Demography, hygiene and previous disease prevalence as plausible risk factors associated with Covid-19 deaths across Indian states (preprint)

Severity of Covid-19 diseases has been disproportionate with higher case-fatality ratio affecting developed nations. In India, states with higher income have reported more number of deaths compared to lower income states. The global burden of diseases India 2019 and the National Health Profile 2019 data was used to draw correlations with Covid-19 mortality at two different dates of peak Covid-19 cases in India. We explored correlation of mortality in different states of India with prevalence of different diseases, demography, development, sanitation etc. The study found a positive correlation with known demographic parameters such as percentage of elderly population(spearman correlation coefficient(rho) =0.44 and 0.46 with 1st and 2nd peak respectively). Similarly, percentage urbanization was seen to correlate well with mortality(rho=0.71 and 0.57) suggesting Covid-19 to be a predominantly urban disease. Prevalence of Autoimmune diseases, and Cancer show higher correlation with deaths. A surprising positive correlation emerged between improved sanitation parameters, such as closed drainage and indoor toilets, with COVID-19 deaths. Overall the multivariate regression model achieved by combining demography, sanitation, autoimmune diseases and cancer gave us the best prediction for Covid-19 mortality(adjusted R square value of 0.71 with peak 1 and 0.85 with peak 2). Analysis of the Covid-19 related data seems to indicate that as the wealth of a state increases, the state urban landscape changes often leading to better sanitation facilities. The lifestyle and prevalence to autoimmune diseases as well as cancer also increases. However, this may affect the ability of state to fight pandemics due to lower exposure to pathogens and immune training.

Emerging issues and preventive measures for health care workers in the diagnostic field in coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic

Coronavirus disease 2019 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome-CoV-2 is an emerging infectious disease first identified in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, which subsequently spread as a global pandemic posing a global threat. As per World Health Organisation worldwide around 38 lac people have been infected and 2.6 lac people have died from the disease and in India 59,662 people are infected with 1981 deaths by May 9, 2020. It is feasible that potentially infectious specimens may be submitted in our laboratory those are the impending source of infection to the laboratory personnel. Using imaging equipment on coronavirus confirmed/suspected patient/carriers is a serious hazard for healthcare providers because there is a risk that the virus could remain on the surface of the computed tomography scan machines or ultrasound (US) probes/patient bed/couch. Here, we have enlisted the rigorous biosafety measures which if executed appropriately can significantly drop the chances of spread of infection to health care workers in these diagnostic sections.

The Effects of Social Media Consumption Among the Internet Users During COVID-19 Lockdown in India: Results from an Online Survey

In previous studies it has been found that spending too much time on social media can have negative effects on social and mental wellbeing of the users. Average time spent on social media increased drastically during covid-19 lockdown in India. The present study thus aims to analyze the direct and indirect effects of extensive social media and social networking services' usage during the lockdown in India. A nationwide online survey was conducted through a ‘Google Forms' questionnaire between 30th June 2020 to 27th July 2020. A total of 818 respondents took part in the study. ‘Social media effect index' was constructed using exploratory factor analysis. Ordinal logistic regression was employed to analyze the effect of social media consumption on social and mental wellbeing of respondents. The average time spent on social networking sites in a day increased from 3.08 hours to 5.17 hours.75% people reported an increased time spent on social media and other services during the lockdown. 60% had reported procrastinating due to extensive SNS usage and had also experienced irregularities in sleep pattern. Respondents from age group ‘21 - 30‘ (OR: 0.22, 95% CI: 0.08 - 0.62) were 78% less likely of having a higher index value compared to ‘>30 years’ age group. During the lockdown there has been a significant increase in social media consumption. The study finds mixed effects of social media consumption during lockdown on users however younger participants reported a negative effect of the consumption on their social and mental well being. © 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Mortality due to COVID-19 in different countries is associated with their demographic character and prevalence of autoimmunity

In the first few months of its deadly spread across the world, COVID-19 mortality has exhibited a wide range of variability across different nations. In order to explain this phenomenon empirically, we have taken into consideration all publicly available data for 106 countries on parameters like demography, prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases, BCG vaccination status, sanitation parameters, etc. We used multivariate linear regression models and found that the incidence of communicable diseases correlated negatively. Demography, improved hygiene and higher incidence of autoimmune disorders correlated positively with COVID-19 mortality and they were among the most plausible factors to explain COVID-19 mortality compared to GDP of the nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Current Science (00113891) is the property of Indian Academy of Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Laboratory findings in COVID-19 patients and biomarkers for early assessment of severity and mortality

The novel coronavirus-19 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2) pandemic has crossed more than 4,006,257 cases with 278,892 deaths worldwide and 67,152 cases and 2206 deaths in India. The disease has a variable clinical course ranging from mild to severe disease. Although most of the patients are asymptomatic, some patients with comorbidities have a high propensity of clinical worsening and mortality and it is this chunk of patients that we need to recuperate. Studies have shown that a number of laboratory parameters, which are easily available and inexpensive, can adequately predict the disease severity at an early stage. In a resource-limited country like India, where costly investigations cannot be routinely carried out in the magnitude as big as that of this pandemic, it is imperative that patients be monitored with these simple and inexpensive parameters that are elucidated in this review. We carried out an electronic search on PubMed and Google Scholar with keywords “laboratory abnormalities in COVID-19,” “coagulopathy in COVID-19,” “sepsis in COVID-19,” “hematologic abnormalities in COVID-19,” “kidney injury in COVID-19,” “acute respiratory distress syndrome in COVID-19,” “cardiac injury in COVID-19,” “liver injury in COVID-19,” and “severity indicators in COVID-19” till present date (May 11, 2020). All studies that appeared in our search results were scrutinized and 40 studies were selected for the study.

Paradoxical Case Fatality Rate dichotomy of Covid-19 among rich and poor nations points to the hygiene hypothesis. (preprint)

In the first six months of its deadly spread across the world, the Covid-19 incidence has exhibited interesting dichotomy between the rich and the poor countries. Surprisingly, the incidence and the Case Fatality Rate has been much higher in the richer countries compared with the poorer countries. However, the reasons behind this dichotomy have not been explained based on data or evidence, although some of the factors for the susceptibility of populations to SARS-CoV-2 infections have been proposed. We have taken into consideration all publicly available data and mined for the possible explanations in order to understand the reasons for this phenomenon. The data included many parameters including demography of nations, prevalence of communicable and non-communicable diseases, sanitation parameters etc. Results of our analyses suggest that demography, improved sanitation and hygiene, and higher incidence of autoimmune disorders as the most plausible factors to explain higher death rates in the richer countries Thus, the much debated hygiene hypothesis appears to lend credence to the Case Fatality Rate dichotomy between the rich and the poor countries.