Considering Risks to Researchers and Staff in Low-Resource Settings during Public Health Crises: A Proposed Conceptual Model.

Human subjects research protections have historically focused on mitigating risk of harm and promoting benefits for research participants. In many low-resource settings (LRS), complex and often severe challenges in daily living, poverty, geopolitical uprisings, sociopolitical, economic, and climate crises increase the burdens of even minimal risk research. While there has been important work to explore the scope of ethical responsibilities of researchers and research teams to respond to these wider challenges and hidden burdens in global health research, less attention has been given to the ethical dilemmas and risk experienced by frontline researcher staff as they perform research-related activities in LRS. Risks such as job insecurity, moral distress, infection, or physical harm can be exacerbated during public health crises, as recently highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We highlight the layers of risk research staff face in LRS and present a conceptual model to characterize drivers of this risk, with particular attention to public health crises. A framework by which funders, institutions, principal investigators, and/or research team leaders can systematically consider these additional layers of risk to researchers and frontline staff is an important and needed addition to routine research proposals and protocol review.

Importance of emotional quotient and spiritual quotient on employee engagement in IT/ITES industries during COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was a worldwide emergency, seen unrivalled rapid growth and has affected the numerous business areas. It has obligated numerous organisations to roll out revolutionary vicissitudes to the work-environment just as to their work-force, which made uncommon disturbances to their employees both personally and professionally. Researchers state that with the help of emotional quotient (EQ) as a central component, organisational behaviour subtleties can be understood and addressed to enhance employee engagement (EE). On the other hand, spiritual quotient (SQ) reinforces human consolidative impression of completeness and has the ability to think beyond materialistic life, which thrusts individuals to spiritual path and furthermore assists them to adapt to agonising conditions of life. This study revealed that the EQ and SQ are important aspects in service industries like IT and ITES in enhancing the EE during pandemic times, and correlation analysis showed a positive relationship among them.

Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) practices among people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) - need to relook, in the era of COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) practices always have been neglected among HIV/AIDS (Human immunodeficiency virus/ Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) programs, even when HIV and WaSH services have robust bearing on each other. With COVID-19 pandemic on the go, it is utmost necessary for the people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) to ensure adequate WaSH practices. Objective: This study was carried out with an objective to assess baseline WaSH practices among PLHA and to find out if any association between nutritional status and WaSH parameters so as to identify the shortcomings and highlight the importance of WaSH practices among PLHAs and give suitable recommendations to program managers. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was carried out among PLHA registered in ART centres of western Maharashtra. A sample size of 378 consented to be part of the study were included in the study, by means of systematic random sampling. Data were collected by means of pretested questionnaire prepared from guidelines and previous studies. Institutional ethical clearance was obtained and informed consent was taken from study participants before data collection. Strict confidentiality was maintained throughout the study period. Results: When asked about the water processing method, 76% of them told they do not treat/process the water supplied to them. In contrast, only a few PLHA told they would filter (17%), boil (7%), and use aquaguard (1%). The majority (67%) had their latrines, and while 29% of them were using public latrines and its hygienic sanitation was a concern for them and 4% were still practising open-air defecation in rural areas. Almost all study participants were handwashing after toilet use and handwashing before consuming food. The majority (79%) told they used soap and water, while 20% were using only water, soil and water (1%) and ash and water (1%) which was a concern. Of all the households, 87% cooked their food twice and consumed it thrice a day, while 4% prepared thrice. 10% of them cooked only once and consumed thrice a day; 56% practised consumption of leftover food of the previous night which was a concern. A majority (54%) did not consume street food while remaining said that they used to consume street food. But majority (59%) said they did not follow the habit of checking hygiene or sanitation of hotel where they used to consume food while the remaining 41% did not check the hotel before ordering the food; 50% of them bought packaged milk while 40.9% brought from unpasteurized dairy. On analysis, hygiene and sanitation factors had no statistically significant association with the nutritional status of study participants. Conclusion: WaSH factors act synergistically with other factors to affect the holistic health of PLHA. Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities (continuous and regular), that focus on improving awareness level on WaSH practices, need to be promoted and integrated into HIV program, including providing basic care packages to PLHA like household water treatment products and soap, etc., Such measures will go a long way in maintaining health of PLHA even during ongoing COVID-19 pandemic scenario.

Detection of Covid-19 From an Imbalanced Chest X-ray Image Data Set

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread quickly, making identification of the virus critically important in assisting overburdened healthcare systems. Numerous techniques have been used to identify Covid-19, of which the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is the most common. However, obtaining results from the PCR test can take up to two days. An alternative is to use X-ray images of the subject's chest area as inputs to a deep learning neural networks algorithm. The two problems with this approach are the choice of architecture and the method used to deal with the imbalanced data. In this study a comparative analysis of a standard convolutional neural network (CNN) and a number of transfer learning algorithms with a range of imbalanced data techniques was conducted to detect Covid-19 from a data set of chest x-ray images. This data set was an amalgamation of two data sets extracted from the Kaggle Covid-19 open source data repository and non-Covid illnesses taken from the National Institute of Health. The resulting data set was had over 115k records and 15 different type of findings ranging from no-illness to illnesses such as Covid-19, emphysema and lung cancer. This study addresses the problem of class imbalance on the largest data set used for x-ray detection of Covid-19 by combining undersampling and oversampling methods. The results showed that a CNN model in conjunction with these random over and under sampling methods outperformed all other candidates when identifying Covid-19 with a F1-score of 93%, a precision of 90% and a recall of 91%. © 2021 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.

A cross-sectional study on cutaneous side-effects associated with mask usage among doctors during covid-19 pandemic

Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought major changes in people's lifestyle, especially in health care workers. Healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients are spending long hours wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). There are reports of adverse skin reactions secondary to wearing PPE, especially face masks. However, it is essential to wear the protective equipment. Aim: To assess the proportion of doctors who report adverse skin reaction after the use of face masks and enlist the skin reactions reported. And to study the relationship between certain suspected factors and occurrence of skin reactions. Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted using a questionnaire containing both open and closed ended questions which was distributed through online platform. The questionnaire contained details on the type of mask, duration of usage, frequency of change and dermatological manifestations experienced. Sample population constituted doctors who were willing to participate in the study. IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 17.0 was used for analysis of data. Results: The male to female ratio among the 220 doctors studied was 1:1.59. Maximum number of doctors (56.4%) wore N95 masks. 33.63% of them used one new mask every day. 60.90% of them used the mask for more than 6 hours continuously on a day. Acne was the most commonly reported problem accounting for 48.2%. Doctors using N95 masks reported acne more commonly. Conclusion: N95 masks were the most commonly used masks. Total 88.18% of the doctors reported cutaneous manifestations. Acne was the most common dermatological problem reported. It was associated with the use of N95 masks and longer duration of use of N95 masks.

Evaluation of locally-administered controlled-release doxycycline hyclate gel in smokers and non-smokers in the management of periodontitis: An Indian study

Purpose: To assess the clinical and biological effect of locally-administered controlled-release 10 % doxycycline hyclate gel in smokers and non-smokers for the management of periodontitis. Methods: Forty periodontitis patients were enrolled in this study from December 2012 to February 2013 at the Department of Periodontology and Implantology of the Institute of Dental Sciences and Dental Unit of Rohilkhand Medical College, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. For each patient, probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment level (CAL), plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), and sulcular bleeding index (SBI) were recorded. Changes in microbial counts were assessed by measuring colony-forming units (CFU) of three major periodontal pathogens. Clinical and microbial parameters were recorded at baseline and one month after scaling and root planing plus controlled local drug delivery of 10 % doxycycline hyclate gel in smokers and non-smokers. Results: A statistically significant change (p < 0.01) in PPD was observed among smokers between baseline (4.26 +/- 0.12mm) and re-evaluation at one month (3.20 +/- 0.11) with a change of 24.88 %. A statistically significant difference was found between smokers and non-smokers in PPD at the end of a 1-month re-evaluation (p < 0.05). None of the other parameters showed improvement in smokers following treatment. Conclusion: These results indicate that 10 % doxycycline hyclate gel, when administered locally into the periodontal pocket, shows clinical and microbial improvement, among smokers and non-smokers, in the management of periodontitis. Therefore, 10 % doxycycline gel is potentially an effective therapeutic strategy in the management of periodontitis.

Case study on nCOV-19 pandemic effect on indian economy and geographic impact

COVID-19 is a disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome corona Virus-2 (SARS-COV-2), which emerged in Wuhan city, Hubei province of China, and has now spread its roots over 220 countries and territories around the world. A few vaccines developed for this contagious disease till date have shown promising results. As a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a tremendous impact on the economy, mortality rate, and environment of the affected countries, including India. The present study carried out shows that the lockdown had a negative impact on the Indian economy and human life. Surprisingly, the Air Quality Index (AQI) has significantly improved in most Indian cities and around the world due to a decline in pollution levels due to the closure of all industrial and construction activities, reduced vehicular traffic, etc. Also, levels of critical parameters like pH, dissolved Oxygen) and biological Oxygen Demand) have shown improvement in water quality of major Indian rivers. In this paper, an attempt is made to address the impact of lockdown and human life index with current data and presented in graphical form. © 2021 Ecological Society of India. All rights reserved.

Coronavirus: An emergency for healthcare professionals.

Coronavirus infection is a transmissible disease. It was first described in China in December, 2019. It has been said to have a person-to-person transmission after prolonged and unprotected exposure. Patients with a potential SARS-CoV-2 exposure present with symptoms of low-grade pyrexia, dry cough, or shortness of breath. People with these symptoms should contact health-care providers before seeking medical intervention so that appropriate preventive actions may be implemented. Health-care facilities should rapidly isolate suspected individuals and notify local health departments for support involved in performing laboratory tests and efforts in containment. The present article describes the nature of virus, method of detection, and its mode of transmission.