ABSTRACT
Background: COVID-19 is a highly contagious viral infection resulting in severe acute respiratory syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-COV-2). The objective of this study is to determine the risk factors affecting the outcome of moderate to severe COVID 19 patients admitted in HDU of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore. Study Design: Prospective cohort study. Place and Duration of Study: COVID HDU of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore from 1st June 2020 to 30th November 2020. Methodology: One hundred and eight patients with positive PCR for COVID having moderate to severe COVID disease were enrolled. After written consent, all the demographic and clinical information was obtained. All the patients were followed till their discharge or death. Result(s): Sixty eight were discharged, 26 were died and14 got left against medical advice. The median age of all patients was53.6 years and the median age of patients who died was significantly older than those who survived. Conclusion(s): The potential risk factors for high mortality were older age, female sex, those presented with within 1 week from onset of symptoms that need ventilation at admission and comorbidities like Diabetes, Hypertension, and ischemic heart disease. This study could help clinicians to identify patients with poor prognosis at an early stage. Copyright © 2022 Lahore Medical And Dental College. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Zoonotic infections belong to multiple infectious diseases transferred from animals to humans. Now, the treatment and diagnosis of zoonotic infections are perplexing due to genetic mutations, target site modifications, and multi-drug resistance. Despite their benefits, most diagnostic molecular techniques have certain limits in terms of repeatability and sensitivity, mainly due to the heterogeneity among the diverse family of zoonotic pathogens. Therefore, developing more efficient and cost-effective theranostics tools is the need of the hour to address these concerns. For this purpose, nanotechnology has revolutionized medicine with versatile potential capabilities for diagnosing and treating zoonosis via the targeted and controlled delivery of antimicrobial drugs via binding to the overexpressed infectious macrophages. Massive advancements have been made in fabricating novel nano-based formulations to control zoonosis based on the use of poly(ethylenimine)-conjugated nanomicelles, mannosylated thiolated chitosan (MTC)-coated PM-loaded PLGA NPs, mannose linked thiolated nanocarriers, adjuvanted pDNA hydrogel, arginine-based nanocarriers, quantum dots to treat and diagnose a wide range of zoonotic diseases, including zoonotic influenza, salmonellosis, leishmaniasis, rabies, brucellosis, Lyme Disease, tuberculosis, and other infections caused by West Nile Virus, emerging coronaviruses (SARS, MERS, COVID-19), in a preferentially targeted way. Recently developed anti-pathogen loaded-nanoformulations with enhanced cellular uptake, biocompatibility, and hemocompatibility have shown the ability to cross biological barriers when orally administrated. Therefore, this article reviewed the latest milestones and future growth areas in the field of efficient theranostics platforms to manage zoonotic infections.
ABSTRACT
Background The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a worldwide health catastrophe that has had a significant effect on all of us. During this time, we had to go into quarantine. When all the educational institutions got closed, the students and teachers adopted the online way of learning and teaching. Objective The goal of our study was to find out the level of satisfaction in online teaching programs among medical teachers/supervisors during Covid-19 pandemic. Methods This was descriptive cross-sectional study based on online questionnaire. This study was conducted for duration of six months from July 2020 to December 2020 by including 175 faculty members from different medical and dental colleges in Pakistan. A self-administered questionnaire was circulated via Email, Whatsapp groups and other social media platforms. The variables were represented in frequencies and percentages. Results There were 80 (45.71%) male and 95 (54.29%) female faculty members. According to the designation majority of the respondent 47 (26.86%) were assistant professors. According to the teaching experience more faculty members 44 (25.14%) had teaching experience of 6-10 years while only 5 (2.86%) faculty members had more than 30 years of teaching experience. Majority of the respondents 69 (39.43%) used Webinars for online teaching followed by Zoom 50 (28.57%).Majority of the faculty members were confident, satisfied and felt comfortable with the online education. Conclusion The majorities of medical teachers think that e-learning is a great complement to prevent academic loss and satisfied with the system but it cannot replace in-person education. Studies with greater sample size would further give insight into the teacher's satisfaction regarding online teaching programs.