Depression and anxiety among the University community during the Covid-19 pandemic: a study in Southern Brazil.

This study aimed to assess the mental health of a University community in South Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional web-based survey was conducted between July-August 2020 through a self-administered questionnaire. All University staff and students were eligible. Depression was measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and anxiety by the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7. To evaluate the effect of social distancing and mental health factors on outcomes, Poisson regression models with robust variance were performed, estimating Prevalence Ratios (PR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (95%CI). 2,785 individuals participated in the study. Prevalence of depression and anxiety were 39.2% (95%CI 37.3-41.1) and 52.5% (95% CI 50.6-54.4), respectively. Undergraduate students showed a higher prevalence of the outcomes. Not leaving the house routinely, mental health care, and previous diagnosis of mental illness were associated with both outcomes. Those with a previous medical diagnosis of depression had a 58% (PR 1.58; 95%CI 1.44; 1.74) and anxiety a 72% (PR 1.72; 95%CI 1.56; 1.91) greater prevalence of depression than their peers. An alarming prevalence of psychopathologies was observed. Despite the well-known benefits of social distancing to public health, it requires a surveillance on the population's mental health, especially students and those with previous mental illness diagnosis.

The impact of COVID-19 on Tuberculosis diagnosis

Introduction: The impact of COVID-19 on the transmission of M. tuberculosis has not yet been accurately ascertained. In addition to the exposure of contacts in household settings, it will be worth considering the impact of respiratory contacts in the community and health care settings, due to the widespread use of masks. Aims and Objectives: We aimed to know if there is an increase in a local hospital TB diagnosis in the postpandemic period and which causes are associated with that increase. Method(s): We collected data from April 2018 to December 2021 and divided it into two 20 months groups - prepandemic (Apr18'-Jan20') and post-pandemic (Mar20'-Dec21'). We analyzed sociodemographic variables, time to diagnosis and type of tuberculosis. Results and Discussion We notified a total of 41 cases after the pandemic started, a 78% increase from the pre-pandemic period (N=23). This increase happened mainly in patients who worked in the primary sector of the economy (agriculture), showing a 4.6x increase in the number of cases (p<0.05) and is probably related to household transmission in low socioeconomic backgrounds. The mean age was 51 years, and most of the patients (78.5%) were male. Time until diagnosis was 102 days (compared to 82 days before). Increased time until diagnosis was independent of any of the variables studied (p>0.05) and happened across all groups. People with>6 months of symptoms were more frequent after Mar20' (8 vs 2). Conclusion(s): The number of cases and the time to diagnosis increased after the onset of the pandemic. The increase was cross-sectional for all groups of patients. The increase in cases occurred mainly in farmworkers, with 40% of post-pandemic cases (and statistical significance) compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Presumed SARS-CoV-2 Viral Particles in the Human Retina of Patients With COVID-19.

Importance: The presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the retina of deceased patients with COVID-19 has been suggested through real-time reverse polymerase chain reaction and immunological methods to detect its main proteins. The eye has shown abnormalities associated with COVID-19 infection, and retinal changes were presumed to be associated with secondary microvascular and immunological changes. Objective: To demonstrate the presence of presumed SARS-CoV-2 viral particles and its relevant proteins in the eyes of patients with COVID-19. Design, Setting, and Participants: The retina from enucleated eyes of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection were submitted to immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy processing at a hospital in São Paulo, Brazil, from June 23 to July 2, 2020. After obtaining written consent from the patients' families, enucleation was performed in patients deceased with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. All patients were in the intensive care unit, received mechanical ventilation, and had severe pulmonary involvement by COVID-19. Main Outcomes and Measures: Presence of presumed SARS-CoV-2 viral particles by immunofluorescence and transmission electron microscopy processing. Results: Three patients who died of COVID-19 were analyzed. Two patients were men, and 1 was a woman. The age at death ranged from 69 to 78 years. Presumed S and N COVID-19 proteins were seen by immunofluorescence microscopy within endothelial cells close to the capillary flame and cells of the inner and the outer nuclear layers. At the perinuclear region of these cells, it was possible to observe by transmission electron microscopy double-membrane vacuoles that are consistent with the virus, presumably containing COVID-19 viral particles. Conclusions and Relevance: The present observations show presumed SARS-CoV-2 viral particles in various layers of the human retina, suggesting that they may be involved in some of the infection's ocular clinical manifestations.

COVID-19 Retinal Findings in Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Units and Wards.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate ocular clinical findings in patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection, of various levels of disease severity, who required mechanical ventilation and admission to intensive care units or specialized wards. Longitudinal, observational study conducted from March 2020 to June 2020. Color fundus and red-free photography were performed in both eyes following pupillary dilation. 104 participants were recruited from 2 different centers: 60 (58%) from the Hospital Municipal de Barueri intensive care unit (ICU) and 44 (42%) from specialized wards for patients with COVID-19 at the Hospital São Paulo. 21.9% presented with eye lesions, in 3% these lesions were vision compromising. Our results have shown similar rate of intraocular lesions in patients in both the ward or intensive care unit, regardless of medication use, including anticoagulant drugs.

Activating Templar Heritage: Tourism, Narrative Strategies and Information Technologies

While fairly established in several western countries, military tourism is still in a grey area in Portugal. In order to bolster the notion that this concept can be a major contributor to tourism activation, an Information System is being developed with the Templar Order as basis. This project is a direct result of the work of the Polytechnic Institute of Tomar (Portugal), the Templars Route European Federation and Tomar’s local government. It uses the Rapid Application Development methodology and resorts mostly to a client-server web application, using web standards such as HTML, CSS and JS, and it’s operated by the PHP program language and SGBD Mysql for data persistence. The IS fills a void as far as military tourism heritage platforms are concerned. It’s user friendly design and architecture make for a pleasant research experience while the inclusion of more updated and historical narratives along with storytelling strategies increase its appeal among a non-academic audience. The recent COVID-19 outbreak brought about the need to adapt the original model to an ever-increasing virtual culture trend. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.