A Social Cure for COVID-19: Importance of Networks in Combatting Socio-Economic and Emotional Health Challenges in Informal Settlements in Dhaka, Bangladesh

The Bangladesh government issued a lockdown throughout the country from March–May 2020 in response to the COVID-19. The sudden lockdown caused economic ruptures across the country due to job loss. We conducted a comprehensive analysis of the outbreak through 40 in-depth interviews with men and women living in three Dhaka informal settlements from January to November 2021 to identify gaps to mitigate negative downstream effects of global pandemic policies. In this paper, we explore the critical importance of social networks as coping mechanisms for those who lost livelihood due to COVID-19 lockdown. Due to the congested living conditions in informal settlements, many established residents foster close, trusting relationships, and a strong sense of community. Formal and informal networks in urban slums, whether reciprocal or strategic, played an integral role as a way of coping during times of scarcity. We found limited analysis in public health literature on the resilience of these social networks and its impact on health and wellbeing. Our paper attempts to unpack the ways our respondents drew on their own social networks to combat the socio-economic and emotional health challenges brought on by a lack of adequate formalized support as part of the pandemic response. © 2023 by the authors.

Investigating the Functional and Comfort properties of a Face Mask Based on a Coolmax((R)) Blended Cotton Fabric

As the spread of Covid-19 has created a fatal threat to human survival, a comfortable and virus-deactivated functional face mask is extremely necessary. Herein, an appropriate thermally comfortable and highly breathable as well as virus-protecting functional knit fabric face mask was developed that consisted of multichannel PE Coolmax((R)) yarn with cotton yarn. Due to the multichannel structure (four and six channels) of PE Coolmax((R)) yarn with cotton yarn blended fabric, the fiber showed good filtration efficiency, air permeability, water vapour permeability and moisture management properties. In addition, the thermal conductivity and absorptive properties of the blended fabric based on the properties of PE Coolmax((R)) yarn with cotton yarn make the face mask more comfortable for the user.

An Intelligent Vaccine Distribution Process in COVID-19 Pandemic through Blockchain-SDN Framework from Bangladesh Perspective

Currently, vaccine distribution is the most concerning issue of Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) diseases in every stage of peoples properly. There are several strategies is proposed by the researchers. Still, the public is facing various difficulties in taking the vaccine. However, the current technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Blockchain (BC) are the intelligent solution for vaccine distribution efficiently. In light of these considerations, in this paper, we propose the "DistVAC-COVID" architecture incorporating a distributed Blockchain-based SDN-IoT framework for COVID-19's vaccine distribution considerably. In the presented system, the SDN benefits to divide the entire network into two distinct planes such as the data and control plane for distributing COVID data smartly. Further, a distributed Blockchain provides the desired system to be prominently secured and more confidential. Therefore, the "DistVAC-COVID" model combining SDN, IoT, and BC can be handled by several COVID-19 zones-red, hazard, and green securely. Finally, we evaluate the "DistVAC-COVID" architecture via an experimental evaluation process and show the effectiveness of the suggested solution in comparison with baseline system.

Determinants of regional prevalence and variations in handwashing practices among households in Bangladesh: An application of generalized mixed-effects model

Introduction: Handwashing practice is an effective way to minimize severe infectious diseases such as COVID-19, diarrhea, and pneumonia. The study aimed to explore the prevalence of handwashing behavior and associated determinants in rural and urban areas of Bangladesh. Methods: The research was performed using cross-sectional survey data from the 2019 Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, and 61,242 household members were the sample for this study. The Chi-square test was applied for the bivariate analysis. A generalized linear mixed-effects model was used to identify the risk factors of practicing handwashing in both urban and rural areas of Bangladesh. Results: Only 65% of the country's households had access to handwashing facilities (place, water, and materials). While urban dwellers were more likely to wash their hands, rural dwellers were only 63% likely to do so. The level of education of household heads, wealth status, division, number of family members, sanitation facilities, and water source were the key factors associated with handwashing behavior. This study revealed that the odds were significantly lower among illiterate respondents compared to those with secondary and above-secondary education in both areas of Bangladesh, and a positive association was found between wealth status and handwashing behavior practiced in both urban and rural areas. In this study, the size of the family was statistically significant for both rural and urban areas of Bangladesh. Conclusion: Handwashing is the most prominent consideration for controlling COVID-19. Policymakers are striving to improve handwashing facilities by increasing awareness-raising programs, especially among rural residents of Bangladesh. © 2022 Asian Journal of Social Health and Behavior ;Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow.

A Traditional Machine Learning Approach for COVID-19 Detection from CT Images

COVID-19 has severe effects on several body organs, especially the lung. These severe effects result in features in the COVID-19 patients' Computed Tomography (CT) images distinct from other viral pneumonia. Although the primary diagnosis of COVID-19 is not primarily screened by CT, machine learning-based diagnosis systems early detect the COVID-19 lung abnormalities. Feature extraction is crucial for the success of traditional machine learning algorithms. Traditional machine learning algorithms utilize hand-crafted features to identify and classify patterns in an image. This paper utilizes the Gabor filters as the primary feature extractor for automated COVID-19 classification from lung CT images. We use a publicly available COVID-19 data-set of chest CT images to validate the performance and accuracy of the proposed model. The Gabor filter and other feature extractors with Random Forest classifiers achieved over 81% classification accuracy, the sensitivity of 81%, Specificity of 82%, and F1 score of 81%. © 2021 IEEE.

Evaluation of outcome of Coronavirus disease 2019 patients receiving RAAS inhibitors (OCRAS study): A prospective observational study of Bangladeshi hypertensive patients

Background: The fact that SAARS-Cov2 virus enters cells through ACE2 receptors and the Renin-Angiotensin-Aldosterone System Inhibitors (RAASi) upregulate the ACE2 receptors, there was speculation that use of RAASi may lead increased cellular entry of the virus. There was a pause for a brief period of the use of RAASi in COVID 19 patients. But clinically the speculation has been found to be incorrect. Different professional societies come up with the assertion to continue to use RAASi. As the hesitancy among the clinicians appears to continue and there is no first hand data regarding the safety of the use of RAASi in Bangladeshi population, the study was undertaken to evaluate the safety of RAASi in COVID 19 patients. Aims & Methods This study was a prospective, observational multi-center study to evaluate the outcome of COVID-19 patients receiving RAAS inhibitors. Adult Hypertensive patients (age ≥18 years) with diagnosed COVID-19 confirmed by RT-PCR test who have a history of taking either ACE inhibitor/ARB or any other anti-hypertensive medication. Evaluation of outcome was assessed by rate of hospitalization, requirement of oxygen therapy, requirement of high flow nasal cannula, admission to ICU and mortality between two groups. All statistical analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows, version 20.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Results: We collected data from 147 Covid-19 positive patients confirmed by RT-PCR. Among them, 117 (79.6%) had a history of taking RAAS inhibitor and 30 had history of taking other antihypertensive medications. Of them, two-third patients had more than 50 years of age and more than half of the patients had overweight or obesity. Other than hypertension they had several comorbidities such as Diabetes Mellitus (45.4%), Ischemic Heart Diseases (35.4%), Asthma or COPD (15%) etc. Rate of hospitalization had no statistical difference between RAAS inhibitor group and other hypertensive group (48.7% vs 46.70% respectively;p-value-0.841). There was no statistical difference between two groups in terms of requirement of oxygen therapy (p-value-0.297), High Flow Nasal Cannula (p-value-0.430), intensive care unit (p-value-0.194) and death (p-value-0.383) also. Almost half and one-third of the patients had persistence of symptoms even after 14 days and 28 days respectively. Fatigue, cough, breathlessness, loss of appetite and taste were the most common symptoms among those. Conclusion: In our study we found that RAAS inhibitor treatment had no adverse effect on the outcome of COVID-19 patients compared with other antihypertensive drugs. Patients may continue receiving ACEIs and ARBs for the treatment of any indication for RAASi without an increased risk of worse outcomes.

Covid-19 Lockdown and Changes of Air Quality in the Most Polluted City of Bangladesh

Air pollution is now a serious issue all over the world. Especially, people of developing countries are seriously affected by air pollution because, like other pollution, air pollution is not given importance. Due to the covid-19 lockdown, pollution is reduced, and as expected, the air quality of Dhaka city has improved. Daily AQI data was collected for the months of April, May and June (2020) and compared with the last six years of data for these months respectively. It was found that the mean AQI of Dhaka city in April, May, and June lower than the last six years in the same period. The mean AQI decreased 43.52 %, 22.37 %, 9,82 %, 16.38 %, 41.43 %, 34.16 % in April when compared with April 2014-2019 respectively and the mean AQI decreased 33.69 %, 37.97 %, 39.25 %, 36.81 %, 45.59 %, 44.15 % in May when compared with May 2014-2019 respectively. The mean AQI decreased 26.48 %, 11.40 %, 8.28 %, 30.61 %, 36.37 % and increase 3.07 % in June (2020) when it compared with June 2014-2019 respectively. This study includes the statistical examination of air quality before and at the time of covid-19 lockdown in Dhaka city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Scientific Research is the property of Rajshahi University, Faculty of Science and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Impact of COVID-19 on food safety and security in low and middle income countries

The occurrence of COVID-19 which causes severe acute respiratory infection has produced a large global outbreak with major public health concern. Since Chinese wet market (LBM) has been blamed to be linked with this global pandemic of COVID-19 as the noble virus has supposed to be transmitted from a wild species, however, this is not yet established the association of SARS-Cov-2 transmission via animal to human or food chain. Moreover, it has been recognized to spread human-to-human transmission by inhalation of droplets or direct contact. Besides the devastating effects of SARS-Cov-2, world has been experiencing the impact of food safety and security as the effect due to global lockdown resulting a wide range of new challenges of economic growth and societal burden. In this review, we have focused on effect of corona virus on food system that included food safety, food security during lockdown, and prevention and control options have been emphasized to keep normalcy of livelihood of general people in low and middle income countries (LMICs). Since the global economy has been downed deeper into a financial crunch, the government efforts are underway to bolster up the priorities with the limited resources, and further funding allocation decision is obligatory for the targeted communities those are affected most due to the swath of pandemic threat of COVID-19.

Assessing the Challenges in Online Class During the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic in Bangladesh

The study intends to present the key challenges in attending the online classes faced by the students. Challenges have been categorized by different aspects. In conducting the study primary data have been collected by using a well-tailored online questionnaire. Total 508 responded to the online survey where snowball sampling technique was adopted. SPSS software and simple cross-tabulation were used to analyze the collected data. The study found that although highest percentage of students are attending the online class from metropolitan city or divisional city, 30.7% are attending from village area which is a dominating portion of the students. 68.9% respondents are using mobile data which is not cost effective for them. The study also resulted that network and facility related challenges, student-teacher interaction related challenges and personal & socio-psychological challenges are the prioritized challenges complained by the students. Considering the results the study recommended some suggestions that might help for the policymakers to eliminate the challenges of online classes in the future. Regulatory bodies like UGC, government, individual universities and other concerned authorities have many roles to play. © 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Changes in children's surgical services during the COVID-19 pandemic at a tertiary-level government hospital in a lower middle-income country.

Objective: The aim of this study was to quantify the changes that occurred in the surgical services of children during the COVID-19 pandemic from the perspective of a low/middle-income country. Design: A case-control study was conducted at a large referral centre in Bangladesh among patients aged ≤12 years. Comparisons were made between cases admitted during a period of 'April to September 2020' (Pandemic period) and controls during a similar period in 2019 (Reference period). The number of admissions and outpatient department (OPD) attendances, age and sex distribution, diagnosis, number and types of surgeries performed (elective vs emergency), variations in treatment of acute appendicitis, types of anaesthesia and mortality were compared. Results: Admissions were only 41% of previous year (635 vs 1549), and OPD attendances were only 28% of previous year (603 vs 2152). Admission of children reduced by 65.8%, but neonatal admission reduced only by 7.6%. The median age of the admitted patients was significantly lower during the pandemic period (3 vs 4 years, p<0.01). Acute appendicitis (151, 9.8%) and trauma (61, 9.6%), respectively, were the the most common causes of admission during the reference and the pandemic period. Elective surgeries were only 17% and emergency surgeries were 64% of previous year (p<0.01). Appendectomy (88, 9.1%) and laparotomy (77, 17.6%), respectively, were the most common surgeries performed during the reference and the pandemic period. Conservative treatment of acute appendicitis was more during the pandemic period (47.5% vs 28.5%, p=0.01), but patients who underwent appendectomies had more complicated appendicitis (63.3% vs 42.1%, p=0.01). In all, 90.4% of surgeries were performed by resident doctors. There were no COVID-19- related deaths. Conclusion: Trauma became the most common cause of admission during the pandemic, and neonatal surgical conditions remained almost unchanged with high mortality rates. Elective procedures and laparoscopy remained low and resident doctors played a major role in providing surgical services.