Mental Health Status of Healthcare Workers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Survey of Hospitals in Shiraz, Iran

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) directly or indirectly involved in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) treatment process may experience severe mental consequences of the pandemic. Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the mental health status of HCWs in hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Material(s) and Method(s): This cross-sectional study was performed on 503 HCWs from five hospitals in Shiraz, including one COVID-19 front-line hospital, two COVID-19 second-line hospitals, and two without COVID-19 wards. Then, to assess the levels of anxiety, depression, insomnia, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among HCWs, the Persian versions of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and Global Psychotrauma Screen (GPS) questionnaires were placed, respectively. Result(s): The mean age of participants was 33.94+/-8.26 years, and 252 (50.1%) were females. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, and moderate to high levels of PTSD were observed in 40.4%, 37.8%, 24.5%, and 71% of participants, respectively. A history of mental disorders was associated with all four outcomes (P<0.05). Females gender and living with elderly and/or children were correlated with anxiety and PTSD (P<0.05). Working at COVID-19 front- and second-line hospitals were similarly linked to higher insomnia and PTSD levels (P<0.05). Also, working in COVID-19 wards or non-clinical settings was associated with anxiety and depression (P<0.05). Conclusion(s): Most of the HCWs in this study may experience mental difficulties. Some factors may increase their risk of experiencing these difficulties. Hence, in the crisis era, mental health monitoring and identification of groups with predisposing factors are required to provide appropriate care as quickly as feasible.Copyright © 2023 Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.

Covid-19 and its Impact on Retail Consumers and Changing Dynamics of Fast Moving Consumer Goods Industry

This study explores the impact of covid-19 on consumer buying behavior and consumption pattern of Indian retail consumers towards Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) [1] products and the changed dynamics of the FMCG industry. The raging pandemic witnessed a huge change in the lifestyle of the people. This change was not only severe but also a sudden one. The FMCG items are daily usage items that are regularly bought and consumed [1]. These items are usually priced low and bought frequently. Using empirical evidence collected from 150 consumers, the study attempts to analyze and explain the changes in terms of the products consumed in various product categories due to changed conditions forced through by the prevailing pandemic. The study uses simple mathematical techniques to understand the difference in the types of products bought, the buying frequency, the place of purchase, the price implications and the role of promotions. Using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) it is concluded that significant influence of educational qualification is observed in buying of FMCG items during pandemic. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Associated mucormycosis (CAM)

The currently prevalent COVID-19 infection, its line of treatment, resultant immunosuppression, and pre-existing comorbidities have made patients exposed to secondary infections including mucormycosis. Mucormycosis is a rare but in invasive fungal infection (IFI) due to several species of saprophytic fungi, occurring in patients with underlying co-morbidities which include diabetes mellitus, organ transplant, immunosuppressive corticosteroid therapy. The maxilla rarely undergoes necrosis due to its rich vascularity. Rare but not uncommon is the incidence of mucormycosis associated maxillary osteomyelitis occurring post COVID-19 infection. Fungal osteomyelitis is a life-threatening infection which may further spread from maxilla to the nose and paranasal sinuses within the orofacial region. It is an aggressive infection that needs to be addressed promptly to prevent fatal consequences.

Molecular docking of nsaids to cyclooxygenase (cox-2)

Novel corona virus disease (COVID-19), the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) has become a burning issue of 2020. The pandemic has brought the complete world to think about the solutions that can lead us to restart the journey of life in a normal way. Every country is trying all possible steps to combat the disease ranging from shutting the complete economy of the country to the repurposing of drugs and vaccine development. Manual dealing with the virus is a very tedious and highly sensitive issue that requires a high level of safety and every researcher is not sufficient enough to attain it. Regarding this situation, computational approaches have opened a new door for researchers and scientists to think against this deadly issue. The speedy data generation and its analysis through different basic to advance approaches, tools, software, and databases have made bioinformatics capable of giving new insights to the researchers to deal with the current scenario more efficiently. From understanding the underlying mechanism of the virus to the speedy discovery of therapeutic intervention, computational approaches play a significant role. Various Insilco pipelines from genomics and proteomics study, drug discovery, vaccine development, drug repurposing to system biology, network medicine, next-generation sequencing, and machine learning not only help in understanding the disease pathway and mechanism but also speed up the therapeutic process efficiently. The current review deals with the significance and usefulness of computational approaches in combating the corona pandemic. © 2021 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.

Correlation between anger, sleep quality, and indoor activities during COVID-19 quarantine

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a life-threatening disease that has spread globally and received international concern. Iran is one of the countries severely affected by this pandemic, implementing social lockdown and restrictive strategies. According to Persian medicine, restrictions like quarantine have psychological and social consequences. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the relationship between sleep quality and anger behaviors in Iran and compare it with Persian medicine viewpoints.

Facial Masks for COVID-19 Pandemic an Approach toward Awareness among Health Practitioners

Objective: Coronavirus pandemic is a human respiratory disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). The objective of the present study was to evaluate the type of mask, frequency of change, difficulties in breathing, dryness of mouth, hazards, and treatment taken for skin allergies if any due to use of facial masks in the present Coronavirus pandemic. Materials and Methods: The present survey was carried on dental practitioners for evaluating knowledge and attitude among 1640 participants. The anonymous survey was carried among different groups of age, gender, and qualifications among dentists all around the globe. SPSS 23.0 statistical software was used for statistical analysis. GraphPad Prism 6 was used for statistical analysis and visualization using Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA and post hoc test. The validity of the questionnaire was pilot tested and measured. The Chron bach's alpha value was 0.71. Results: Among the participants 46.3% used respirators such as N95, filtering facepiece respirators 2, or the equivalent. Surgical masks were used by 43.9% and the remaining used cloth masks. When inter group comparison was done for different age groups, it was found that there was a statistically significant for the type of mask used. Sixty-six percent participants reported oral malodor after using the facial masks while dryness of the mouth was reported in 41.5 and 9.1% reported acne. Conclusion: The use of face masks has become mandatory ornament along with social distancing to avoid transmission. Hypercapnia and breathing difficulties reported were less. For treating the face after long use of facial mask many of the participants reported that no treatment was taken while, others hydrated the face frequently with water, moisturizer and very few used antifungal agent.

University Operations During a Pandemic: A Flexible Decision Analysis Toolkit

Modeling infection spread during pandemics is not new, with models using past data to tune simulation parameters for predictions. These help in understanding of the healthcare burden posed by a pandemic and responding accordingly. However, the problem of how college/university campuses should function during a pandemic is new for the following reasons: (i) social contact in colleges are structured and can be engineered for chosen objectives;(ii) the last pandemic to cause such societal disruption was more than 100 years ago, when higher education was not a critical part of society;(iii) not much was known about causes of pandemics, and hence effective ways of safe operations were not known;and (iv) today with distance learning, remote operation of an academic institution is possible. As one of the first to address this problem, our approach is unique in presenting a flexible simulation system, containing a suite of model libraries, one for each major component. The system integrates agent-based modeling and the stochastic network approach, and models the interactions among individual entities (e.g., students, instructors, classrooms, residences) in great detail. For each decision to be made, the system can be used to predict the impact of various choices, and thus enables the administrator to make informed decisions. Although current approaches are good for infection modeling, they lack accuracy in social contact modeling. Our agent-based modeling approach, combinedwith ideas from Network Science, presents a novel approach to contact modeling. A detailed case study of the University of Minnesota's Sunrise Plan is presented. For each decision made, its impact was assessed, and results were used to get a measure of confidence. We believe that this flexible tool can be a valuable asset for various kinds of organizations to assess their infection risks in pandemic-time operations, including middle and high schools, factories, warehouses, and small/medium-sized businesses.

COVIDetect-DESVM: Explainable framework using Differential Evolution Algorithm with SVM classifier for the diagnosis of COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) epidemic has a huge impact on the health and daily life of people. More than 200 countries are impacted due to this pandemic. To light the COVID-19 virus we need a powerful monitoring system to identify the patients and isolate them. The current detection tests are either done by measuring the body temperature or spotting the genetic material of the SARS-CoV-2. These techniques are time-consuming and have a poor detection rate. Radiological images like chest X-rays are also highlighted and help in the diagnosis of COVID-19 patients. Initial studies suggest that COVID-19 patients have abnormalities in their chest X-rays and can be used in the diagnosis of COVID-19. Based on this literature research, various solutions have been proposed utilizing chest X-rays to detect the SARS-CoV-2. Most of these solutions use non-public datasets and complicated structures with fewer accurate results. In our study, we propose a self-learning, interpretable model for real-time detection of COVID-19. This model utilizes a Differential evolution algorithm for feature selection and Support Vector Machine (SVM) as a classifier. The aim is to obtain higher accuracy in detecting COVID-19 infected patients using X-ray images. We have also used the LIME explanation algorithm to explain the predictability of our model and this makes our design very robust and sustainable. This fully transparent, Interpretable, and explainable model can be used in hospitals where there is a huge demand for rapid tests and radiologists are busy. © 2021 IEEE.

Comparison of Mental Health Status between Two Periods during Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Iranian Adult Population

Background: One unprecedented year after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the pandemic is no longer a short-term stressor;the unremitting/chronic effects of COVID-19 disease is likely to cause impaired physical and mental health upon population and the implemented public health and social measures to limit transmission and reduce mortality and morbidity from COVID-19 expose many people to social isolation, job loss, and economic recession. This study aims to compare mental status and four mental symptoms (somatization, anxiety, depression, and social functions) between two periods during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: Current study consists of two cross-sectional mental health surveys on the Iranian adult population carried out in two periods of March to April 2020 and December 2020 to February 2021 in two important Provinces of Iran (Fars and Khorasan Razavi). In the first survey, 1337 individuals participated in the study and completed the General Health Questionnaire-28, while in the second survey, 1205 participants completed the same questionnaire. Results: Among 1337 participants of the first survey, there were 876 (65.5%) females and 461 (34.5%) males with an average age of 37.41 +/- 10.58 years. In the second survey, there were 1205 participants with mean age of 33.79 +/- 19.57 years. The rates of females and males were 57.7% and 42.3%, respectively. Compared to the first survey, the second one showed that poor mental health condition that was 1.40 (95% confidence interval: 1.171.67) times higher based on the age, sex, education, marital status, economic, alcohol, cigarette, water-pipe, and sedative (P<0.001). Conclusion: Poor mental health status has increased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. These results revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic was a chronic stressor faced by people every day;therefore, more robust mental health-related considerations must be implemented.

Assessment of psychological impact of covid-19 pandemic on dental professionals of West-Central Maharashtra State, India

Bakground: Currently whole world is under the constant threat of COVID-19 pandemic. Dentists are at the high risk as they are directly exposed to aerosol produced and salivary droplets. Isolation and its financial impact have created physical and psychological pressure, depression, anxiety and other mental health concerns. Materials and methods: An online structured cross-sectional survey was conducted during September and October 2020. 25 item surveys were developed and was randomly circulated and distributed among the 620 Dental professionals of Ahmednagar district through link using email and messages. Psychological impact of COVID-19 was assesses using GAD -7 scale (Generalised Anxiety Disorder), which measures the presence and severity of anxiety symptoms. Descriptive statistics was applied to represent participants characteristics and Chi-Square test was applied to evaluate the level of association among variables with a significance level of p<0.01. Results: Among 600 participants from the study 37% (222) displayed mild signs of anxiety, about 40% (240) displayed moderate anxiety while 23% (138) displayed severe signs of anxiety as assessed using GAD -7 scale (Generalised Anxiety Disorder). Conclusion: Dental professionals all over the world felt a moral duty to reduce routine care for fear of spreading COVID-19 among their patients and beyond, but they are understandably concerned about the financial consequences. The findings of present study are useful in highlighting the psychological effect of COVID-19 pandemic on dental professionals of west-central Maharashtra state, India.

COVID-19 and cardiac health: A review

The ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic has caused a serious impact on patients suffering from cardiovascular disorders as they are predisposed to COVID infection as well as to exacerbation of their preexisting conditions which can prove to be fatal. Novel coronavirus disease-2019 (nCOVID-19) has a varied effect on the cardiac system ranging from myocardial injury to thromboembolic complications. A significant proportion of patients are noted to have comorbidities. Human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE 2) receptor is considered the target of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-Cov-2). SARS-Cov-2 leads to imbalance in RAAS activity which is responsible for target organ damage. Recombinant ACE 2 has been shown to restore ACE 2 levels in explanted hearts and restore balanced RAAS activity. nCOVID-19 can have varied cardiac manifestations ranging from acute coronary syndrome to heart failure, arrhythmias, pulmonary thromboembolism, and pericarditis. The current nCOVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in management strategies for cardiovascular diseases. Patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction can be fibrinolysed when a primary percutaneous coronary intervention facility with adequate protection is not available. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/angiotensin receptor blocker needs to be continued in patients with hypertension. Continuity of care for patients with chronic cardiovascular illness needs to be maintained. Management of cardiovascular emergencies needs to be done in a way which ensures the safety of health-care professionals and prevents infection transmission. Strict prevention of infection and health control measures will help to prevent spread of infection and reduce disease incidence.