Resilience Strategies of Tour Operators During the Uncertainty of COVID-19: Evidence from Bangladesh

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, tour operators have been going through uncertain times as they depend directly on supply-side (e.g. airlines, hotels) and demand-side (e.g. tourists) of tourism as well as on destination management organizations. This study explores resilience strategies made by tour operators in Bangladesh that ultimately helped them survive through the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on qualitative semi-structured interviews with 25 tour operators, findings of the study show that resilience-building depends not only on strategies of tour operators but also on supports from external agencies. The study further shows that a multi-dimensional understanding of resilience strategies is essential in tourism research and proposes that the resilience-building of tour operators can be conceptualized as a three-dimensional mechanism including innate resilience, internally-induced resilience, and externally-induced resilience. The study would facilitate improved resilience strategy and informed policymaking to better address uncertainties during and after a major crisis for tour operators.

Social media analytics with applications in disaster management and COVID-19 events

Social media such as Twitter offers a tremendous amount of data throughout an event or a disastrous situation. Leveraging social media data during a disaster is beneficial for effective and efficient disaster management. Information extraction, trend identification, and determining public reactions might help in the future disaster or even avert such an event. However, during a disaster situation, a robust system is required that can be deployed faster and process relevant information with satisfactory performance in real-time. This work outlines the research contributions toward developing such an effective system for disaster management, where it is paramount to develop automated machine-enabled methods that can provide appropriate tags or labels for further analysis for timely situation-awareness. In that direction, this work proposes machine learning models to identify the people who are seeking assistance using social media during a disaster and further demonstrates a prototype application that can collect and process Twitter data in real-time, identify the stranded people, and create rescue scheduling. In addition, to understand the people's reactions to different trending topics, this work proposes a unique auxiliary feature-based deep learning model with adversarial sample generation for emotion detection using tweets related to COVID-19. This work also presents a custom Q&A-based RoBERTa model for extracting related phrases for emotions. Finally, with the aim of polarization detection, this research work proposes a deep learning pipeline for political ideology detection leveraging the tweet texts and the expressed emotions in the text. This work also studies and conducts the historical emotion and polarization analysis of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA and several individual states using tweeter data. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

COVID-19 knowledge, attitude, practices, and associated factors among Bangladeshi food handlers from various food industries

Background and objectives It is believed that preventive safety measures are the most effective way to avoid the COVID-19. The adherence of workers to these measures is largely determined by their knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP). Because they are in close proximity to consumable items, workers in the food industry must be especially vigilant during this period. The purpose of this present study was to evaluate the COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food handlers in different food industries of Bangladesh. Study design This was a cross-sectional study. Methods This included the participation of 400 food handlers from 15 food industries. The information was collected from the participants through a questionnaire prepared in Google form. Different nonparametric tests and a linear regression model were performed for statistical analysis. Results With a correct response rate of about 90% on average (knowledge 89.7%, attitude 93%, practices 88.2%), the participants showed an acceptable KAP (>80% correct response) regarding COVID-19. Education (p = 0.00) and working experiences (p = 0.01) had a significant association with the total KAP scores. Conclusion Food handlers in the food industries of Bangladesh have adequate knowledge, a positive attitude, and the desired practices regarding the COVID-19 issue. Graphical Image 1

Bioinformatics-based investigation on the genetic influence between SARS-CoV-2 infections and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) diseases, and drug repurposing.

Some recent studies showed that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) disease might stimulate each other through the shared genes. Therefore, in this study, an attempt was made to explore common genomic biomarkers for SARS-CoV-2 infections and IPF disease highlighting their functions, pathways, regulators and associated drug molecules. At first, we identified 32 statistically significant common differentially expressed genes (cDEGs) between disease (SARS-CoV-2 and IPF) and control samples of RNA-Seq profiles by using a statistical r-package (edgeR). Then we detected 10 cDEGs (CXCR4, TNFAIP3, VCAM1, NLRP3, TNFAIP6, SELE, MX2, IRF4, UBD and CH25H) out of 32 as the common hub genes (cHubGs) by the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. The cHubGs regulatory network analysis detected few key TFs-proteins and miRNAs as the transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulators of cHubGs. The cDEGs-set enrichment analysis identified some crucial SARS-CoV-2 and IPF causing common molecular mechanisms including biological processes, molecular functions, cellular components and signaling pathways. Then, we suggested the cHubGs-guided top-ranked 10 candidate drug molecules (Tegobuvir, Nilotinib, Digoxin, Proscillaridin, Simeprevir, Sorafenib, Torin 2, Rapamycin, Vancomycin and Hesperidin) for the treatment against SARS-CoV-2 infections with IFP diseases as comorbidity. Finally, we investigated the resistance performance of our proposed drug molecules compare to the already published molecules, against the state-of-the-art alternatives publicly available top-ranked independent receptors by molecular docking analysis. Molecular docking results suggested that our proposed drug molecules would be more effective compare to the already published drug molecules. Thus, the findings of this study might be played a vital role for diagnosis and therapies of SARS-CoV-2 infections with IPF disease as comorbidity risk.

COVID-19 knowledge, attitude, practices, and associated factors among Bangladeshi food handlers from various food industries.

Background and objectives: It is believed that preventive safety measures are the most effective way to avoid the COVID-19. The adherence of workers to these measures is largely determined by their knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAP). Because they are in close proximity to consumable items, workers in the food industry must be especially vigilant during this period. The purpose of this present study was to evaluate the COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices of food handlers in different food industries of Bangladesh. Study design: This was a cross-sectional study. Methods: This included the participation of 400 food handlers from 15 food industries. The information was collected from the participants through a questionnaire prepared in Google form. Different nonparametric tests and a linear regression model were performed for statistical analysis. Results: With a correct response rate of about 90% on average (knowledge 89.7%, attitude 93%, practices 88.2%), the participants showed an acceptable KAP (>80% correct response) regarding COVID-19. Education (p = 0.00) and working experiences (p = 0.01) had a significant association with the total KAP scores. Conclusion: Food handlers in the food industries of Bangladesh have adequate knowledge, a positive attitude, and the desired practices regarding the COVID-19 issue.

Pollution characteristics and risk assessment of potentially toxic elements of fine street dust during COVID-19 lockdown in Bangladesh.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladesh government took the measure like partial lockdown (PL) and complete lockdown (CL) to curb the spread. These measures gave a chance for environmental restoration. In this study, street dust samples were collected during PL and CL from four main urban land use categories in Dhaka city, such as industrial area (IA), commercial area (CA), public facilities area (PFA), and residential area (RA). Ten potentially toxic elements (Cr, Mn, Zn, Fe, Pb, Cu, Co, Ni, As, and Cd) in fine street dust particles (diameter < 20 µm) were determined following aqua-regia digestion and measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to evaluate distribution, pollution sources, and potential risks to ecological systems and human health. Results showed that during PL, the concentrations of toxic elements in the dust were higher than that of CL. Cd and Fe were lowest and highest in concentration with 1.56 to 41,970 µg/g and 0.82 to 39,330 µg/g in partial and complete lockdown period respectively. All toxic elements were detected at high levels above background values where Fe with the highest and Cd with lowest concentrations, respectively. By land use, the levels of toxic elements pollution followed IA > PFA > RA > CA. Correlation analysis (CA), principal component analysis (PCA), and hierarchal cluster analysis (HCA) revealed that the sources of these analyzed toxic elements were mainly from anthropogenic which are related to industrial and vehicular or traffic emissions. Enrichment factor (EF), geoaccumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), and pollution load index (PLI) also suggested that the dust was more polluted during PL. Exposure of toxic elements to human was mainly via skin contact followed by ingestion and inhalation. Hazard quotient (HQ) values were < 1 except for Mn through dermal contact at all sites during partial and complete lockdown, similar to hazard index (HI), while Cr further showed high non-carcinogenic risks to children. Generally, children HI values were about 5-6 times higher than those of adults, suggesting a greater vulnerability of children to the health concerns caused by toxic elements in street dust. Carcinogenic risk (CR) values via ingestion pathway indicated all elements (except Pb) had significant health effect, while CR value by inhalation results showed no significant health effect. Cumulative carcinogenic risk (CCR) value had significant health effect except Pb in all land use categories. CCR values decreased during CL and reached at acceptable limit for most of the cases. This research provides a message to the local governments and environmental authorities to have a complete assessment of toxic elements in the street dust of Dhaka megacity in order to assuring public health safety and ecological sustainability.

Sociocultural Costs of the Long-term COVID-19 Outbreak in Bangladesh: A Systematic Review.

Beyond the physical transmission of COVID-19, the pandemic has had far-reaching consequences in Bangladesh, including social and cultural implications. This review paper aimed at identifying and synthesizing the costs of COVID-19 on sociocultural issues in Bangladesh. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic search in MEDLINE, PubMed, ProQuest, Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar up to August 2021. Studies related to the costs of COVID-19 were identified, tabulated, analyzed, and synthesized by using a thematic approach. Our final synthesis of 19 studies resulted in five analytical themes: (i) disruption in education, (ii) loss of everyday social interaction, (iii) increase of "new poor" and suicide, (iv) rise of violence against women, and (v) worsening the life of refugees. Our findings showed that the costs of disruption in education, loss of everyday social interaction, and increase of "new poor" and suicide were more evident. Finally, we recommend the government and the community to adopt some integrated actions and policies to combat the problems in improving Bangladeshi sociocultural situations.

Health-related quality of life and coping strategies adopted by COVID-19 survivors: A nationwide cross-sectional study in Bangladesh.

INTRODUCTION: This study aims to investigate the health-related quality of life and coping strategies among COVID-19 survivors in Bangladesh. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of 2198 adult, COVID-19 survivors living in Bangladesh. Data were collected from previously diagnosed COVID-19 participants (confirmed by an RT-PCR test) via door-to-door interviews in the eight different divisions in Bangladesh. For data collection, Bengali-translated Brief COPE inventory and WHO Brief Quality of Life (WHO-QoLBREF) questionnaires were used. The data collection period was from October 2020 to March 2021. RESULTS: Males 72.38% (1591) were more affected by COVID-19 than females 27.62% (607). Age showed significant correlations (p<0.005) with physical, psychological and social relationships, whereas gender showed only a significant correlation with physical health (p<0.001). Marital status, occupation, living area, and co-morbidities showed significant co-relation with all four domains of QoL (p<0.001). Education and affected family members showed significant correlation with physical and social relationship (p<0.001). However, smoking habit showed a significant correlation with both social relationship and environment (p<0.001). Age and marital status showed a significant correlation with avoidant coping strategies (p<0.001); whereas gender and co-morbidities showed a significant correlation with problem-focused coping strategies (p<0.001). Educational qualification, occupation and living area showed significant correlation with all three coping strategies(p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Survivors of COVID-19 showed mixed types of coping strategies; however, the predominant coping strategy was avoidant coping, followed by problem-focused coping, with emotion-focused coping reported as the least prevalent. Marital status, occupation, living area and co-morbidities showed a greater effect on QoL in all participants. This study represents the real scenario of nationwide health-associated quality of life and coping strategies during and beyond the Delta pandemic.

Municipal and neighbourhood level wastewater surveillance and subtyping of an influenza virus outbreak.

Recurrent influenza epidemics and pandemic potential are significant risks to global health. Public health authorities use clinical surveillance to locate and monitor influenza and influenza-like cases and outbreaks to mitigate hospitalizations and deaths. Currently, global integration of clinical surveillance is the only reliable method for reporting influenza types and subtypes to warn of emergent pandemic strains. The utility of wastewater surveillance (WWS) during the COVID-19 pandemic as a less resource intensive replacement or complement for clinical surveillance has been predicated on analyzing viral fragments in wastewater. We show here that influenza virus targets are stable in wastewater and partitions favorably to the solids fraction. By quantifying, typing, and subtyping the virus in municipal wastewater and primary sludge during a community outbreak, we forecasted a citywide flu outbreak with a 17-day lead time and provided population-level viral subtyping in near real-time to show the feasibility of influenza virus WWS at the municipal and neighbourhood levels in near real time using minimal resources and infrastructure.

Wastewater to clinical case (WC) ratio of COVID-19 identifies insufficient clinical testing, onset of new variants of concern and population immunity in urban communities.

Clinical testing has been the cornerstone of public health monitoring and infection control efforts in communities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. With the anticipated reduction of clinical testing as the disease moves into an endemic state, SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance (WWS) will have greater value as an important diagnostic tool. An in-depth analysis and understanding of the metrics derived from WWS is required to interpret and utilize WWS-acquired data effectively (McClary-Gutierrez et al., 2021; O'Keeffe, 2021). In this study, the SARS-CoV-2 wastewater signal to clinical cases (WC) ratio was investigated across seven cities in Canada over periods ranging from 8 to 21 months. This work demonstrates that significant increases in the WC ratio occurred when clinical testing eligibility was modified to appointment-only testing, identifying a period of insufficient clinical testing (resulting in a reduction to testing access and a reduction in the number of daily tests) in these communities, despite increases in the wastewater signal. Furthermore, the WC ratio decreased significantly in 6 of the 7 studied locations, serving as a potential signal of the emergence of the Alpha variant of concern (VOC) in a relatively non-immunized community (40-60 % allelic proportion), while a more muted decrease in the WC ratio signaled the emergence of the Delta VOC in a relatively well-immunized community (40-60 % allelic proportion). Finally, a significant decrease in the WC ratio signaled the emergence of the Omicron VOC, likely because of the variant's greater effectiveness at evading immunity, leading to a significant number of new reported clinical cases, even when community immunity was high. The WC ratio, used as an additional monitoring metric, could complement clinical case counts and wastewater signals as individual metrics in its potential ability to identify important epidemiological occurrences, adding value to WWS as a diagnostic technology during the COVID-19 pandemic and likely for future pandemics.

Understanding the dynamic relation between wastewater SARS-CoV-2 signal and clinical metrics throughout the pandemic.

Wastewater surveillance (WWS) of SARS-CoV-2 was proven to be a reliable and complementary tool for population-wide monitoring of COVID-19 disease incidence but was not as rigorously explored as an indicator for disease burden throughout the pandemic. Prior to global mass immunization campaigns and during the spread of the wildtype COVID-19 and the Alpha variant of concern (VOC), viral measurement of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater was a leading indicator for both COVID-19 incidence and disease burden in communities. As the two-dose vaccination rates escalated during the spread of the Delta VOC in Jul. 2021 through Dec. 2021, relations weakened between wastewater signal and community COVID-19 disease incidence and maintained a strong relationship with clinical metrics indicative of disease burden (new hospital admissions, ICU admissions, and deaths). Further, with the onset of the vaccine-resistant Omicron BA.1 VOC in Dec. 2021 through Mar. 2022, wastewater again became a strong indicator of both disease incidence and burden during a period of limited natural immunization (no recent infection), vaccine escape, and waned vaccine effectiveness. Lastly, with the populations regaining enhanced natural and vaccination immunization shortly prior to the onset of the Omicron BA.2 VOC in mid-Mar 2022, wastewater is shown to be a strong indicator for both disease incidence and burden. Hospitalization-to-wastewater ratio is further shown to be a good indicator of VOC virulence when widespread clinical testing is limited. In the future, WWS is expected to show moderate indication of incidence and strong indication of disease burden in the community during future potential seasonal vaccination campaigns.

Euphorbia neriifolia Leaf Juice on Mild and Moderate COVID-19 Patients: Implications in OMICRON Era

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has shattered the public health delivery system of most of the countries of the world. COVID-19 displays variable clinical presentations. The severe COVID-19 represents a fulminant pathological condition and most of the patients run a downhill course if extensive medical measures are not adopted. The major challenges about COVID-19 are related to develop strategies to manage huge populations of mild and moderate cases of COVID-19 with two realistic purposes: (1) early negativity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus and (2) arrest of progression of moderate COVID-19 patients from developing severe complications. Although several medications have been repurposed for these purposes, none of these have passed the test of time in global perspective. Thus, there remains a pressing need to develop new and novel innovative management strategies for these patients as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been destroying the normal public health delivery system of different countries from time to time. The study presented here has checked the safety and efficacy of a herbal medication, leaves of Euphorbia neriifolia Linn (E. neriifolia), in mild and moderate COVID-19 patients. Sixty patients (30 mild COVID-19 and 30 moderate COVID-19) were enrolled in the study. Fifteen mild COVID-19 patients received standard of care (SOC) management, and the remaining 15 patients received SOC plus E. neriifolia. The moderate COVID-19 patients similarly received either SOC (N = 15) or SOC plus E. neriifolia (N = 15). Although there were marked diversity regarding biochemical parameters of these patients at entry, the moderate COVID-19 patients receiving E. neriifolia showed decrease in C-reactive protein and D-dimer and increase in oxygen saturation 7 days after trial commencement. However, these improvements were not detected in moderate COVID-19 patients receiving SOC. Hospital staying was significantly lower in both mild and moderate COVID-19 patients receiving SOC plus E. neriifolia than those receiving only SOC. Taken together, it may be proposed that usage of E. neriifolia may have beneficial effects regarding management for COVID-19 patients, especially for those in developing and resource-constrained countries, although a conclusive statement may not be given due to small sample size. This herbal medication is also pertinent in the context of emergence of OMICRON variant of COVID-19 as the overload of SARS-CoV-2-infecetd patients may be addressed considerably by this medication without hospitalization, if proper communication between patients and physicians can be ensured. How to cite this article Pramanik MEA, Miah MMZ, Ahmed I, et al. Euphorbia neriifolia Leaf Juice on Mild and Moderate COVID-19 Patients: Implications in OMICRON Era. Euroasian J Hepato-Gastroenterol 2022;12(1):10–18.

Evaluation of Virucidal Quantitative Carrier Test towards Bovine Viruses for Surface Disinfectants While Simulating Practical Usage on Livestock Farms.

Livestock farming is affected by the occurrence of infectious diseases, but outbreaks can be prevented by effective cleaning and disinfection along with proper farm management. In the present study, bovine coronavirus (BCoV) and bovine rotavirus A (RVA) were inactivated using food additive-grade calcium hydroxide (FdCa(OH)2) solution, quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) and their mixture through suspension tests as the primary screening, and afterward via carrier tests using dropping or dipping techniques as the secondary screenings. Viruses in the aqueous phase can be easily inactivated in the suspension tests, but once attached to the materials, they can become resistant to disinfectants, and require longer times to be inactivated. This highlights the importance of thorough cleaning with detergent before disinfection, and keeping elevated contact durations of proper disinfectants to reduce viral contamination and decrease infectious diseases incidence in farms. It was also reaffirmed that the suspension and carrier tests are necessary to evaluate disinfectants and thus determine their actual use. Particularly, the mixture of QAC and FdCa(OH)2 was found to exhibit synergistic and broad-spectrum effects compared to their use alone, and is now recommended for use on livestock farms.

Experience of Bangladeshi Dental Students towards Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Web-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic, dental education institutions throughout the world experienced significant challenges, including a quick shift to an online learning paradigm. Since the pandemic has had a considerable impact on dental education, this research evaluated the perspectives and attitudes towards online learning among undergraduate dental students in Bangladesh. METHODS: The research was conducted through a cross-sectional method using self-administered online questionnaires. The questionnaire included information on the students' sociodemographic status, their views, and their attitudes about the changes in the educational system, specifically regarding online learning. The study gathered data from 952 undergraduate students from 14 dental institutions in Bangladesh. RESULTS: The results suggested that 87.5% of all the students were unsatisfied with their online programs. Most of the respondents who expressed dissatisfaction with their online classes were female, did not receive assistance in overcoming barriers to accessing the classes or materials (64.23%), did not have access to the institutional online-learning management system (OLMS) (67.35%), and did not have access to the online course materials (71.43%). The students considered that the shift to online learning failed to provide quality clinical teaching. CONCLUSIONS: The lack of an OLMS was found to be linked with dissatisfaction with online learning among Bangladeshi dental students during the COVID-19 outbreak. Additionally, insufficient time allocation and a lack of support through online training were found to be strongly correlated with the students' discontent. The overall findings highlight the need to develop and implement effective online dentistry educational interventions to promote academic advancement and key practical skills.

Mental Health Status of University Students and Working Professionals during the Early Stage of COVID-19 in Bangladesh.

A novel coronavirus disease known as COVID-19 has spread globally and brought a public health emergency to all nations. To respond to the pandemic, the Bangladesh Government imposed a nationwide lockdown that may have degraded mental health among residents, in particular, university students and working professionals. We examined clinically significant anxiety levels with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) scale and perceived stress levels with the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4) in an online cross-sectional study with 744 adults. Approximately 70% of respondents were afflicted with clinically significant anxiety levels, and more than 43.82% were afflicted with moderate or high perceived stress levels. Multivariate logistic regression models showed that postgraduates (OR = 2.78, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.03-8.75, p < 0.05) were more likely to experience anxiety than their student counterparts. No such differences emerged for working professionals, however. Living with family members compared to living alone was a risk factor for perceived stress among working professionals (OR = 4.05, 95% CI = 1.45-11.32, p < 0.05). COVID-19 stressors such as financial hardship (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.11-3.05, p < 0.05) and worries of family members' health (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.12-2.99) were risk factors for anxiety among students. Questionable social media news exposure (OR = 2.99, 95% CI = 1.13-7.92, p < 0.05) contributed to the development of mental stress among working professionals. These findings confirm that effective initiatives and proactive efforts from concerned authorities are necessary to cope with the mental health correlates of the COVID-19 pandemic, including in developing contexts such as Bangladesh.

Knowledge, Attitudes, Behavioural Practises, and Psychological Impact Relating to COVID-19 Among People Living With Spinal Cord Injury During In-Patient Rehabilitation in Bangladesh.

AIM: The aim of this research is to focus on gaining an insight into the knowledge, attitudes, behavioural practises (KAP), and psychological impact relating to COVID-19 among the people living with spinal cord injury receiving in-patient rehabilitation. METHODS: A prospective, cross-sectional survey of people with SCI (N = 207), who were in active in-patient rehabilitation from two tertiary SCI Rehabilitation Centres in Bangladesh. Data were collected via face-to-face interviews, after voluntary consent, using a pretested, language validated questionnaire on Knowledge, Attitude and Behavioural practises (KAP) and the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale (DASS-21). Ethical approval and trial registration were obtained prospectively. RESULTS: A total of 207 people with SCI responded, among which 87% were men and 13% were women, with a mean age of 34.18 ± 12.9 years. Within the sample group, people living with tetraplegia comprised 33.8%, and people living with paraplegia comprised 66.2%. Overall, 63.8% of the participants were diagnosed with an SCI categorised as ASIA-A. Overall, the "knowledge score" was 8.59 ± 2.3 out of 12, "depression" was 11.18 ± 8, "anxiety" was 7.72 ± 5.1, and "stress" was 9.32 ± 6.7 from a total of 21 scores each category. The strong correlation was between knowledge, DASS scores, and age (p < 0.05). In addition, there was a strong correlation between knowledge, gender (p < 0.05) and education (p < 0.01). Binary logistic regression found a stronger association of knowledge and DASS scores with gender, young age, illiteracy (p < 0.01), and rural residence (p < 0.05). A positive relationship was found between depression and anxiety scores (p < 0.01) and a moderate positive relationship was found between depression and stress scores (p < 0.01). A positive attitude was reported by the majority of participants (p < 0.05). In terms of behavioural practises, participants reported both self and caregiver had followed health advice with regard to consulting health professionals (65.7%), implementing isolation (63.8%), taking droplet precaution care (87.4%), and hygiene care (90.3%). CONCLUSION: Participants in this study reported high levels of knowledge, adoption of positive attitudes, and the practise of positive health advisory behaviours related to COVID-19 prevention procedures. However, high levels of depression, anxiety, and stress were also reported. Overall, women and younger participants were more likely to have high KAP, whereas those living in rural areas and with literacy challenges were less likely to report high knowledge scores.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Toward Coronavirus and Associated Anxiety Symptoms Among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study During the Early Stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bangladesh.

Background: University students' knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) toward COVID-19 are vital to prevent the spread of the virus, especially in the context of developing countries. Consequently, the present study aimed to determine the KAP levels of university students and associated anxiety during the earlier stage of the pandemic in Bangladesh. Methods: A cross-sectional, online study with 544 university students was conducted during April 17-May 1, 2020. The questionnaire incorporated several KAP-related test items aligned with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Anxiety was measured with the 2-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-2). Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the association between KAP levels and anxiety adjusting for sociodemographic variables. Subgroup analyses included rerunning models stratified by gender and quarantine status. Results: Approximately 50% of students showed high levels of knowledge about COVID-19 guidelines, 59% reported behavioral practices that aligned with COVID-19 guidelines, and 39% had negative attitudes toward COVID-19 guidelines. Attitudes differed by anxiety (χ2 = 23.55, p < 0.001); specifically, negative attitudes were associated with higher anxiety (OR: 2.40, 95% CI = 1.66-3.46, p < 0.001). Associations were significant for male (OR = 2.36; 95% CI = 1.45-3.84, p < 0.001) and female (OR = 2.45; 95% CI = 1.3-4.34; p < 0.001) students. Stratified analyses found non-quarantined students with negative attitudes had three times the chance of experiencing anxiety (OR = 3.14, 95% CI: 1.98-4.98, p < 0.001). Non-quarantined students with low levels of knowledge had half the chance of developing anxiety (OR = 0.49, 95% CI: 0.31-0.78, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Based on these findings, it is recommended that university authorities continue to prioritize proactive and effective measures to develop higher levels of knowledge, more positive attitudes and better behavioral practices regarding COVID-19 for the mental health of their students.

COVID-19 Vaccine Acceptance among Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries: A Rapid Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Widespread vaccination against COVID-19 is critical for controlling the pandemic. Despite the development of safe and efficacious vaccinations, low-and lower-middle income countries (LMICs) continue to encounter barriers to care owing to inequitable access and vaccine apprehension. This study aimed to summarize the available data on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rates and factors associated with acceptance in LMICs. A comprehensive search was performed in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception through August 2021. Quality assessments of the included studies were carried out using the eight-item Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tool for cross-sectional studies. We performed a meta-analysis to estimate pooled acceptance rates with 95% confidence intervals (CI). A total of 36 studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. A total of 83,867 respondents from 33 countries were studied. Most of the studies were conducted in India (n = 9), Egypt (n = 6), Bangladesh (n = 4), or Nigeria (n = 4). The pooled-effect size of the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance rate was 58.5% (95% CI: 46.9, 69.7, I2 = 100%, 33 studies) and the pooled vaccine hesitancy rate was 38.2% (95% CI: 27.2-49.7, I2 = 100%, 32 studies). In country-specific sub-group analyses, India showed the highest rates of vaccine acceptancy (76.7%, 95% CI: 65.8-84.9%, I2= 98%), while Egypt showed the lowest rates of vaccine acceptancy (42.6%, 95% CI: 16.6-73.5%, I2= 98%). Being male and perceiving risk of COVID-19 infection were predictors for willingness to accept the vaccine. Increasing vaccine acceptance rates in the global south should be prioritized to advance global vaccination coverage.

Computational identification of host genomic biomarkers highlighting their functions, pathways and regulators that influence SARS-CoV-2 infections and drug repurposing.

The pandemic threat of COVID-19 has severely destroyed human life as well as the economy around the world. Although, the vaccination has reduced the outspread, but people are still suffering due to the unstable RNA sequence patterns of SARS-CoV-2 which demands supplementary drugs. To explore novel drug target proteins, in this study, a transcriptomics RNA-Seq data generated from SARS-CoV-2 infection and control samples were analyzed. We identified 109 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) that were utilized to identify 10 hub-genes/proteins (TLR2, USP53, GUCY1A2, SNRPD2, NEDD9, IGF2, CXCL2, KLF6, PAG1 and ZFP36) by the protein-protein interaction (PPI) network analysis. The GO functional and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses of hub-DEGs revealed some important functions and signaling pathways that are significantly associated with SARS-CoV-2 infections. The interaction network analysis identified 5 TFs proteins and 6 miRNAs as the key regulators of hub-DEGs. Considering 10 hub-proteins and 5 key TFs-proteins as drug target receptors, we performed their docking analysis with the SARS-CoV-2 3CL protease-guided top listed 90 FDA approved drugs. We found Torin-2, Rapamycin, Radotinib, Ivermectin, Thiostrepton, Tacrolimus and Daclatasvir as the top ranked seven candidate drugs. We investigated their resistance performance against the already published COVID-19 causing top-ranked 11 independent and 8 protonated receptor proteins by molecular docking analysis and found their strong binding affinities, which indicates that the proposed drugs are effective against the state-of-the-arts alternatives independent receptor proteins also. Finally, we investigated the stability of top three drugs (Torin-2, Rapamycin and Radotinib) by using 100 ns MD-based MM-PBSA simulations with the two top-ranked proposed receptors (TLR2, USP53) and independent receptors (IRF7, STAT1), and observed their stable performance. Therefore, the proposed drugs might play a vital role for the treatment against different variants of SARS-CoV-2 infections.