Preparedness for an Isolation Unit during Covid-19 Pandemic in PICU of Minia University Hospital: Practical Considerations and Outcomes

Background: Admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is compulsory for children with a severely complicated form of COVID-19, who are hemodynamically unstable. Our study determined the degree to which our PICU preparedness measures impacted patient outcomes and infection control management within the PICU of Minia University Hospital in Egypt. Methods: 179 pediatric patients, admitted to the PICU isolation unit with suspected or confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19, were studied retrospectively. We conducted descriptive analyses on the patients' characteristics and outcomes and the basic concepts and procedures for PICU readiness are discussed. Results: The patients ranged in age from one month to sixteen years, with an average age of 8.60 +/- 4.84 years, 44.69 % of whom were males. Fever, shortness of breath, and cough were the most common symptoms on admission. The most common comorbidities were neurological disorders, heart disease, and respiratory disease, with percentages of 27 %, 25 %, and 23 %, respectively. Overall, mortality was 22.9 %. Only 21 (0.5%) of the hospital's healthcare staff were infected. The infection did not spread to other non-COVID parts of the hospital. Conclusion: Our PICU strategies and preparation ensured adequate prevention of infection spreading to other units and HWCs, as well as lowering mortality and improving COVID-19 patients' outcomes.

Determinants of e-learning adoption in higher education in Iraq an academics and students' perspective

E-learning allows the students to access, repeat and use the scientific materials wherever and whenever the users want. Both academics and learners are the leading and essential actors in the process of the learning process. Moreover, the acceptance of a technology is the positive react for users by using such technology. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, e-learning has become mandatory over the world, thus, there is a necessity to investigate the determinants of e-learning adoption in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Iraq. Consequently, this paper aims to investigate elearning adoption and identify the determinants of e-learning in HEIs. An instrument was developed with eight dimensions based on technology organization and environmental (TOE) elements. The sample selection was of 580 students and 130 university lecturers who spread over several colleges. A clustering sampling method was used in the sampling selection process. Some hypotheses were proposed and tested via the paired T-test tool. To evaluate the relationship between the TOE variables and e-learning adoption, a regression analysis was carried out. The study findings classified into two categories, first, it helps to determine to what extent e-learning be adopted. Second, it provides meaningful guidance for higher education institutions that should follow as a pre-requested before adopting e-learning. © 2022. All Rights Reserved.

Avoiding COVID-19 complications with diabetic patients could be achieved by multi-dose Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine: a case study of beta cells regeneration.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the major risk factors for COVID-19 complications as it is one of the chronic immune-compromising conditions especially if patients have uncontrolled diabetes, poor HbA1c and/or irregular blood glucose levels. Diabetic patients' mortality rates with COVID-19 are higher than those of cardiovascular or cancer patients. Recently, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine has shown successful results in reversing diabetes in both rats and clinical trials based on different mechanisms from aerobic glycolysis to beta cells regeneration. BCG is a multi-face vaccine that has been used extensively in protection from tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy and has been repositioned for treatment of bladder cancer, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Recently, COVID-19 epidemiological studies confirmed that universal BCG vaccination reduced morbidity and mortality in certain geographical areas. Countries without universal policies of BCG vaccination (Italy, Nederland, USA) have been more severely affected compared to countries with universal and long-standing BCG policies that have shown low numbers of reported COVID-19 cases. Some countries have started clinical trials that included a single dose BCG vaccine as prophylaxis from COVID-19 or an attempt to minimize its side effects. This proposed research aims to use BCG vaccine as a double-edged weapon countering both COVID-19 and diabetes, not only as protection but also as therapeutic vaccination. The work includes a case study of regenerated pancreatic beta cells based on improved C-peptide and PCPRI laboratory findings after BCG vaccination for a 9 year old patient. The patient was re-vaccinated based on a negative tuberculin test and no scar at the site of injection of the 1st BCG vaccination at birth. The authors suggest and invite the scientific community to take into consideration the concept of direct BCG re-vaccination (after 4 weeks) because of the reported gene expressions and exaggerated innate immunity consequently. As the diabetic MODY-5 patient (mutation of HNF1B, Val2Leu) was on low dose Riomet® while eliminating insulin gradually, a simple analytical method for metformin assay was recommended to ensure its concentration before use as it is not approved yet by the Egyptian QC labs.

Estimation of the Daily Recovery Cases in Egypt for COVID-19 Using Power Odd Generalized Exponential Lomax Distribution

Covid-19 has become an important topic this days, because of its bad effect in many fields such as Economics, industrial and commerce. In this paper, Covid-19 will be studied statistically point of view depending on the recovery cases in the Arab Republic of Egypt in the interval of (20 March to 20 August 2020). A power odd generalized exponential Lomax distribution has been considered. Some mathematical properties of the distribution are studied. The method of maximum likelihood and maximum product of spacings are used for estimating the model parameters. Also 95% asymptotic confidence intervals for the estimates of the parameters are derived. A simulation study was conducted to evaluate the numerical behavior of the estimates. The proposed methods are utilized to find estimates of the parameters of power odd generalized exponential Lomax distribution for the recovery cases of corona virus in Egypt. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Assessing the level of knowledge and perception among malaysian university students towards covid-19

Background: Coronavirus 2019 or CoVid-19 is a new strain of virus from the coronaviridae family which was first detected in Wuhan, China. CoVid-19 has been declared as a world pandemic with approximately 100,000 cases and 14,000 fatalities across 100 countries worldwide. Aim of the Study: The objective of this research is to assess the level of awareness, knowledge, and perception of CoVid-19 among students of university considering the recent outbreak. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Stratified random sampling was used as respondents were divided into medical and non-medical strata. Questionnaires were distributed to 300 students from 6 different faculties and the results were analyzed. Results: Our results indicated that gender, ethnicity, and type of courses do not hold statistical significance against the knowledge and perception of CoVid-19. There is a significant association though between ethnicity and awareness to CoVid-19 (p = 0.021) and between gender and awareness to CoVid-19 (p = 0.002). Conclusion: The outcome of this study proves our hypothesis that there is no significant association in the level of knowledge and perception towards CoVid-19 between the medical and non-medical students of the university.

An Unusual and Unexpected Result of Diagnostic Sampling for COVID-19.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It has spread globally, resulting in an ongoing pandemic. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) from a viral swab is diagnostic. The most common site to take this swab is from the nasopharyngeal area; however, patients with tracheostomies represent a major challenge as they have two sources for colonization and possible infection including the nose and the trachea. We present the case of a patient who had a COVID-19 diagnostic swab through his tracheostomy, when unfortunately the swab broke, resulting in a bronchial foreign body.