Assessment of Heavy Metals Contamination and Antimicrobial Drugs Residue in Broiler Edible Tissues in Bangladesh.

There are substantial public health consequences when hazardous heavy metal contaminants and antimicrobial drug residues are present in broiler edible tissues. This study aimed to assess the concentration of antimicrobial drugs and heavy metals residues in broiler meat, bones and edible composites (combinations of liver, kidney and gizzard). Samples were collected from different types of broiler farms, broiler wet meat markets and supermarkets, covering all five divisions of Bangladesh. The antimicrobial drug and heavy metal residues were analyzed by uHPLC and ICP-MS, respectively. In addition, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among broiler meat consumers in the study areas to evaluate their attitude towards the consumption of broiler meat. The survey clearly stated that broiler meat consumers in Bangladesh have a negative attitude toward the consumption of broiler meat, although all respondents reported to eat broiler meat regularly. The antibiotic with the highest prevalence of residues in broiler edible tissues was oxytetracycline, followed by doxycycline, sulphadiazine and chloramphenicol. On the other hand, all collected broiler edible tissues contained chromium and lead, followed by arsenic. The fact of the matter is that the antimicrobial drugs and heavy metals residues were found to be below the maximum residue limit (MRL), except for the lead content. In addition, the broiler meat samples from supermarkets had lower levels of antimicrobial drugs and heavy metals residue compared to the broiler meat collected from various types of farms and broiler wet meat markets. Irrespective of the source, broiler meat was found to contain antimicrobial drugs and heavy metals residues below the MRL, except for lead, suggesting that broiler meat is safe for human consumption. Therefore, raising public awareness regarding misconceptions about broiler meat consumption among consumers would be warranted.

Asthma in COVID-19: Mitigating or exacerbating? An interesting case report.

Introduction: Bronchial asthma is an age-old disease whereas COVID-19 is an officially declared pandemic on March 11, 2020 by WHO. Since both are primarily a disease of the respiratory system, researchers across the globe tried to explore the potential relationship between them; to date, there is no convincing data. Here, we tried to present a case to explore potential relationships between these two, if present. Case presentation: A 30-year-old male patient with well-controlled cough variant asthma was diagnosed with a case of covid-19 infection 12 months back. All other sign symptoms subsided except dry cough. The patient is treated with an inhaled bronchodilator, oral and inhaled steroid, Tab montelukast as well as other conservative management like hot water vapor, lozenge, honey, etc but symptoms were not controlled for the last 12 months. The patient could not do his job because of this problem. All examination and investigation findings were normal. After long-term use of inhaled steroids, he is now 50-60% improved and gradually improving. Discussion: Covid can exacerbate cough in an asthmatic patient. Neuronal activation and neuroinflammatory mechanisms may aggravate this cough after covid. Diagnosis confirmed clinically with the relevant improvement of symptoms. Other important differentials were excluded by appropriate history, examinations, and investigation. Cough is improved by steroids in this case. Conclusion: Summary of conclusion: Cough variant asthma may be aggravated with covid 19 infection and meticulous history, treatment, and follow up needed for an asthmatic patient who is infected with covid 19.

Pemberdayaan masyarakat dalam pencegahan COVID-19 di Kecamatan Balikpapan Selatan Kota Balikpapan

Kegiatan Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat yang dilaksanakan oleh Tim Pengabdian Program Studi S1 Administrasi Publik Fisipol Universitas Mulawarman mengacu kepada pemberdayaan masyarakat dalam pencegahan COVID-19 di Kota Balikpapan. Salah satu wilayah yang memiliki tingkat Pasien Dalam Pengawasan (PDP) dan terkonfirmasi positif paling banyak ialah Kecamatan Balikpapan Selatan. Hal ini dilatarbelakangi oleh kurangnya tingkat kepatuhan dan keterlibatan masyarakat dalam menerapkan kebijakan Social Distancing serta kurangnya pemahaman masyarakat terhadap protokol kesehatan dalam rangka pencegahan penyebaran COVID-19 yang mengakibatkan masih tingginya penyebaran kasus COVID-19 di Kecamatan Balikpapan Selatan, sehingga Kota Balikpapan mendapat predikat menjadi kawasan Zona Merah. Melalui kebijakan serta peraturan yang dikeluarkan oleh Pemerintah Kota Balikpapan yang tertuang pada penerbitan Surat Edaran (SE) serta PERWALI. Upaya yang dapat dilakukan Tim Pengabdian Program Studi S1 Administrasi Publik Fisipol Universitas Mulawarman Bekerjasama dengan Tim SATGAS COVID-19 Kota Balikpapan dalam melaksanakan kegiatan Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat berupa pemberian sosialisasi kepada masyarakat serta ikut membantu penertiban pelanggar protokol kesehatan COVID-19. Sosialisasi yang dilaksanakan oleh Pemerintah Kota Balikpapan berkolaborasi dengan Tim Pengabdian Program Studi S1 Administrasi Publik Fisipol Universitas Mulawarman berupa pemberian bantuan masker serta ikut dalam penertiban pelanggaran protokol COVID-19 di salah satu titik Kecamatan Balikpapan Selatan.

Risk factors of the severity of COVID-19: A meta-analysis.

OBJECTIVE: We intend to identify some probable risk factors that are responsible for the severity of COVID-19 using a meta-analysis. METHODS: The literature exploration lasted up to 18 April 2020 and through PubMed, Google Scholar, EMBASE and Cochrane Library we have identified 10 pertinent publications. To paraphrase the outcomes of autonomous researches, we have performed a random-effect meta-analysis. RESULTS: A total of 2272 patients' information was extracted from the selected literature. We have found gender (male) (Risk ratio [RR] = 1.29, 95% Confidence Interval [CI] 1.07 to 1.54), hypertension (RR = 1.79, 95% CI 1.57 to 2.04), diabetes (RR = 1.57, 95% CI 1.25 to 1.98), fatigue or myalgia (RR = 1.17, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.35), and smoking history (RR = 1.71, 95% CI 1.25 to 2.35) are potential risk factors for the severity of COVID-19. We found fever (RR = 1.21, 95% CI 0.66 to 2.22), cough (1.13, 95% CI 0.98 to 1.30) and diarrhoea (RR = 1.14, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.40) as insignificant risk factors for COVID-19 severity. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this research may be beneficial to identify patients with higher risks to provide additional medical attention from the very beginning of the treatment.

Adversarial Examples-Security Threats to COVID-19 Deep Learning Systems in Medical IoT Devices.

Medical IoT devices are rapidly becoming part of management ecosystems for pandemics such as COVID-19. Existing research shows that deep learning (DL) algorithms have been successfully used by researchers to identify COVID-19 phenomena from raw data obtained from medical IoT devices. Some examples of IoT technology are radiological media, such as CT scanning and X-ray images, body temperature measurement using thermal cameras, safe social distancing identification using live face detection, and face mask detection from camera images. However, researchers have identified several security vulnerabilities in DL algorithms to adversarial perturbations. In this article, we have tested a number of COVID-19 diagnostic methods that rely on DL algorithms with relevant adversarial examples (AEs). Our test results show that DL models that do not consider defensive models against adversarial perturbations remain vulnerable to adversarial attacks. Finally, we present in detail the AE generation process, implementation of the attack model, and the perturbations of the existing DL-based COVID-19 diagnostic applications. We hope that this work will raise awareness of adversarial attacks and encourages others to safeguard DL models from attacks on healthcare systems.