Knowledge, attitude, practice, and acceptability towards COVID-19 vaccination among medical professionals in Puducherry - A cross-sectional study

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is still spreading worldwide and it has resulted in severe economic disruptions and unrivalled challenges to health-care system. Aims and Objectives: This study was planned to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practice, and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination among medical professionals. Material(s) and Method(s): A questionnaire-based cross-sectional study was conducted on 276 medical professionals working in Puducherry using convenience sampling method. Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages were computed. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS software 28.0 Version. Pearson's Chi-square analysis and multinomial regression analysis were performed. Result(s): Among the 276 respondents, 71 (25.7%) were affected with COVID-19 infection, 274 (99.2%) got vaccinated. Two doses were taken by 90.6% and 24 (8.7%) had received one dose of vaccination during the study period. Adequate knowledge was seen (P = 0.029) among the doctors who received two doses of vaccination (P = 0.019). Positive attitude was observed among the professionals who were vaccinated with CoviShield (P <= 0.001) and received two doses of vaccination (P = 0.003). About 79% of participants experienced common side effects due to vaccination. About 83.3% of participants were willing to take Booster dose and their choice of vaccine was CoviShield 76.4%, Covaxin 21.7%, and only 12% endorsed Sputnik V. About 69.2% of them have accepted that after mass vaccination campaigns, COVID-19 infection has been reduced. Conclusion(s): The present study findings showed adequate knowledge, favorable attitude, good practice, and acceptability of COVID-19 vaccination. Public health officials should utilize this opportunity and engage the medical professionals in educational campaigns which could reduce the misconceptions and alleviate the fear about the vaccination among the general population.Copyright © 2023, Mr Bhawani Singh. All rights reserved.

Professional Stress and Burnout Syndrome During the Covid Pandemic in the Medical Field.

Context: The contemporary workplace creates a challenge toward physicians and their teams. They are forced into a situation, in which to be competitive they must have skills outside of their medical specialty, such as health management, pedagogy, and information and communication technologies. Aim: To analyze the level of stress and burnout among the medical employees in the hospital care. Settings and Design: Healthcare professionals from three private, municipal, and regional hospitals filled a questionnaire in the time period January-March 2021. Methods and Material: An adapted Maslach Burnout Inventory 55 question questionnaire was used and analyzed. Statistical Analysis Used: One-way ANOVA, correlation, and multiple regression analysis in SPSS. Results: We identified high levels of emotional exhaustion (>62% report high signs or above), high levels of depersonalization (>70% report signs of depersonalization), and low levels of personal accomplishment (<39% have below average sense of achievements). Conclusions: Despite the physicians and their teams reporting high levels of workload and stress, the satisfaction from work has not diminished and the evaluation for the quality of provided work is still high. Additional research into the topic is required with focus on comparison between hospital physicians and primary care physicians.

FORMATION OF ANTI-INFECTIOUS AND POST-VACCINATION ANTI-SARS-CoV-2 HUMORAL IMMUNITY IN MEDICAL WORKERS OF THE PERINATAL CENTER

In the context of the global spread of the new coronavirus infection, studies aimed at investigating formation of anti-infectious and post-vaccination immunity are of special importance, which is necessary to prevent and reduce morbidity and mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Purpose: to assess anti-infectious immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in various forms of the disease and development of post-vaccination humoral reactions in medical workers of the perinatal center. Materials and methods. A study of blood serum was carried out to assess SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM and IgG antibodies in 119 medical workers recovered after COVID-19, divided into groups based on the disease severity (mild, moderate and asymptomatic), as well as in 62 vaccinated employees, divided into groups according to age. Semi-quantitative measurement of virus-specific antibodies was carried out by ELISA with test systems "SARS-CoV-2-IgG-ELISA-BEST" and "SARS-CoV-2-IgM-ELISA-BEST". Statistical processing of the research results was carried out using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Statistica 6. Quantitative characteristics were presented as median (ME), lower and upper quartiles (LQ1-UQ3);qualitative parameters - as absolute value and relative number (%). Difference between groups was analyzed by using the chi(2) test (qualitative) and the Mann-Whitney U-test (quantitative). Results. The results of the study showed that the majority of employees with a moderate-severe form of SARS-CoV-2 had a high level of IgG (PR - a positivity rate of more than 9.0 arbitrary units) 9 months after the disease compared to those who suffered from mild or asymptomatic (83.3% versus 25.8% and 13.3%, p < 0.017) infection. The duration of IgG circulation after former illness had no relation to its severity and patient age. The effectiveness of the primary vaccination "Sputnik V" and revaccination with "Sputnik Light" and "KoviVak" was 100% after inoculating the vaccine second component. The lowest level of antibodies after the first vaccination is recorded in persons over 60 years old (1.48 (1.12-3.25 versus PR = 8.48 (5.78-10.11) and 9.27 (5.84-10.31) arbitrary units, p < 0.017)), in comparison with young and middle-age subjects. The speed SARS-CoV-2 elimination of IgG at 6, 9 or more months after vaccination depends on relevant initial peak antibody concentration. Subjects who were initially vaccinated with the KoviVac vaccine, IgG was not detected 2 months after vaccination. The protective effect of "Sputnik V", "Sputnik Light", "KoviVac" after re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 averages 71.2%. Conclusion. Thus, the results obtained on assessing anti-infectious and post-vaccination immunity against SARS-CoV-2 emphasize the need for further studies on a larger patient cohort, especially in those with asymptomatic infection as well as the elderly subjects.

A Study on the Bayesian Network Approach with K-Anonymity in Contact Tracing Applications for COVID-19

Due to the rise of severe and acute infections called Coronavirus 19, contact tracing has become a critical subject in medical science. A system for automatically detecting diseases aids medical professionals in disease diagnosis to lessen the death rate of patients. To automatically diagnose COVID-19 from contact tracing, this research seeks to offer a deep learning technique based on integrating a Bayesian Network and K-Anonymity. In this system, data classification is done using the Bayesian Network Model. For privacy concerns, the K-Anonymity algorithm is utilized to prevent malicious users from accessing patients' personal information. The dataset for this system consisted of 114 patients. The researchers proposed methods such as the K-Anonymity model to remove personal information. The age group and occupations were replaced with more extensive categories such as age range and numbers of employed and unemployed. Further, the accuracy score for the Bayesian Network with k-Anonymity is 97.058%, which is an exceptional accuracy score. On the other hand, the Bayesian Network without k-Anonymity has an accuracy score of 97.1429%. These two have a minimal percent difference, indicating that they are both excellent and accurate models. The system produced the desired results on the currently available dataset. The researchers can experiment with other approaches to address the problem statements in the future by utilizing other algorithms besides the Bayesian one, observing how they perform on the dataset, and testing the algorithm with undersampled data to evaluate how it performs. In addition, researchers should also gather more information from various sources to improve the sample size distribution and make the model sufficiently fair to generate accurate predictions. © 2022 IEEE.

Explainable COVID-19 Three Classes Severity Classification Using Chest X-Ray Images

COVID-19 has been raging for almost three years ever since its first outbreak. It is without a doubt that it is a common human goal to end the pandemic and how it was before it started. Many efforts have been made to work toward this goal. In computer vision, works have been done to aid medical professionals into faster and more effective procedures when dealing with the disease. For example, disease diagnosis and severity prediction using chest imaging. At the same time, vision transformer is introduced and quickly stormed its way into one of the best deep learning models ever developed due to its ability to achieve good performance while being resources friendly. In this study, we investigated the performance of ViT on COVID19 severity classification using an open-source CXR images dataset. We applied different augmentation and transformation techniques to the dataset to see ViT's ability to learn the features of the different severity levels of the disease. It is concluded that training ViT using the horizontally flipped images added to the original dataset gives the best overall accuracy of 0.862. To achieve explainability, we have also applied Grad-CAM to the best performing model to make sure it is looking at relevant region of the CXR image upon predicting the class label. © 2022 IEEE.

Covid Wave Prediction using SARIMA Machine Learning Algorithm

A speedy and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 is made possible by effective SARS-Co V -2 screening, which can also lessen the strain on health care systems. There have been built prediction models that assess the likelihood of infection by combining a number of parameters. These are intended to help medical professionals worldwide prioritize patients, particularly when there are few healthcare resources available. From a dataset of 51,831 tested people, out of which 4,769 were confirmed to have COVID-19 virus, a machine learning method was developed and trained. Records of the following week with 47,401 tested people, of which 3,624 were tested positive was also considered. Our method accurately predicted the COVID-19 test results using eight binary characteristics, including gender, age 60, known contact with an infected person, and the presence of five early clinical signs. © 2023 IEEE.

Occupational Health of Frontline Workers during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Is Health and Well-Being an Issue in Bangladesh?

The coronavirus outbreak has significantly affected the health and well-being of several people around the world. In a similar vein, Bangladeshi medical professionals have also been affected by several severe physical and mental health complications resulting from their frequent contact with COVID-19 patients. This exposes them to a greater risk of infection with the lethal virus, which can substantially impact their job performance. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the manner in which the COVID-19 pandemic affects the occupational health and safety of medical employees. The researchers deployed a descriptive qualitative technique to investigate the complexities of the COVID-19 crisis amongst medical practitioners. Employing purposeful sampling and in-depth interview techniques, the researchers collected data from a total of 32 healthcare professionals and investigated their state of occupational health, their exposure to stress and trauma, and the effects of stress and trauma on their livelihood, health and well-being. The data revealed the occupational health of healthcare workers as being fragile, resulting to stress and trauma, and eventually, a depressed state of mind. To address this issue, relevant government and non-governmental organizations should concentrate on reducing COVID-19-related risks and repercussions in hospital settings. In addition, policymakers, social workers, public health practitioners and psychologists must work together to ensure that healthcare workers are healthy and safe at work. © 2023, Editura Lumen. All rights reserved.

The Virtual Doctor Is In: The Effect of Telehealth Visits on Patient Experience

COVID-19 has accelerated the adoption of telehealth. With this shift comes a need for empirically based research regarding the effect of telehealth on patient experience. The present study employed an online survey (N = 996) examining whether a patient's perceptions of a telehealth visit predicts (a) the likelihood that they will schedule a future telehealth visit, and (b) their recall of clinical information. Participants viewed a video of a real clinician delivering information on a COVID-19 antibody test, and responded to demographic, socioemotional, and cognitive items. We found that for every 1-point increase in an individual's satisfaction with their interaction with the doctor, they were.73 times more likely to revisit the doctor (p < .01). These results provide insight for researchers and medical professionals regarding patient perceptions of virtual encounters and suggest best practices to consider as we further integrate telehealth. © 2022 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.

Automated Fact-Checking of Articles Related to Neurodevelopmental Disorders

False claims or Fake News related to the health care or medicine field on Social Media have garnered increasing amounts of interest, especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. False claims about the pan-demic which spread on social media have contributed to vaccine hesitancy and lack of trust in the advise of medical professionals. If not detected and disproved early, such claims can complicate future pandemic responses. We focus on false claims in the field of Neurodevelopmental Disorders (NDDs), which is an umbrella term for a group of disorders that includes Autism, ADHD, Cerebral Palsy, etc. In this paper we present our approach to automated systems for fact-checking medical articles related to NDDs. We also present an annotated dataset of 116 web pages which we use to test our model and present our results. © 2022 IEEE.

Role of Digital Healthcare in Rehabilitation During a Pandemic

The pandemic turned life upside down, including causing unavailability and an inability to access rehabilitation in the hospital. However, the need to be fit and healed does not stop, so rehabilitation innovation from the digital sectors plays a role in approaching the patient, as the patient requires a medical professional to be healed. Rehabilitation via a digital pathway is fraught with difficulties, but advances in technology and research have enabled it to be used to the greatest extent possible in this disaster. Digital health has increased its efficacy in response to the pandemic, as it is now available in developing countries where there is an inability to visit a clinic for rehabilitation, and now the rehabilitation tool is accessible to the patients in their hands and they can connect to their therapist at any time. The rehabilitation is designed based on the patient's illness, feedback, and health data stored on the application devices, which regulate and provide feedback from both sides, from the patient and other improvement changes gathered with the help of digital applications. Digital health allows for online consultation, assessment, and 24-h monitoring, all of which are directly shared with the rehabilitation team. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.

Medical professionals' job satisfaction and telemedicine readiness during the COVID-19 pandemic: solutions to improve medical practice in Egypt.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted medical professionals' job satisfaction and was a call to adopt telemedicine. Finding out how far medical professionals are satisfied and ready to use telemedicine would be important to improve medical practice. METHODS: Data was collected from 959 medical professionals from both the governmental and private health sectors in Egypt in 2021 using a specifically designed online questionnaire, to evaluate job satisfaction, perception of telemedicine, and propose solutions to improve medical practice. RESULTS: The study revealed low to moderate job satisfaction at governmental (27.2%) and private (58.7%) sectors. Underpayment was the most reported challenge at both sectors (37.8% and 28.3%, respectively). Dissatisfaction with government salary was independently predicted by working at the Ministry of Health and Population (OR = 5.54, 95%CI = 2.39,12.8; p < 0.001). Wage increase (46.10%), medical training of professionals (18.1%), and management of non-human resources (14.4%) were the most proposed solutions to improve medical practice in Egypt. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 90.7% of medical professionals had practiced telemedicine with moderate level of perception of its benefits (56%). CONCLUSIONS: During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical professionals reported low to moderate job satisfaction and a moderate level of perception of telemedicine. It is recommended to analyze the healthcare financing system and provide continuous training of medical professionals to improve medical practice in Egypt.

Analyzing the Perspectives of Health Professionals and Legal Cannabis Users on the Treatment of Chronic Pain With Cannabidiol: Protocol for a Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Medical cannabis is one of the most commonly reported treatments for chronic pain. The wide acceptance and research in alternative medicine have put medical cannabis in the limelight, where researchers are widely examining its therapeutic benefits, including treatment of chronic pain. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this scoping review is to provide an overview of the perspectives on cannabidiol as an alternative treatment for chronic pain among health professionals and legal cannabis users. METHODS: The framework of Arksey and O'Malley guides the design of this scoping review, and the elements reported use the recommended guidelines of the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews). A comprehensive literature search accessed the databases CINAHL Complete and MEDLINE via EBSCO, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, PsycINFO, Ovid Emcare, Wiley Online Library, Scopus, Informit New Zealand Collection, and Google Scholar for published literature, and then it was extended to include gray literature. Gray literature searches included searching the databases Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, Informit New Zealand Collection, INNZ: Index New Zealand, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, and AUT Tuwhera Research Repository, and the website nzresearch.org.nz. The studies included in this scoping review were assessed for eligibility for inclusion using the following criteria: published in English after 2000, conducted in New Zealand (NZ) or Australia, and aimed to investigate the perspectives of health professionals and medical cannabis users using interviews for data collection. Studies were screened for inclusion using Covidence, a software tool to filter search results, and the risk of bias was assessed using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. Although this is not a required step for scoping reviews, it added an element of strength to this scoping review. Data will be analyzed using thematic analysis guided by Braun and Clarke. The findings from the data analysis will be presented in a table, which will then inform the key themes for discussion. RESULTS: The database search started in October 2021 and was completed in December 2021. The total number of studies included in this review is 5 (n=5). Studies included were conducted in NZ or Australia and examined the perspectives using participant interviews. This scoping review is anticipated to be submitted for publication in December 2022. CONCLUSIONS: Using perspectives is a valuable tool to understand the challenges experienced by health professionals and medical cannabis users associated with medical cannabis treatment. Addressing these challenges through interventions that are highlighted through perspectives such as educating health professionals to increase access to medical cannabis in NZ may aid in policy reformulation for medical cannabis in the context of NZ. Thus, this scoping review highlights the importance of medical cannabis research and suggests recommendations to guide and inform medical cannabis policy in the context of NZ. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/37697.

Pneumonia Detection using Ensemble of Modified ViT-YOLO Models

Pneumonia, an acute respiratory disease that targets the lungs, can occur in people of all age groups. Its severity can range from mild to life-threatening, hence encouraging research for new methods of detection and cure. Since decades, the detection of Pneumonia has been manual, and involves a set of medical professionals to analyze Chest X-Rays (CXR) and carry out laboratory tests along with a detailed clinical study of patient's history before the treatment. Pneumonia is also seen to occur as a complication of COVID-19 infection. Hence, in the recent years, Pneumonia cases have significantly risen making it time-consuming and tedious job for clinicians to analyze and detect it. Therefore, this study presents a unique and robust end-to-end pipeline that can automate the process of detection of Pneumonia in the chest radiographs. This computer vision-based pipeline not only speeds up the process, but also reports results with an mAP@0.5 of 0.7, thus outperforming the current state-of-the-art methods of Pneumonia detection and classification. © 2022 IEEE.

Gray matter volume and burnout severity among medical professionals

Introduction: Occupational burnout has become a pervasive problem in human services. Medical professionals are particularly vulnerable to burnout, which may lead to reduced motivation, medical errors, and voluntary absenteeism. To ensure effect functioning of medical systems, better understanding of burnout among medical professionals is warranted. Objective(s): We aimed to investigate the structural brain correlates of burnout severity among medical professionals. Method(s): Nurses in active service underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed their burnout severity using self-reported psychological questionnaires. This study was approved by the Committee on Medical Ethics of Kyoto University and was conducted in accordance with the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association. Result(s): The results reflected considerable individual differences in burnout severity in our sample. Our findngs revealed that the levels of burnout severity were associated with the regional gray matter volumes in brain areas such as ventromedial prefrontal cortex and insula. Conclusion(s): Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, medical professionals have faced even greater stress. We hope that our findings will contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms of burnout and offer useful insights for developing effective interventions to manage stress and burnout.

Availability and Accessibility of Mental Health Services in New York City.

Mental health services are critical components of public health infrastructure that provide essential supports to people living with psychiatric disorders. In a typical year, about 20 percent of people will have a psychiatric disorder, and about 5 percent will experience serious psychological distress, indicating a potentially serious mental illness. Nationally, the use of mental health services is low, and the use of care is not equitably distributed. In the United States as a whole and in New York City (NYC), non-Hispanic white individuals are more likely to use mental health services than non-Hispanic black individuals or Hispanic individuals. The challenges of ensuring the availability of mental health services for all groups in NYC are particularly acute, given the size of the population and its diversity in income, culture, ethnicity, and language. Adding to these underlying challenges, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has disrupted established patterns of care. To advance policy strategy for addressing gaps in the mental health services system, RAND researchers investigate the availability and accessibility of mental health services in NYC. The RAND team used two complementary approaches to address these issues. First, the team conducted interviews with a broad group of professionals and patients in the mental health system to identify barriers to care and potential strategies for improving access and availability. Second, the team investigated geographic variations in the availability of mental health services by compiling and mapping data on the locations and service characteristics of mental health treatment facilities in NYC.

Ensuring safety from COVID-19 in arthroscopic surgery

In the current time of coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, orthopedic procedures have been shelved and guidelines to establish the safety of medical professionals and patients are still evolving. Although sports injuries are not life threatening, a spectrum of these injuries requires urgent intervention. To ensure the safety of medical professionals and patients of sports injuries in COVID times, the following guidelines are suggested. Such surgery needs to be performed only in COVID-free facility (green zone). Patients from red zone and containment zone should be avoided. Young, fit individuals without medical comorbidities should be considered. Wherever possible, regional anesthesia should be used. As COVID virus is present in all body fluids, aerosol generation (coughing, sneezing, intubation, use of power instruments, and cautery) should be minimized. Operation theater (OT) should be fumigated on the prior night and ideally between the cases. The number of cases per OT should be kept under three to get adequate time in-between for sterilization. The ventilation setup of OT should be negative pressure in addition to positive pressure. If there are hindrances in setting up negative pressure, a simple exhaust can be added to the existing setup. The ventilation system should ideally provide more than 20 air changes per hour. During surgery, movement of doors of OT and OT personnel should be minimal so as to minimize the air turbulence and eddy current. This will reduce the risk of infection. Surgical team should wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and helmet hood to reduce the chances of respiratory droplet infection. The doffing of helmet and PPE should be done with utmost care and should be discarded in a chloro-derivate solution. The motorized drill used for surgical procedure should be used at low revolution per minute (RPM). Usage of sterile transparent polythene hood while irrigating during drilling and sequential drilling will help in minimizing aerosol generation. Spillage of arthroscopic fluid should be avoided at all times. These basic norms will minimize the chance of accidental spread of COVID.

The needs of medical professionals in performing their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative research study

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic situation is a huge global medical and public health issue that has affected people's physical health and mental wellbeing. Under the current circumstances, medical professionals are at risk of stress, anxiety, and subsequent mental health problems. Methods: The present study aimed to explore the needs of medical professionals in terms of promoting their mental health while performing their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic. The purposive sampling method was used to select 43 medical professionals in the following five groups: physicians, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and medical technicians, who were frontline health workers or had the risk of contracting infection from infected patients in Thai hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were collected using a semi-structured online interview. The informants were asked to talk about the need for mental health promotion of medical professionals while performing their duties during the COVID-19 pandemic for approximately 60 minutes. Content analysis and a reliability test were conducted according to the qualitative research process. Results: The research results consisted of three main themes: 1) physical safety welfare, composed of COVID-19 prevention and COVID-19 treatment;2) sources of mental support, comprising emotional support and electronic or media support;and 3) support from central professional agencies, including rewards and recognition and occupational protection. Conclusion: The medical professionals in this study suggested that the mental health promotion during the COVID-19 pandemic should cover the physical, mental, and social dimensions. Thus, a mental healthcare approach for medical professionals should be developed by focusing on social support. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Tracking Mental Health Risks and Coping Strategies in Healthcare Workers’ Online Conversations Across the COVID-19 Pandemic

The mental health risks of the COVID-19 pandemic are magnified for medical professionals, such as doctors and nurses. To track conversational markers of psychological distress and coping strategies, we analyzed 67.25 million words written by self-identified healthcare workers (N = 5,409;60.5% nurses, 39.5% physicians) on Reddit beginning in June 2019. Dictionary-based measures revealed increasing emotionality (including more positive and negative emotion and more swearing), social withdrawal (less affiliation and empathy, more "they" pronouns), and self-distancing (fewer "I" pronouns) over time. Several effects were strongest for conversations that were least health-focused and self-relevant, suggesting that long-term changes in social and emotional behavior are general and not limited to personal or work-related experiences. Understanding protective and risky coping strategies used by healthcare workers during the pandemic is fundamental for maintaining mental health among front-line workers during periods of chronic stress, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2022 Association for Computational Linguistics.

FORMATION OF ANTI-INFECTIOUS AND POST-VACCINATION ANTI-SARS-CoV-2 HUMORAL IMMUNITY IN MEDICAL WORKERS OF THE PERINATAL CENTER.

In the context of the global spread of the new coronavirus infection, studies aimed at investigating formation of anti-infectious and post-vaccination immunity are of special importance, which is necessary to prevent and reduce morbidity and mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Purpose: to assess anti-infectious immunity against SARSCoV-2 in various forms of the disease and development of post-vaccination humoral reactions in medical workers of the perinatal center. Materials and methods. A study of blood serum was carried out to assess SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM and IgG antibodies in 119 medical workers recovered after COVID-19, divided into groups based on the disease severity (mild, moderate and asymptomatic), as well as in 62 vaccinated employees, divided into groups according to age. Semi-quantitative measurement of virus-specific antibodies was carried out by ELISA with test systems “SARS-CoV2-IgG-ELISA-BEST” and “SARS-CoV-2-IgM-ELISA-BEST”. Statistical processing of the research results was carried out using Microsoft Excel 2010 and Statistica 6. Quantitative characteristics were presented as median (ME), lower and upper quartiles (LQ1-UQ3);qualitative parameters - as absolute value and relative number (%). Difference between groups was analyzed by using the χ2 test (qualitative) and the Mann–Whitney U-test (quantitative). Results. The results of the study showed that the majority of employees with a moderate-severe form of SARS-CoV-2 had a high level of IgG (PR - a positivity rate of more than 9.0 arbitrary units) 9 months after the disease compared to those who suffered from mild or asymptomatic (83.3% versus 25.8% and 13.3%, p < 0.017) infection. The duration of IgG circulation after former illness had no relation to its severity and patient age. The effectiveness of the primary vaccination “Sputnik V” and revaccination with “Sputnik Light” and “KoviVak” was 100% after inoculating the vaccine second component. The lowest level of antibodies after the first vaccination is recorded in persons over 60 years old (1.48 (1.12–3.25 versus PR = 8.48 (5.78–10.11) and 9.27 (5.84–10.31) arbitrary units, p < 0.017)), in comparison with young and middle-age subjects. The speed SARS-CoV-2 elimination of IgG at 6, 9 or more months after vaccination depends on relevant initial peak antibody concentration. Subjects who were initially vaccinated with the KoviVac vaccine, IgG was not detected 2 months after vaccination. The protective effect of “Sputnik V”, “Sputnik Light”, “KoviVac” after re-infection with SARS-CoV-2 averages 71.2%. Conclusion. Thus, the results obtained on assessing anti-infectious and post-vaccination immunity against SARS-CoV-2 emphasize the need for further studies on a larger patient cohort, especially in those with asymptomatic infection as well as the elderly subjects. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] Ð’ условиях глобального распространения новой коронавирусной инфекции особую значимость приобретают исследования, направленные на изучение формирования противоинфекционного и поствакцинального иммунитета, что является необходимым для предотвращения и снижения заболеваемости и смертности от SARS-CoV-2. Цель: оценить противоинфекционный иммунитет к SARS-CoV-2 при различных формах заболевания и развитие поствакцинальных гуморальных реакций у медицинских работников перинатального центра. Материалы и методы. Проведено исследование сыворотки крови на определение специ фических антител IgM и IgG классов к SARS-CoV-2 у 119 медицинских работников, перенесших COVID-19 и разделенных на группы в зависимости от тяжести течения заболевания (легкое, умеренное и бессимптомное), а также у 62 сотрудников, прошедших вакцинацию и разделенных на группы в зависимости от возраста. Полуколичественное определение антител осуществляли методом ИФА с использованием тест-систем «SARS-CoV-2-IgG-ИФА-БЕСТ» и «SARS-CoV-2-IgÐœ-ИФА-БЕСТ». Статистическую обработку результатов иcследования проводили с использованием программ «Microsoft Excel 2010» и Statistica 6. Количественные признаки представляли в виде медианы (МЕ), нижнего и верхнего квартилей (LQ1–UQ3);качественные- в виде абсолютного значения и относительного числа (%). Различия между группами устанавливали при помощи критерия χ2 (качественные) и Манна–Уитни (Mann–Whitney U-test) - количественные. Результаты. Результаты исследования показали, что у большинства сотрудников со среднетяжелой формой SARS-CoV-2 регистрируется более высокий уровень IgG (КП - коэффициент позитивности более 9,0 у.е.) спустя 9 месяцев после заболевания, чем у тех, кто переболел в легкой или бессимптомной форме (83,3% против 25,8% и 13,3%, Ñ€ < 0,017). Длительность циркуляции IgG после перенесенного заболевания не зависит от степени тяжести и возраста. Эффективность первичной вакцинации «Спутник V» и ревакцинации «Спутник Лайт» и «КовиВак» составляет 100% после введения второго компонента. Наименьший уровень антителпосле первой вакцинации регистрируется у лиц старше 60 лет (1,48 (1,12–3,25) против КП = 8,48 (5,78–10,11) и 9,27 (5,84–10,31) у.е., Ñ€ < 0,017) в сравнении с молодым и средним возрастом. Скорость элиминация IgG к SARS-CoV-2 через 6, 9 и более месяцев после проведения вакцинации зависит от их нач °Ð»ÑŒÐ½Ð¾Ð¹ пиковой концентрации. У первично привитых вакциной «КовиВак» IgG через 2 месяца после вакцинации не определяются. Протективный эффект «Спутник V», «Спутник Лайт», «КовиВак» от повторного заражения новой коронавирусной инфекции в среднем составляет 71,2%. Заключение. Таким образом, полученны результаты по оценке противоинфекционного и поствакцинального иммунитета к SARS-CoV-2 подчеркивают необходимость проведения дальнейших исследований на большей когорте пациентов, в особенности у лиц с бессимптомным течением инфекции и пожилых людей. (Russian) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Russian Journal of Infection & Immunity is the property of National Electronic-Information Consortium and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Smart Intravenous Drip Monitoring System with Bubble Detection Indicator using IoT

With the increasing emergence of new diseases and ailments, health care facilities are gradually becoming an integral part of our lives. The most important thing in these healthcare facilities is safety of the patients. With an ever increasing population, automatic health monitoring systems are gaining importance too. They are highly sought after since they provide exact information while remaining cost-effective and minimizing medical practitioners' and patients' stress. Among various health procedures, intravenous therapy is an often used medical method to deliver fluids, medications and nutrients into a patient's veins. It requires manual monitoring by the medical staff and negligence can cause fatal risks. Further, with COVID-19, the burden and pressure on medical professionals increased manifold which enhanced the chances of negligence. The aim of this paper is to create a practical, budget-friendly and Internet of Things based monitoring device for intravenous therapy. The proposed system consists of a light dependent resistor for detection of fluid level in the IV drip bottle and air bubble formation in IV tube. When the fluid in the IV drip bottle reaches a critical level or air bubble is detected, a notification will be received by the concerned staff. Also, an auditory and visual alert will notify the people present in the patient's room. This will enable the medical professionals to immediately attend to the patient without the hassle of periodic monitoring. © 2022 IEEE.