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Aim: The Cirujanos en Accion and Hernia International foundations carried out their own and collaborative surgical campaigns in developing countries. In 2020 and 2021 the programme had to be suspended due to Covid. In 2022 we restarted our actions, analysed the difficulties of reactivation and described the campaigns that had been carried out and those that had to be delayed. Material/ Methods: We describe the 9 campaigns of Surgeons in Action, our own and in collaboration with Hernia International and our own campaign to the region of Naborno Karabakh, planned for September and cancelled 24 hours before departure due to the resurgence of armed conflict. An analysis is made of volunteers, places, type (adults or children or mixed), collaborations with other foundations, patients operated and procedures done according to pathologies, integration with local staff with exchange of knowledge. Result(s): Made in 8 countries (Benin, Camerun, Gambia (2), Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Sierra Leone) and postponed in one country, the Naborno Karabakh region of Armenia. 85 volunteers (25 general and 10 paediatric surgeons, 19 anaesthetists, 3 intensivists, 23 nurses, 5 audiovisuals);local staff;1144 patients (473 children, 671 adults), 1325 procedures for various pathologies (hernias, goitres, hydroceles, undescendend testis, soft tissue tumours, etc.) Conclusion(s): 9 campaigns have been carried out successfully and new locations have been opened with a good projection for the coming years, and we have experienced difficulties with the cancellation of a mega-campaign in an area with geopolitical conflicts - to be taken into account in the future.
ABSTRACT
Background: Different viruses employ similar pathways for replication, revealing key intracellular hotspots to target with host-directed therapies and achieve a broad-spectrum antiviral activity. Plitidepsin is a clinically approved antitumoral agent that blocks the elongation factor eEF1A required for protein translation. This drug counteracts SARS-CoV-2 replication and shows a favorable safety profile in COVID-19 patients. Yet, the precise antiviral mechanism of action of plitidepsin remains unknown. Method(s): Here we used a deep quantitative proteomic analysis to measure the impact of plitidepsin on the proteome of SARS-CoV-2-infected Vero E6 cells. This was complemented with transmission electron microscopy assays, which unraveled the subcellular and morphological changes associated to plitidepsin treatment. In addition, we performed functional in vitro assays to dissect the antiviral activity of plitidepsin against SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses. Result(s): We found that this drug inhibited the synthesis of all SARS-CoV-2 proteins in a dose-dependent manner. These included the R1AB polyproteins, which facilitate the synthesis of non-structural proteins involved in the formation of double membrane vesicles (DMV) required for viral replication. Plitidepsin reduced DMV formation and the morphogenesis of new viruses, having a greater impact on viral than on host proteins. Less than 14% of the cellular proteome was significantly affected by plitidepsin, inducing the up-regulation of key molecules associated with protein biosynthesis, such as the translation initiation factors eIF4A2 and eIF2S3. Therefore, plitidepsin induced a compensatory state that rescued protein translation. This proteostatic response explains how cells preserve the cellular proteome after treatment with a translation inhibitor such as plitidepsin. In addition, it suggests that plitidepsin could inhibit other RNA-dependent and non-integrated DNA viruses, as we confirmed in vitro using Zika virus, Hepatitis C virus replicon and Herpes simplex virus. However, the compensatory proteostasis induced by plitidespin also explains why this drug failed to inhibit the replication of integrated DNA proviruses such as HIV-1. Conclusion(s): Unraveling the mechanism of action of host-directed therapies like plitidepsin is imperative to define the indications and antiviral profile of these compounds. This knowledge will be key to develop broad-spectrum treatments and have them ready to deploy when future pandemic viruses break through.
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Prior to COVID-19, migrant journeys through the Mediterranean were often described with reference to the barriers posed within ‘fortress Europe' or through registers which centre migrant's adeptness at navigating draconian immigration regimes. Between these two contexts, this paper explores how a public authority lens can assist in understanding the implications of COVID-19 and associated vaccine bureaucracies. We draw on ethnographic research on the Italian-French Alpine border and chart how ‘vaccine populism'—perpetuated in nationalist political discourse as well as in the counter-commentaries of resistance offered by solidarity networks—has specific implications for migrants' access to vaccines and health information. We argue that analyses attentive to the subtle nuances of state and local politics provide an important entry point to map multi-scalar power dynamics which accompany universal health policies. Through considering the complex realities relating to Alpine crossings, we advocate from less categorising approaches to vaccinating migrants. © 2023 The Authors. Global Policy published by Durham University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
ABSTRACT
Background: During coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, avoiding hospital visits only to obtain medication was crucial to protect patients and to ensure hospital responsiveness. Portuguese pharmacies have national coverage. Purpose(s): To establish a nationwide response that allows patients to receive their specialty medicines (SM) in a community pharmacy of their convenience or at home, ensuring treatment continuity and avoiding unnecessary travelling to and from a hospital. Method(s): Community pharmacies, hospitals and pharmaceutical wholesalers collaborated in a structured, multidisciplinary operation, involving healthcare professionals and pharmaceutical stakeholders, endorsed by Pharmaceutical and Medical Societies: Operacao Luz Verde (OLV). Hospitals, patient associations, community pharmacies and patients themselves can ask for the dispensing of SM at a community pharmacy. Requests are received by a pharmacist specialised support line (LAF), which ensures communication between all stakeholders. Hospital pharmacists prepare the medicines and wholesalers provide transportation to ensure good practice. Community pharmacists scheduled for medicines to be dispensed with patients, ensuring electronic records and reports of eventual problems were sent to the hospital. OLV is free of charge for patients and hospitals, at least until the end of May 2020. Result(s): From the 23rd March until the 15th May 15, 12,229 patient requests were approved by a total of 33 hospitals;2,189 participating pharmacies and 20 patient associations endorsed the initiative. Final results will be presented at a later date. Conclusion(s): Community pharmacies may have an important role in the dispensing of SM. OLV may improve access to these medicines and reinforce potential for reducing inequities.
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The paper start describing the change of relationship between the evolution of real estate market, housing services, and economic crisis due to the covid pandemic event. Looking more in detail housing and hosting services we can discover the evolution of concept of home-service as the reference point for a different number of activity. In the same time the housing services, considered as a facility for external city users changed their characters and relevance. The transition of urban costumes from the pre-pandemic era to the post pandemic ones generated new use values as a consequence of new costumes. The use of the networks for communicating and collaborating from home instead that from offices and clerk’s workplaces changed office attitudes, but in the same time reduced the usefulness provided by housing stocks addicted to guest foreign city user. The paper describes the evolution of the interpretation of role of housing services, and the consequent change of use-values, in a city that is characterized by the presence of many guests workers, that use housing services by renting flats that have been unused in the most recent years, in the pandemic era, that compelled renters to become travellers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Several studies (Lee et al. 2013, pp. 7–9;Crescenzi et al. 2016, pp. 15–16;Wang et al. 2015, pp. 167–168) have emphasized the role played by environmental conditions on business dynamics. Starting from these considerations, the work aims, first of all, to systematize the recent literature on information management and, secondly, to grasp the possible links between the performance of organizations and the uncertainty of corporate information. The work adopts an exploratory approach, aiming to investigate whether and how environmental turbulence, of a social and economic nature, affects company results. In order to achieve an adequate systematization of the literature, in a first phase, a systematic literature review was conducted. Subsequently, an exploratory survey was carried out which involved 30 hotel managers on the Amalfi Coast, who were asked questions about the ways in which the Covid emergency was managed and the social impacts economic generated on the tourism sector. The analysis showed how the context conditions are able to impact the effectiveness and efficiency of business management. The work is a useful tool capable of systematizing the literature on information management, managing to provide interesting insights for future research. The study, from a managerial point of view, represents a useful guide for managers and business professionals, stimulating the scientific and managerial debate on the uncertainty of corporate information and the influences generated by the contextual conditions on the management of companies and organizations. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.