Comparison of SARS-CoV-2 antigen electrochemiluminescence immunoassay to RT-PCR assay for laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19 in Peshawar.

OBJECTIVES: Antigen based rapid diagnostic tests possesses a potential to be utilized along with Gold standard methods to detect Covid-19 infection to cope with the demand of testing. The aim of this study was to determine diagnostic accuracy of electrochemiluminescence based automated antigen detection immunoassay comparing with molecular based test RT-PCR (Covid-19). METHODS: It was a cross-sectional study conducted in RMI Peshawar, from 1st April 2021 till 30th April 2021. The study comprised 170 individuals who were suspected of having Covid-19. Nasopharyngeal samples taken from suspected individuals were analyzed by RT-PCR and automated antigen test (Elecsys SARS-CoV-2 Antigen) simultaneously. The correlation of SARS-CoV-2 antigen with PCR positive and negative cases was analyzed for specificity, sensitivity respectively. RESULTS: The ECLIA based Elecsys antigen test (Roche) revealed overall sensitivity 72%, specificity 95% and accuracy of 94.9%. Sensitivity of antigen test progressively declined from 94.3% in Ct <25 to 70.8% in Ct 26-29 and then to 47.2% in Ct 30-35. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the findings of our study we conclude that automated antigen testing (Elecsys SARS-CoV-2 Antigen) cannot replace molecular based testing like RT PCR. Elecsys SARS-CoV-2 Ag test should be used complementary to RT-PCR in testing algorithms. Frequent testing strategy should be adopted while using automated antigen testing to overcome its limitation in individuals with low viral loads.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on rural communities: a cross-sectional study in the Sichuan Province of China.

OBJECTIVE: Recently, China has experienced a considerable influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on the local people's health and economy. Hence, the current research aims to investigate the psychological and socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on rural communities in the Sichuan Province of China. METHODS: A total of 499 participants (village representatives of Sichuan Province) were approached to partake in a cross-sectional online survey and share their experience regarding the ongoing pandemic. The descriptive statistics and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression were used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed that the pandemic has significantly affected local people psychologically, leading to socioeconomic vulnerability. Notably, we find that local households are worried about their income losses regardless of their socioeconomic status (40%-43%), level of income (37%-43%) and industry involvement (38%-43%). However, as income increases, the level of stress decreases. The results further show that government transfer payment is a significant factor in reducing stress due to its reliable and uninterrupted income flow. Contrary to our proposition, the pandemic stress was less observed, which might be because of people's trust in government and effective antiepidemic countermeasures to contain the disease. CONCLUSION: This study finds that COVID-19 has a significant impact on local people's health, psychology and income. This study is one of the first to provide empirical evidence regarding the early health and socioeconomic effects of COVID-19 at the household level in rural communities, which are very important to devise policies to ease the outbreak and prevent further losses at the local community level.

Dynamic multi-objective programming model for improving consumer satisfaction within water supply system under uncertain environment.

Water scarcity poses a real crisis for decision makers of water supply system because satisfying growing demand and, as a result, achieving full consumer satisfaction in different sectors of the system remains a major problem. Therefore, this study develops a dynamic multi-objective model of water supply optimization under different scenarios to improve multisectoral consumer satisfaction. To diminish the negative effects of the water crisis on long-term consumer satisfaction, the performance of the dynamic water supply system is evaluated and optimized, which can change the situation from a state of dissatisfaction to satisfaction. In this regard, to analyze the developed model, a real case study of the Hamoun wetland in southeastern Iran is considered. According to the proposed model, various strategies are performed along with the analysis of two scenarios related to runoff uncertainty in order to investigate the consumer satisfaction status in detail. However, given to the final results, which show the greater impact of the two sensitive factors of reliability and vulnerability on consumer satisfaction, the highest level of dissatisfaction is related to the agricultural sector because it has less reliability and higher vulnerability compared to other sectors. In this regard, by proposing policies such as weight scenarios and demand reduction scheme, the situation of consumer satisfaction has improved much more desirable.

Socio-economic status, resilience, and vulnerability of households under COVID-19: Case of village-level data in Sichuan province.

This paper investigates economic impacts of COVID-19 on households based on differences in the socio-economic status (SES). We determine the household-level effects of the COVID-19 shock using income sources, types of industries, communities' resilience, household susceptibility, and relevant policy measures. For this purpose, we used primary data of 555 households collected through snowball sampling technique using an online survey questionnaire from different villages mostly located in Sichuan Province, China. Using step-wise binary logistic regression analysis, we estimated and validated the model. Results suggest the use of SES as a better measure for understanding the impacts of COVID-19 on different households. We find that households with low SES tend to depend more on farmland income and transfer payments from the government. Contrarily, high SES households focus more on business and local employment as sources of income generation. Poor households were less resilient and more likely to fall back into poverty due to COVID-19, while the opposite stands true for non-poor households with high SES. Based on the estimations, policies encouraging employment and businesses complemented with loans on lower interest rates are recommended, which may increase the SES, thus minimizing vulnerability and enhancing the households' resilience towards poverty alleviation and economic shocks.

Perceptions of undergraduate medical students regarding case based learning and tutorial format.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the perception of medical students regarding tutorial and case-based learning formats. METHODS: The within stage mixed model research was conducted at the Army Medical College, National University of Sciences and Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan, from April 2012 to March 2013, and comprised medical students of 4th year. Data-collection tool was a self-developed questionnaire, and it was statistically analysed using SPSS 16. RESULTS: Of the 144 students, 86(60%) were males. The overall age range was 21.5-23.4 years. Case-based learning method had significantly higher scores compared to tutorial method for learning process (p<0.001), for behavioural influence of facilitators (p<0.001), for group dynamics (p<0.001), and for learning environment (p<0.001). For open-ended questions regarding like or dislike of the two methods, majority named some faculty members as their role models and appreciated their support in better and in-depth learning through case-based learning format. CONCLUSIONS: Case-based learning format was significantly more appreciated and favoured as a learning strategy by students.