ABSTRACT
The current state of pulmonary vaccine delivery will be discussed in this review. The prospects for lung immunization using dry powder generation technologies and specialized medicinal formulations are discussed. In terms of vaccine durability and antigenicity, dry powder vaccine generation technologies may be advantageous. The non-invasive, reasonably safe, and low-cost nature of pulmonary delivery could help the public health vaccination significantly. The vaccines, which are all given intramuscularly, produce systemic antibodies in the blood but not antibodies in the pulmonary mucosal lining. Inhalation vaccines provide a number of potential benefits over injectable vaccines, including ease of delivery, and even self-administration. To create a dry powder inhalation formulation that is breathable and mediates robust transfection in the lung, a safe and effective mRNA delivery vector as well as a suitable particle engineering approach is needed.
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is an infectious and devastating disease that has created heightened levels of anxiety and fear among the general population. COVID-19 has also brought many changes in everyone's lives including closing of schools, colleges/universities and social isolation in an unexplained manner. In these unprecedented times lot of sway has been developed among teaching faculty, students and student's parents in the medical profession including dental schools. However, the impact on students is likely to be noteworthy. Aim: To assess the awareness, attitude, anxiety and perceived mental healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic among dental faculty, students and their parents in South India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, observational questionnaire based study was carried out among 1000 dental faculty, students and student's parents in South India during August 2020 to December 2020. A questionnaire with 20 items regarding awareness, attitude, anxiety and perceived mental healthcare was designed on Google forms and sent through E-mails and WhatsApp. Snowball sampling technique was used and 1000 self-selected dental faculty, students & students' parents in South India were included in the study. Data was subjected to statistical analysis using Statistical package of social science (SPSS) software v.20.0 International Business Machines Corporation-United States of America (IBM-USA). Chi-square test was used to analyse the data. The p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The findings showed all the respondents were aware with positive attitude and awareness on this pandemic in regard to its spread and precautions to be taken. However, parents (59.2%) were more preoccupied with eliminate thoughts and more were anxious when compared to faculty (32.1%) and students (32.4%), whereas faculty were more concerned about family's health and safety (49%) and financial status (54.6%) (p<0.001). All the respondents felt that getting engaged and sharing their worries would help them and mental health help requirement is greater in students (86.5%), student's parents (81.4%) followed by faculty (71.5%) (p<0.001). Conclusion: During this pandemic even though respondents were aware of the possible squeal of infection and preventive measures. The findings suggest a need to address the mental health worries of the people during these pandemics.