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Aims: The DisCOVery study sought to better understand the experiences of young people with complex emerging mental health problems over the longer-term social restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the 'social cure' theory, this study aimed to investigate the association, and potential mechanisms, of group membership continuity and reducing mental ill-health amongst vulnerable young people. Method(s): Cross-sectional survey data from a sample of 105 young people aged 16-35, collected approximately 1 year after the global COVID-19 outbreak (January-July 2021). Correlational and path analyses were used to test the associations between group membership continuity and mental health problems (depression, anxiety, psychotic-like experiences), and the mediation of these associations by hope and social connectedness (in-person and online). Results and Conclusion(s): Prior multiple group memberships were associated with the preservation of group memberships during the COVID-19 pandemic. In-person social connectedness, online social connectedness and hope mediated the relationship between group membership continuity and mental health problem symptoms. The results suggest that clinical and public health practice should support vulnerable young people to foster and maintain their social group memberships, hopefulness and perceived sense of social connectedness as a means to potentially help prevent exacerbated symptoms and promote recovery of mental health problems, particularly during significant life events.
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Risk and predisposing factors for viral zoonoses abound in the sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region with significant public health implications. For several decades, there have been several reports on the emergence and re-emergence of arbovirus infections. The lifetime burden of arboviral diseases in developing countries is still poorly understood. Studies indicate significant healthcare disruptions and economic losses attributed to the viruses in resource-poor communities marked by impairment in the performance of daily activities. Arboviruses have reportedly evolved survival strategies to aid their proliferation in favorable niches, further magnifying their public health relevance. However, there is poor knowledge about the viruses in the region. Thus, this review presents a survey of zoonotic arboviruses in SSA, the burden associated with their diseases, management of diseases as well as their prevention and control, mobility and determinants of infections, their vectors, and co-infection with various microorganisms. Lessons learned from the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic coupled with routine surveillance of zoonotic hosts for these viruses will improve our understanding of their evolution, their potential to cause a pandemic, control and prevention measures, and vaccine development.Copyright © GERMS 2022.
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The COVID 19 crisis has highlighted the key role of the public health service (PHS), with its approximately 375 municipal health offices involved in the pandemic response. Here, in addition to a lack of human resources, the insufficient digital maturity of many public health departments posed a hurdle to effective and scalable infection reporting and contact tracing. In this article, we present the maturity model (MM) for the digitization of health offices, the development of which took place between January 2021 and February 2022 and was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health. It has been applied since the beginning of 2022 with the aim of strengthening the digitization of the PHS. The MM aims to guide public health departments step by step to increase their digital maturity to be prepared for future challenges. The MM was developed and evaluated based on qualitative interviews with employees of public health departments and other experts in the public health sector as well as in workshops and with a quantitative survey. The MM allows the measurement of digital maturity in eight dimensions, each of which is subdivided into two to five subdimensions. Within the subdimensions a classification is made on five different maturity levels. Currently, in addition to recording the digital maturity of individual health departments, the MM also serves as a management tool for planning digitization projects. The aim is to use the MM as a basis for promoting targeted communication between the health departments to exchange best practices for the different dimensions.
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COVID-19 , Public Health , Humans , Germany , Public Sector , Health ServicesABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES: Public Health Reports (PHR), the official journal of the Office of the US Surgeon General and US Public Health Service, is the oldest public health journal in the United States. Considering its heritage through the eyes of its past editors in chief (EICs), many of whom have been influential public health figures, can provide a fresh point of view on US public health history, of which the journal has been an integral part. Here, we reconstruct the timeline of past PHR EICs and identify women among them. METHODS: We reconstructed the PHR EIC timeline by reviewing the journal's previous mastheads and its articles describing leadership transitions. For each EIC, we identified dates in office, concurrent job titles, key contributions, and other important developments. RESULTS: PHR had 25 EIC transitions in 109 years of its history, during which a single individual in charge of the journal could be identified. Only 5 identifiable EICs were women, who served as EIC for approximately one-quarter of the journal's traceable history (28 of 109 years). PHR's longest-serving EIC was a woman named Marian P. Tebben (1974-1994). CONCLUSIONS: PHR history revealed frequent EIC transitions and a low representation of women among its EICs. Mapping the timeline of past EICs of a historic public health journal can yield valuable insights into the workings of US public health, especially in the area of building a research evidence base.
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Intro: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a need for an open-source repository of line-list case data for infectious disease surveillance and research efforts. Global.health was launched in January 2020 as a global resource for public health data research. Here, we describe the data and systems underlying the Global.health datasets and summarize the project's 2.5 years of operations and the curation of the COVID-19 and monkeypox repositories. Method(s): The COVID-19 repository is curated daily through an automated system, verified by a team of researchers. The monkeypox dataset is curated manually by a team of researchers, Monday-Friday. Both repositories include metadata fields on demographics, symptomology, disease confirmation date, and others1,2. Data is de-identified and ingested from trusted sources, such as government public health agencies, trusted media outlets, and established openaccess repositories. Finding(s): The Global.health COVID-19 dataset is the largest repository of publicly available validated line-list data in the world, with over 100 million cases from more than 100 countries, including 60+ fields of metadata, comprising over 1 billion unique data points. The monkeypox dataset has over 35,000 data entries, from 100 different countries. 7,325 users accessed the COVID-19 repository and 3,005 accessed the monkeypox repository. Conclusion(s): The Global.health repositories provide verified, de-identified case data for two global outbreaks and are used by CDC, WHO, and other national public health organizations for surveillance and forecasting efforts. The repositories were utilized to share insights into the COVID-19 pandemic and track the monkeypox outbreak using real-time data3-6. We are collaborating with WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence to improve coordination, data schemas, and downstream use of data to inform and evaluate public health policy7. Future work will focus on creating a 'turnkey' data system to be used in future outbreaks for quicker infectious disease surveillance.Copyright © 2023
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COVID-19 was the first pandemic that unfolded in an information environment transformed by the ubiquitous mass and social media. Sensational misinformation and deliberate disinformation proliferated capturing hearts and minds. Traditional medical and public health organization's voices were well-intentioned and informed to communicate about the threat of SARSCoV- 2 infection and appropriate countermeasures (for example, masking and vaccines) but were overwhelmed. This new reality on communicating health and science was called out by the World Health Organization in 2020 as an Infodemic. In 2021, the U.S. Surgeon General issued his first report entitled 'Confronting Health Misinformation: The U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on Building a Healthy Information Environment' urging at scale investment to tackle misinformation. Yet, while warnings were issued, mis- and disinformation proliferated with a palpable casualty emerging with waning vaccine confidence and uptake globally. This fundamental tenet of public health-vaccination-is at risk as a credible defense against disease and illness. This is not due to the microbial vectors but instead the societal response gathering momentum during the COVID 'infodemic'. This endemic challenge on how we communicate health and science will be described with an evidence-based perspective vetted in the field of communication with conceptual, scientific and theoretical grounding. This presentation will offer approaches to help build scientific, health and vaccine literacy, counter mis- and dis-information and foster strategic health communication capabilities at all levels of society.
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Public health nurses are leaving the workforce, and few studies exist that examine resiliency perspectives among this specialty, community-focused population of frontline nurses. The COVID-19 pandemic created an unprecedented era in public health worldwide. The researcher used a quantitative research design to explore public health nursing viewpoints on resiliency during the pandemic. The quantitative approach aids in understanding the complexities of nursing resilience and needs during the pandemic, implications for the development of supportive interventions, and public health policies for future programming. This study is significant in that it gives a platform to public health nurses on the frontline who have been overshadowed in previous studies. The study utilized an online Survey Monkey evaluation tool which included: the Mindful Self-Care Scale (33-Item), the Resilience Scale (14-Item), and a researcher-designed questionnaire (22-Item). Findings from the study include a positive correlation identified between public health nurse self-care practices and resilience, specifically self compassion and purpose. Age was the only demographic variable significant in relation to job satisfaction, specifically age group 31-45 years of age. A positive correlation was identified between Job Satisfaction and QOL Home and Work. Resiliency could not predict or explain public health nurse job satisfaction and/or risk for attrition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
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IDWeek is the joint annual meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), the HIV Medicine Association (HIVMA), the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) and the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP). For the first time since the COVID-19 public health emergency began, IDWeek 2022 returned to in-person attendance. It was held in Washington, D.C., and the meeting comprised 5 days of live sessions and on-demand content that included posters and oral presentations.Copyright © 2023 Clarivate.
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One Health is an upgrade and optimization of health concepts, which recognizes the integrated health of the human-animal-environment. It emphasizes the use of interdisciplinary collaboration, multi-sectoral coordination, and multi-organizational One Health approaches to solve scientific questions. The surveillance and early warning system is the basis of public health emergency prevention and control. The COVID-19 pandemic and the emerging infectious disease (EID) have put great challenges on the existing surveillance and early warning systems worldwide. Guided by the concept of One Health, we attempt to build a new pattern of integrated surveillance and early warning system for EID. We will detail the system including the One Health-based organizational structure, zoonotic and environmental science surveillance network, EID reporting process, and support and guarantee from education and policy. The integrated surveillance and early warning system for EID constructed here has practical and application prospects, and will provide guidance for the prevention and control of COVID-19 and the possible EID in the future.Copyright © 2022, National Institute of Parasitic Diseases. All rights reserved.
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Background: Bibliometric analysis has gained increasing interest as an efficient method to visualize COVID-19 research trends and patterns. This analysis may help to describe the profile of scientific contribution of allergy and clinical immunology specialists in the current COVID-19 pandemic. One of the arguments to support the leading role of allergists and clinical immunologists in the COVID-19 pandemic control is their expertise on disease mechanisms. We hypothesized that this role could also have an impact in the COVID-19 literature. Therefore, our objective was to compare the proportion of COVID-19 related publications dealing with the "mechanism" research topic between allergy and non-allergy journals. Method(s): This study involves a large-scale bibliometric analysis of more than 205,000 COVID-19 publications. This evaluation is embedded into the Covid Content Curation Project (0011-3638- 2020- 000001, Health Department of Navarra Government, Spain), an ongoing research to design an artificial intelligence platform for grading the relevance for decision making of COVID-19 scientific publications. We used web scraping functionalities of the Covid Content Curation platform to obtain a complete and up-to- date list of COVID-19 publications. Exclusion criteria were duplicate publications, publications from the preprint servers, publications published before March 1, 2020 or after December 31, 2021, or with any missing date data. Result(s): After exclusion criteria, 205,982 COVID-19 publications were available for analysis. The cumulative total of COVID-19 publications in allergy journals was 923 (4.48;95% CI: 4.20 to 4.78). The number of COVID-19 publications dealing with "mechanism" as a research topic was 13.22 (95% CI: 10.03 to 16.41) percentage points greater among allergy journals than non-allergy journals (p < 0.001) (Figure 1). Conclusion(s): These results show that the "mechanism" research topic is of greater prevalence in COVID-19 publications of allergy journals than non-allergy journals, and support the hypothesis that the prominent role of allergists and clinical immunologists in the COVID-19 pandemic control, based on their expertise on disease mechanisms, may also have an impact in the COVID-19 literature.
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Background: For almost two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has posed an enormous challenge to healthcare systems. Recurrent waves of disease brought the health systems to the limit of their resilience. Purpose(s): The Tele-Covid telemedicine care program was installed in December 2020 to monitor high-risk patients in home isolation. Close monitoring allows early detection of disease deterioration and timely intensification of therapy, ideally avoiding intensive care. Conversely, if the course of the disease is stable, unnecessary hospitalisation can be avoided, thus reducing the burden on the healthcare system. Method(s): Patient acquisition was performed in collaboration with the local public health service and primary care physicians. Covid-19 positive highrisk patients (age >65 years and/or severe comorbidities) from the greater Innsbruck area were fitted with an ear sensor-based home monitoring system. The ear sensor measures SpO2, respiratory rate, body temperature and heart rate. The monitoring team (25 medical students supervised by 6 physicians) provided continuous monitoring of vital signs (24/7). After validation of the measurements, the collected parameters were evaluated using a specially developed risk score. If a defined risk score was exceeded, the patient was contacted by telephone. The combination of the clinical condition and the risk score determined the further course of action: (a) wait and see, (b) notify the primary care physician, or (c) refer for inpatient admission. The program was active from December 2020 to March 2022. In Summer 2021, the program was temporarily paused due to the epidemiological situation. Result(s): A total of 132 patients (59.8% women) were monitored. The median age was 74 years (IQR: [67.3-80.8]). 91 patients (68.9%) had at least one relevant comorbidity. During the monitoring period, hospitalisation was required in 20 patients (15.2%), 3 of whom were transferred to the intensive care unit. Of the hospitalised patients, 3 (15%) patients died. During the same monitoring period, the Austrian Ministry of Health reported a mortality rate of 20.5% of all hospitalised patients in Austria aged 70-79 years. Subjectively, the patients felt safe due to close monitoring. Conclusion(s): The Tele-Covid program is the successful implementation of a remote monitoring system in a pandemic situation. In the future, a broad application of the program is feasible.
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COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as prime health challenge of 21st century forcing policy makers, health experts and governance institutions world over to revisit and re-invigorate public health policies through inter-institutional collaborations. Subsequent global lockdowns caused unprecedented shock to world economies, downslide of socio-economic development, concern for public safely, emphasis on augmentation of health infrastructure, capacity building of health care providers and development of effective Corona Virus containment strategies. Health institutions world over are grappling to control spread of the infection through Symptomatic Target Testing, Cluster Testing and Phased Vaccination. Multiple vaccines have been developed with varied efficacy, cost concerns and involvement of logistic issues;leading to vaccine-multilateralism and re-emphasis on universalization of public health policies under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) mechanism. This paper aims to assess impact of this grievous pandemic on public health sector of Jammu & Kashmir, explore challenges faced by public health institutions, analyze effectiveness of government interventions and suggest measures for revival of public health care services in the region.Copyright © 2021 JK Practitioner. All rights reserved.
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Introduction. The poster of the Dutch Myositis Working Group (DMWG) aims to inform people about her goals, activities and ambitions. The group is run by seven patients, representing all types of myositis, supported by Spierziekten Nederland, the umbrella patient organization for neuromuscular disorders in The Netherlands and 4 myositis specialists as medical advisors. Chair: Ingrid de Groot. Contact email: myositis@spierziekten.nl Goals and ambitions of the Dutch myositis working group: * I n collaboration with medical advisors to provide information about IIM (idiopathic inflammatory myopathies) or myositis to newly diagnosed patients and their families: IIM types, symptoms, diagnosis, (new) treatment options, prognosis, inform them about the myositis expertise centres etc. * To connect and support people with all types of IIM: dermatomyositis (DM), polymyositis (PM), Anti Synthetase Syndrome (ASyS), immune mediated necrotizing myopathy (IMNM), juvenile dermatomyositis (JDM), overlap myositis. * To raise awareness of myositis among the public, health care professionals and researchers, pharmaceutical companies? * To collaborate with clinicians, researchers and funds on a national and international level with the aim to improve (clinical) care and research. * To stimulate and participate in the development and conducting of clinical trials. * To collaborate with myositis working groups and patient organisations abroad. * To represent the patient perspective within in the Myositis Network Netherlands and (inter)national myositis study groups. * Patient advocacy. Activities and services: * In person or online meetings aiming to offer moral support and an opportunity to share experiences, concerns etc. or just to socialize. Three times a year we organize separate meetings for people with IBM, for people with other IIM and for caregivers. * Website updates on treatment, guidelines, (inter)national research, activities and actualities (e.g. Covid situation). * Supply patients with brochures for GP/ family doctor, physiotherapist etc. * Online (secured) platform for members. * Annual patient conference with diagnosis specific scientific programs. * Monthly newsletters: these are personalized which means they contain mainly news on the receivers type of IIM (e.g. IBM or ASyS) and information on general topics concerning all people with IIM or neuromuscular disorder. * In person meetings and / or online webinars on general topics e.g. living with a chronic condition, work, pain, fatigue. * Annual meetings with medical advisors: the working group pays a visit to all medical advisors in their respective hospitals. * Representation at (inter)national conferences. * Representation in projects such as guidelines development. * Collaboration in (inter)national studies leading to enrolling Dutch patients, researchers and clinicians in multi-centre studies, (co-) authorships in publications and to presentations during conferences (Treat NMD, IMACS, MNN). * To advise and recommend on research proposals from patient perspective. * To advise decision makers on continuation of expert centres from patient perspective. Collaborations: * Myositis Network Netherlands: patient representation on the board. * OMERACT (Outcome Measures in Rheumatology): Patient Research Partner of the Myositis Working Group. * IMACS (International Myositis Assessment and Clinical Studies Group): steering committee member of Exercise & Rehabilitation Group, led by Helene Alexanderson, ass.prof PhD, RPT). * ENMC (European Neuromuscular Centre): patient representation in myositis workshops. * EULAR (European League against Rheumatism): member of PARE and Patient Research Partner. * GCOM. * ERN - NMD (European Reference Network for Neuromuscular Diseases): member of NMD working group led by em. prof. dr. Marianne de Visser. * Patient organizations for people living with myositis . We are in this together Since myositis is a (very) rare disease, the 'myositis community' is a small one although we're happy to say that it is expanding quite rapidly. Through our inte sive involvement in several national and international studies and research projects we now have close contacts with many myositis experts across the globe, which makes it easier to keep up with actualities and developments concerning research, treatment etc. and to disseminate this knowledge to our members. This helps us to inform, support and advocate for the Dutch people living with myositis and their families and at the same time it offers opportunities to give something back: by sharing with the research community and clinicians our experiential knowledge of the consequences of myositis on everyday life. That way we can contribute to more meaningful research. We can only go forward if we do this together! That is why we are very ambitious in our efforts to contribute to myositis research. Here we list our collaborative efforts: * In 2019 the Myositis Network Netherlands of clinicians and researchers with expertise in IIM was established in which the DMWG is representing the patient perspective by a member on the board. * In OMERACT Myositis Working Group a member of the DMWG is one of the two Patient Research Partners and as such an equal partner of this study aiming to define a set of core patient reported domains with regard to the quality of life and respective instruments for use in IIM. The involvement of the DMWG has led to the opportunity for Dutch patients to participate in Delphi surveys and to an opportunity for Dutch myositis clinics to collaborate in the longitudinal study that emerged from this. * The IMACS network is an important part of our international network. One of our DMWG members is member of the Executive Committee of the Exercise & Rehabilitation Group and as such can facilitate for Dutch patients to become involved in the current study with the ultimate objective to develop recommendations for exercise in all types of IIM. * Members of the DMWG participated in several ENMC workshops on IIM as patient representatives and will continue to do so in the future. * Through a PARE membership in EULAR and membership of the study group of 'collaborative research' the DMWG hopes to raise awareness of myositis within the influential EULAR community and to speak up on behalf of the patients in Europe living with IIM. * One of our members is member of the GCOM committee responsible for the patient program of GCOM and shares the ambitions of this GCOM committee to increase the involvement of patients in this very important IIM conference. * One DMWG member joined the ERN- Neuromuscular Disease group and as such represents the people with IIM living throughout Europe. * DMWG has ambitions to empower people living with IIM and to connect with them, crossing borders by doing so. We have close and amicable relationships with patient organisations in Australia, Czech Republic, Germany, Sweden, UK and USA. * Empowering patients is one of our goals and we accomplished this for instance in Sweden. On invitation by prof. dr. Ingrid Lundberg our chair visited the Karolinska Institute, spent a week with their myositis team and in return was one of the speakers on the annual patient meeting and helped the Swedish patients establish their own myositis working group.
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BACKGROUND: In Indonesia, the stunting prevalence has reached 24.4% in 2021. AIM: The study aims to examine the determinants of stunting among children under five of age during the COVID-19 pandemic in the working area of the Liwuto-Primary Public Health Center, Baubau city. METHOD(S): A community-based unmatched case-control study was conducted from January 10, to March 10, 2022, on a sample of 94, cases (n = 21), and controls (n = 73) of children aged 0-59 months with their respective mothers. Data were collected using a face-to-face interviewer-administered questionnaire and physical measurements standard. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 17. The variables were entered into the multivariable model using the backward stepwise regression approach. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with stunting. Adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and p < 0.05 was used to declare the significance. RESULT(S): There are 22% of the stunting become in children under 5 years. Stunting children under 5 years was associated with maternal age (AOR = 5.71, 95%, CI: 1.91-17.03). While family income (AOR = 1.78, 95%, CI: 0.17-18.86), exclusive breastfeeding (AOR = 3.95, 95%, CI: 0.14-112.72), complementary feeding (AOR = 1.24, 95%, CI: 0.18-8.55), formal education (AOR = 0.74, 95%, CI: 0.36-1.53), and occupation (AOR = 2.98, 95%, CI: 0.24-36.55) were not associated with the stunting. CONCLUSION(S): Young mother under 30 years old was an important risk factor on the incidence of stunting in children under 5 years during the COVID-19 pandemic.Copyright © 2023 Jumadi Muhammadong, Ridwan Malimpo, Dahmar Karim, Yusman Muriman, Andi Tenri Mahmud.
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Introduction: Health care workers (HCWs) are a high-risk group for SARS-CoV-2 infection, therefore there is an urgent need for rapid, simple, and sensitive tests to diagnose COVID-19 infection among health care settings. Aim(s): The aim of our study was to assess the contribution of the SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (AgRDTs) with RT-PCR which is the gold standard for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Method(s): A retrospective descriptive study of HCWs at Charles Nicolle Hospital who consulted the Occupational Medicine health Department during the period from January 3, 2022, to January 31, 2022, for symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 infection. The Panbio antigen rapid diagnostic tests were used in all suspected cases. In case of negative Ag-RDTs, we completed with RT-PCR. Result(s): Our population consisted mainly of nurses (n=146), blue-collar workers (n=100), trainees (n=105) and senior technicians (n=84). We performed 638 Ag-RDTs and 177 RT-PCR during the study period. Ag-RDTs were positive in 461 cases (72.25%). 146 HCPs tested negative by both methods. Discordant results were obtained in 31 cases (17.51%). RT-PCR was positive in 31 cases. Conclusion(s): In our series, the Ag -RDT seems a reliable way for the diagnosis of covid 19 in symptomatic HCWs.
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The current epidemic of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a serious threat to people's health and lives. Following the national policies and deployment, medical community in China invests large amounts of medical resources to help Hubei. However, some hospitals nationwide have suspended outpatient and inpatient services. The authors analyze the underlying causes of suspension of medical services and its harm to patients, and summarize the optimization of disease diagnosis and treatment during the COVID-19 outbreak. In further, they propose reasonable suggestions on safe medical management in general hospitals outside the epidemic area, in order to attract the attention of medical institutions and medical colleagues.Copyright © 2020 by the Chinese Medical Association.
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Introduction: Early in the pandemic various lockdown measures were implemented to decrease spreading of Covid-19. This resulted in many clinics and hospitals observing a decrease in the usual numbers of patients accessing care. Patients have also expressed fears and challenges with accessing care at health clinics and hospitals during this time. Since May 2020, there has been a gradual decrease in the restrictions and stay at home orders for Covid-19 by the government in Jamaica and more persons have begun to access care again at health facilities. The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in patients with chronic kidney disease especially those who were not admitted with Covid-19 is limited. This study seeks to determine why patients were not accessing care early in the pandemic and the possible longer-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the care and prognosis of patients with chronic kidney disease. Method(s): All patients who attended Renal clinic, Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) from April 20th to July 14th 2021 were eligible for inclusion in the study. Those who consented to participate in the study had an interview with the researcher at the Renal clinic where a questionnaire was administered. Demographic data was collected as well as whether they were a new or follow-up patient and number of appointments missed was noted. Their renal diagnosis and labs were obtained from their dockets by the researchers. The data was analysed using Microsoft excel and Epi info software Results: There were 185 participants. 45.7% of the participants were 51 to 70 years old. 61.1% were females and 38.9% were males. Follow-up patients accounted for 76.2% of the participants whilst 23.8% were new patients. 92.2% of the follow-up patients reported attending clinic in the past year. 15.1% of the participants reported missing at least one appointment in the past year. Most common reasons given for missing appointments were forgot date of appointment, afraid of coming to hospital, was sick at home or admitted to hospital. 2.7% of the participants reported having had Covid-19. Only 7.0% of the study participants were on dialysis. 76.9% of those receiving dialysis were started on haemodialysis since March 2020. 93.0% reported receiving all or most of their medications through the free public health care system during the pandemic. 44.3% of the participants reported working in the past year. Most common reasons given for not working in the past year were medical condition, receiving family support or retired. Only 3.6% reported being sent home by an employer due to the pandemic. The most common renal diagnoses were diabetic nephropathy and hypertensive nephrosclerosis followed by lupus nephritis and sickle cell nephropathy. 49.2% were CKD stage 3b to Stage 5. 14.6% of those who were CKD stage 3 near to March 2020 progressed to CKD stage 4 or 5 by a year later. Conclusion(s): During the pandemic, attendance of patients at Renal clinic, Kingston Public Hospital and their access to medications remained high. Approximately 15% of those with CKD stage 3 near the onset of the pandemic progressed to CKD stage 4 or 5 by a year later. This warrants further study. No conflict of interestCopyright © 2023
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Background: Today, the world is facing COVID-19 mutant, which was declared as a pandemic disease by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 has spread rapidly to 203 countries and up to 31st March 2020, 36405 people had lost their lives. We aimed to study the impact of three parameters, i.e., weather, life expectancy, and travel, either due to tourism or business purpos-es on the transmission of the COVID-19. Method(s): The data of infected cases and deaths of different countries and territories related to the 2019-nCoV are studied. These data are collected from the situation reports issued by WHO. Result(s): The Temperature-Time trajectory shows that the dissemination of coronavirus has a high tendency in cold climate countries. Most of the cases are observed in the temperature range of 40degreeF to 60degreeF. Also, we analyzed the dependence of 2019-nCoV transmission and death cases on life ex-pectancy. Most of the cases related to COVID-19 in the entire world were adult and old patients. The global connectivity between China as a "Manufacturing Hub" and other counties also plays a vital role in the transmission of COVID-19. Conclusion(s): The spread pattern of COVID-19 cases is in good agreement with our study, but this does not mean that it will not spread in warm areas. The precautionary measure provided by WHO and health departments of various countries should be followed to slow down the transmission rate of COVID-19.Copyright © 2021 Bentham Science Publishers.