The Compatibility of Chest CT Scan with RT-PCR in Suspected COVID-19 Patients

BACKGROUND: Thoracic computed tomography (CT) scan plays a role in detecting and assessing the progression of COVID-19. It can evaluate the response to the therapy given. In diagnosis, the CT scan of the chest may complement the limitations of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Several recent studies have discussed the importance of CT scans in COVID-19 patients with false-negative RT-PCR results. The sensitivity of chest CT scan in the diagnosis of COVID-19 is reportedly around 98%. AIM: This study aimed to determine the compatibility of CT scan of the thorax with RT-PCR in suspected COVID-19 patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This research was conducted in the Radiology Department of the Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital Makassar from April to December 2020 with 350 patients. The method used was a 2 x 2 table diagnostic test. RESULT(S): The study included 188 male patients (53.7%) and 162 female patients (46.2%). The most common age group was 46-65 years (35.4%). The most common types of lesions were ground-glass opacity (163 cases), consolidation (128 cases), and fibrosis (124 cases), mostly found in the inferior lobe with a predominantly peripheral or subpleural distribution. The sensitivity of the CT scan to the PCR examination was 86%, and the specificity was 91%. CONCLUSION(S): Thoracic CT scan was a good modality in establishing the diagnosis of COVID-19. CT scan of the chest with abnormalities could confirm the diagnosis in 88% of cases based on RT-PCR examination. It excluded the diagnosis in 91% based on the RT-PCR examination. The accuracy of the thoracic CT scan was 88% with RT-PCR as the reference value.Copyright © 2023 Sri Asriyani, Albert Alexander Alfonso, Mirna Muis, Andi Alfian Zainuddin, Irawaty Djaharuddin, Muhammad Ilyas.

The Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Anxiety Disorders among Workers in a Hospital in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan

Introduction. During the global COVID-19 pandemic, health workers were found to have a higher prevalence of anxiety disorder compared to non-health workers. Anxiety disorder that occurs chronically have a 25% chance to become a major depression disorder. Objective. The aim of this study is to understand the anxiety condition and related risk factors among workers in a Balikpapan hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Method. The design of this research used a cross sectional method that involved 279 respondents who are workers in a Balikpapan hospital. The study used SPSS version 20.0, using the chi square and Fisher's Exact test for the bivariate analysis, and the logistic regression with enter method for the multivariate analysis. Results. The study shows that using the General Anxiety Disorder 7 (GAD-7) questionnaire from 279 hospital workers, there were 10.8% with mild-, 1.45% with moderate-, and 0.4% with severe anxiety disorder. A significant relation was found between anxiety disorder and risk factors such as being a health worker with p=0.001 and a 4.8 ORadj (95% CI: 1.9-12.3), working in areas with high risk of transmitting COVID-19 with p=0.04 and a 5.1 ORadj (95% CI: 1.0-24.2), and workers who are being quarantined with p=0.001 a 10.5 ORadj (2.6-42.3) after being adjusted by age and gender variables. Conclusion. Significant relations were found between anxiety disorder among hospital workers with risk factors such as being health workers, working in areas with high risk of transmitting COVID-19, and workers who are being quarantined. Researchers strongly advise health providers to do regular monitoring and seek moral support especially for workers who have higher risk of anxiety disorder. © 2022 University of the Philippines Manila. All rights reserved.

Teaching Writing Skills during the Pandemic: Impact of Online Teaching in Material Development and Teaching Strategies

The focus of the research in this study were questions like 1) How does teacher's strategy planning in distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic era take place;2) How can we implement teacher strategies in distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic era;3) How can we evaluate teacher strategies in distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic era. This study used a qualitative approach and the type of descriptive research. Sources of data obtained from two types, namely primary and secondary data sources. Methods of data collection used were interviews, observation, and documentation. The data analysis technique included reduction, data presentation, and drawing conclusions. The results of the research included: 1). Teacher strategy planning in distance learning in the pandemic era included: indirect strategy planning to fulfill children's rights to continue learning, where the method of delivering material can be virtual and online, in indirect strategies for distance learning do not use Zoom and Google Classroom due to unfavorable community conditions. Second, it was found that the implementation of teacher strategies in distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic era can be through initial activities, core activities and closing activities. Finally, Evaluation of teacher strategies in distance learning in the COVID-19 pandemic era can be achieved through daily assessments which included cognitive assessments which are seen from the assignments that students collect;affective assessments to check whether or not students are timely in submitting assignments, and psychomotor assessments, seen from skills in art. such as drawing, making skills or crafts. This research study will provide useful insights to the stakeholders into the use of online learning strategies and prepare teaching strategies accordingly.(c) 2022 EJAL & the Authors. Published by Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics (EJAL). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (CC BY-NC-ND)(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

FEAR, ANXIETY, SURVEILLANCE IN DYSTOPIAS REVISITED: A RETROTOPIAN PERSPECTIVE

The term dystopia has witnessed several new meanings including the one associated with the literature of the pandemic. These writings describe the scenes of fear, anxiety, and surveillance in flu-affected societies. This paper makes a qualitative study of a few selected novels published during 2000-2020 to understand the retrotopian perspective. No research has been carried out on pandemic dystopias with the retrotopian perspective. The dystopias selected for this study includes Whitehead's Zone One (2011);Mandel's Station Eleven (2014);DeLillo's The Silence (2020) and most recent May's Lockdown (2020). The findings reveal that each novelist preferred the retrotopian perspective, projecting an ideal past as the more plausible solution to their traumatic present. The protagonist in each of these four novels suffers traumas and witnesses the apocalypse both internally and externally, but each is engaged in a quest into the past and searching for the lost identity. This study fills up the research gap that currently exists in the field of dystopian literature related to the past or retrotopian studies. It would also open new avenues to explore the possibility of experimenting into devising a new theory or a genre of retrotopia. © 2022 AESS Publications. All Rights Reserved.

Spotlight on the Adolescent's Mental Health: Distress and Coping amid the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: COVID-19 pandemic globally challenged the healthcare sector as well as posed a serious threat to mental health among both young and adults rendering people with a sense of uncertainty and loss. Objective Aim: To assess the psychological burden among the adolescent population during the pandemic and lockdown. Methodology: A cross sectional study was moderated by the research team at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center between April 2020 to October 2021. All individuals between the ages of 13 to 17 years were included. The proforma was circulated among residents of the province of Sindh that assessed the emotional symptoms, conduct problems, hyperactivity-inattention, peer relationship problems, and prosocial behaviors among participants. Results: The mean SDQ score was 24.97 with a standard deviation of 6.62. The mean scores for emotional symptoms, conduct problem, hyperactivity, peer problem, and prosocial Scale were 5.47, 6.82, 5.85, 6.82, and 3.02, respectively. A significant relationship was revealed between mental health stability and witnessing a death of a known person due to COVID- 19 infection (p=0.003). Furthermore, the study found that Sindhi individuals had significantly higher scores as compared to other ethnic groups (p=0.002). Conclusion: The young population is as equally stressed as adults and may suffer from substantial anxiety during the pandemic. Therefore, parents should be encouraged to create an atmosphere of support and goodwill.

Coagulation Profile and Outcomes of COVID-19 Patients at Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital, Makassar, Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a viral pneumonia that spreads rapidly globally and was designated a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of cases has exceeded 15,000,000 worldwide, and the disease carries a mortality rate of ± 4%. One of the complications of COVID-19 is the incidence of coagulopathy and thromboembolism. The coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) activates inflammatory and thrombotic processes, and the presence of coagulopathy and abnormal coagulation parameters is among the most significant biomarkers for poor prognosis in COVID-19 patients. COVID-19-associated coagulopathy is characterized by a decreased platelet count and the presence of a cytokine storm, indicating an extreme hypercoagulable state. AIM: This study aims to determine the coagulation profile and outcomes of patients with moderate-severe COVID-19. METHODS: This study was conducted in Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital. Medical record data were included for all inpatients diagnosed with COVID-19 using the RT-PCR test, from January 2021 to August 2021. The Kolmogorov– Smirnov normality test, Chi-squared test, odds ratio (OR), Mann–Whitney U-test, and independent t-test were used for statistical analysis. Multivariate analysis was carried out using the multiple logistic regression – backward Wald method. p < 0.05 was taken as statistically significant. RESULTS: A total of 231 patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included in this study. The mean prothrombin time (PT), D-dimer, and fibrinogen were higher in severe COVID-19 patients than in moderate patients and had significant results. Platelet (PLT) levels were not found to be significant in moderate-severe COVID-19. The relationship between groups of coagulation marker variables was found to be significantly associated with moderate-severe COVID-19. All coagulation markers were significantly related to patient outcome (p < 0.05). The mean value of each variable was found to be higher in patients who died than in those with better outcomes. CONCLUSION: An increase in PT, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT), and fibrinogen is associated with mortality in patients with moderate COVID-19. In patients with severe COVID-19, mortality is associated with increased PT. PT is, therefore, a coagulation marker that is significantly related to COVID-19 outcome.

Colorectal cancer surgery outcome during the Covid-19 pandemic: A retrospective cohort study

Purpose/Background: The Covid pandemic has disastrously affected medical care particularly cancer diagnostics and management though out the world. There is a known mortality risk for each four week cancer surgery delay of 1.06-1.08 (1), aggravating the need for safe pathways that will allow cancer treatment to proceed during subsequent waves of the pandemic. Continuing malignant tumor management comes with hesitancy and evaluating the outcomes of surgery during this time may assist in decision making. Methods/Interventions: Retrospective data was collected for 74 colorectal cancer patients operated during the Covid pandemic, between 01/3/2020 and 10/05/2021. Patient data (in the immediate post-operative period until at least 3 months post operation, was analyzed to assess the difference in tumor staging pre and post-surgery, surgical complications, recurrence and any covid related impact. Results/Outcomes: Colorectal cancer resection surgery was paused for 1 month at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust during the 1st wave of the pandemic. Following this, 'Green' pathways were implemented and surgery was restarted at Covid safe green sites outside the main hospital. Almost 50% of colorectal cancer surgeries performed during this period were either abdominoperineal excisions (16/74 = 22%) or total pelvic exenterations (20/74 = 27%). Review of pre-operative radiological TNM staging suggested no significant increase in staging in this patient group and no patient was found to be inoperable prior to surgery. In regards to the other post-surgical assessments: 37% (28/74) of the operated cohort developed complications with 15% (11/74) being Clavien Dindo scale 3a or higher. 1 patientis known to have caught Covid after discharge and had to delay his chemotherapy management because of it. There are no known cases of anyone in this cohort who developed a Coronavirus infection whilst an inpatient. Conclusion/Discussion: In the treatment of complex cancer patients, delaying surgery by 1 month has not been shown to be detrimental to patient care in our patient cohort however long term follow up is required to determine whether recurrence rates were higher in this group as compared to colorectal cancer patients treated before the pandemic. By careful implementation of Covid-free pathways, cancer resection surgery can be carried out safely but continued scrutiny of the post-operative period is needed to ensure safety is maintained and to advocate the benefit of continuing management.

The Effectiveness of Chlorpromazine to Decrease the Level of Tumor Necrosis Factor-Alpha Serum in Schizophrenic Patients with Coronavirus Disease 2019

BACKGROUND: The ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2. The COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact on mental health, including those with schizophrenia (SCH). There were 131 inpatient schizophrenic patients who were confirmed positive for COVID-19 at Dadi Makassar Hospital, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, but all of these patients did not experience any clinical symptoms of COVID-19. Chlorpromazine as an antipsychotic also has antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects in schizophrenic patients with COVID-19, and the schizophrenic neuroinflammatory is very likely to occur in patients with COVID-19 infection. AIM: The researchers tried to examine the effectiveness of chlorpromazine on serum TNF-values in schizophrenic patients with COVID-19. METHODS: This research is a nested case–control study. The study was conducted on schizophrenic patients with mild and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 at Dadi Mental Hospital with a sample of 40 patients compared to 42 schizophrenic patients who were not COVID-19. Study subjects received chlorpromazine 100 mg/day for 4 weeks. Serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) concentrations were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays when COVID-19 was first confirmed and after 4 weeks. Positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) and clinical global impression SCH (CGI-SCH) examinations were also performed to measure the clinical symptoms of SCH. RESULTS: The comparison of baseline TNF-serum levels that increased in the schizophrenic group with COVID-19 was 9.33 pg/ml higher, compared to the schizophrenic group without COVID-19. The decrease in TNF-levels in the schizophrenic group with COVID-19 of 7.96 pg/ml (p < 0.001) indicated an improvement in TNF-serum levels at week 4. Meanwhile, there was no significant decrease in serum TNF-levels in the non-COVID-19 schizophrenic group (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: The serum TNF-value of schizophrenic patients with COVID-19 is higher than schizophrenic patients without COVID-19. Coadministration of chlorpromazine, antipsychotics, and COVID-19 therapy reduces serum TNF-values in schizophrenic patients with COVID-19. The administration of chlorpromazine and antipsychotic in therapeutic doses reduced the total PANSS and CGI-SCH values. © 2021 Andi Jayalangkara Tanra, Ahmad Andi Sameggu, Rinvil Renaldi, Burhanuddin Bahar, Saidah Syamsuddin, Muhammad Ilyas, Sonny T. Lisal.

Correlation between cycle threshold (Ct) values with severity of clinical symptoms in covid-19 patients

Objective: This study aimed to determine the correlation between Cycle Threshold (CT) value with severity of clinical symptoms in Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients at the time of admission. Design: A survey cross sectional study was conducted in two hospitals: Wahidin Sudirohusodo Hospital and Hasanuddin University Hospital in Makassar, Indonesia, involved 270 subjects from May to July 2020. Materials and Methods: Medical records which met the study criteria were included in this study. CT value data was collect-ed and compared among different clinical symptom severity. The correlation was analysed using SPSS version 25. The statistical tests used were Anova and Chi Square test. A multivariate analysis was conducted using multinomial logistic regression. Results: The mean CT value was significantly lower in severe group and higher in mild group (p < 0.05). We also found a significant correlation between gender, age, comorbidities, and radiological features with the severity of clinical symptom (each p < 0.01) and proceed to the multivariate analysis. The variables which significantly related to severity of clinical symptom were the radiological features of pneumonia (p < 0.001), comorbidities (p < 0.01), and CT value (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The CT value has significant negative correlation with the severity of clinical symptoms in COVID-19 patients at the time of admission. Adjusted by other variables, CT value still has a significant association with severity of COVID 19 symptom.

Online Teaching in an Un-prepared Country during COVID-19: An Interview Study on Final Year Medical and Dental Students

Aims: To assess medical students' perception of online teaching to suggest transforming the future curriculum in low-economic countries. Study Design: Cross-sectional online interview study. Place and Duration of Study: A team of collaborators interviewed final year medical and dental students of Pakistan from 07/08/2020 till 17/09/2020. Methodology: A questionnaire was developed based on open and close-ended questions in Google forms;focusing on institutional preparedness, views on online education, the institute's closure and COVID-19, and long-term effects of closure of the institute. Independent fellow researchers systematically analyzed the unaltered transcripts of the responses, and themes were then identified and coded to conclude the results. SPSS version 23 used for analysis. As this study was based on final year students. Results: In response to an invitation email, 2442/2661 (91.77%) students voluntarily participate in this qualitative study. Most participants were females (1614, 66.10%). Closing down institutes was directly linked to a lack of motivation and feel of helplessness. As most showed dissatisfaction with online teaching compounded by psychological effects, students feared losing clinical skills and life during the pandemic. Conclusion: The psychological impact of the crisis led to resistance to accepting the change for a better outcome. Incorporating telemedicine, different interactive learning style to online teaching, and resilience training would result in fruitful outcomes. Developed countries may also guide build infrastructure in developing countries to develop a more robust online teaching methodology in the long-run.

Exploring relationship between COVID-19 cases and eating habits using data of London boroughs

COVID-19 has affected everyone in the world in one way or another. At the time of this writing, there are approximately 110.9 million reported cases with approximately 2.4 million deaths across the world this makes the ratio of deaths 10 total infections a little over 2%. To better understand the reasons for COVID-19 related infections and deaths, efforts arc underway to uncover relationships between them and existing health conditions. Sonic studies hare focused on causes of infection and use of preventive equipment for protection, while others have focused on identity ing relationships between deaths and existing diabetes, heart condition or hyper-tension. Research has established that pre-eristing health conditions can he associated to eating habits of people. Therefore, we have tried to determine if there is any relationship between eating habits of people and COVID-19 infections. This has been done by making use of data related to purchases made by residents from Tesco supermarket, for London Boroughs. The data related to pre-existing health conditions, for same regions, was obtained front the London Datastore. Our study indicates that for the London Boroughs' data, food products containing alcohol, carbohydrates and fats are weakly correlated with the number of COVID-19 cases. We believe that these results warrant a more detailed investigation of causality.

COVID-19 impacts and adaptations in Asia and Africa's aquatic food value chains. (Working Paper: FISH-2021-02.)

The COVID-19 pandemic is a systemic shock that affects all areas of the global food system. A growing range of impacts on aquatic food producers, value chain actors and consumers is evident. In response, the report provides the impacts of COVID-19 on aquatic food value chains in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Myanmar and Nigeria. Results show that: (1) COVID-19 and associated containment measures severely disrupted aquatic food value chains, but effects on supply were relatively short-lived;(2)Demand for aquatic foods has yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels;(3) prices of aquatic foods have downward trend while prices of manufactured feeds have risen;and (4) COVID-19 has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities. As COVID-19 pandemic reversed years of progress on key human development indicators, it is important to revitalize aquatic food value chains to protect livelihoods and human nutrition. The paper also provides policy recommendations for both supply and demand sides.

Orthopaedic Practices and Surgeries during COVID-19 in Pakistan - A Survey Based Study.

INTRODUCTION: The study aimed to target the current practices of the orthopaedic community in outpatient (OPD), emergency (ER) and surgical services (OT) during COVID-19. MATERIAL AND METHOD: This study surveyed 303 orthopaedic surgeons from all over Pakistan. The survey had 30 questions targeting the setup of outpatient, emergency and operation services in orthopaedic departments of different hospitals in Pakistan. RESULT: A total of 302 surgeons were included from 53 cities all over Pakistan. Between 35-48% of the respondents reported lack of availability of standard operating procedures in OPD, ER and in OT. Majority of the respondents noted that their OPD and surgical practice had been affected to some degree and 69% of the surgeons were only doing trauma surgery. This trend was higher in younger consultants of less than 45 years of age (p<0.001). Almost two-third of the surgeons, mostly senior (p=0.03) were using surgical masks as the only protective measure during various practices of OPD, ER and OT, while most of the setups were not assessing patients even for signs and symptoms of COVID. Almost 89% of the orthopaedic community is facing definite to mild stress during this pandemic and this has significantly affected the senior surgeons (p=0.01). CONCLUSION: Our study highlighted that COVID-19 has resulted in marked changes to the practices of the majority of Pakistani orthopaedic surgeons. Despite a sharp upsurge in the number of cases and mortality due to COVID-19, guidelines were still lacking at most of the settings and a substantial percentage of the orthopaedic community were not following adequate safety measures while attending to patients.

Pervasive Communications Technologies for Managing Pandemics

Pandemics always have had serious consequences unless they were effectively contained. Recent experiences with COVID-19 show that by using a smart and swift approach to deal with pandemics, avoids overwhelming of healthcare systems, and reduces loss of precious life. This paper is about using smart technologies such as Mobile Edge Clouds (MEC), Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as an approach to effectively manage pandemics. IoT provides pervasive connectivity among various devices and can be used for collecting information such as location and symptoms of potentially infected individuals. MECs provide cloud services on the edge, integrating IoT infrastructure and execution of sophisticated AI algorithms in the Cloud. In this paper, we develop a prototype to demonstrate the convergence of pervasive technologies to support research in managing pandemics. Low-cost Single Board Computers (SBC) based clusters are integrated within MEC to support remote medical teams in the field. The prototype implements a lightweight Docker container orchestrated by Kubernetes eco-system which is deployed on the clusters. The prototype successfully demonstrates that mobile medical facilities can utilize the proposed solution to collect information and execute AI algorithms while on the go. Finally, we present a discussion on the role of converging pervasive technologies on managing pandemics. © 2020 IEEE.

Psychological impact of COVID-19 lockdown on general population of Hail, Saudi Arabia

Background: Pandemics are associated with anxiety, depression, and/or even death. The present study was planned to measure the psychological stress due to current pandemic-COVID19 amongst resident of Hail, Saudi Arabia. Method: It was a survey based cross sectional study. Non-Probability convenient sampling was used to collect the information from 240 respondents. Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7) was used as study tool. Data was displayed as number and percentages. Chi square test was used to measure inferential statistics. Results: More than 55% of study respondent reportedly found to have some level of anxiety during lockdown. However, nearly 35% had mild anxiety. Interestingly, statistically significant association was observed amongst, gender, level of education, Income, nationality, profession, place of resident, and age. Conclusion: The findings of present study may not be generalizable to Hail city. However, more than 50% of study respondent reported some sort of anxiety. Mild anxiety was most commonly reported. Level of anxiety was found to be statistically associated with various socio demographic variables. It is recommended to have further studies to measure the relationship of psychological stress on individuals of various backgrounds.

Case report: Covid-19 and severe malaria Co-infection

Background:A mysterious pneumonia case was first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) later named this pneumonia Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. The massive spread of Covid-19 increases the risk of co-infection with other pre-existing pathogens including malaria Case Report: A 32 years old woman was admitted to the hospital due to complaints of jaundice, fever, dyspneu and andominal pain. On further examination of the malaria smear, plasmodium falciparum was found in the form of trophozoites and gametocytes, the parasite count was 119,902 U/L and a nasopharyngeal PCR swab was positive for SARS CoV-2. The patient conditionimprove after administering artesunate and oseltamivir. Discussion: Several clinical manifestations are overlapping between Covid-19 and malaria, especially extrapulmonary manifestations of Covid-19 infection, including thrombocytopenia, elevated transaminase enzymes, increased bilirubin, and impaired kidney function. Management was carried out to deal with malaria and Covid-19 simultaneously and continuously.