors revealed that students from non-medical faculties scored an average of 1.43 points. By contrast, the average score for medical students was 7.87, which is significantly higher than that of the non-medical students (p 0.001).ConclusionsMedical students are at higher risk for health anxiety and hypochondrial attitudes than non-medical students are.

Primary Care Physician's Perception and Satisfaction With Telehealth in the National Guard Primary Healthcare Centers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2022.

Background Telehealth is a tool to facilitate the connection between patients and their healthcare providers. With the recent emergence of telehealth, implementation of this service in primary healthcare centers (PHCs) has been accompanied by specific challenges despite the high levels of satisfaction reported. This study aimed to assess the factors that affect clinicians' perceptions and satisfaction with telehealth in National Guard PHCs to help explore and overcome any barriers and challenges. Methods A cross-sectional survey was distributed among primary healthcare physicians using virtual clinics in the National Guard PHCs in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2022. A validated questionnaire from previous literature was used to evaluate clinicians' perceptions and satisfaction with telehealth. Results The study included 53 primary healthcare physicians, with an overall response rate of 90%. Most physicians (77%) were satisfied with their overall experience with offering virtual visits. Nevertheless, 72% of physicians perceived patients' limited technical knowledge, and 70% considered limited access to technology a significant barrier against virtual visits. Higher satisfaction levels were significantly associated with those who did not consider the lack of integration of virtual visits with current workflow or electronic medical records (EMRs) a significant barrier to conducting virtual visits (p-value = 0.005). Conclusion Despite the undeniable advantages of telehealth, barriers, and challenges remain extant and can influence clinicians' satisfaction. Continuous monitoring for improvements is needed to enhance the telehealth experience.

Epigenetic Targets and Pathways Linked to SARS-CoV-2 Infection and Pathology.

The scale at which the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic has spread remains enormous. Provided the genetic makeup of the virus and humans is readily available, the quest for knowing the mechanism and epidemiology continues to prevail across the entire scientific community. Several aspects, including immunology, molecular biology, and host-pathogen interaction, are continuously being dug into for preparing the human race for future pandemics. The exact reasons for vast differences in symptoms, pathophysiological implications of COVID-infections, and mortality differences remain elusive. Hence, researchers are also looking beyond traditional genomics, proteomics, and transcriptomics approach, especially entrusting the environmental regulation of the genetic landscape of COVID-human interactions. In line with these questions lies a critical process called epigenetics. The epigenetic perturbations in both host and parasites are a matter of great interest to unravel the disparities in COVID-19 mortalities and pathology. This review provides a deeper insight into current research on the epigenetic landscape of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans and potential targets for augmenting the ongoing investigation. It also explores the potential targets, pathways, and networks associated with the epigenetic regulation of processes involved in SARS-CoV-2 pathology.

Volunteer Working during COVID-19 in Jordanian Community: Advantages and Challenges

This study deals with the crisis volunteering during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic in Jordan. This study aims to identify the skills that volunteers acquire during voluntary work. Moreover, it aims to identify whether there are significant differences for volunteer difficulties and advantages regarding gender, age, and education level. Researchers employed a quantitative method, using a questionnaire to achieve the goals of this study. The sample was 121 voluntary people (females and males) during the pandemic in a Jordanian community. The results of this study have shown that volunteering during the COVID-19 pandemic has had a positive impact on volunteers during this period in terms of acquiring a variety of skills. Furthermore, there were numerous difficulties faced by volunteers, and there were no statistically significant differences in the level of skills acquired by volunteers as a result of their participation in volunteering.

Information Technology: Key Attributes of Essential Federal Mission-Critical Acquisitions

The acquisition of IT systems has presented challenges to federal agencies. Accordingly, in 2015 GAO identified the management of IT acquisitions and operations as a high-risk area, a designation it retains today. GAO was asked to report on federal IT acquisitions. GAO's specific objective was to identify essential mission-critical IT acquisitions across the federal government and determine their key attributes. To identify acquisitions for the review, GAO administered a questionnaire to the 24 agencies covered by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990 asking them to identify their five most important mission-critical IT acquisitions. From a total of 101 acquisitions that were identified, GAO selected 16 mission critical IT acquisitions to profile in this report. The selection was based on various factors, including the acquisition's criticality to providing service to the nation, its total lifecycle costs, and its applicability to the President's Management Agenda. For each of the 16 selected acquisitions, GAO obtained and analyzed documents on cost, schedule, risks, governance, and related information;and interviewed cognizant agency officials. GAO requested comments from the 12 agencies with acquisitions profiled in its draft report and the Office of Management and Budget. In response, one agency (the Social Security Administration) provided comments that discussed the planned use of its system.

Staffing critical care with nurses amid the COVID-19 crisis: Strategies and plans.

AIM: To describe a nursing staffing surge model in critical care units that can be used during a pandemic or crisis. This model may give useful guidance for hospitals or centers that must immediately react in response to the devastating challenges introduced by disease outbreaks. BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, many hospitals were challenged to maintain the quality of care and safe practice in critical care units while accommodating the daily rapidly increasing number of infected cases that needed critical care. The nursing staffing shortage in critical care units and its consequences were among the top issues to deal with. METHOD: This is a descriptive study about our experience in preparing for nursing staffing in critical care as a part of the COVID-19 surge plan. We have used evidence-based strategies to design our team-based model for staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: The team-based model for staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic had shown success in dealing with the acute shortage of nursing staff in critical care units. We had implemented other additional supportive strategies to help enhance this staffing. CONCLUSION: With the support of available evidence-based resources and on-the-fly preparation and training, we were able to augment the tremendous increase in patient influx during the pandemic using the team-based model. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The team-based approach and other strategies included in this article can help support critical care units with staff during crises. However, we strongly recommend developing a nursing deployment policy that makes staff redeployment and re-allocation smoother, whenever needed.

E-Learning Based Web Programming Course in the COVID 19 Pandemic Time

The learning process in the STKIP PGRI West Sumatra Informatics Education Study Program still uses conventional learning methods, namely through face-to-face contact between lecturers and students in the class. The traditional learning method currently taking place has limitations that can hinder the learning process, such as limited time and space to interact with each other, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. With these conditions, the online learning process is an alternative to support learning in its current state, with technological developments that can simplify the learning process and make the time more flexible and support the learning process anywhere, anytime, and anyone. An electronic learning system (E-Learning) was created from these conditions, which is expected to be an alternative solution for online learning to overcome the STKIP PGRI West Sumatra Informatics Education Study Program’s limitations, especially in introductory web programming courses. E-learning is designed using the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) method supported by the PHP programming language and implementing the Laravel Framework. The learning process using E-learning is designed using localhost as the central server. This study’s results resulted in an E-learning application built based on the analysis and design recommended by the STKIP PGRI West Sumatra informatics education study program. With this application, it is hoped that it can simplify the online learning process, especially in existing introductory web programming courses. © 2021

Analysis of Covid-19 Impact on Gender (Male and Female) in South Asian Country Pakistan

The impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease has been reported for different countries. Males are at high risk of death due to COVID-19 as compared to females. There is no data available for Pakistan, the South Asian region. We are therefore undertaking this analysis to determine the gender effect on the outcomes of COVID-19 in the South Asian nation of Pakistan. An online survey was performed across Pakistan (Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan) and national figures from the Pakistani government. In total, N = 113 individuals were included (92 males and 21 females). The descriptive statistics, association tests, and Pie chart indicate that males are more impacted by COVID-19 as compared to females. The doctor’s response indicates that 81.4% of males and 18.6% females are COVID-19 effective in Pakistan. Information from Pakistani national government statistics indicates that the number of male cases are 78%. Therefore, from the entire studies, we can infer that COVID-19 attacks more on males rather than females in the South Asian nation Pakistan. However, more quantitative studies are recommended to measure the extent to which sex would result in COVID-19 outcomes among Pakistan’s South Asian countries. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Prevalence and associated risk factors of cannabinoid abuse among Egyptian university students: a cross-sectional study.

Global surveys have highlighted rise in consumption of cannabinoids among residents of both developed and developing countries. Cannabinoids cause severe damage to the cardiovascular, nervous, respiratory, and renal systems, and have been linked with several deaths. Despite these adverse health effects, the use of cannabinoids has rapidly increased. This work seeks to estimate the prevalence of cannabinoid abuse among Egyptian university students and explore the associated risk factors. A cross-sectional study was carried out over 3 months (1st of July-1st of October 2020) and included 2380 students. Participants were subjected to a pre-designed self-administered questionnaire that included demographic data, Addiction Severity Index, and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. Among the participating students, 4.9% of them reported cannabinoid abuse and 41% reported smoking cigarettes. The most used substances were hashish (96.5%), Strox (41.3%), Bhang (34.4%), voodoo (34.4%), and Tramadol (31.1%). Gender and social status were also significantly related to rates of substances abuse; most illicit drug users were males (93.1%), and the majority was of low (41.3%) or moderate (50.8%) socioeconomic status. The most significant risk factors associated with substance use were positive history of family conflict (OR=6.48; CI95%: 5.08-8.64, p<0.001), encouragement by peers (OR=2.95; CI95%: 1.73-5.05, p<0.001), male gender (OR=5.46; CI95%: 2.40-12.44, p=0.001), positive history of child abuse (OR=2.85; CI95%: 1.96-3.04, p=0.001), having a stay-at-home mother (OR= 1.56, CI95%: 1.19-2.04, p=0.001), living in an urban area (OR=2.22; CI95%: 1.53-5.0, p=0.002), and positive family history of substance use (OR=1.98; CI95%: 1.48-2.08, p=0.045). This study emphasizes the possible significant rise in substance use among university students. Awareness campaigns should target both students and student families.

Perioperative anesthesia management of a pregnant patient with COVID-19 and Guillain-Barre syndrome undergoing emergency cesarean section a case report

The presence of Corona virus disease of 2019 (COVID-19 and Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) in a pregnant patient presents a unique challenge to the anesthesiologist. The decision for anesthesia technique in this case depends upon the specific features of both diseases. We present a case of successful anesthesia management of a pregnant patient with COVID-19 and GBS undergoing emergency cesarean section.

Assessment of perceived stress among resident trainees of a tertiary care hospital in saudi arabia during covid 19 pandemic a cross-sectional study

Background & Objective: The massive burden of COVID-19 disease is believed to be associated with significant psychological disturbances on healthcare professionals. Increasing levels of stress may lead to anxiety, depression, burnout syndrome, and in severe cases, post-Traumatic stress disorder. The objective of this study was to examine the presence of stress among resident trainee doctors working in a tertiary care hospital in Saudi Arabia in the context of the corona pandemic. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in Security Forces Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. We included the resident trainee doctors from different specialties of our hospital including medical, surgical, anesthesia, emergency room (ER), and critical care units. We used convenience sampling to select study respondents. Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was used for assessing the stress levels among trainees. Trainees were requested to fill the questionnaire either online survey monkey or in paper form. All data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 26. We calculated mean, standard deviation, frequency count, and percentages for the perceived stress. Results: A total of 60 trainees were included in this study. Mean PSS-10 score was 20 5.51, with a range between 6 and 34. Four (6.7 %) trainees had low stress and 50 (83.3 %) trainees had moderate stress while 6 (10 %) trainees had high stress Conclusion: The majority of resident trainees in our study experienced a moderate level of anxiety during this COVID pandemic.

Hospital Admission Rates, Length of Stay and In-hospital Mortality for Common Acute Care Conditions in COVID-19 vs. Pre-COVID-19 Era (preprint)

BackgroundImpact of COVID-19 upon acute care admission rates and patterns are unknown. We sought to determine the change in rates and types of admissions to tertiary and specialty care hospitals in the COVID-19 era compared with pre-COVID-19 era. MethodsAcute care admissions to the largest tertiary care referral hospital, designated national referral centers for cardiac, cancer and maternity hospital in the State of Qatar during March 2020 (COVID-19 era) and January 2020 and March 2019 (pre-COVID-19 era) were compared. We calculated total admissions, and admissions for eight specific acute care conditions, in-hospital mortality rate and length of stay at each hospital. ResultsA total of 18,889 hospital admissions were recorded. A sharp decline ranging from 9%-75% was observed in overall admissions. A decline in both elective and non-elective surgeries was observed. A decline of 9%-58% was observed in admissions for acute appendicitis, acute coronary syndrome, stroke, bone fractures, cancer and live births, while an increase in admissions due to respiratory tract infections was observed. Overall length of stay was shorter in the COVID-19 period possibly suggesting lesser overall disease severity, with no significant change in in-hospital mortality. Unadjusted mortality rate for Qatar showed marginal increase in the COVID-19 period. ConclusionsWe observed a sharp decline in acute care hospital admissions, with a significant decline in admissions due to seven out of eight acute care conditions. This decline was associated with a shorter length of stay, but not associated with a change in in-hospital mortality rate.

Healthcare workers experience in dealing with Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: To analyze healthcare workers experiences in dealing with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: An anonymous open web-based survey study was conducted among healthcare workers from the March 2020 to April 2020. A total of 24 relevant questions were asked based on participants' characteristics, obligations, and preparedness in healthcare workers in the event of COVID-19 pandemic. Results: Approximately 1036 healthcare workers participated in this study with high response rate. Out of all the participants, 70% were women, 52% belonged to the 26-34 year age range, 50% were nurses, 33.7% were clinicians, 74.3% agreed to work overtime, 93.1% understand why they should stay past their shift end, 97.7% thought that preventing illness among healthcare workers and providing safety to family members, nearly 94% thought that personal protective equipment (PPE) for employees will enhance their willingness to report to work. Approximately 89.3% express a desire for incentives and financial support for family members. Conclusion: We recommend that providing PPE, reducing psychological stress, financial support and safety to family members of healthcare workers will increase the willingness to report to work.