Comparative study on epidemiological characteristics and public health interventions of COVID-19 among China, South Korea, the United States and France based on the poisson regression model

Objective To analyze the trend of COVID-19 epidemic and to comparatively evaluate effects of economic policies, containment and closure policies and health system policies in China , South Korea, the United States (US) and France. Methods Daily confirmed COVID-19 cases and daily comprehensive policy index, specific indicators in mainland China, South Korea, US and France were collected. Considering the lag effect of policy effects, poisson regression model was established to estimate the daily real-time regeneration (Rt) , and the log-log model with variable coefficient was used to compare the prevention and control effects of policies and measures in different countries. Results Containment and closure policies and health system policies were negatively correlated with Rt, and the cumulative lag effect weakens with the increase of lag time. Economic policies were negatively correlated with Rt only in US and France. The effect of American and French policies on Rt was weaker than that of China and South Korea. Conclusion Containment and closure policies and health system policies have a great effect on reducing Rt and controlling the epidemic, the timely and powerful comprehensive blockade measures at the early stage of the epidemic have better effects than mitigation measures. © 2023, Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.

Comparative study on epidemiological characteristics and public health interventions of COVID-19 among China, South Korea, the United States and France based on the poisson regression model.

Objective To analyze the trend of COVID-19 epidemic and to comparatively evaluate effects of economic policies, containment and closure policies and health system policies in China , South Korea, the United States (US) and France. Methods Daily confirmed COVID-19 cases and daily comprehensive policy index, specific indicators in mainland China, South Korea, US and France were collected. Considering the lag effect of policy effects, poisson regression model was established to estimate the daily real-time regeneration (Rt) , and the log-log model with variable coefficient was used to compare the prevention and control effects of policies and measures in different countries. Results Containment and closure policies and health system policies were negatively correlated with Rt, and the cumulative lag effect weakens with the increase of lag time. Economic policies were negatively correlated with Rt only in US and France. The effect of American and French policies on Rt was weaker than that of China and South Korea. Conclusion Containment and closure policies and health system policies have a great effect on reducing Rt and controlling the epidemic, the timely and powerful comprehensive blockade measures at the early stage of the epidemic have better effects than mitigation measures.Copyright © 2023, Publication Centre of Anhui Medical University. All rights reserved.

SmartDistance: A Mobile-based Positioning System for Automatically Monitoring Social Distance

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in an ongoing pandemic. Since COVID-19 spreads mainly via close contact among people, social distancing has become an effective manner to slow down the spread. However, completely forbidding close contact can also lead to unacceptable damage to the society. Thus, a system that can effectively monitor people's social distance and generate corresponding alerts when a high infection probability is detected is in urgent need. In this paper, we propose SmartDistance, a smartphone based software framework that monitors people's interaction in an effective manner, and generates a reminder whenever the infection probability is high. Specifically, SmartDistance dynamically senses both the relative distance and orientation during social interaction with a well-designed relative positioning system. In addition, it recognizes different events (e.g., speaking, coughing) and determines the infection space through a droplet transmission model. With event recognition and relative positioning, SmartDistance effectively detects risky social interaction, generates an alert immediately, and records the relevant data for close contact reporting. We prototype SmartDistance on different Android smartphones, and the evaluation shows it reduces the false positive rate from 33% to 1% and the false negative rate from 5% to 3% in infection risk detection.

[Treatment strategy of gastrointestinal stromal tumors in the background of COVID-19].

COVID-19, caused by SARS-COV-2, has the characteristics of world epidemic, highly infectious and large base of death. In China, transmission route of SARS-COV-2 has been contained so effectively that COVID-19 has been well controlled due to the proactive national prevention and control strategy. However, not only does it bring a huge impact on the existing medical structure model, but also an objective impact on the treatment of patients with chronic diseases such as malignant tumors. Based on the progress reported in the domestic and international literatures and the actual management experience of our team, this paper reflects on the treatment strategies for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) during the epidemic period of COVID-19. We focus on risk stratification for primary GIST and forming treatment strategies accordingly. Major considerations include the impact of delayed operation, the burden of medical resources, the waiting time for elective operation, and the principle of emergency operation. In addition, we focus on the level of evidence for non-surgical approaches with a view to developing a holistic strategy of "priority management principles" to guide clinical treatment in the context of limited resources and different GIST priorities.

Original Article A cluster of health care workers with COVID-19 pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2

Background: The current outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, Hubei, China, spreads across national and international borders. Methods: We prospectively collected medical records of 14 health care workers (HCWs) who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, in neurosurgery department of Wuhan Union Hospital, China. Results: Among the 14 HCWs, 12 were conformed cases, the other 2 were suspected cases. Most of them were either exposed to the two index patients or infected coworkers, without knowing they were COVID-19 patients. There were 4 male and 10 female infected HCWs in this cohort, whose mean age was 36 years (SD, 6 years). The main symptoms included myalgia or fatigue (100%), fever (86%) and dry cough (71%). On admission, 79% of infected HCWs showed leucopenia and 43% lymphopenia. Reduced complement C3 could be seen in 57% of the infected HCWs and IL-6 was significantly elevated in 86% of them. The proportion of lymphocytes subsets, concentrations of immunoglobulins, complement C4, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, TNF-a and IFN-g were within normal range in these 14 infected HCWs. The most frequent findings on pulmonary computed tomographic images were bilateral multifocal ground-glass opacifications (86%).