Immunomodulatory role and potential utility of various nutrients and dietary components in SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Recently, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome cornoavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has become a great perturbation all around the globe and has many devastating effects on every aspect of life. Apart from the oxygen therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, Remdesivir and Dexamethasone have been proven to be efficacious against COVID-19, along with various vaccine candidates and monoclonal antibody cocktail therapy for Regeneron. All of these are currently at different stages of clinical trials. People with weak immunity are more prone to a severe infection of SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, early and judicious nutritional supplementation along with pharmacological treatment and clinician collaborations are critical in restituting the current situation. Nutritional supplements help in acquiring strong immunity to prevent the progression of disease any further. Vitamin C, vitamin D, selenium, zinc and many other nutritional and dietary supplements inhibit the production of inflammatory cytokines during a viral infection and prevents several unwanted symptoms of infection. Many dietary components like citrus fruits, black elderberry, ginger, and probiotics have the ability to attack viral replication. These supplements can also tame the overriding immune system during coronavirus infection. Keeping in view these facts, nutritional and dietary supplements can be used along with other management modalities. These nutritional and dietary supplements are potential candidates to curb the convulsive unfolding of novel COVID-19, in combination with other standard treatment protocols. In this review, various search engines were used to exploit available literature in order to provide a comprehensive review on nutritional and dietary supplements with respect to the viral infections. It will also provide a brief overview on some of the clinical trials that are in progress to assess the role of nutritional supplements, either alone or in combination with other pharmacological drugs, in fight against COVID-19.

A qualitative insight into the perceptions and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Pakistani pharmacists.

A qualitative exploration of pharmacists' perceptions regarding COVID-19 conspiracies and their willingness to get vaccinated. A semi-structured questionnaire guide was developed using ground theory to conduct in-depth interviews. A total of 36 participants gave consent for an audio-recorded interview. Results have shown that most of the respondents believed that SARS-CoV-2 is a natural virus, not man-made, that causes a disease just like other viruses and it is absurd to believe that the vaccine is being used by foreign powers for the implantation of microchips just to control humans. A general opinion thatwhich reflected from the in-depth interview is that the pharmaceutical companies may be hiding some important information on COVID-19 to promote the sale of their product. Some doubts on the reliability and trustworthiness on the COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy data were noticed among the respondents. Factors leading to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy were adverse reaction, cost of COVID-19 vaccine, and limited data on safety and efficacy profile of COVID-19 vaccine. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among health professionals is a major hindrance to our current fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Findings of this study are alarming, and the stakeholders must consider this ongoing vaccination campaign as an opportunity to formulate a mechanism to ensure high vaccination rate among general public and healthcare providers in Pakistan.KEY POINTSWhat was already known?According to World Health Organization (WHO), vaccine hesitancy is one of the ten major threats to global healthcare system and it is a major barrier to achieve herd immunity around the globe.Pakistan has begun vaccinating its people in a systematic phase-wise manner under which the healthcare workers and elderly people are prioritized for vaccination.Previous experience tells us that vaccine hesitancy is a major problem in Pakistan and it is better to understand perceptions of pharmacists about COVID-19 vaccine who are the primary source of information for most of general population.What this study adds:This study is first of its kind to explore vaccine hesitancy among Pakistani pharmacists and the results of this study show that majority of the participants were willing to get COVID-19 vaccine and few of them have even got themselves vaccinated at the start of vaccination campaign.Many among the willing participants considered cost of vaccine, adverse reactions, limited data, safety, and efficacy as major hindrance to their decision to get vaccine.Few participants were found highly vaccine-hesitant because of their staunch belief in the prevalent myths and rumors about COVID-19 vaccine.

Public Knowledge and Adherence to Hand Hygienic Guidelines for the Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission: A Cross-sectional Survey from Pakistan.

OBJECTIVE: Good hand hygienic practices are considered an important factor to curb the transmission and emergence of SARS-CoV -2. Various studies, conducted previously during the outbreaks of SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, have ascertained the effectiveness of adopting good hand hygienic practices to curb the emergence of these viruses. This study aims to explore public hand hygienic practices during the peak pandemic period. METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among the general population of Pakistan to investigate the knowledge and perception about hand hygiene, self-reported hand hygiene practices, adherence to hand hygienic guidelines, and barriers to optimal hand hygiene. Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Regression model were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in area-based knowledge (P = 0.026), beliefs (P = 0.027), and practices (P = 0.002) regarding hand hygiene. The results of regression analysis revealed that people in urban areas were more likely to have better knowledge (ß = 0.108, CI = 0.076 - 0.05, P = 0.008) and better adherence (ß = 0.115, CI = 0.514 - 2.68, P = 0.004) to hand hygienic practices. CONCLUSION: Advertisements on television and other electronic media with appealing slogans could be effective in making people more compliant to optimal hand hygienic practices.