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This journal issue includes s of papers presented at the conference. Topics discussed are: sleeping characteristics among primary school children in Gampaha District, Sri Lanka;cosmetic effects of post thyroidectomy scar and evaluation of patient satisfaction;post-vaccination symptoms of COVID-19 vaccines among adults in Galle;multiple chest trauma in a victim of road traffic collision;anatomical variations of renal vein in a group of Sri Lankan cadavers;hospital acquired infections among patients in Intensive Care Units in Teaching Hospital, Karapitiya;serum Vitamin D level among 1 to 5-year-old children in Galle Municipality and Bope Poddala MOH area.
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Objective: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of PPPD in Anuradhapura district, its association with maternal PPD, and relevant risk factors. Materials and methods: Cross sectional study was conducted among fathers in Anuradhapura district having infants 1-5 months by giving questionnaire specifically developed for the study with Edinburgh postnatal depression scale (EPDS) and self-constructed questions. Out of 6324 fathers, 435 fathers and their partners were randomly selected and proportionately allocated to 5 Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas. R Program and SPSS have used for the data analysis. Results: Our results revealed that the PPPD prevalence is approximately 11% (95%CI: 8.08-14.67) based on cut off score of 7 points in the EPDS. PPPD was correlated with maternal PPD (OR 19.16, 95%CI 5.0473-85.1203), income decrement (OR 8.1571, 95%CI 2.4621-32.6289), increased time stayed at home in postpartum period (OR 3.7775, 95%CI 1.2365-13.8175). But other parameters such as infant's age, work time and number of children were not significantly influenced risk factors for PPPD. Conclusion: PPPD is prevalent in the Anuradhapura district and maternal postpartum depression has positively influenced. But currently, screening programmes for PPPD is lacking in Sri Lanka. Thus, these deficiencies urgently need to be addressed and should provide information and instructions to fathers regarding this new transition. However, these results need replication in more expanded case control study. Since the prevailing covid-19 pandemic at the time of data collection may have impacted the mental health of the fathers specially in countries like Sri Lanka, where mental health support is limited.
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Introduction: Sri Lanka adopted various control measures to stop the spread of COVID-19 including early detection by widespread testing, contact tracing and isolation. However, some people were not willing to accept testing due to several reasons. This is the first study from Sri Lanka conducted to determine people's level of willingness to undergo a COVID-19 swab test. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 427 non-COVID-19 patients who visited the outpatient department at a Teaching hospital in northern Sri Lanka. Data collection was done over a one month period in July 2021. The data collected was entered and analysed using SPSS version 28. Results: The mean age of the participants was 43.4, and a majority of the participants were female (62.8%). A significant proportion of the participants (37.9% CI: 34.3-43.6) were not willing to accept the test to screen for COVID-19. Among the 162 patients who were not willing to accept the test, 56.2% reported fear regarding testing, and 37.6% reported fear of getting a positive result. A significant association was observed between people's willingness to accept the test and their gender (P-0.022) and knowledge of the test (P-0.001). Conclusion: As a considerable proportion of participants were not willing to accept COVID-19 screen testing, and people's knowledge regarding testing significantly influenced their acceptance of such testing, this study concludes that the public can be educated further about the COVID-19 infection, identifying the symptoms of disease by themselves, available testing methods, the importance of testing early and how they will be treated if they get positive test results.
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Ornamental fish production in Sri Lanka has become a valuable foreign exchange earner during recent past years. However, COVID-19 pandemic has been explored worldwide and it has affected the world trade and economy from different perspectives. This study was conducted to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ornamental fish production., Moreover, study on present status of ornamental fish farmers' major constraints and suggestions to overcome those constraints of ornamental fish farmers were also conducted. In Colombo district, four important Divisional Secretariat (DS) divisions were purposely selected for the study, as they are the main ornamental fish production areas of the district. The data was collected from a randomly selected 60 farmers using a field survey from July to October 2020. Descriptive statistics, two sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test and chi-square test were used to analyses the data. Results revealed that, there are both negative and positive impacts on ornamental fish production due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ornamental fish farmers have to face mainly production and marketing problems. Some of them have engaged in coping strategies and resilience methods during COVID-19 period. Coping strategies have shown a significant association with the income and the production capacity of the farms. However, the majority of ornamental fish farmers haven't engaged in resilience methods during the COVID-19 pandemic. Other than the COVID-19 pandemic, the major constraints of ornamental fish production were lack of market information about the changes in the overseas markets and demand, the low price given for the product and lack of communication between farmers and exporters. Ideal "ORNAFISBIZ" model is suggested for overcome those constraints in order to protect the ornamental fish farmers in this area.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused resource depletion and a shift in priorities in the public health system, impacting the control of other communicable diseases of public interest. Hepatitis A virus is a notifiable disease transmitted through faeco-oral transmission. We conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with a clinical diagnosis of hepatitis whose specimens were submitted to the Virology Laboratory of the National Hospital, Kandy, from January 2019 to December 2021. During pre-pandemic time 28 (4.4%) were positive for hepatitis A, while it was 86 (10.2%) during the pandemic. There was a statistically significant difference in incidence between the two cohorts (p < 0.0001). The majority of patients in 2021 (25 patients;64.1%) resided in Badulla. Our data shows an increased incidence of hepatitis A cases during the pandemic, and residents in Badulla were predominantly affected in 2021. Strategies should therefore be undertaken to prevent further cases in the central part of the country.
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Objective: The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has led the world's public health systems to face a lot of challenges. One of the main effective ways to control the spread of this disease is to break the chain of infection by adhering to preventive practices. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the preventive health behaviour related to COVID-19 among adults using the Health Belief Model (HBM).
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This study provides a simple, widely available deterrence medication to minimize COVID-19 infection using by tea and coffee infusions. By mixing white with an equal amount of water, add a small amount of tea/coffee infusion. Dull brownish albumen-tannin complex, a soft precipitate is formed and sinks to the bottom. The infusion should reach the furthest points in the respiratory tract so that a maximum number of viral particles are trapped. It is necessary to hold the infusion rolling about for a little while, 20 seconds in the mouth before swallowing. Gargling with the infusion is better. Tannins in tea or coffee infusions will form complexes with the 4-5 types of viral surface proteins [spikes], rendering them ineffective. Protein-tannin astringent complexation is a fundamental chemical reaction and is bound to act, unlike specific antimetabolites or enzyme-mediated actions of antibiotics. In fact, tannins react to some extent with the cell lining of the mucous membranes of the mouth and stomach. Tannins also chelate iron [Fe] and other metal ions required for many of the metabolic reactions of micro-organisms [viruses?], depriving them of these nutrients and further retarding their propagation. Two gargles per day, 12 hours apart, are recommended to disable the virus and eventually kill it. The procedure disables free viruses before tissue invasion. Therefore, the earlier the gargle commences, the better. Suspected contacts should preferably have three daily eight-hourly gargles. Astringent activity is an added activity of tea and coffee, demonstrated in this study [using E. coli and Salmonella] to that of immune boosting action generally spoken about.
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Purpose: Evolving technologies allow us to measure human molecular data in a wide reach. Those data are extensively used by researchers in many studies and help in advancements of medical field. Transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and epigenome are few such molecular data. This study utilizes the transcriptome data of COVID-19 patients to uncover the dysregulated genes in the SARS-COV-2. Method: Selected genes are used in machine learning models to predict various phenotypes of those patients. Ten different phenotypes are studied here such as time since onset, COVID-19 status, connection between age and COVID-19, hospitalization status and ICU status, using classification models. Further, this study compares molecular characterization of COVID-19 patients with other respiratory diseases.
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Introduction: As the daily number of patients diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection by PCR increases, the necessity to identify truly infectious cases becomes more significant. We aimed to identify a cut-off Ct value of the COVID-19 RT-PCR assay for likely infectivity by assessing the COVID-19 IgG status and investigating the utility of the Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) in identifying infectious cases among asymptomatic individuals.
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This special issue includes 10 articles with a focus on domestic workers facing the COVID-19 crisis in Latin America;hard-to-reach women and girls, services, and programmes in Kenya;access to health care for resettled women in Jaffna;COVID-19 and mental health challenges for Syrian refugee women in Lebanon;exploring gender, health, and intersectionality in informal settlements in Freetown;the rise of non-communicable disease (NCDs) in Mozambique;a study of ageing women in the Indian Sundarbans;enhancing social accountability through adolescent and youth leadership.
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Respiratory diseases are common causes of hospital admission in children. Droplet transmission is the primary route of transmition in respiratory infections. The objective was to assess the burden of respiratory diseases on hospital admission of children during this Covid 19 pandemic and to assess the impact of Covid 19 preventive measures on it. An institutional based retrospective descriptive study based on secondary data was carried out at Professorial Paediatric unit Teaching hospital Jaffna. The data was extracted from the electronic patient management system. All the records of children who were primarily diagnosed with respiratory disease during the period of June 2020 to May 2021 were extracted. This data was compared with that of 2017. The total hospital admission has reduced from 4127 to 1049 during the pandemic. There was a significant decrease in total hospital admission during the covid 19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic {t (11.488) = 8.015 p<0.001}. Similarly, there was a significance decrease in the admissions due to respiratory diseases during the covid 19 pandemic {t(11.355) =5.982 p<0.001}. The percentage of respiratory admission has significantly reduced during the pandemic {t (21.997) =5.173 p<0.001}. Hospital admission due to respiratory illness has significantly reduced when compared to total admission during this pandemic. This may be attributed to social distancing, wearing mask and good hand hygiene.
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Our world is currently fighting with highly infectious and deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 virus which has no specific remedy yet. No study focused on reviewing applied clinical management and treatment protocol of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) by health ministry of different nations till date. Therefore, this study focuses to identify and compare clinical management and treatment protocol guidelines for COVID-19 from 8 South Asian countries. This study will assist the healthcare workers and authorities of different nations by sharing the key information from potential guidelines to treat COVID-19 patients. Necessary information has been collected from the clinical management guidelines for COVID-19 in Health Ministry website of India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives. Though clinical management practices vary from country to country, all of these countries are utilizing high flow oxygen therapy and mechanical ventilation for critical cases. Moreover, some potential drugs have been suggested for treatment by most of the countries but were not recommended yet as all of them are under clinical trials. Hydroxychloroquine has been suggested by most of these countries. All the countries are developing and updating their guidelines for clinical management of COVID-19 patients. It is worth mentioning that the recovery rate of Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bhutan, and Maldives is 63.52%, 76.24%, 94.88%, 94.47%, 83.65%, 71.5%, 71.14%, and 83.83% respectively. The oxygen therapy and empirical antibiotic for preventing secondary infection have been used commonly in most of these countries as an effective treatment.
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The majority of the vegetables moving through traditional supply chains pass via Dambulla Dedicated Economic Centre (DDEC), which is the main wholesale market in Sri Lanka, to the regional markets. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sri Lankan government implemented several measures to keep vegetable markets of the country integrated. The objective of this study was to examine the degree of market integration of nine regional wholesale vegetable markets with DDEC in Sri Lanka during the COVID-19 pandemic. Pairwise comparisons between vegetable prices at DDEC and regional markets were done using Engle- Granger Co-integration test to achieve this objective. The analysis was carried out in the first differenced form, which conformed to the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests of stationarity. Short-run price disequilibrium was tested using Vector Auto-Regression Model (VAR) and Vector Error Correction Model (VECM). Weekly wholesale prices of beans, carrot, tomato, and brinjal markets during 2018-2021 were used for the analysis. The results revealed that only bean markets in Dehiaththakandiya, Thambuttegama, Nuwara Eliya, Meegoda, and Colombo wholesale vegetable markets depicted cointegrated behaviour with DDEC during the COVID-19 period. None of the other vegetable markets were integrated spatially with DDEC during the COVID-19 period. Before the pandemic, except in Ampara, Colombo and Dehiaththakandiya regional markets, all the other regional markets for beans, carrot, tomato, and brinjal were spatially integrated with DDEC either long run or short run. In conclusion, despite various government interventions to keep the vegetable market channels smoothly and consistently, the COVID-19 has negatively affected on price transmission of the vegetable marketing system of the country.
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Undoubtedly, wellness tourism industry, in pre-COVID-19 era, was well developed around the world. Wellness tourism, which is a branch of health tourism, has been seen as a major tool to bring even middle tourists. This industry made it possible for human beings to live healthily and peacefully. This industry, therefore, still draws significant attention among tourism stakeholders. This study explores the impact of COVID-19 on wellness tourism in Sri Lanka. Throughout the world, COVID-19 has brought about changes in many spheres. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the effects of COVID-19 on wellness tourism in Sri Lanka. In this study, a qualitative analytical approach has been used as it orients towards exploration and discovery. The purposive sampling technique was used to select the eighteen semi-structured e-interviewees from different segments of wellness service providers. The data collected, using different techniques in this study, have been analysed by using discourse analysis. This research concludes that the wellness industry in Sri Lanka has been severely disturbed by COVID-19 as it is extremely vulnerable.
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The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes one of the greatest challenges in the history of the tourism industry. Travel restrictions imposed in many countries to manage the global spread and community transmission allow to study the environmental effects on tourism destinations. Here we investigate the case of wildlife tourism in Sri Lanka, a country that has experienced unsustainable wildlife tourism practices before COVID-19. Semi-structured interviews of wildlife tourism stakeholders of Sri Lanka's national parks demonstrated how the travel restrictions during COVID-19 provided a temporary relief from environmental impacts. We discuss various measures on how to maintain more sustainable practices of wildlife tourism in Sri Lanka and other countries in the long term seizing this unusual opportunity.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has created a significant threat to global health, economy and psycho- social life. It is a highly contagious disease transmitted mainly via human to human interactions. As such, control of the pandemic mainly depends on preventive strategies and safe practices. This study is aimed at assessing the knowledge and practices of medical students of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna, towards the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross sectional study was conducted among the medical students using a self-administered questionnaire to assess knowledge and practices. Analysis was done using SPSS 26. Of 431 students, the majority (81.4%:95%CI:77.6-84.8%) answered more than 80% of the questions correctly. The most popular source for information on COVID-19 was social media (86.3%) followed by news media (63.8%). The majority of the participants (85.4%) reported they adhered to more than 80% of correct practices assessed in this study. However, only35.5% of students attended any of the lectures/discussions on the COVID-19 pandemic held at the university and only 37.1% reported they had infection control training during their career. Organized usage of resources and infection control training, specific to COVID-19 pandemic could be used to fill the gaps in knowledge and practices further.