Effectiveness of hand sanitizers in the prevention of COVID-19 and related public health concerns: A review

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a severe threat to public health, resulting in high levels of mortality and morbidity. In response, there has been a significant usage of hand sanitizers in homes, public places, and healthcare systems. In the global panic, the market has a variety of products, and there are serious concerns about the safety and the potential of hand sanitization as the blue bullet for COVID-19. Therefore, this article presents a critical review of types of hand sanitizers available on the market, their active ingredients coupled with their mode of action in the wake of antiviral efficacies. In addition, the adoption of a culture of hand sanitization by society could raise the demand for hand sanitizers for an extended period. The continuous use of hand sanitizers might pose some safety concerns. Consequently, the review articulates potential dangers associated with hand sanitizer used to equip suppliers and manufacturers with knowledge on the safety of different ingredients and formulations, hence safeguarding the final users.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.

Granulomatous Pleuritis in a Previously Covid-19-Infected Patient

INTRODUCTION: The most common setting for granulomatous pleuritis is usually in the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This pathology draws interest due to its potential of long-term injury to lung pleura, as well as, the potential to harm the lung parenchyma by association. We present a rare presentation of granulomatous pleuritis following COVID19 infection. DESCRIPTION: The patient is a 28-year-old female who presents to the hospital with fever and malaise for one week. She reports having an outpatient CT which showed a large right pleural effusion so her pulmonologist instructed her to come in. She denies recent exposure to any sick contacts. She does note a history of COVID-19 a year ago which resulted in shortness of breath but did not require hospitalization. She has worked at a gun shooting range for the last two years, for which she assembles bullets. She notes that she is required to wear a particulate protection mask and has worn this consistently to limit exposure. Thoracic surgery was consulted and initially completed a thoracentesis with 500 mL of exudative fluid. Patient remained intermittently febrile with worsening right sided chest pain. Culture and gram stain were unremarkable. She subsequently underwent a bronchoscopy with bronchial washing, biopsy, and decortication. Pathology demonstrated non-necrotic granulomatous pleuritis with a small area of central fibrinoid necrosis. Repeat chest x-rays demonstrated a minimal pleural effusion, much improved from prior. Fevers had also subsided at this time. Patient was discharged home with instructions to follow-up with thoracic surgery regarding further management of steroids. DISCUSSION: The findings of non-tuberculosis-related granulomatous pleuritis are unique in that they frame the need to look for different perspectives and potentiators for pleural pathology. This case is also important given the unique presentation of the post-covid inflammatory response. Since COVID-19 is still so new, the field of post covid syndromes remains largely unknown.

Bullet screen in pre-clinical undergraduate pharmacology education: a survey study.

BACKGROUND: The lack of interaction and communication in pharmacology courses, especially since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which required a fast shift to remote learning at medical schools, leads to an unsatisfactory learning outcome. New interactive teaching approaches are required to improve pharmacology learning attention and interaction in remote education and traditional classrooms. METHODS: We introduced bullet screens to pharmacology teaching. Then, a survey was distributed to first-, second- and third-year pre-clinical undergraduate medical and nursing students at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine from November 2020 to March 2022. We evaluated the essential features, instructional effectiveness, and entertainment value of bullet screens. Responses to structured and open-ended questions about the strengths and weaknesses of the bullet screen and overall thoughts were coded and compared between medical and nursing students. RESULTS: In terms of essential features, bullet screens have a high degree of acceptability among students, and this novel instructional style conveniently increased classroom interaction. Considering instructional effectiveness, bullet screen may stimulate students' in-depth thinking. Meanwhile, students tended to use bullet-screen comments as a way to express their support rather than to make additional comments or to express their different viewpoints. The entertainment value of bullet screen was noteworthy. The lack of ideas might lead to relative differences between medical and nursing students, indicating that guiding the appropriate use of bullet screen is necessary. CONCLUSIONS: The bullet screen may be popularized as an auxiliary teaching approach to promote interaction between teachers and students in the classroom as well as during remote education. It is an interesting and beneficial tool in pharmacology courses, yet there are several aspects of this device that should be improved for popularization.

Covid-19 and the Resurgence of the Hypodermic Needle Theory Applicability in Times of Crises

This study explored the continued applicability and relevance of Hypodermic Needle Theory, also named the Magic Bullet Theory. It used a quantitative research method using a survey tool designed to investigate a sample of citizens in Jordan in reference to their attitudes and behaviours of using both social media and traditional media during the Covid-19 pandemic. Regardless of all the criticism around the simplicity of the bullet theory and its assumption of an all-passive audience when it comes to receiving media messages, this research tests its applicability and relevance in times of pandemics and crises. The study found that Hypodermic Needle Theory remains of a much relevance to assess citizens behaviours during times of pandemics and crisis such as Covid-19. The study revealed that social media was more followed by the study sample during the pandemic to seek information. The perceived media effects were also higher for social media (M = 3.52) in comparison to traditional official media (M = 2.92). The study hypotheses shown no significant differences between males and females regarding their level of following Covid-19 topics and content which means they both follow it equally. Likewise, the study revealed no significant differences between the participants’ age, education level and place of residence in relation to their following of Covid-19 over both social media and traditional media and its effects on the participants. Therefore, this study justifies the continued relevance of the bullet theory in times of crises such as Covid-19. These results also provide a stepping-stone for future empirical research in which investigates more on the effects of the media messages on audiences taking into account the scale of both information and misinformation online in times of crises. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Penetrating abdominal trauma: Evaluation in Baghdad during the pandemic Covid-19

Background: Trauma is one of the leading causes of deaths worldwide for all age groups, especially in the younger age group. The purpose of the current study is to assess/analyze the factors for mortality in penetrating abdominal traumas with respect to the total number of intra-abdominal organs injured, related extra-abdominal injuries, gender, type of injury, time of arrival, and amount of blood transfusion needed during the pandemic. Methods: A retrospective study including 523 patients underwent laparotomy in Al-Emamien Al-Kadhimin Medical City from March 2020 to September 2021 for a penetrating abdominal injury due to blast injury, bullet, shrapnel injury, and stab wounds. The study population with penetrating abdominal traumas and indicative abdominal signs was subjected to exploratory laparotomy. Results: In this study, 465 (88.9%) males and 58 (11.1%) females participated;the highest rate was found in small bowel injuries (40.73%) followed by large bowel injuries (21.99%), whereas the lowest rate was found in gallbladder injury (1.34%). Chest injuries represent the highest rate among extra-abdominal injuries (18.36%), whereas head and neck represent the lowest rate (1.34%). Regarding the risk factors affecting the mortality rate, the highest rate of mortality was found in the case of gunshot (13.11%), followed by shrapnel (6.38%) and stab wound injuries (5.26%), which was the lowest. Conclusion: Penetrating abdominal injuries were the most common among males, small bowel injuries are the commonest organs affected by the penetrating abdominal injuries, shrapnel injuries were the commonest causes in our country, and the highest mortality rate was related to gunshot and number of organs affected and delay of arrival to the hospital and number of pints of blood received.

The rise and rise of FOAMeD in dermatology education-A review

Aims: Australian medical students have historically had limited dedicated clinical education in dermatology. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in additional barriers to face-to-face clinical education. With the increasing usage of social media and web-based resources, Free Online Open Access Medical Education (FOAMeD) has emerged as a popular educational paradigm. The FOAMed movement promotes accessible, collaborative and contemporaneous clinical education, knowledge-sharing and communication in medicine. In this review, we explore the platforms, content and delivery modalities available in dermatology FOAMed for medical students. Methods: MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, Scopus and Social media platforms were searched with the following search terms: ?FOAMed?, ?FOAM? AND/OR ?Dermatology?, ?Skin disease?, ?Dermatological?, ?Dermatology education? AND/OR ?medical education?, ?medical student? to identify potential dermatology FOAMed resources for medical students. Additional FOAMed resources were identified through university and institution student resource lists, word of mouth and ancestry searching of identified FOAMed resources. Dermatology FOAMed resources were categorised according to platform, content media and delivery. Specific examples of dermatology FOAMed are discussed. Results: Dermatology FOAMed platforms identified could be grouped into six categories: social networking, media sharing networks, digital libraries, community blogs, blog comments and forums, and microblogging. Content media could be broadly classified into textual, visual, audio and combination delivery. Delivery of dermatology FOAMed encompassed (use a list/bullet point here): podcasts, videos, vodcasts, digital libraries, educational images, blog articles, memes, infographics, livestreams, host discussions, webinars, reels and games. Specific examples of dermatology FOAMed are discussed including (use another list here) the SpotDiagnosis (podcast), UE Open.Ed (video sharing network), @DocScribbles (Twitter), Sydney University Dermatology Society-SUDS (Facebook community group) and DontForgetTheBubbles (community blog). Conclusions: Dermatology FOAMed for medical students are widely available through multiple modalities. Learner satisfaction and clinical education outcomes are subject to further research.

IBIA 2021: A Global Conference and Meeting of Minds for Adult and Pediatric Brain Injury Professionals

The proceedings contain 258 papers. The topics discussed include: spontaneous migration of a falling bullet in the cerebellum reveals the importance of intraoperative skull X-Ray;concussion in women?s flat-track roller Derby;using PPI (public and patient involvement) in neurorehabilitation service research prioritization;emergency preparedness and ensuring the safety of persons with brain injuries;brain injury: voices of a silent epidemic;evaluating a compassion focused therapy group for adults with acquired brain injury;post-covid growth in neuro-rehabilitation services in Ireland - Covid-19 as a potential catalyst for change in the field of neuro-rehabilitation for those with an acquired brain injury?;and prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of traumatic brain injury in young offenders.

The wandering bullet: An unusual case of paradoxical embolization involving the neck, aortic arch, and iliac artery

Paradoxical intravascular bullet embolism involving the aortic arch (AA) is a rare and highly lethal condition. We describe an unusual case of a civilian gunshot injury to the neck. A bullet entered in the neck, injured the internal jugular vein (IJV), and then continued into the lumen of the common carotid artery (CCA). The bullet traveled under its own momentum and against the flow of blood, along the carotid and brachiocephalic vessels, finally lodging in the wall of the lesser curvature of the AA. The injury tract resulted in an arterial-venous fistula between IJV and CCA and a pseudoaneurysm of the AA. Open surgical repair of the neck and AA was complicated by secondary distal embolization of the bullet, requiring an embolectomy.