Clinicopathological characteristics and prognosis in women with breast cancer affected by COVID 19

Background: there are few reported series n women with breast cancer (BC) and COVID-19, a better prognosis has been observed, with a lower rate of hospitalization and mortality than other neoplasms. Methods: We conducted a restrospective, non-experimental, observational, single center, study with a sample of 69 patients with BC who had presented COVID-19, in the period between March 2020 to August 2021. Clinicopathological characteristics of patients with BC were compared between severe and non-severe covid 19 groups, as well as hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients. An analysis of possible risk factors associated with severe disease and hospitalization was performed. Results: 69 cases were reported, median age 52y, mean BMI 25.2, ECOG 0-1: 97%. Smoking history in 24%, diabetes and hypertension were the most frequent comorbidities. The most frequent histology was ductal carcinoma in 80.6%, 73.8% showed ER + and 69.3% PR +, HER2 was overexpressed in 9.2%. The early stages predominated, I 22 (31.3%), II 25 (37.3%), III in 12 (17.9%) and IV in 6 (9%). The most frequents symptoms of COVID-19 were fatigue 70.1%, fever 65.7%, cough 59.7%, headache 56.7%, hyposmia 47.8%, dysgeusia 38.8%. A total of 53 (76.8%) mild cases, 14 (20.3) severe cases and 2 (2.9%) critical cases were registered. The 89.9% (62 patients) were treated as an outpatient basis, while 7 (10.1%) required hospitalization. Active treatment (< 45 days) at the time of COVID-19 was hormonal therapy 36 (50.7%), chemotherapy 11 (16.4%), anti-HER2 in 3 (4.5%), immunotherapy in 1.5%, targeted treatment in 4 (6.0%), surgery in 7 (10.4%) and radiotherapy in 1 (1.5%) patient. When comparing the severe and non-severe groups, as well as hospitalized versus nonhospitalized, we observed no difference between the clinicopathological characteristics. Then, we serch for possible risk factors, in wich, surgery in a period of less than 3 months increases the risk of severity OR 1,297 (95% CI 1,112-1,514), the risk of hospitalization increased in the triple negative subgroup OR 1,143 (95% CI, 1,035- 1,262), surgery less than 3 months OR 1,116 (1,014-1,229) and chemotherapy less than 45 days OR 1,217 (95% CI, 1,024-1,447). Conclusions: In patients with BC, the prevalence of severe or critical COVID-19 was 23% and the hospitalizacion rate 10%. No patient died from this infection. The clinical and pathological characteristics of BC do not appear to increase the risk of severe COVID-19 or the rate of hospitalization. Surgery performed in a period of less than 3 months is marginally associated with an increased risk of severe disease. Chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy do not modify the risk of severe disease;however, higher Ki 67, triple negative subgroup, surgery and chemotherapy showed a slight increase in risk of hospitalization.

The verified past and imagined future of the ceramic artisan tradition of Nicoya, Costa Rica

The ceramic artisan heritage in Nicoya, Costa Rica, has endured for centuries in the shelter of women’s work in their homes. It survived as a domestic ware industry in the Spanish colonial era. In the socioeconomic context of the last sixty years, under the stimulus of tourism, female and male artisans generated a revival of ancient styles and invented new ones. The Covid-19 pandemic reduced tourism and posed serious challenges to ceramic production and to those dedicated to this tradition. This article presents a comprehensive historical review and reflects about its future, as imagined by the actors involved. © 2021 Asociacion Granadina de Antropologia. All rights reserved.

The Use of Social Media for Medical Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic;A Vision to the Future

Background. The COVID-19 is the first pandemic in history where technology and social media can be used to keep people safe and informed. The correct management of information has been recognized as a critical part of controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of this study is to create a source of information about COVID-19 that is reliable, accessible, and easy to share while providing literature references. Methods. An Instagram account named @cienciacontracovid19 was created in 2020. In this account, the most relevant up-to-date medical information of COVID-19 is published daily in Spanish. All the account's content is made by two infectious diseases specialists and a general practitioner. After 6 months since the creation of the account, we performed a survey to assess the followers perception of the usefulness of @cienciacontracovid19 during the pandemic. Results. The account was opened in November 2020. Figure 1 QR to access. Currently, the account has 9,534 followers from 5 Latin-American countries;48% are between 25-34 years old, 76.6% are women, and 52% are healthcare workers. Until May 2021, 142 educational slides, 3 educational videos and 5 webinars have been posted. In the last 30 days, @cienciacontracovid19 has had 10,540 interactions and growth of +125% reaching 22,000 users. We conducted a survey in April 2021, in which 3,556 people answered. The following results were obtained: 76% considered that the information was always useful in their daily lives and 17% frequently useful. 77% affirmed that the information shared was always reliable and 47% consider that the information differed from other sources of information since it is easy to understand and 34% because it has bibliographic references to support it. 85% responded that the information shared in the account kept them from putting themselves at risk. When asking if the information shared has made them feel safer by being informed, 49% answered always and 44% frequently. QR to access the instagram account Conclusion. @cienciacontracovid19 has been a valuable source of scientific information with a positive impact on its users. Its implementation has been a practical medical education tool during the COVID-19 pandemic. By being informed, people could potentially modify some of their behaviors to stay out of risk from COVID-19.

Prediction of Diabetes Mortality in Mexico City Applying Data Science

Around the world, diabetes is a disease that in recent years has had a significant increase in mortality rates. Currently, several countries consider diabetes an important public health problem, particularly Mexico. In this research work, the problem of mortality forecasting for the next 5 years in Mexico City was addressed by applying Data Science. For developing the application, an extension of the IBM methodology called Batch MFCD was used, which is oriented to the epidemiology domain. All the mortality and other data used in the research are from public and official databases and belong to the 1990–2019 interval. For forecasting we selected the Support Vector Regression (SVR) model, which allowed forecasting the mortality rates for Mexico City in the 2020–2024 interval. A decrease of the mortality rate for the 2017–2019 interval was observed for the actual data, and for the 2020–2024 interval it is forecasted that mortality will continue to decrease at a similar rate. It is worth mentioning that 2020 was an atypical year, because of the COVID-19 pandemic;therefore, it is foreseeable that its effect may affect the actual mortality rates in subsequent years. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.