Vaccines and therapeutics for immunocompromised patients with COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted immunocompromised patients. This diverse group is at increased risk for impaired vaccine responses, progression to severe disease, prolonged hospitalizations and deaths. At particular risk are people with deficiencies in lymphocyte number or function such as transplant recipients and those with hematologic malignancies. Such patients' immune responses to vaccination and infection are frequently impaired leaving them more vulnerable to prolonged high viral loads and severe complications of COVID-19. Those in turn, have implications for disease progression and persistence, development of immune escape variants and transmission of infection. Data to guide vaccination and treatment approaches in immunocompromised people are generally lacking and extrapolated from other populations. The large clinical trials leading to authorisation and approval of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and therapeutics included very few immunocompromised participants. While experience is accumulating, studies focused on the special circumstances of immunocompromised patients are needed to inform prevention and treatment approaches.

A global system for the next generation of vaccines.

COVID-19 has shown that hurdles can be overcome.

Achieving global equity for COVID-19 vaccines: Stronger international partnerships and greater advocacy and solidarity are needed.

Peter Figueroa and co-authors advocate for equity in the worldwide provision of COVID-19 vaccines.

Global public health security and justice for vaccines and therapeutics in the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Lancet Commission for COVID-19 task force is shaping recommendations to achieve vaccine and therapeutics access, justice, and equity. This includes ensuring safety and effectiveness harmonized through robust systems of global pharmacovigilance and surveillance. Global production requires expanding support for development, manufacture, testing, and distribution of vaccines and therapeutics to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Global intellectual property rules must not stand in the way of research, production, technology transfer, or equitable access to essential health tools, and in context of pandemics to achieve increased manufacturing without discouraging innovation. Global governance around product quality requires channelling widely distributed vaccines through WHO prequalification (PQ)/emergency use listing (EUL) mechanisms and greater use of national regulatory authorities. A World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution would facilitate improvements and consistency in quality control and assurances. Global health systems require implementing steps to strengthen national systems for controlling COVID-19 and for influenza vaccinations for adults including pregnant and lactating women. A collaborative research network should strive to establish open access databases for bioinformatic analyses, together with programs directed at human capacity utilization and strengthening. Combating anti-science recognizes the urgency for countermeasures to address a global-wide disinformation movement dominating the internet and infiltrating parliaments and local governments.

Assessment of Depression, Anxiety, and Sleep Disturbance in COVID-19 Patients at Tertiary Care Center of North India.

Background and Objective The novel Coronavirus pandemic surfaced in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and spread rapidly across the globe. In recent available literature, most of the studies were done to estimate the burden of psychiatric problems among general population due to this pandemic, Therefore, this study was planned to assess depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance among Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) patients. Materials and Methods A hospital-based, cross-sectional study was done from June 2020 to August 2020 among 100 COVID-19 patients who were admitted and fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Assessment of depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbance were done by patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scale, generalized anxiety disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale and Pittsburg sleep quality index (PSQI), respectively. Results In this study, 73% were males and 27% were females. The mean age of the patients in present study was 42.90 ± 16.33 years. This study reveals that depression was in 27%, anxiety in 67%, and sleep disturbance in 62% of patients. Depression and anxiety were found significantly associated with presence of comorbidity and severity of illness ( p < 0 0.05). The association of sleep disturbance with severity of illness was also found statistically significant ( p < 0.05). Conclusion The risk of psychological stress is high in COVID-19 patients. The psychological problems among COVID-19 patients are commonly related to the consequences of disease, and severity and contagiousness of the disease. Therefore, in this present pandemic situation, it is more important to identify these psychological problems among COVID-19 patients, so that better care and timely interventions can be done with respect to psychological issues.

COVID-19 and Oxygen: Selecting Supply Options in LMICs That Balance Immediate Needs with Long-Term Cost-Effectiveness

From the Document: Medical oxygen therapy is a core part of the treatment of patients with severe COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]. Particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where supplies are likely to be inadequate in the face of the pandemic, boosting access to medical oxygen can save lives. Much of the policy debate regarding COVID-19 medical equipment focuses on the question of which form of patient respiratory support is effective in low-resources settings. However, irrespective of the specific form of respiratory support used, the long-term and cost-effective functioning of all forms of oxygen therapy requires an appropriate system to supply oxygen to hospitals. The sustainable and affordable supply of medical oxygen to hospitals has long been neglected in health services, especially in LMICs. With the increased attention to oxygen supply brought by COVID-19, there is an opportunity to build adequate infrastructure to deliver oxygen in a systematic manner.COVID-19 (Disease);Medical supplies