ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate clinical, laboratory, and epidemiological features of acute neuroinflammatory disorders (ANIDs) that followed the 2016 Zika epidemic in Colombia. Background: The outbreak of Zika virus infection in Colombia in 2015-2016, produced an increased incidence of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) and other ANID cases. The Neuroviruses Emerging in the Americas Study (NEAS) network was established in 2016 as a multicenter-based observatory of ANIDs to investigate the role of emerging pathogens in neuroinflammatory diseases. Design/Methods: NEAS serves as a multi-center study based on 13 hospitals in 7 cities in Colombia which study all newly diagnosed patients who fulfill established criteria for GBS, encephalitis, myelitis, meningoencephalitis, or cranial nerve disorders as part of an observational cohort. We analyzed the clinical and epidemiological features of all cases evaluated between January 2016 and September 2021. Results: An observational cohort of 825 patients with ANIDs were recruited during the study period. 58.8% of cases were male with a median age of 43 (IQR 25-58) years. The most frequent ANIDs were GBS (46.1%) and facial nerve palsy (28.7%). The diagnosis of encephalitis (9.5%), myelitis (6.5%), and optic neuritis (5.9%) were less frequent. Patients with GBS were predominantly male (70.6%) and had a median age of 49 (IQR 32-60) years. Interestingly, there was an increase incidence of GBS in 2019. Conclusions: The outbreak of Zika in Colombia produced a marked increase in the incidence of GBS in 2016. Although cases of GBS and other ANIDs continued to emerge after the incidence of Zika infection decreased in July 2016, the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has not produced any significant increase in the incidence of GBS in Colombia.
ABSTRACT
The World Health Organization advised the public that physical distancing is one of the health protocols that can minimize the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The protocol requires people to adhere to a one-meter distance from each other in public areas, thus avoiding the possible crowd formation and further spread of the virus. A software was developed to monitor the physical distance and the crowd density of a specified area or the region of interest using You Only Look Once Version 3 (YOLOv3). Video recordings, captured using mobile phones, were extracted into frames. Each video frame is then processed to a YOLOv3 model for further object detection (here-human) and implementation of physical distancing monitoring. The selected area's crowd density is also computed while considering physical distancing guidelines. If the violations in physical distance or crowd density become alarming, an email will he sent to the authorities alerting them about the occurrence of health protocol violations. Based on careful evaluation, physical distancing and crowd density violation detection has an average of 0.86 for precision, (1.81 for recall, 0.83 for F1-score, and 0.83 for accuracy. The software also successfully alerted authorities via email of the exceeding violations. The efficiency and simplicity of this approach present possible solutions for the current pandemic situation.
ABSTRACT
Medical attention of patients with a diabetic foot has been disrupted since de COVID-19 pandemic began, because health systems had to provide care to those patients affected by this disease to the detriment of the control of chronic diseases. Several reports show an increase in amputations during the pandemic, primarily due to the lack of health controls in patients suffering from diabetes or diabetic foot. This could have resulted in later consultation and more severe presentations. We describe three medical cases that had recently been affected by COVID-19 and developed a rare and rapidly evolving diabetic foot that required a major amputation. One possible explanation for this atypical presentation could be that COVID-19 predisposes patients to vein and arterial thrombosis due to systemic inflammation, platelet activation, endothelial dysfunction and stasis from prolonged immobility. This could have exacerbated chronic ischemia secondary to diabetes in which metabolic disturbances often seen in these patients predispose to atherosclerosis.
ABSTRACT
Objective: In times of COVID-19, the relationship between the quality of pharmaceutical services and user satisfaction in health facilities has become one of the elements of the most observed global health crisis. The objective of this research was to determine the relationship between the quality of the pharmaceutical product dispensing service with user satisfaction in COVID-19 times. Method: A sample of 134 users was considered, who applied for questionnaires on the quality and satisfaction of the user with the service received. An ordinal logistic regression model was fitted on data that relate service quality to user satisfaction, reliability, responsibility, safety, empathy and tangibility. Results: It was found that in times of COVID-19, the quality of the pharmaceutical product dispensing service was valued from low to medium, and the satisfaction, reliability, responsibility, security, empathy and the tangibility of the user with the service received was rated as dissatisfied not very satisfied. The validity of the ordinal logistic regression model for the quality of the dispensing service of pharmaceutical products based on tangibility was evidenced, which confirmed the relationship between the quality of the dispensing service of pharmaceutical products in times of COVID-19 and the tangibility. Conclusions: The quality of the pharmaceutical product dispensing service was rated from low to medium, which implied a high risk of negative evaluation of the pharmaceutical product dispensing service. © 2021 Universitatea de Vest Vasile Goldis din Arad. All rights reserved.