PCR-based diagnosis of respiratory virus in postsurgical septic patients: A preliminary study before SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Respiratory viruses are part of the normal microbiota of the respiratory tract, which sometimes cause infection with/without respiratory insufficiency and the need for hospital or ICU admission. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of respiratory viruses in nontransplanted postoperative septic patients as well as lymphocyte count influence in their presence and its relationship to mortality. 223 nontransplanted postsurgical septic patients were recruited on the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Hospital Clínico Universitario de Valladolid prior to the SARS-COV-2 pandemic. Patients were split into 2 groups according to the presence/absence of respiratory viruses. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify independent factors related to positive respiratory virus PCR test. Respiratory viruses were isolated in 28.7% of patients. 28-day mortality was not significantly different between virus-positive and virus-negative groups. Logistic regression analysis revealed that lymphocyte count ≤ 928/µl is independently associated with a positive PCR result [OR 3.76, 95% CI (1.71-8.26), P = .001] adjusted by platelet count over 128,500/µL [OR 4.27, 95% CI (1.92-9.50) P < .001] and the presence of hypertension [OR 2.69, 95% CI (1.13-6.36) P = .025] as confounding variables. Respiratory viruses' detection by using PCR in respiratory samples of nontransplanted postoperative septic patients is frequent. These preliminary results revealed that the presence of lymphopenia on sepsis diagnosis is independently associated to a positive virus result, which is not related to a higher 28-day mortality.

The Case of Japan: How COVID-19 Impacted the Procurement and Lives of Migrant Healthcare Workers

This article offers an analysis of the impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in Japan with regard to the healthcare sector. With unprecedented pressure from a rapidly aging population, state-sponsored initiatives have created new migration streams from Southeast Asia, diversifying attempts to procure healthcare personnel to address labor shortages. The article analyzes the recent evolution of this supply chain nexus and how it was reconfigured during the pandemic. It also highlights the fragile dependency that Japan now has on an emergent nexus with surrounding countries and the strategies it has taken to ameliorate the vagaries of the ongoing pandemic.

The city turned off: Urban dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic based on mobile phone data.

Due to the rapid expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries ordained lockdowns, establishing different restrictions on people's mobility. Exploring to what extent these measures have been effective is critical in order to better respond to similar future scenarios. This article uses anonymous mobile phone data to study the impact of the Spanish lockdown on the daily dynamics of the Madrid metropolitan area (Spain). The analysis has been carried out for a reference week prior to the lockdown and during several weeks of the lockdown in which different restrictions were in place. During these weeks, population distribution is compared during the day and at night and presence profiles are obtained throughout the day for each type of land use. In addition, a spatial multiple regression analysis is carried out to determine the impact of the different land uses on the local population. The results in the reference week, pre-COVID-19, show how the population in activity areas increases in each time slot on a specific day and how in residential areas it decreases. However, during the lockdown, activity areas cease to attract population during the day and the residential areas therefore no longer show a decrease. Only basic essential commercial activities, or others that require the presence of workers (industrial or logistics) maintain some activity during lockdown.

HGF, IL-1α, and IL-27 Are Robust Biomarkers in Early Severity Stratification of COVID-19 Patients.

Pneumonia is the leading cause of hospital admission and mortality in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We aimed to identify the cytokines responsible for lung damage and mortality. We prospectively recruited 108 COVID-19 patients between March and April 2020 and divided them into four groups according to the severity of respiratory symptoms. Twenty-eight healthy volunteers were used for normalization of the results. Multiple cytokines showed statistically significant differences between mild and critical patients. High HGF levels were associated with the critical group (OR = 3.51; p < 0.001; 95%CI = 1.95-6.33). Moreover, high IL-1α (OR = 1.36; p = 0.01; 95%CI = 1.07-1.73) and low IL-27 (OR = 0.58; p < 0.005; 95%CI = 0.39-0.85) greatly increased the risk of ending up in the severe group. This model was especially sensitive in order to predict critical status (AUC = 0.794; specificity = 69.74%; sensitivity = 81.25%). Furthermore, high levels of HGF and IL-1α showed significant results in the survival analysis (p = 0.033 and p = 0.011, respectively). HGF, IL-1α, and IL 27 at hospital admission were strongly associated with severe/critical COVID-19 patients and therefore are excellent predictors of bad prognosis. HGF and IL-1α were also mortality biomarkers.