ABSTRACT
At present, the whole world is infected by COVID-19. It targets affecting the respiratory system and worsens for people with other health complications like diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, lung disorder, and so on. The availability of test kits is not adequate and symptoms of COVID-19 similar to pneumonia are deadly, which claims millions of people. The COVID-19 test kits are time-consuming and even reduce the detection rate. Therefore, in the current study, an automatic CT image classification technique for COVID-19 and Non-COVID patient identification is proposed. In this paper, a StackedAlexNet-19 convolution network for automatic classification of lung CT images is proposed. The proposed StackedAlexNet-19 model consists of different pre-trained methods like ResNet 101, Xception, NASNet, MobileNet, and InceptionV3. Based on the pre-trained model, input CT images are processed and integrated for the detection of abnormalities in COVID-19 CT images of patients. The StackAleNet-19 model is evaluated and comparatively examined with the existing techniques. The dataset for processing consists of 1359 CT images composed of COVID, non-COVID, and other infections. The validation range is set as 50 for each case with a total value of 150 and the network is trained with CT images of 1069 for classification. The analysis of results expressed that StackAlexNet-19 exhibits higher accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity value of 93.67%, 0.93, and 0.97 respectively. The proposed StackAlexNet classification technique achieves an accuracy of 93.67%. The developed model provides improved accuracy than the existing techniques. The StackAlexNet-19 facilitates the intervention of COVID-19 without any human intervention. © 2022 Bogataj, CC BY 4.0.
Subject(s)
Brain Diseases , COVID-19 , Infant, Newborn , Humans , Brain Diseases/diagnosis , Brain Diseases/etiology , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Aim: Prevalence of low back pain and osteoporosis in health care workers after the COVID 19 pandemic. Material(s) and Method(s): The present prospective study was conducted among 300 apparently healthy adults who are working as a health care individual in the institute. A questionnaire addressing known risk factors for osteoporosis was made. The severity of the LBP was graded using a visual analogue scale for pain (VAS). The VAS is a reliable scale used to register the intensity of chronic pain where 0 signifies no pain and 10 signifies the worst pain imaginable. Those who had chronic LBP were also questioned on whether the onset of LBP preceded the Covid-19 pandemic, and whether the severity of the LBP had increased during the pandemic. Result(s): Light, moderate, sedentary and vigorous physical activity was revealed in 50.1%, 33.6%, 11.1% and 5.2% of the subjects respectively. >1 hour sun exposure in a day was reported among 15.4% of the subjects.In this study, low back was found among 42.7% of the subjects. Mean BMD level was -0.49+/-2.40. Mean BMD level was lower in subjects having back pain, sedentary/vigorous physical activity and no sun exposure as compared to counterparts. Conclusion(s): The confinement decreed due to the COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant increase in LBPintensity among health care workers. Copyright © 2022 Ubiquity Press. All rights reserved.
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Introduction: To statistically compare the trends of epidemiological indicators of COVID-19 in India with Italy, the UK, and the US. Methodology: In this descriptive analysis, epidemiological indicators were calculated and their trends were plotted and compared statistically. Regression analysis was done to predict the fatalities. Results: The trends of total and active cases per million populations are rising in India and US, while Italy has achieved the plateau in the total cases per million populations, and active cases have been sharply declining with time. The UK is about to achieve the same. India has remained far behind the other three countries in the number of tests per million populations (p<0.05). In the initial phase, the test positivity rate of India was quite lower but has overtaken Italy and UK. India has always reported a higher recovery rate than US and lower than Italy. CFRs have achieved a plateau in Italy and UK, in US it is declining, while it remained almost constant in India throughout the pandemic. Testing was a significant covariate in predicting the fatalities. Conclusions: India was able to manage the initial phase of this pandemic due to early and strict government interventions and strong public health responses. @ 2022 The Journal retains the copyrights of this article.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic gave an opportunity to adopt many appropriate changes in the behavior of the people in India. The major gears of those behavior changes were the enforcement by the government, fear, motivation (self and induced), and self-experiences or realizations with time. If those changes are fitted in the Trans-Theoretical Model, Indian people have passed through the "Pre-Contemplation" to "Action" stage of behavior changes during different phases of this pandemic. Frequent hand hygiene, maintaining physical distancing, use of face mask, cough etiquettes, avoid greetings through physical contacts, fear in spitting and urination at public places, refrain from gatherings and avoiding outside food are some of the examples of those appropriate behaviors which were enforced or learnt during the COVID pandemic. The continuous lockdown made people understand the difference between "want" and "need," the importance of local production, and the significance of social media and technology in routine life. The work-from-home strategy gave a chance to appreciate the work--life balance in a more applied way. The first-ever lifetime experience of unbelievable rejuvenating nature because of lack of human play taught people to appreciate nature. Although the current focus is on responding to the pandemic and on coping with its immediate effects, yet this is the time when there is an urgent need to create an enabling environment to support and sustain these COVID-19 appropriate behaviors (maintenance stage) to reap the maximum benefits out of them. Sustaining these appropriate behaviors is also important considering the bimodal distribution of the COVID-19 and possibility of advent of the second wave of COVID-19 in near future.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Duration of persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract of infected individuals has important clinical and epidemiological implications. AIM: We aimed to establish the duration and risk factors for persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract of asymptomatic infected individuals. METHODS: Data of repeat rRT-PCR (real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test done for SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals at our institute at Jodhpur, India were analysed from 19 March to 21 May 2020. Duration of virus persistence was estimated with parametric regression models based on weibull, log-normal, log-logistic, gamma and generalized gamma distributions. Factors associated with prolonged viral persistence were analysed with the best-fitting model. RESULTS: Fifty-one SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals with repeat rRT-PCR test were identified with 44 asymptomatics. The asymptomatic individuals had median virus persistence duration of 8.87 days (95% CI: 7.65-10.27) and 95 percentile duration of 20.70 days (95% CI: 16.08-28.20). The overall median virus persistence including both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals was found to be 9.18 days (95% CI: 8.04-10.48). Around one-fourth asymptomatics (10/44) demonstrated SARS-CoV-2 persistence beyond 2 weeks. Age <60 years and local transmission were found to be significantly associated with longer virus persistence among asymptomatic individuals on univariate regression but not in multivariate analysis. CONCLUSION: Recommended home isolation duration for SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals in India should be extended from 17 days to at least 3 weeks. Prolonged persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in a considerable proportion of asymptomatic individuals merits attention with regard to ensuring universal infection prevention precautions irrespective of symptomatic status.