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Information on the spatial and temporal distributions of COVID-19 cases is important for improved control, social distancing strategies and developing targeted prevention strategies. Towards this objective, we analyzed the spatial and temporal growth pattern of COVID-19 incidence and death counts in districts of West Bengal. This paper also analyzes the current trend or pattern of COVID-19 transmission in West Bengal. For this approach, COVID-19 data have been compiled from several sources, including the WHO, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and demographic data from Census of India (2011). This analytical study was conducted based on detailed data from 23 districts of West Bengal from May 31, 2020, till December 31, 2021. We used ArcGIS Software for map-making and different formulas to measure Incidence, CFR, and CRR, considering all possible scenarios. Up to December 31, 2021, Kolkata, the origin of the COVID-19 epidemic, had reported 337767 COVID-19 cases, while the confirmed cases in the surrounding districts North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas, and Howrah were 337091, 104268, and 102048, respectively. The top five districts with the highest incidence were Kolkata (7.51%), Darjeeling (3.66%), North 24 Parganas (3.36%), Kalimpong (2.85%), and Jalpaiguri (1.79%), had high risks of COVID-19. Therefore, identification of the case fatality, recovery rates, and spatiotemporal trends should be the first step to evaluate disease severity and develop effective policies to manage and control any new epidemic. These results are informative locally and useful for the rest of the world. © 2020 The author (s). Published by Zagazig University. This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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The ominous spread of the COVID-19 pandemic is attributed to the droplets respired during coughing, sneezing or speaking. These droplets undergo evaporation to become aerosols, which, along with the larger droplets, are believed to ultimately spread the virus. In this current work, a small, enclosed region like an elevator (containing a COVID infected passenger) is considered where the risk of infection is high as the commonly practiced norm of social distancing is not possible. Numerical simulations are performed using OpenFOAM. Two different types of elevators – one equipped with a sliding door and the other with a collapsible gate, are considered and the change in droplet behavior is examined. Certain parameters pertaining to the risk of virus transmission have been quantified and assessed thoroughly, such as the percentage of droplets floating in the height range from a person's waist height to his mouth height, the radial span of the floating droplets from the infected passenger's mouth. From these parameters, the safety measures to be adopted by other copassengers can be determined. After an extensive study, it has been found that the collapsible gate elevator is safer than the sliding door elevator along with added advantages in the context of disease transmission. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
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Background: The WHO has declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic. New cases are being added every day, as the case count in the United States is increasing to the maximum. No drugs or biol-ogics are yet found to be effective for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19. Objective(s): To discuss the possibilities of available treatments. Material(s) and Method(s): Brief out-look is undertaken over the past issues available over similar situations that occurred with respect to the current scenario and prospectives. Result(s): There can be various possibilities in the form of convalescent plasma therapy. The known drugs such as HIV drugs, anti-malarial medicines, and antiviral compounds can serve as a suggestive option. Conclusion(s): Until a validated medicine or vaccine is sorted out for Covid-19, we need to take natural immune-boosters, along with precautionary steps, social distancing, and other preventions as instructed for the benefit of everyone with an optimistic mind and attitude.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has radically transformed the work-from-home (WFH) paradigm, and expanded an organization's cyber-vulnerability space. We propose a novel strategic method to quantify the degree of sub-optimal cybersecurity in an organization of employees, all of whom work in heterogeneous WFH 'siloes'. Specifically, we model the per-unit cost of asymmetric WFH employees to invest in security-improving effort units as time-discounted exponential martingales over time, and derive as benchmark - the centrally-planned socially optimal aggregate employee effort at any given time instant. We then derive the time-varying strategic Nash equilibrium amount of aggregate employee effort in cybersecurity in a distributed setting. The time-varying ratio of these centralized and distributed estimates quantifies the free riding dynamics, i.e., security sub-optimality, within an organization. Rigorous estimates of the degree of sub-optimal cybersecurity will drive organizational policy makers to design appropriate (customized) solutions that voluntarily incentivize WFH employees to invest in required cybersecurity best practices. © 2022 IEEE.
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In the 1930's the corona virus was first identified as a highly contagious chicken respiratory virus. Two human coronaviruses were later identified, the human coronavirus 229E causing the flu and secondly the human coronavirus OC43. Others are also important as SARS-CoV. In late 2019 the outbreak of Pneumonia occurred in the Chinese city of Wuhan which was investigated as a result of the corona virus, renamed as 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO) and. now called as SARS-CoV-2. The WHO has identified the global health problem as an epidemic. Respiratory droplets produced during coughing and sneezing are the main means of transmission of COVID-19. Infection with COVID-19 in an infected person may remain undetected. Common symptoms of fever and dry cough are less common in the production of sputum, fatigue and in some cases may be dyspnoea or shortness of breath. The COVID-19 virus is a type of RNA virus, the outer envelope containing a lipid bilayer in which various proteins are synthesized such as membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S). Hand washing, coughing, social isolation, wearing a face mask in public, disinfection areas, and isolation are various ways to prevent the disease. The diagnosis of COVID-19 can be made on the basis of symptoms and confirmed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests. There are currently no antiretroviral drugs approved for COVID-19, only symptomatic and supportive treatment is used to treat people with this viral infection. Drugs that have been approved for the purpose of treating other viral infections are under investigation. Vaccination is an ultimate prevention and protection;few vaccines are given emergency approval and some are in progressive development phase in various countries to prevent this deadly pandemic.
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Finding the infected regions in medical image modalities is a crucial and challenging task. In this paper, a new image segmentation method is introduced to detect the COVID-19 infection in CT images. In this method, a bi-level-thresholding based image segmentation is proposed using Henry gas solubility optimization. This method used Kapur entropy as a fitness function. Efficiency of the developed segmentation method has been validated on publicly available CT images of COVID-19 patients in terms of PSNR (Pick Signal-to-Noise Ratio), MSE (Mean Square Error), SSIM (Structural Similarity Index Measure) and FSIM (Feature Similarity Index Measure). Moreover, the proposed HGSO-based segmentation method has been compared with SCA, SSA, GWO, CPSOGSA, and MFO-based image segmentation methods to show its efficacy. © 2022 IEEE.
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Introduction: To prevent rabies in animal bite victims, complete postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) with an anti-rabies vaccination (ARV) is essential. This study was done to determine the compliance rate of ARV in patients with animal bites who presented to the emergency department (ED) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective observational study done on patients presenting to the ED with a history of animal bites over 1 year (May 2020-June 2021). Categorical variables were presented as percentages, and quantitative variables were summarized using mean and standard deviation (SD). Results: A total of 122 animal bite (World Health Organization [WHO] Category II and III) victims presented to the ED during the study. The mean age of the cohort was 38.12 (SD: 16.4) years with a male (n = 67: 54.9%) preponderance. Based on the physiological stability, a majority were triaged as priority III (n = 119;97.5%). Most patients presented with dog bites (n = 88;72.1%), followed by cat (n = 14;11.5%) and rat bites (n = 13;10.7%). Two-thirds were unprovoked (n = 82;67.2%) and were caused by stray animals (n = 62;50.8%). More than half (n = 65;53.3%) of the bites were WHO Category III bites. All Category II and III patients had received the first dose of ARV at our center and category III patients received immunoglobulin local injection as well. Noncompliance to ARV was seen in almost a quarter (n = 32;26.2%) of patients of which forgotten dates (n = 11;34.4%) were the most common cause. There was no significant statistical variable to determine the cause of noncompliance. Conclusion: Unprovoked bites by stray dogs were the cause of a majority of the animal bites. Compliance with PEP remains low at two-thirds of the total. The most common cause of noncompliance to ARV was due to forgotten dates. The following core competencies are addressed in this article: Medical knowledge, Systems-based practice, Practice-based learning and improvement. © 2022 The authors.
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The education sector has suffered a catastrophic setback due to the ongoing COVID pandemic, with classrooms being closed indefinitely. The current study aims to solve the existing dilemma by examining COVID transmission inside a classroom and providing long-term sustainable solutions. In this work, a standard 5 × 3 × 5 m3 classroom is considered where 24 students are seated, accompanied by a teacher. A computational fluid dynamics simulation based on OpenFOAM is performed using a Eulerian-Lagrangian framework. Based on the stochastic dose-response framework, we have evaluated the infection risk in the classroom for two distinct cases: (i) certain students are infected and (ii) the teacher is infected. If the teacher is infected, the probability of infection could reach 100% for certain students. When certain students are infected, the maximum infection risk for a susceptible person reaches 30%. The commonly used cloth mask proves to be ineffective in providing protection against infection transmission, reducing the maximum infection probability by approximately 26% only. Another commonly used solution in the form of shields installed on desks has also failed to provide adequate protection against infection, reducing the infection risk only by 50%. Furthermore, the shields serve as a source of fomite mode of infection. Screens suspended from the ceiling, which entrap droplets, have been proposed as a novel solution that reduces the infection risk by 90% and 95% compared to the no screen scenario besides being completely devoid of fomite infection mode. The manifestation of infection risk in the domain was investigated, and it was found out that in the case of screens the maximum infection risk reached the value of only 0.2 (20% infection probability) in 1325 s. © 2023 Author(s).
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In the 1930's the corona virus was first identified as a highly contagious chicken respiratory virus. Two human coronaviruses were later identified, the human coronavirus 229E causing the flu and secondly the human coronavirus OC43. Others are also important as SARS-CoV. In late 2019 the outbreak of Pneumonia occurred in the Chinese city of Wuhan which was investigated as a result of the corona virus, renamed as 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO) and. now called as SARS-CoV-2. The WHO has identified the global health problem as an epidemic. Respiratory droplets produced during coughing and sneezing are the main means of transmission of COVID-19. Infection with COVID-19 in an infected person may remain undetected. Common symptoms of fever and dry cough are less common in the production of sputum, fatigue and in some cases may be dyspnoea or shortness of breath. The COVID-19 virus is a type of RNA virus, the outer envelope containing a lipid bilayer in which various proteins are synthesized such as membrane (M), envelope (E) and spike (S). Hand washing, coughing, social isolation, wearing a face mask in public, disinfection areas, and isolation are various ways to prevent the disease. The diagnosis of COVID-19 can be made on the basis of symptoms and confirmed using reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests. There are currently no antiretroviral drugs approved for COVID-19, only symptomatic and supportive treatment is used to treat people with this viral infection. Drugs that have been approved for the purpose of treating other viral infections are under investigation. Vaccination is an ultimate prevention and protection;few vaccines are given emergency approval and some are in progressive development phase in various countries to prevent this deadly pandemic. Copyright © 2022, Dr Yashwant Research Labs Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved.
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has inflated the risks faced by healthcare workersand may increase their susceptibility to sleep and psychological problems. This cross-sectional observational study assessed the sleep and psychological problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic among healthcare workers of Employees State Insurance Corporation, an organized sector under the Ministry of Labour and Employment, India. Method: Logistic regression was used to evaluate factors associated with symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia and perceived stress among 492 healthcare workers in Employees State Insurance Corporation hospitals and dispensaries in Delhi and the National Capital Territory Region, India. Results: Logistic regression determined that factors of workplace type and frequency of hand washing were associated with anxiety;workplace type, job profile, occupation, formal COVID-19 training and adequate personal protective equipment were predictors of perceived stress;job profile was a common predictor of depression and insomnia;workplace type and formal COVID-19 training were associated with depression and insomnia, respectively. Limitations: This study was limited to healthcare workers in Employees State Insurance Corporation of Delhi and NCR which limits its generalizability to other regions of India. Conclusions: Healthcare workers are exposed to increased risk in the execution of their duties and require support to secure their wellbeing. Policies, systems for early detection of sleep and psychological problems, training, preparedness and efficacy in crisis management are suggested to reduce and prevent the occurrence of these problems among HCWs.
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Purpose: The Covid-19 pandemic exposed the fragility of global supply chains. Attempts to deepen our understanding of the effects of the pandemic on global supply chains mostly offer anecdotal evidences and lack theory grounded research. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework to help explain supply chain disruption management. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper and uses a theory building approach. It develops a conceptual framework adapted from coping theory in psychology to explain supply chain disruption management. To refine the framework, the authors independently reviewed extant supply chain disruption management literature. The authors then studied the frameworks on stress theory in psychology. Following the review of both streams of literatures, the authors developed an initial draft of the conceptual model. This draft was then iteratively refined through extensive discussions among the authors. Findings: Coping theory can help revise supply chain disruption management with an alternative lens that has not been applied before in this domain. The proposed conceptual framework is generic and can be applied to disruption management strategies for any organization in any industry. Originality/value: The conceptual framework proposed in this paper offers a new theoretical lens to supply chain disruption management discourse. It contributes to the operational understanding of supply chain disruption management. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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Background: Diabetes is a common co-morbid condition that influences morbidity and mortality in patients with COVID-19 and has been a focus of intense research. However, a systematic assessment of global diabetes research concerning COVID-19 is unavailable. Aim: We aimed to provide a bibliometric assessment of research output on diabetes concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and Methods: Publications on diabetes in relation to COVID-19 were retrieved from the Scopus database and analyzed using appropriate bibliometric indicators. Results: The publications indexed till January 6, 2021 numbered 762. The share of the top 10 of the 82 countries was 90.6%. The USA, China, India, Italy, and the UK were the most productive countries, with publication share ranging from 11.4% to 17.8%. Brazil, China, Germany, Australia, France, and India registered higher publication impact. The average citations per paper were 7.3, and 19.4% of the publications were funded. The share of publications on type 2 diabetes, type 1 diabetes, and gestational diabetes was 23.2%, 16.5%, and 4.1%, respectively. Diabetic complications, clinical studies, and epidemiology were the most researched aspects of diabetes concerning COVID-19, with 47.9%, 23.3%, and 14.0% share, respectively. Publications on pathophysiology numbered only 93 (12.2%). The most productive organizations were Tongji Medical College, China, Huazhong University, China, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India, and INSERM, France. Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation, India, Imperial College, UK, and The Central Hospital of Wuhan, China were the most impactful organizations. R. Pal, A. Ceriello, and B. Cariou were the most productive authors, whereas A. Misra, R. Gupta, and A.K. Singh were the most impactful. The most active journals were Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research and Reviews, Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology, and Diabetes Care. Conclusion: Extensive high-quality research has been conducted on diabetes in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic in developed and developing countries. There is a need to focus on pathophysiological studies to elucidate further the underlying mechanisms that predispose COVID-19-affected diabetes patients to severe disease and death. Our scientometric assessment may help understand the research gaps and guide future research in this field.
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Background: Due to the prevailing coronavirus crisis, the use of sanitizers has become an urgent need of today to take preventive care as we step out for various reasons. Many brands and varieties of sanitizers are available in the market today. Objective: The present study has been undertaken to develop and analyse the effects of an Ayurvedic preparation to overcome all the ill effects exerted on the skin by the chemical-based sanitizers. As there are very bad long-lasting effects on skin after continuous use of synthetically derived sanitizers. This pandemic situation has forced all of us for using sanitizers at least 10 times a day, especially for children and the Geriatric population. Material and Methods: Formulation was developed with the help of natural ingredients and then it was evaluated on the safety and efficacy standards to make sure about the credibility of the designed preparation. The benefits of using this formulation were observed during the health camps organised by Diabport health care at various parks in Kanpur. The texture of the skin was improved and apart from this. This was assessed with the help of a questionnaire (KAP) which was developed and validated. Results: The herbal based sanitizer, derived from Ayurvedic principles, was found to be quite effective against germs, microbes and it was beneficial for the care of hands also. Hands were soft and irritation free when the herbal sanitizers were applied for optimum time. We have observed that those patients who have history of high sugar level are more prone of developing rashes due to excessive usage of sanitizers. Diabetic dermopathy was also relieved. The population which used this formulation showed sign of improvement in both the texture of skin as well as decreased number of rashes. Conclusion: Herbal-based sanitizers are the need of the hour to combat the danger of corona, keeping the hands mild and soft. More focus on them should be encouraged on a large scale.
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This article draws on a recent survey conducted in peri-urban Bhopal to provide an estimate of the willingness to pay for the vaccines. The findings indicate the need for higher subsidisation through expansion of the budgetary provisioning and integrating this with willingness to pay. © 2021 Economic and Political Weekly. All rights reserved.
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PURPOSE: To provide a precise summary and collate the hitherto available clinical evidence on the effect of vitamin D supplementation on clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. METHODS: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were systematically searched using appropriate keywords till June 8, 2021, to identify observational studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) reporting adverse clinical outcomes (ICU admission and/or mortality) in COVID-19 patients receiving vitamin D supplementation vs. those not receiving the same. Both prior use and use of vitamin D after COVID-19 diagnosis were considered. Unadjusted/adjusted pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated (PROSPERO registration number CRD42021248488). RESULTS: We identified 13 studies (10 observational, 3 RCTs) pooling data retrieved from 2933 COVID-19 patients. Pooled analysis of unadjusted data showed that vitamin D use in COVID-19 was significantly associated with reduced ICU admission/mortality (OR 0.41, 95% CI: 0.20, 0.81, p = 0.01, I2 = 66%, random-effects model). Similarly, on pooling adjusted risk estimates, vitamin D was also found to reduce the risk of adverse outcomes (pooled OR 0.27, 95% CI: 0.08, 0.91, p = 0.03, I2 = 80%, random-effects model). Subgroup analysis showed that vitamin D supplementation was associated with improved clinical outcomes only in patients receiving the drug post-COVID-19 diagnosis and not in those who had received vitamin D before diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin D supplementation might be associated with improved clinical outcomes, especially when administered after the diagnosis of COVID-19. However, issues regarding the appropriate dose, duration, and mode of administration of vitamin D remain unanswered and need further research.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Drug Treatment , SARS-CoV-2 , Treatment Outcome , Vitamin D/administration & dosage , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/mortality , Comorbidity , Dietary Supplements , Humans , Intensive Care Units , Odds Ratio , Vitamin D/adverse effects , Vitamin D Deficiency/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Aims: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is approved for use as an oral anti-diabetic drug (OAD) in patients with uncontrolled type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM);however, robust data are lacking. The present meta-analysis was conducted to provide precise effect estimates regarding the efficacy and safety of HCQ in patients with T2DM. Methods: PubMed/Cochrane Library and grey literature were systematically searched till August 25, 2020, to identify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with duration =12 weeks, evaluating the efficacy and safety of HCQ (400 mg/day) in patients with T2DM and glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) =7.0%-7.5% already on a combination of metformin/sulfonylurea compared to either placebo or another OAD. Results: We identified eight eligible RCTs, pooling data retrieved from 1763 patients with T2DM. HCQ resulted in significant decrease in HbA1c by 0.88% (95% confidence interval [CI]: -1.01 to - 0.75) compared to placebo and by 0.32% (95% CI: -0.37 to -0.26) compared to an OAD. Besides, there were significant reductions in fasting blood glucose, postprandial blood glucose, body weight, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein. A small but significant increase in high-density lipoprotein was also noted. An increase in the risk of any episode of symptomatic hypoglycemia (whether documented or not) was observed (risk ratio = 1.34 [95% CI: 1.10-1.63]). No other safety issues were identified. Conclusions: The meta-analysis suggests that HCQ, used as an add-on drug in patients with T2DM exerts significant beneficial effects on glycemic control, body weight, and lipid profile, however, increasing the risk for symptomatic hypoglycemia. HCQ might be useful amid the ongoing pandemic, as the drug has also been found to be beneficial in COVID-19.