ABSTRACT
Purpose of Study: Health policy regarding possible mother-to-child transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via breastfeeding was highly debated during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, subsequent research revealed that mother-to-infant transmission of SARS-COV-2 through breastmilk is highly unlikely, and the World Health Organization continues to recommend breastfeeding for all mothers, including those with confirmed COVID-19. Another mode of viral transmission and diagnostic testing that garnered scientific interest is the fecal route.The purpose of this study was to determine the detection rate of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in fecal samples collected from breastfeeding mothers with and without confirmed COVID-19. Methods Used: From April 2020 to March 2021, fecal samples were collected repeatedly over an 8-wk period from 28 nursing mothers with confirmed COVID-19 (162 total fecal samples) and from 24 healthy nursing mothers with no known exposure to COVID-19 (93 total fecal samples). For mothers enrolled within 7 d of a positive COVID-19 test, up to 7 repeated samples were collected: 3 in the first wk and 1 each at wk 2, 3, 4, and 8. For self-reported healthy mothers, up to 4 samples were collected: d 1, d 7, wk 3, and wk 8. RNA was isolated, and the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was determined using RT-qPCR following a modified version of the CDC's SARS-CoV-2 assay. Summary of Results: Among COVID-19-positive mothers, 7/28 (25%) had SARS-CoV-2 in at least one fecal sample. Among these mothers, mean duration of presence of SARS-CoV-2 in feces was 1.6 +/- 1.4 wk. One mother had SARS-CoV-2 in feces in five samples (d 1, d 3, d 7, wk 2, wk 4), while two mothers only had SARS-CoV-2 in a single fecal sample. Among healthy breastfeeding mothers without known COVID-19 exposures, 1/24 (4.2%) had SARS-CoV-2 in a single sample (d 7). Conclusion(s): We detected SARS-CoV-2 in feces of 25% of breastfeeding mothers with COVID-19 and 4.2% of breastfeeding mothers who self-reported no known COVID-19 sickness or exposures. Our data reveal that only 5/28 (17.9%) of d 1 fecal samples collected from mothers with COVID-19 had detectable SARS-CoV-2. (Table Presented).
ABSTRACT
During the last month of 2019 and the first trimester of 2020, a new infective disease has rapidly become a worldwide emergency, to the point of being declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization on 11 March 2020. The Coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) has reached 180 countries since 2 April 2020. The goal of this study is to examine scientific literature concerning the impact of COVID-19 on mental health of different slices of population. The literature referring to past pandemics has shown the role of fear and its negative psychosocial consequences on population’s quality of life. Inadequate knowledge about COVID-19 and unconfirmed news can increase anxiety and fear experienced by the public. It is a great responsibility for government to manage efficiently this emergency, and psychological wellbeing of the population should not be being underestimated in the develop of future plains. Until the end of the pandemic, information about the psychological state of vulnerable population should be monitored and used in order to create adequate governmental interventions. © 2020 Psychology Hub. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Social distancing, a non-pharmaceutical tactic aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19, can arise because individuals voluntarily distance from others to avoid contracting the disease. Alternatively, it can arise because of jurisdictional restrictions imposed by local authorities. We run reduced form models of social distancing as a function of county-level exogenous demographic variables and jurisdictional fixed effects for 49 states to assess the relative contributions of demographic and jurisdictional effects in explaining social distancing behavior. To allow for possible spatial aspects of a contagious disease, we also model the spillovers associated with demographic variables in surrounding counties as well as allow for disturbances that depend upon those in surrounding counties. We run our models weekly and examine the evolution of the estimated coefficients over time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. These estimated coefficients express the revealed preferences of individuals who were able to and chose to stay at home to avoid the disease. Stay-at-home behavior measured using cell phone tracking data exhibits considerable cross-sectional variation, increasing over nine-fold from the end of January 2020 to the end of March 2020, and then decreasing by about 50% through mid-June 2020. Our estimation results show that demographic exogenous variables explain substantially more of this variation than predictions from jurisdictional fixed effects. Moreover, the explanations from demographic exogenous variables and jurisdictional fixed effects show an evolving correlation over the sample period, initially partially offsetting, and eventually reinforcing each other. Furthermore, the predicted social distance from demographic exogenous variables shows substantial spatial autoregressive dependence, indicating clustering in social distancing behavior. The increased variance of stay-at-home behavior coupled with the high level of spatial dependence can result in relatively intense hotspots and coldspots of social distance, which has implications for disease spread and mitigation.