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The current paper is aimed to contribute to the International Relation ' s research agenda related with international security ' s studies linked to health. It analyzes the incorporation process of covid-19 pandemic in the Organization of American States ' security agenda, as an international health crisis, using the securitization theory and through the speech analysis. Likewise, it was used descriptive and analytic generalization methods to support the interpretation of the data obtained. As results, it was possible to confirm that, since the establishment of multidimensional security ' s concept in 2003 by the OAS, the incorporation of issues related to health at the hemispheric security agenda is increasingly frequent, being HIV/aids the first precedent. In addition, the covid-19 pandemic is positioned as a new paradigmatic example in international security studies and, therefore, as a clear antecedent for the analysis of future similar phenomena resulting from health crisis.
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Evidence suggests that social crises impact mental health. However, empathy and access to information through social media might moderate its effect. This research examines the impact of empathy and social media usage and their relation to mental health among Colombians in two social crises: 1) the COVID-19 outbreak and 2) the Colombian national strike along 2021. Data from 314 adults were collected via eight online questionaries. Results indicated that participants in both crises spent vast amount of time in social media sites;positive association between usage of social media networks, anxiety, and traumatic stress measures;negative association between empathy and mental health indicators;and lower well-being and mental health indicators in participants that spent more time in social media sites. Moreover, regression analyses revealed that participants spending more time in social media with high empathy indicators and lower educational level are more likely to report worse mental health measures. In summary, this study has found that empathy moderates the relationship between social media usage and mental health in both social crises © 2022, Universitas Psychologica.All Rights Reserved.
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Introduction: The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is more severe in patients with pre-existing comorbidities;therefore, dialysis patients fall into this category. Not to mention the risk among patients receiving in-center dialysis, since they are known to be at higher risk of contracting this disease. Information about the clinical characteristics among hemodialysis patients with COVID-19 in Latin America and low-and middle-income countries are limited. Considering the importance of this topic, the aim of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics along with the outcome of 70 hemodialysis patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Case Description: The mean age of the patients was 58 (range 19-87), where 65.7% were male. The most prevalent comorbidities were Hypertension (98.6%) and Type 2 Diabetes (54.3%). The most common presenting symptoms were dyspnea (71.4%), fever (68.6%) and cough (58.6%). In addition of abnormal pulmonary auscultation in most patients (78.6%). Lymphocytopenia and elevated inflammatory markers as Procalcitonin, ESR, D-dimer and CRP were the main prevalent lab findings. At admission 90.1% had ground-glass abnormalities in the CT findings, being CO-RADS 3 the most frequent category between these patients. The average hospital stay was 8.51+/- 6.39 days, 35.7% of these patients were admitted to ICU with a median of 5.00 (IQR: 2.5-11) days and only 4 (5.7%) required mechanical ventilation. Therapeutic management included statins and antithrombotic therapy for all the patients at prophylactic doses. Treatment options were Remdesivir, corticosteroids, hydroxychloroquine, antibiotics, and other immunosuppressant drugs. A total of 8 (11.4%) patients died during hospitalization and 62 (88.6%) were discharged. Discussion(s): Even though dialysis patients are at higher risk of death, especially in developing countries, our findings suggest that the mortality rate were lower in comparison with other studies in Latin America and similar to some developed countries. The use of statins and antithrombotic prophylaxis in all hospitalized patients seems to be associated with a lower risk of death in conjunction with other therapeutic regimens according to the guidelines. No major adverse consequences were observed with Remdesivir in these patients.
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Objetive. To describe the perceptions associated with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on coexistence, living conditions and possible parental burnout with parents living in the Colombian territory. Methodology. A sociodemographic record was applied, an Ad Hoc instrument to establish how the pandemic affected coexistence and the obtaining of resources, and the Latin American version of the 'Parental Burnout Assessment' was applied with a convenience sample of 390 parents. Results. Personal, economic, family relationships, parental burnout and mental health deterioration were evidenced in a significant proportion of participants. Conclusion. Coping with situations derived from COVID-19, added to the associated confinement, led to a significant deterioration in the living conditions of Colombian parents, which should be taken into account for the development of programs aimed at the preventive and therapeutic approach of the identified variables.
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Objective: This systematic review aimed to evaluate the antiviral effect of mouthwashes against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Material and methods: An electronic search was performed on PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, LILACS, ProQuest, and Google Scholar, and was complemented by a manual search. Both clinical and in vitro studies that focused on the antiviral effect of mouthwashes against SARS-CoV-2 were included. Risk of bias assessment was performed only on the clinical studies using the RoB-2 and ROBINS-I tools. Results: A total of 907 records were found;after initial selection by title and , 33 full-text articles were selected to be evaluated for eligibility. Finally, a total of 27 studies were included for the qualitative synthesis, including 16 in vitro studies and 11 clinical trials. Antiviral effects were evaluated separately for the in vitro and clinical studies. In vitro studies included mouthwashes containing hydrogen peroxide, chlorhexidine digluconate, povidone-iodine, essential oils, cetylpyridinium chloride, and other compounds;in vivo studies included mouthwashes containing hydrogen peroxide, chlorhexidine digluconate, povidone-iodine, cetylpyridinium chloride, essential oils, chlorine dioxide, 0-cyclodextrin-citrox, and sorbitol with xylitol. Povidone-iodine, cetylpyridinium chloride, and essential oils were effective in vitro, while hydrogen peroxide, chlorhexidine digluconate, povidone-iodine, cetylpyridinium chloride, 0-cyclodextrin-citrox, and sorbitol with xylitol were effective in vivo. Unclear or high risk of bias was found for almost all clinical studies, and only one study presented with a low risk of bias. No further quantitative analysis was performed. Conclusion: Although povidone-iodine, cetylpyridinium chloride, and essential oils may be an alternative to reduce the viral load in vitro and in vivo, more studies are needed to determine the real antiviral effect of these different mouthwashes against SARS-CoV-2. This work was not funded. The protocol was registered in PROSPERO (identification number: CRD42021236134). (c) 2022 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
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Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused tremendous impact globally due to the significant morbidity and mortality caused by this virus. It is currently known that the probability of becoming seriously ill from this disease is higher in older adults, in people with pre-existing comorbidities, and those with a suppressed immune state. Therefore, transplant patients are not the exception. Considering the importance of this topic and the scarce information on the outcome of this type of patient, especially in Latin America, this series of cases is focused on our experience with 10 kidney transplant patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Case Description: The age range of the patients was 41 to 68 years, where 8 of these were men. The most common admission symptoms were fever (80%), dyspnea (70%), myalgia/arthralgia (50%), and headache (50%). The most prevalent laboratory findings were lymphocytopenia and increased inflammatory markers such as D-dimer, LDH, procalcitonin, erythrocyte sedimentation, and ferritin. General management included supportive treatment, statins, and antithrombotic therapy, while the specific treatment options were hydroxychloroquine, antivirals, corticosteroids, intravenous ig, tofacitinib, and convalescent plasma. All the patients improved and were discharged. Two of them went to the ICU and only one required mechanical ventilation. The majority of the patients (70%) remained with their baseline immunosuppression without dose reduction or suspension. Discussion: kidney transplant recipients are more susceptible to infections, along with increased disease severity. At the same time their immunosuppressed state may reduce the inflammatory response following this type of infection. Decisions were based on stopping or attenuating the viral load and the systemic inflammation caused by this virus, but at the same time protecting against acute allograft rejection and the coinfection with other pathogens. Our findings suggest that the use of statins and antithrombotic prophylaxis in all hospitalized transplant patients may be beneficial to reduce the risk of mortality in patients with COVID-19 infection. Also, the maintenance of immunosuppressive therapy was not associated with worse outcomes.
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The tension between the United States and China has not ended, despite the lengthy negotiations carried out in 2019 to appease differences and decrease protectionism over the technology industry, since the trade war was producing devastating consequences for both powers and international trade. The resurgence of tension is due to two main factors, such as mutual accusations about who is to blame for the origin of COVID-19 and the use of the new 5G mobile technology by Chinese companies like ZTE and Huawei. We developed an in-depth analysis of the consequences on international prices of the technology industry and international trade due to the reappearance of the trade conflict between China and the United States. This analysis will be carried out through the application of economic theories. There is greater distrust in the technology sector, and this produces a variation in the price of the technology industry. Likewise, according to Marshall’s law of demand and supply, this effect can be explained more accurately;since there was a lower demand for technological products, the digital industry will have to lower its prices to generate income. © 2021 by Emerald Publishing Limited.
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COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Its symptoms are similar to those of the common flu, including fever, cough, dyspnea, myalgia, and fatigue. Due to its rapid expansion globally, the World Health Organization (OMS) declared it a pandemic. The molecular test commonly used worldwide for direct detection of the virus is the RT-PCR test but it takes time to process and the materials used are scarce. In this work we propose: (a) The design and implementation of a deep neural network architecture for the detection of patients with COVID-19 using as input X-ray images of the chest;the architecture is made up of a feature extraction phase, that is, a pre-trained model VGG16 extracts the features of the image;then in the second phase, a multilayer neural network classifies into one of two particular classes (1: COVID, 0: NO COVID). (b) The implementation of a Web platform that allows interested people to use our architecture in a clear, simple and transparent way. The deep learning algorithm was implemented in Python with specific libraries for the design of neural networks, while the Web platform was implemented in PHP using the Laravel framework and MySQL database. We evaluate the performance of our proposal using the sensitivity, specificity and area under the curve (AUC) evaluation metrics, obtaining good results in very short computational times.