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Objective: To analyze the vaccination status of SARS-CoV-2 in children, and explore the relationship between SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and COVID-19 in children. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted to analyze the clinical data of 335 cases of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infection from February 15, 2022 to March 18, 2022 in Shenzhen Third People's Hospital. Results: Among 335 children with SARS-CoV-2 infection, 174(51.9%) cases were vaccinated with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine;33(31.4%) cases were vaccinated in the 3-<6 years old group;141(61.3%) cases were vaccinated in the 6-<14 years old group. There was a statistically significant difference in the proportion of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination between the 6-<14 years old group and the 3-<6 years old group (X2=26.1, P < 0.05). In the study cohort, 3-<6 years old group and 6-<14 years old group, there was no significant difference in the incidence of COVID-19 in the vaccinated group compared with the unvaccinated group (P > 0.05). In the study cohort, the proportion of confirmed cases of 1 dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and 2 doses or more of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine was 89.5% (68 cases) and 77.6% (76 cases), respectively;in the 6~<14 years old group, the proportion of confirmed cases of 1 dose of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and 2 doses or more of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine was 90.0% (54 cases) and 76.5% (62 cases), respectively;the differences were statistically significant (X2=4.264, P < 0.05;X2=4.279, P < 0.05). The IgG levels of 18.28 (6.61, 55.2) AU/mL and 58.3 (25.85, 131.41) AU/mL in the study cohort who were vaccinated for 1 dose, 2 doses and more, respectively;the IgG levels of 20.13 (8.33, 44.33) AU/mL and 56.57 (25.85, 150.07) AU/mL in the 6~<14 years old group who were vaccinated for 1 dose, 2 doses and more, respectively;and the differences were statistically significant (Z=-4.37, P < 0.05;Z=-3.96, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Children who received 2 doses of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine have a lower incidence of COVID-19 and higher levels of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies compared with who received 1 dose. It is recommended that children are advised to be vaccinated against the COVID-19.
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The COVID-19 pandemic that started in 2019-2020 has led to a gigantic increase in modeling and simulation of infectious diseases. There are numerous topics associated with this epoch-changing event, such as (a) disease propagation, (b) transmission, (c) decontamination, and (d) vaccines. This is an evolving field. The targeted objective of this book is to expose researchers to key topics in this area, in a very concise manner. The topics selected for discussion have evolved with the progression of the pandemic. Beyond the introductory chapter on basic mathematics, optimization, and machine learning, the book covers four themes in modeling and simulation infectious diseases, specifically: Part 1: Macroscale disease propagation, Part 2: Microscale disease transmission and ventilation system design, Part 3: Ultraviolet viral decontamination, and Part 4: Vaccine design and immune response. It is important to emphasize that the rapid speed at which the simulations operate makes the presented computational tools easily deployable as digital twins, i.e., digital replicas of complex systems that can be inexpensively and safely optimized in a virtual setting and then used in the physical world afterward, thus reducing the costs of experiments and also accelerating development of new technologies. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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Many zoonotic diseases are found in wild animals and present a serious risk to human health, in particularly the virus carried by birds flying freely around the world is hard to control. There are three main bird migration routes which cover the most areas of China. It is important to investigate and fully understand the types of avian transmitted diseases in key areas on the bird migration routines and its impacts on both birds and human health. However, no literature is available in how about the risk of virus carried by migrating birds, and how to predict and reduce this risk of virus spreading to human being so far. In this paper, we first reviewed the main pathogen types carried by birds, including coronaviruses, influenza viruses, parasites, Newcastle disease virus (NDV), etc., and then discussed the spread risk of avian viruses to human being and animals in key areas of biosafety prevention. We also analyzed and discussed the risk of cross-spread of diseases among different bird species in nature reserves located on bird migration routes which provide sufficient food sources for migratory birds and attract numerous birds. Diseases transmitted by wild birds pose a serious threat to poultry farms, where high density of poultry may become avian influenza virus (AIV) reservoirs, cause a risk of avian influenza outbreaks. Airports are mostly built in suburban areas or remote areas with good ecological environment. There are important transit places for bird migration and densely populated areas, which have serious risk of disease transmission. Finally, this paper puts forward the following prevention suggestions from three aspects. First, establish and improve the monitoring and prediction mechanism of migratory birds, and use laser technology to prevent contact between wild birds and poultry. Second, examine and identify virus types carried by birds in their habitats and carry out vaccination. Third, protect the ecological environment of bird habitat, and keep wild birds in their natural habitat, so as to reduce the contact between wild birds and human and poultry, and thus reduce the risk of virus transmission.
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Given the time criticality of finding treatments for the novel COVID-19 pandemic disease, drug repurposing has proved to be a vital strategy as the first response while de novo drug and vaccine developments are underway. Furthermore, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has also accelerated drug development in general. Key desirable features of AI that support a rapid and sustained response along the pandemic timeline include technical flexibility and efficiency (i.e. speed, resource-efficiency, algorithm adaptability), and clinical applicability and acceptability (i.e. scientific rigor, physiological applicability and practical implementation of proposed drugs). This chapter reviews a selection of AI-based applications used in drug development targeting COVID-19, including IDentif.AI-a small data platform for a rapid identification of optimal drug combinations, to illustrate the potential of AI in drug repurposing. The benefits and limitations of using Real-World Data are also discussed. The response to the COVID-19 pandemic has offered multiple learnings which highlight the need to strengthen both short- and long-term strategies in developing AI technologies, scientific and regulatory frameworks as well as worldwide collaborations to enable effective preparedness for future epidemic and pandemic risks. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.
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For many science teachers and science teacher educators, COVID-19 made clear a need to focus on the socioscientific issues. [...]it subverts and undercuts the goals of having inquiry in the standards as it was intended. [...]the lack of ability to address things outside the standards leads to a lesser engagement with inquiry as it becomes more a poorly implemented default than a carefully crafted learning objective. [...]it is one with no explicit link to the NGSS. [...]teachers have made a choice either to teach about IDE outside the content mandated by the NGSS-perhaps under the cover of inquiry-or to avoid instruction on the most relevant and immediate socioscientific issue in students' lives. [...]current events have prompted a resurgence of this discussion (Zucker and Noyce 2020). [...]examination and discussion of how the NGSS might be understood or implemented in more adaptive ways is both timely and productive for scholars and policy makers who have a vested interest in the sufficiency or potential shortcomings of the dominant set of science education standards.
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According to recent market research, the vaccines market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 14.7% for the forecast period of 2020-2026 (1), the growth of which has been accelerated by the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Durability of glass vials at very low temperatures and permeability of plastic vials has complicated the packaging decisions as well." Since the beginning of the pandemic, the bio/pharma industry has been under pressure to produce stable formulations for effective vaccines in accelerated timescales, Blouet asserts. [...]the drive for a COVID-19 vaccine has occurred during a period of increased basic scientific understanding, such as in genomics and structural biology, supporting a new wave of vaccine development and production, she says. According to Phadnis, in addition to single-use technologies, automation for high throughput and robust analytical assays are necessary for rapid turnover during development and manufacturing of vaccines.
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COVID-19 is an infectious disease that causes acute respiratory distress syndrome due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Rapid and accurate screening and early diagnosis of patients play an essential role in controlling outbreaks and reducing the spread of this disease. This disease can be diagnosed by manually reading CXR images, but it is time-consuming and prone to errors. For this reason, this research proposes an automatic medical image segmentation system using a combination of U-Net architecture with Batch Normalization to obtain more accurate and fast results. The method used in this study consists of pre-processing using the CLAHE method and morphology opening, CXR image segmentation using a combination of U-Net-4 Convolution Block architecture with Batch Normalization, then evaluated using performance measures such as accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, F1-score, and IoU. The results showed that the U-Net architecture modified with Batch Normalization had successfully segmented CXR images, as seen from all performance measurement values above 94%.
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Social isolation in times of pandemic can affect the well-being of individuals infected with a contagious disease. This study explores the lived experience of the 12 COVID-19 survivors placed in community-based isolation centers in Cebu City, Philippines and whose cases were mild and asymptomatic. In describing their lived experience, we employed Max van Manen's phenomenology of practice. Results show that the COVID-19 survivors have suffered more from the consequences of separation and discrimination than the disease's physiological effects. Educating the whole community about social responsibility and ethical behavior in dealing with COVID-19 survivors is essential to minimize social stigma and discrimination.
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Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of the current COVID-19 pandemic, has evolved to have a wide range of hosts, including non-human primates, wild and domestic animals. Determining the susceptibility of different animal species to SARS-CoV-2 infection and the role of animals in the epidemiology of the disease will be critical to designing appropriate human and veterinary public health responses to this pandemic. A better understanding of the susceptibility of animal species to SARS-CoV-2 may help clarify transmission mechanisms and identify potential reservoirs and sources of infection that are important for both animal and human health. The current pandemic produced by SARS CoV-2 and its variants represents an example of the unique concept of health (One Health) in which humans and animals are components of the same epidemiological chain. In this paper, only the natural infections found in different animals species will be reviewed, according to literature data, regarding the species of affected animals, the transmission patterns (human-animal, animal-human), clinical aspects, diagnosis confirmation and a brief presentation of the prevention possibilities through vaccination.
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As important combat platforms, large warships have the characteristics of compact internal space and dense personnel. Once infectious diseases occur, they are very easy to spread. Therefore, it is very important to select suitable forecasting models for infectious diseases in this environment. This paper introduces 4 classic dynamics models of infectious diseases, summarizes various kinds of compartmental models and their key characteristics, and discusses several common practical simulation requirements, helping relevant health personnel to cope with the challenges in health and epidemic prevention such as the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019.Copyright © 2022, Second Military Medical University Press. All rights reserved.
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Objectives: The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 resulted in a global pandemic. Vaccine mandates were implemented in several countries, including in Taiwan, and often targeted health-care workers in particular. This study investigated attitudes among Taiwanese physicians toward such policies and how ethical beliefs and logic influenced attitudes. Methods: A total of 16 physicians were recruited by using the snowball method from hospitals in northern Taiwan. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews. Results: Physicians tended not to support mandatory vaccination. Five themes emerged: (1) Individual rights, including violation of autonomy and labor rights;(2) vaccine performance, including safety and efficacy;(3) institutional norms, including the degree of relevancy of the policy-issuing unit and the employment relationship between physicians and institutions;(4) social and workplace stigma resulting from coercive policies in different job categories or departments;and (5) professional ethics of physicians. Conclusions: Autonomy and professional ethics among physicians influence attitudes toward vaccine mandates. Vaccine performance, institutional norms, and stigma also influence attitudes toward vaccine mandates and decision-making. Even with high ethical awareness, the study participants tended not to support vaccine mandates. The government should formulate mandatory vaccination policy means for healthcare workers that can be used by hospitals. Each hospital should assess their unique risks and implement policies that best suit their needs. (Taiwan J Public Health. 2023;42(1):75-87)
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A leaked draft of the health plans under consideration for the next stage of the European Union's Horizon research program gives some insight into what is likely to result later in the year in a formal invitation for proposals. Successful proposals are likely to be able to demonstrate the ability to sustain multi-country adaptive platform trials with adequate trial implementation capacity, laboratory analysis capacity, and a harmonized approach to the collection, storage, sharing, and analysis of data. Proposals should consider the coordination of adaptive platform trials addressing diverse trial target populations (such as primary care or hospitalized patients) as well as different possible medical countermeasures (including therapeutics and vaccines), within or across networks, which could include performance study plans for diagnostics, says the leaked draft.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified certain populations as being particularly vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic, including racial and ethnic minority populations, people living in rural or frontier areas, people experiencing homelessness, essential and frontline workers, people with disabilities, people with substance use disorders, people in incarcerated populations, and individuals born outside of the United States (CDC 2020). Because the pandemic is affecting people and communities disproportionately, we knew students needed to explore the social and historical dimensions of the pandemic that resulted from systemic inequalities. Throughout the unit, they work toward a better understanding of the following ideas: * How the COVID-19 virus is transmitted between individuals and within communities * How mitigation strategies lower the chance of transmitting the COVID-19 virus between individuals and across communities * An understanding that there are differences in how diseases spread across different communities that cannot be explained without taking social, historical, and economic factors into account and that understanding the larger social context, policies, and practices can help us understand disproportionate impacts within and between communities * How others are affected during a public health crisis and how empathizing with them can help us better protect ourselves and the people in our communities Our commitment to providing the information that young people need to understand COVID-19 and other pandemics led to an interesting discovery about the NGSS. Attempt to make sense of the phenomenon or problem Students share the patterns they observed from the data and create initial models to explain how and why communities were affected by COVID-19 differently (see Figure 1). [...]social awareness is defined as the ability to (1) take the perspective of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds and cultures;(2) understand social and ethical norms for behavior;and (3) recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
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The Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease is a global pandemic infectious disease caused by a novel coronavirus, which affects all age groups with a higher incidence in the geriatric population and people with chronic diseases. The outbreak of the virus is a serious public health challenge including to nurses at the various health care facilities around the world. The outbreak of the coronavirus has been a huge threat to nursing and nursing care globally. Nurses are experiencing a high level of daily emotional stress in their activities in preventing disease infections, promoting health, and saving lives. Many nurses have lost their lives to the deadly disease in their fight to save their patients, many feel stressed and burnout, and many feeling discouraged because of the protracted effects of the disease. The psychological health of the nurses as frontline health care workers should be safeguarded owing to their crucial roles in mitigating disease pandemics. Thus, adequate training of nurses would better equip them with the necessary information regarding the preventive measures, and management approaches to foster the mitigation of the disease, mitigate the disease burden on healthcare facilities, and enhance the recovery rate of the infected populations. Andfurther better prepare nurses on prioritizing personal psychological health.
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Given the rapid spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) globally, test systems are needed for its diagnosis, timely treatment, and introduction of quarantine measures. In the shortest possible time, a diagnostic system based on real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction to detect the ribonucleic acid of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal smears was developed and registered. The method determines the nucleocapsid and small-membrane protein genes and the human PGK1 gene, acting as internal control reactions. The nucleotide sequences of SARS-CoV-2 were analyzed, and primers were selected. The conditions for carrying out real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and the composition of a set of reagents were set. The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of the kit were tested on biological samples, with the addition of inactivated SARSCoV-2. The high analytical characteristics of the developed set of reagents were demonstrated, with a sensitivity of at least 103 GE/mL and a specificity of 100%, and no false-positive or false-negative results were recorded. The high specificity of the test system was shown on a representative sample of genetic materials of respiratory viral pathogens. Clinical and laboratory tests of the diagnostic "SARS-CoV-2 test” were conducted in the N.F. Gamalei National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology. A set of reagents for the detection of ribonucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 through on real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction for in vitro diagnostics "SARS-CoV-2 test” was registered in the Russian Federation as a medical device (Registration certificate no. RZN 2020/10632, dated 06/03/2020). The article can be used under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license © Authors, 2022.
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Thirty fold increase In the province of Bergamo, Italy, researchers have reported a 30 fold increased incidence of Kawasaki like disease since the start of the covid-19 outbreak. Among the covid-19 group more children had cardiac symptoms (6 out of 10), Kawasaki disease shock syndrome (5 out of 10), macrophage activation syndrome (5 out of 10), and the need for adjunctive steroid treatment (8out of 10). In the pre-covid-19 group only two of 19 children had cardiac involvement and just three required adjunctive steroid treatment. A distinct syndrome Julia Kenny, a consultant in paediatric infectious diseases and immunology at Evelina London Children's Hospital, said that the Italian findings appear consistent with cases seen in the south east of England.
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Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) are historically significant cases of infectious disease outbreaks that have posed economic, social, reputational, and moral challenges to Singapore and its much-vaunted model. Until only in recent years, Singapore's neoliberal public health system—focused on efficiency and optimal allocation—had neglected HIV/AIDS and thus the segments of society often associated with it. This neglect had been heightened by prevailing social stigmas and stereotypes. This may shed some light on the COVID-19 pandemic, which elicited rapid, responsive, robust, and inclusive government action where mainstream Singaporean community was concerned, but at the same time failed to recognize and deal with the marginalized and possibly stigmatized segments of society, such as migrant workers, whose badly infected dormitories became an international spectacle of crisis and social injustice. COVID-19 resembled tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in terms of social stigmatization and even moral panic over the unhealthy elements in society. This resulted in the othering of—and disproportionate concern and hostility towards— teenage "spitters” who threatened to spread tuberculosis through their "defiant” behaviour, homosexuals who threatened to spread HIV/AIDS through their "immoral” behaviour and migrant workers in dormitories who were the foreign bringers of disease. The SARS crisis in 2003 was a "wake-up call” for a less-than-prepared Singapore. A subsequently more proactive government learnt key lessons from the crisis, which were systematically institutionalized in readiness for the next infectious disease outbreak. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022.
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As tuberculosis (TB) patients do not have lifetime immunity, environmental transmission is one of the key reasons why TB has not been entirely eradicated. In this study, an SVEIRB model of recurrent TB considering environmental transmission was developed to explore the transmission kinetics of recurrent TB in the setting of environmental transmission, exogenous infection, and prophylaxis. A more thorough explanation of the effect of environmental transmission on recurrent TB can be found in the model's underlying regeneration numbers. The global stability of disease-free and local equilibrium points can be discussed by looking at the relevant characteristic equations. The Lyapunov functions and the LaSalle invariance principle are used to show that the local equilibrium point is globally stable, and TB will persist if the basic reproduction number is larger. Conversely, the disease will disappear if the basic reproduction number is less than one. The impact of environmental transmission on the spread of tuberculosis was further demonstrated by numerical simulations, which also demonstrated that vaccination and reducing the presence of the virus in the environment are both efficient approaches to control the disease's spread.
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The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes Covid-19, an infectious illness. A methodology was created to track the vaccination history of people with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes Covid-19, an infectious illness. The system operates on a Raspberry Pi processor that is designed to authenticate the vaccination records of individuals. The Vaccination Identification System consists of various components connected to the Raspberry Pi Zero 2W microprocessor, Pi camera, an LCD display, LED indicators, a buzzer, a DC servo motor, and a PCB converter. The proposed system grants access to vaccinated individuals and denies access to those who are not vaccinated.