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Background: Chronic rhinosinusitis is regarded as a chronic airway disease. According to WHO recommendations, it may be a risk factor for COVID‐19 patients. In most CRSwNP cases, the inflammatory changes affecting the nasal and paranasal mucous membranes are type‐2 (T2) inflammation endotypes. Methods: The current knowledge on COVID‐19 and on treatment options for CRS was analyzed by a literature search in Medline, Pubmed, international guidelines, the Cochrane Library and the Internet. Results: Based on international literature, on current recommendations by WHO and other international organizations as well as on previous experience, a panel of experts from EAACI and ARIA provided recommendations for the treatment of CRS during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Conclusion: Intranasal corticosteroids remain the standard treatment for CRS in patients with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection. Surgical treatments should be reduced to a minimum and surgery preserved for patients with local complications and for those with no other treatment options. Systemic corticosteroids should be avoided. Treatment with biologics can be continued with careful monitoring in noninfected patients and should be temporarily interrupted during the course of the COVID‐19 infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has become pandemic, reaching almost one million death worldwide. At present standard treatment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is not well defined because the evidence, either from randomized or observational studies, with conflicting results, has led to rapid changes in treatment guidelines. Our aim was to narratively summarize the available literature on the management of COVID-19 in order to combine current evidence and interpretation of the data by experts who are treating patients in the frontline setting. The panel conducted a detailed review of the literature and eventual press releases from randomized clinical trials for each possible available treatment. Inductive PubMed search waws performed for publications relevant to the topic, including all clinical trials conducted. The result was a flowchart with treatment indications for patients with COVID-19. After 6 months of a pandemic situation and before a possible second coronavirus wave descends on Europe, it is important to evaluate which drugs proved to be effective while also considering that results from many randomized clinical trials are still awaited. Indeed, among treatments for COVID-19, only glucocorticoids have resulted in an association with a significant decrease in mortality in published randomized controlled trials. New therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The global scientific community has been quick to respond to health crisis unleashed by Covid-19 pandemic with intensified investments in R&D and thereby it gave new impetus to Covid-19 research. The world has come to witness unprecedented increase in research publications on control and treatment of Covid-19 pandemic. Like any other region in the world, South Asia too has been the worst-hit region and it too witnessed increase in Covid-related research studies. Systematic reviews of such literature and bibliometric studies are used nowadays as tools to identify and analyze key and significant South Asian contribution to the subject. The present study aims to assess and quantify the contribution and impact of Covid-19 research made by a group of select four South Asian countries. Methods: Publications data on Covid 19 covering the period between December 2019 and 8.7.2021 was sourced from the Scopus database. VOSviewer 1.6.14 software was applied to generate network maps, assess hot topics in the area and describe collaboration patterns in research between different countries. Results: A total of 18,64,275 publications reflecting the global research output on Covid-19 were retrieved from the Scopus database. The publications data of select four South Asian countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka - was also retrieved. Comparatively the data size of select four South Asian countries was small, limited to 4012 documents, and accounting for a 2.15% share of the global research output on Covid-19 virus. Pakistan published the most number of Covid-19 publications (n = 2246, 55.58%), followed by Bangladesh (n = 1203, 29.99%), Nepal (n=512, 12.76%) and Sri Lanka (n=202, 5.03%). The United States as the collaborating partner in most number of publications contributed by South Asian countries (n = 609, 25.41%), followed by the United Kingdom (n = 496, 20.69%), China (n=453, 18.90%), Saudi Arabia (n=441, 18.40%) and India (n=426, 17.77%). Covid-19 treatment type was the most studied topic in the contributions made by South Asian countries accounting for a 16.45% share, followed by epidemiology (15.63%), risk factors (5.835), clinical studies (4.81%), etc. Conclusion: This paper finds that the quantity and quality of research pursued by a select group of four South Asian countries in the domain of Covid 19 studies has so far been small and insignificant. There is an urgent need on the part of select group of South Asian counties to improve their productivity and qualitative performance at the national, institutional, and individual author level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on COVID-19, the December 2019 dated respiratory epidemic or infection that has ravaged most, if not all, of the world's 253 "countries" (consisting of 194 independent nation-states, 55 dependent-states, Antarctica, and 3 other territories). Readers of this paper should be aware of at least three facts. First, as of January 2022, the submission date of this paper, COVID-19 continues to impact the world, although to a much lesser extent, given the protection afforded by the mRNA vaccines, the boosters, and the antiviral medications (e.g., oseltamivir, penciclovir, acyclovir, Paxlovid, etc.). Second, the paper should be regarded as being inconclusive in both its outlook and its list of references; it provides, at best, an intermediary account of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Third, like the Spanish Flu of 1918, it is speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic will not endure beyond three years and will conclude as an endemic problem by, hopefully, early 2023. Therefore, the paper is partitioned into three sections which, respectively, address the infection's three phases: epidemic (initial infection), pandemic (worldwide infection) and endemic (pervasive but nonlife-threatening infection) phases. The lessons learned from the range of decisions made throughout the COVID-19 phases should help to inform and better prepare the world for future pathogens and deadly diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the general population regained a certain level of normalcy with the end of the global health emergency, the risk of contracting COVID-19 with a severe outcome is still a major concern for people with compromised immunity. This paper reviews the impact of COVID-19 on people with immunocompromised status, identifies the gaps in the current management landscape, and proposes actions to address this unmet need. Observational studies have demonstrated that people with immune dysfunction have a higher risk of COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, despite vaccination, than the general population. More research is needed to define the optimal prevention and treatment strategies that are specific to people with immunocompromised status, including novel vaccination strategies, monoclonal antibodies that provide passive immunity and complement suboptimal vaccination responses, and improved and safer antiviral treatment for COVID-19. Preventive measures beyond vaccination alone are urgently needed to protect this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As South Africa faced the new dawn of COVID-19 pandemic, questions were raised regarding the utilization of African traditional medicine as a treatment of the illness. Madagascar was viewed by African people as a pioneer to regard and declare Artemisia as treatment for COVID-19 and developed products known as Africa following its breakthrough in traditional herbal cure for COVID-19 known as COVID Organics or CVO to be used by their citizens and the rest of African states. In July 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention formed a Regional Expert Committee on Conventional Medicine for COVID-19 in an attempt to enhance research and development of traditional medicines such as CVO, aiming to test traditional therapies and provide independent advice on their safety and efficacy. However, six months after its formation, it appeared that this attempt to regulate has failed to gain traction: None of the proposed remedies progressed beyond phase II clinical trials. Using existing secondary sources such as articles, government documents and media releases, this paper aims to look at the response from South African government on utilization of African Traditional Medicine as COVID-19 treatment. A special attention is given to South African government's response to the treatment proposed by the state of Madagascar and its way forward towards using traditional medicine as treatment to COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) has disproportionately affected certain demographics in England, exacerbating existing health disparities. Effective therapeutics are a critical line of defence against COVID-19, particularly for patients at elevated risk for severe disease. Surveillance systems were established to monitor the usage of COVID-19 therapeutics in hospital and community settings and to inform stewardship. Three antiviral therapies—nirmatrelvir plus ritonavir (Paxlovid®), remdesivir (Veklury®), and molnupiravir (Lagevrio®)—and two neutralising monoclonal antibody therapies (nMAbs)—sotrovimab (Xevudy®) and casirivimab with imdevimab (Ronapreve®)—were in use in England between July 2020 and April 2023. This paper aims to illuminate trends in the utilisation of COVID-19 therapeutics treatment in both hospital and community settings, stratified by the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) in England. Chapter 3 of the English Surveillance Programme for Antimicrobial Utilisation and Resistance (ESPAUR) Report 2022 to 2023 also discusses the epidemiological surveillance of these five directly acting antiviral COVID-19 therapeutics' use in England between 2022 and 2023. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing risks data are commonly encountered in randomized clinical trials and observational studies. This paper considers the situation where the ending statuses of competing events have different clinical interpretations and/or are of simultaneous interest. In clinical trials, often more than one competing event has meaningful clinical interpretations even though the trial effects of different events could be different or even opposite to each other. In this paper, we develop estimation procedures and inferential properties for the joint use of multiple cumulative incidence functions (CIFs). Additionally, by incorporating longitudinal marker information, we develop estimation and inference procedures for weighted CIFs and related metrics. The proposed methods are applied to a COVID‐19 in‐patient treatment clinical trial, where the outcomes of COVID‐19 hospitalization are either death or discharge from the hospital, two competing events with completely different clinical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vaccination is an important tool in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in patients with haematologic malignancies. The paper provides an analysis of the course of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection in a group of vaccinated patients with haematological malignancy and a comparison with a historical cohort of 96 non-vaccinated patients with haematologic malignancies and bone marrow failure syndromes (two patients) in the treatment of COVID-19. A severe or critical course of COVID-19 was significantly less frequent in the group of vaccinated patients (10.2% vs. 31.4%, p = 0.003). The need for hospitalisation due to COVID-19 was significantly lower in vaccinated patients (27.1% vs. 72.6%, p < 0.0001) and the duration of hospitalisation was significantly shorter (10 vs. 14 days, p = 0.045). Vaccinated patients were insignificantly less likely to require oxygen therapy during infection. COVID-19 mortality was significantly higher in non-vaccinated patients (15.6% vs. 5.1%, p = 0.047). The paper demonstrated a significant positive effect of vaccination against COVID-19 on a less severe clinical course of infection, lower need for hospitalisation and mortality. However, the results need to be evaluated even in the context of new antivirals and monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 or virus mutations with different biological behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: To investigate the efficacy of different doses of corticosteroids in treating severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pneumonia. Methods: Between May 01, 2023, and June 20, 2023, 48 patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia were treated at the Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine of Jinan Fourth People's Hospital. The observation group (21 patients) received standard care and high-dose corticosteroids, (high-dose group). The control group (27 patients) received standard care and low-dose corticosteroids (low-dose group). We collected baseline data and recorded inflammatory marker levels after 3 days of treatment, body temperature recovery time, length of stay, and 28-day all-cause mortality. The results of outpatient follow-up were recorded after 1 month. Results: There were no significant differences in 28-day mortality and length of stay. The number of days it took for body temperature to return to normal in the high-dose group was less than in the low-dose group. The high-dose group had significantly more reduced inflammatory factors (C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6). A total of 20 discharged patients were given 8–16 mg of methylprednisolone, depending on chest computed tomography (CT) and clinical symptoms after 1 month; in all discharged patients using oral corticosteroids, CT features improved. Conclusion: High-dose corticosteroids had a significantly positive effect on the reduction of inflammatory factors and shortening body temperature recovery time. In the treatment of severe COVID-19 pneumonia, early administration of high-dose, short-course corticosteroids should be implemented. Highlights: The highlights of the paper are: 1. High-dose corticosteroid can shorten the recovery time of body temperature. 2. High-dose corticosteroid can better reduce inflammatory factors (CRP IL-6). 3. Oral hormones in discharged patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia are beneficial. 4. Initial dosage and course of corticosteroid might be varied case by case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work presented in this paper makes multiple scientific contributions with a specific focus on the analysis of misinformation about COVID-19 on YouTube. First, the results of topic modeling performed on the video descriptions of YouTube videos containing misinformation about COVID-19 revealed four distinct themes or focus areas—Promotion and Outreach Efforts, Treatment for COVID-19, Conspiracy Theories Regarding COVID-19, and COVID-19 and Politics. Second, the results of topic-specific sentiment analysis revealed the sentiment associated with each of these themes. For the videos belonging to the theme of Promotion and Outreach Efforts, 45.8% were neutral, 39.8% were positive, and 14.4% were negative. For the videos belonging to the theme of Treatment for COVID-19, 38.113% were positive, 31.343% were neutral, and 30.544% were negative. For the videos belonging to the theme of Conspiracy Theories Regarding COVID-19, 46.9% were positive, 31.0% were neutral, and 22.1% were negative. For the videos belonging to the theme of COVID-19 and Politics, 35.70% were positive, 32.86% were negative, and 31.44% were neutral. Third, topic-specific language analysis was performed to detect the various languages in which the video descriptions for each topic were published on YouTube. This analysis revealed multiple novel insights. For instance, for all the themes, English and Spanish were the most widely used and second most widely used languages, respectively. Fourth, the patterns of sharing these videos on other social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, were also investigated. The results revealed that videos containing video descriptions in English were shared the highest number of times on Facebook and Twitter. Finally, correlation analysis was performed by taking into account multiple characteristics of these videos. The results revealed that the correlation between the length of the video title and the number of tweets and the correlation between the length of the video title and the number of Facebook posts were statistically significant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mucormycosis is a life-threatening fungal infection mostly occurring in immunosuppressed patients such as organ transplant or diabetic patients. In this paper, we described a case of COVID-19 with rhino-orbitocerebral mucormycosis. Methods: The nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) from a nasopharyngeal sample for SARS-CoV-2 was done. Demographic data, biochemical tests, paranasal sinuses (PNS) CT scan, brain CT scan, chest CT scan, and palate biopsy were performed. Results: The NAAT was positive for SARS-CoV-2. PNS CT scan revealed mucosal thickening of all paranasal sinuses, brain CT scan showed hypodense area in antero-inferior cortex, and chest CT scan revealed diffuse ground glass opacity in favor of COVID-19 infection. Palate biopsy revealed fibroconnective tissue with broad pauciseptated ribbon-like hyphae. Conclusions: In this paper, a case of COVID-19 with rhino-orbito-cerebral mucormycosis was described. The treatment with immunosuppressive drugs predisposed this patient to secondary fungal infection. Immunosuppression is a double-edged sword in COVID-19 treatment and immunosuppressive drugs should be prescribed only in severely ill patients and for a short period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study evaluates the global research output (820 records) on "Use of Convalescent Plasma Therapy for COVID-19" on metrics with the aim to understand the current status of research at the global, national, institutional, and individual author level. The study is based on publications and citations data sourced from the Scopus database during 2020-21. The publications and citations data was statistically analyzed on various metrics such as document type, country of publication, collaboration patterns, author affiliation, journal name, and citation patterns. The USA, China and India lead the world ranking of 15 most productive countries in the subject. China, U.K. and Netherlands lead in the ranking of most cited countries. In addition, the study maps key productive institutions, key authors, key source journals, as well as most significant keywords in the subject to visually present their inter-relationships using Biblioshiny and VOSviewer software. This results and findings from the study describe the progress made by the world in this hot area of global interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread and become a substantial public health concern worldwide. The COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel recommends COVID-19 vaccination as soon as possible for everyone who is eligible according to the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. As of March 2023, there are three Food and Drug administration (FDA)-authorized antiviral treatments available to treat people who have mild or moderate symptoms of COVID-19 infection and have risk factors for severe illness. The Special Issue "COVID-19 Prevention and Treatment" published in I Life i (ISSN 2075-1729), belonging to the section "Epidemiology", collects a series of research and review articles related to better design routes of prevention and treatment for COVID-19. [Extracted from the article]

Introduction. On account of the generally milder symptoms in children and of the risk of remaining undiagnosed, diagnosis and treatment of children with COVID-19 remains a challenge for the medical community. The aim of this paper is to indicate the clinical characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and also some preventive and therapeutic measures performed so far in pediatric cases. Materials and methods. In this rapid review, a comprehensive search was conducted on Scopus and PubMed databases, with the aim of observing the clinical characteristics, management, complications and treatment of pediatric cases diagnosed with COVID-19. A total number of 577 articles were found which, after eliminating the duplicates, were reduced to 544. To this end, 565 papers were screened by their title and abstract, finally 16 papers being included (only English papers were considered, the Chinese papers and databases being not analyzed). Results and discussion. Among the studies that explicitly referred to patients' clinical symptoms, the most common were fever and cough. Other less common symptoms include sore throat, throat obstruction, dyspnea and tachypnea, rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, throat erythema, sputum, cough, fatigue. Also, the most common treatments used included antiviral drugs, immune-based therapy, antibiotics and hydroxychloroquine. Conclusions. The results obtained showed that, in children, the symptoms of the disease can be different than in adults. The most common symptoms observed in children were fever, cough, gastrointestinal symptoms, runny nose, dyspnea and tachypnea. Most currently recommended were antiviral drugs, immunobased therapy, antibiotics, and hydroxychloroquine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We highlighted in this current paper similar prolonged respiratory presentation with COVID-19 pneumonia in four severely immunocompromised patients currently being treated with anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), such as ocrelizumab and rituximab, for multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid polyarthritis. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction on a nasopharyngeal swab specimen was negative in all patients. SARS-CoV-2 infection was confirmed from bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. A high titer of post-vaccine COVID-19 convalescent plasma was administered with complete recovery in all patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: During the process of the treatment of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, physicians still face a lot of unknowns and problems. Despite the application of the treatment protocol, it is still unknown why the medical status of a certain number of patients worsens and ends with death. Many factors were analyzed for the prediction of the clinical outcome of the patients using different methods. The aim of this paper was to develop a prediction model based on initial laboratory blood test results, accompanying comorbidities, and demographics to help physicians to better understand the medical state of patients with respect to possible clinical outcomes using neural networks, hypothesis testing, and confidence intervals. Methods: The research had retrospective-prospective, descriptive, and analytical character. As inputs for this research, 12 components of laboratory blood test results, six accompanying comorbidities, and demographics (age and gender) data were collected from hospital information system in Sarajevo for each patient from a sample of 634 hospitalized patients. Clinical outcome of the hospitalized patients, survival or death, was recorded 30 days after admission to the hospital. The prediction model was designed using a neural network. In addition, formal hypothesis tests were performed to investigate whether there were significant differences in laboratory blood test results and age between patients who died and those who survived, including the construction of 95% confidence intervals. Results: In this paper, 11 neural networks were developed with different threshold values to determine the optimal neural network with the highest prediction performance. The performances of the neural networks were evaluated by accuracy, precision, sensitivity, and specificity. Optimal neural network model evaluation metrics are: accuracy = 87.78%, precision = 96.37%, sensitivity = 90.07%, and specificity = 62.16%. Significantly higher values (P < 0.05) of blood laboratory result components and age were detected in patients who died. Conclusion: Optimal neural network model, results of hypothesis tests, and confidence intervals could help to predict, analyze, and better understand the medical state of COVID-19 hospitalized patients and thus reduce the mortality rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the pandemic of COVID-19 being under control, more and more COVID-19 patients have entered the rehabilitation stage. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has always attached importance to the treatment of epidemic diseases in the rehabilitation stage so as to further promote the rehabilitation of patients for a better prognosis, and prevent the recurrence of the disease. It's focal to explore how to carry out accurate rehabilitation treatment for COVID-19 patients in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 for quite some time to come. This paper systematically sorts out the reported clinical manifestations of the post-COVID-19 syndrome and the current guideline for the practices in COVID-19 rehabilitation. Under the background of the collaborative rehabilitation practices with TCM and western medicine, combined with the unique advantages of TCM in disease rehabilitation, this paper discusses the TCM understanding of epidemic diseases in the rehabilitation stage and its prevention and treatment ideas, and puts forward the collaborative rehabilitation strategy with TCM and western medicine for post-COVID-19 syndrome, so as to promote higher-quality rehabilitation of the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ozone therapy (OT), a medical procedure, has been showing good results during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). We aimed to build an evidence and gaps map (EGM) of OT in the COVID-19 ranking the articles found according to levels of evidence and outcomes. The EGM brings bubbles of different sizes and different colors according to the articles. The OT intervention used was major or minor autohemotherapy, rectal insufflation and ozonized saline solution. EGM was based on 13 clinical studies using OT for COVID-19 involving a total of 271 patients. We found 30 outcomes related to OT in COVID-19. Our EGM divided the outcomes into six groups: 1-clinical improvement; 2-hospitalization; 3-inflammatory, thromboembolic, infectious, or metabolic markers; 4-radiological aspects, 5-viral infection and 6-adverse events. Major autohemotherapy was present in 19 outcomes, followed by rectal insufflation. Improvement in clinical symptoms of COVID-19, improvement of respiratory function, improvement of oxygen saturation, reduction in hospital internment, decrease in C-reactive protein, decrease in ferritin, decrease in lactate dehydrogenase, decrease in interleukin 6, decrease in D-dimer, radiological improvement of lung lesions and absence of reported adverse events were related in the papers. The most commonly used concentrations of OT in major autohemotherapy and in rectal insufflation were 40 µg/mL and 35 µg/mL, respectively. Here, we bring the first EGM showing the efficacy and safety of OT in the treatment of COVID-19. OT can be used as integrative medical therapy in COVID-19 at a low cost and improve the health conditions of the patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2), can manifest itself in several ways, including coagulopathy and thrombosis. These complications can be the first and sometimes only manifestations of SARS‐CoV‐2 infection and can occur early or late in the course of the disease. However, these symptoms are more prevalent in hospitalized patients with venous thromboembolism, particularly those admitted to intensive care units. Moreover, various forms of arterial and venous thrombosis, or micro‐ or macro‐vasculature embolisms, have been reported during the current pandemic. They have led to harmful consequences, such as neurological and cardiac events, nearly all resulting from the hypercoagulable state caused by this viral infection. The severe hypercoagulability observed in patients with COVID‐19 accounts for most cases of the disease that become critical. Therefore, anticoagulants seem to be one of the most vital therapeutics for treating this potentially life‐threatening condition. In the current paper, we present a thorough review of the pathophysiology of COVID‐19‐induced hypercoagulable state and the use of anticoagulants to treat SARS‐CoV‐2 infections in different patient groups, as well as their pros and cons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The replication of biological systems by mechanical and electronic devices is referred to as bionics. The bionics industry has grown along four primary application areas, in addition to hearing, vision, orthopedics, and a small, dispersed group of implants that enhance cardiac and neurological functions. The SARS‐CoV‐2 virus is the infectious disease known as coronavirus disease (COVID‐19). The virus‐infected people require assistance to better understand the situation caused by COVID‐19 and to bring some easy, efficient, and effective solutions. One of the solutions mentioned for the early stages involves wearable sensors with temperature sensors for early Covid‐19 identification and photos delivered to an AI‐enabled smartphone, robotic sensor, or robot itself. In severe situations, lung X‐ray images are captured by robotic and remote sensors, and the lungs are given the right medication to finish off the virus. The paper presents the study on the overview, applications of artificial intelligence, and deep learning from the bionics point of view. Deep learning and machine learning will be used for reducing the Covid‐19 outbreak. Wearable sensors provide important data by having temperature‐embedded sensors in several physical devices that reveal details about the environment and body that are connected. Covid‐19 probability prediction is aided by smartphones with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. Case history, doctor notes, chest X‐ray reports, details on the sites of breakouts, and other criteria can help forecast the severity of Covid‐19 when it is in its severe phases and direct the administration of medication to a specific area of the lungs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic led to rapid vaccine development and large global vaccination schemes. However, patients with immune-mediated kidney disease, chronic kidney diseases and kidney transplant recipients show high non-response rates to vaccination despite more than three vaccinations and, consequently, reduced viral clearance capacity when infected while receiving certain immunosuppressants, carrying an elevated risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related morbidity and mortality. SARS-CoV-2 evolution has been characterized by the emergence of novel variants and spike mutations contributing to waning efficacy of neutralizing antibodies. To this end, the therapeutic field expands from vaccination towards a combined approach of immunization, pre-exposure prophylaxis and early post-exposure treatment using direct-acting antivirals and neutralizing monoclonal antibodies to treat early in the disease course and avoid hospitalization. This expert opinion paper from the Immunonephrology Working Group of the European Renal Association (ERA-IWG) summarizes available prophylactic and/or early treatment options (i.e. neutralizing monoclonal antibodies and direct-acting antivirals) of SARS-CoV-2-infected patients with immune-mediated kidney disease, chronic kidney disease and kidney transplant recipients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spread throughout the world and proclaimed a pandemic, governments around the world have implemented countless unparalleled policies in response to the pandemic. Preventative techniques such as close management of infection, patient isolation, and social distancing. However, in the absence of a particular antiviral or vaccine recommended for the treatment of COVID-19, pandemic control often includes minimizing virus transmission by effective policy interventions. Although most of these steps are successful, they bring economic and social burden. The goal of this paper is to analyze, from a cross-cultural viewpoint, the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper comprehensively synthesizes the evidence on conditions during this emergency and suggests several measures to control and mitigate the risks relating to it, taking into account the most recent data presented by agencies such as WHO and CDC. This paper's approach will be a literature review and a critical examination of the results. This analysis might be used by policymakers and health authorities for responding to the global challenges posed by the pandemic, such as strain on health care structure, resource allocation, and supply chain disruptions, for decelerating its propagation, and for planning before similar situations in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Veterans are a special population that has been largely ignored during the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Veterans with COVID-19 not only suffered symptoms from the disease but also had a higher risk of further development of in-hospital complications involving multiple organs. This article aims to review the current literature on the epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis, clinical presentation, treatment, and outcome in veterans who contracted COVID-19 during the pandemic, using papers published between January 1, 2020 and August 1, 2021. Forty published papers were considered relevant to this review study. The COVID-19 pandemic not only caused a burden on health-care facilities but also affected the veterans population. Veterans with COVID-19 not only suffered symptoms from the disease but also had a higher risk of further development of in-hospital complications involving multiple organs. The dismal outcome might be attributed to old age and multiple comorbidities among veterans. Symptoms that may be seen in veterans with COVID-19 are comparable to those in the general population with fever, cough, and dyspnea, the most commonly reported. There are several approaches, such as self-assessment tools and virtual or telephone triage strategies, that can initially provide adequate evaluation of the symptoms related to COVID-19 in veterans. Adequate risk stratification could be carried out using the VA COVID-19 (VACO) Index, which predicts the risk of 30-day all-cause mortality after COVID-19 infection. There are several COVID-19 specific treatments that have been given to veterans; however, none of them have been proven to reduce the overall mortality in veterans. The overall mortality rate among veterans showed a declining trend. However, veterans suffering from chronic COVID-19 are at risk of dependence on activities of daily living after recovering from the illness. In summary, veterans are a special population that requires more attention especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This editorial, published in Frontiers in Sociology, discusses the challenges faced by patients after receiving intensive care treatment for COVID-19. It emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of the topic, incorporating medicine, sociology, social work, and psychology. The editorial reviews various works on the intersection of healthcare and social care, the use of prone ventilation for COVID-19 patients, innovative approaches to managing ICU bed capacity, and the impact of COVID-19 fear on social workers. It also presents empirical studies on topics such as tele-support in the ICU, the psychological effects of music on caregivers, and the reliability of a health questionnaire for COVID-19 patients. The editorial concludes by highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in understanding and addressing the challenges posed by COVID-19. Additionally, the article "Assessment of Quality of Life After Discharge From ICU: A Comparison Between COVID-19 and Non-COVID-19 Patients" explores the impact of COVID-19 on patients' quality of life after leaving the ICU, comparing the experiences of COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients. The authors note that the opinions expressed in the article are solely those of the authors and do not represent their affiliated organizations or the publisher. [Extracted from the article]

The purpose of this review was to conduct a comparative assessment of the concepts of therapy for pediatric patients with COVID-19 in the framework of global clinical practice. A structural analysis of the range of drugs and treatment strategies in the context of etiotropic, pathogenetic, and symptomatic therapy has shown that in the global context and in real clinical practice, the etiotropic-pathogenetic approach based on information about the effectiveness of individual medical technologies prevails today. It has been established that eight international nonproprietary/grouping names are present in international practice as means of etiotropic therapy for pediatric patients with COVID-19, and 18 positions are used for pathogenetic therapy. In terms of frequency of occurrence, the leading positions are occupied by remdesivir and the combination of nirmatrelvir with ritonavir, as well as dexamethasone and tocilizumab. The paper emphasizes the relevance of research in the field of evaluating the effectiveness of individual treatment regimens as well as the analysis of the delayed consequences of pathology suffered in childhood under the conditions of using various approaches to pharmacotherapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The paper describes the design concept and findings from technological and initial clinical trials conducted to develop a helmet for non-invasive oxygen therapy using positive pressure, known as hCPAP (Helmet Continuous Positive Airway Pressure).Methods: The study utilized PET-G filament, a recommended material for medical applications, along with the FFF 3D printing technique. Additional technological investigations were performed for the production of fitting components. The authors proposed a parameter identification method for 3D printing, which reduced the time and cost of the study while ensuring high mechanical strength and quality of the manufactured elements.Results: The proposed 3D printing technique facilitated the rapid development of an ad hoc hCPAP device, which was utilized in preclinical testing and treatment of Covid-19 patients, and yielded positive results. Based on the promising outcomes of the preliminary tests, further development of the hCPAP device's current version was pursued.Conclusion: The proposed approach offered a crucial benefit by significantly reducing the time and costs involved in developing customized solutions to aid in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2019, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ravaged the world. As of July 2021, there are about 192 million infected people worldwide and 4.1365 million deaths. At present, the new coronavirus is still spreading and circulating in many places around the world, especially since the emergence of Delta variant strains has increased the risk of the COVID-19 pandemic again. The symptoms of COVID-19 are diverse, and most patients have mild symptoms, with fever, dry cough, and fatigue as the main manifestations, and about 15.7% to 32.0% of patients will develop severe symptoms. Patients are screened in hospitals or primary care clinics as the initial step in the therapy for COVID-19. Although transcription-polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests are still the primary method for making the final diagnosis, in hospitals today, the election protocol is based on medical imaging because it is quick and easy to use, which enables doctors to diagnose illnesses and their effects more quickly3. According to this approach, individuals who are thought to have COVID-19 first undergo an X-ray session and then, if further information is required, a CT-scan session. This methodology has led to a significant increase in the use of computed tomography scans (CT scans) and X-ray pictures in the clinic as substitute diagnostic methods for identifying COVID-19. To provide a significant collection of various datasets and methods used to diagnose COVID-19, this paper provides a comparative study of various state-of-the-art methods. The impact of medical imaging techniques on COVID-19 is also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Competing risks data are commonly encountered in randomized clinical trials or observational studies. Ignoring competing risks in survival analysis leads to biased risk estimates and improper conclusions. Often, one of the competing events is of primary interest and the rest competing events are handled as nuisances. These approaches can be inadequate when multiple competing events have important clinical interpretations and thus of equal interest. For example, in COVID‐19 in‐patient treatment trials, the outcomes of COVID‐19 related hospitalization are either death or discharge from hospital, which have completely different clinical implications and are of equal interest, especially during the pandemic. In this paper we develop nonparametric estimation and simultaneous inferential methods for multiple cumulative incidence functions (CIFs) and corresponding restricted mean times. Based on Monte Carlo simulations and a data analysis of COVID‐19 in‐patient treatment clinical trial, we demonstrate that the proposed method provides global insights of the treatment effects across multiple endpoints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Several studies have been directed to find scalable, swift, accurate, and cost‐effective strategies for detecting, monitoring, and treating coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). Indeed, the lack of a fast and practical method for detecting the infected regions makes decision‐making challenging to combat the critical pandemic‐struck situations. The probable 'wrong', or rather inadequate, decisions not only have a boomerang effect on the economy but also can lead to an increase in the number of infected individuals, degree of hospitalization, and death counts. Although the current clinical methods are effective, they are costly, time‐consuming, and, more particularly, inadequate because of the virus's mutation patterns. In addition, contamination of biomedical wastes with the COVID‐19 virus is a matter of grave concern. Therefore, there is a perpetual need for novel methodologies to delineate the contaminated regions and determine whether those viruses contaminate the wastewater. Although several review papers have been recently published to discuss those concerns, there is a lack of a comprehensive survey of the detection and treatment of the COVID‐19 virus in aqueous media. Herein, we review techniques available as spreading signifiers for detecting the COVID‐19 virus in water resources and wastewater. We classify and integrate techniques into wastewater, sewage, and sludge detection and monitoring. Treatment of COVID‐19‐contaminated wastewater is discussed by classifying and ranking the methodologies nurtured from nanotechnology, including nanoparticle‐based biosensors used in the detection and nanotechnology‐based filtration systems for the removal of COVID‐19 from wastewater. We also highlight the compilation of the detection methodologies in contaminated aqueous media and provide insight into the challenges associated with treating COVID‐19‐contaminated wastewater. The article concludes that international and robust guidelines for virus/bacteria treatment in wastewater are urgently needed to protect the environment and public health, where nanotechnology plays a key role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Ephedra herbs are the only extant genus in its family, Ephedraceae, and order, Ephedrales. It has been prescribed in traditional medicine for improving headaches and respiratory infections. On the other hand, because the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) causes respiratory problems and COVID-19 pandemic is the most widespread outbreak that has affected humanity in the last century, the current review aims using literature search to investigate the effects of the Ephedra herbs compounds on COVID-19 to supply a reference for its clinical application in the inhibition and remedy of COVID-19. Materials and Methods: This review was performed using articles published in various databases, including Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar, without a time limit. For this paper, the following keywords were used: "Ephedra", "coronavirus disease 2019", "COVID-19", "Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2" or "SARS CoV 2". Results: The results of this review show that the Ephedra herbs have effectiveness on COVID-19 and its compounds can bind to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) with a high affinity and act as a blocker and prevent the binding of the virus. Conclusion: Some plants used in traditional medicine, including the Ephedra herbs, with their active compounds, can be considered a candidate with high potential for the control and prevention of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges for rapidly designing, initiating, and delivering therapeutic clinical trials. PRINCIPLE (Platform Randomised Trial of Treatments in the Community for Epidemic and Pandemic Illnesses) is the UK national platform investigating repurposed therapies for COVID-19 treatment of older people in the community at high risk of complications. Standard methods of patient recruitment were failing to meet the required pace and scale of enrolment. This paper describes the development and appraisal of a near real-time, data-driven, ethical approach for enhancing recruitment in community care by contacting people with a recent COVID-19 positive test result from the central NHS Test and Trace service within approximately 24-48 h of their test result.Methods: A multi-disciplinary team was formed to solve the technical, ethical, public perception, logistical and information governance issues required to provide a near-real time (approximately within 24-48 h of receiving a positive test) feed of potential trial participants from test result data to the research team. PRINCIPLE was also given unique access to the Summary Care Record (SCR) to ensure safe prescribing, and to enable the trial team to quickly and safely bring consented patients into the trial. A survey of the public was used to understand public perceptions of the use of test data for this proposed methodology.Results: Prior to establishing the data service, PRINCIPLE registered on average 87 participants per week. This increased by up to 87 additional people registered per week from the test data, contributing to an increase from 1013 recruits to PRINCIPLE at the start of October 2020 to 2802 recruits by 20 December 2020. Whilst procedural caveats were identified by the public consultation, out of 2639 people contacted by PRINCIPLE following a positive test result, no one raised a concern about being approached.Conclusions: This paper describes a novel approach to using near-real time NHS operational data to recruit community-based patients within a few days of presentation with acute illness. This approach increased recruitment and reduced time between positive test and randomisation, allowing more rapid evaluation of treatments and increased safety for participants. End-to-end public and patient involvement in the design of the approach provided evidence to inform information governance decisions.Trial Registration: PRINCIPLE is funded by UK Research and Innovation and the Department of Health and Social Care through the National Institute for Health Research. EudraCT number: 2020-001209-22 . 26/03/2020 ISRCTN registry: ISRCTN86534580 . 20/03/2020 REC number: 20/SC/058 IRAS number: 281958. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an in-depth survey of the literature, the purpose of the paper is to explore smart wearable Internet of Medical Things technologies, artificial intelligence-based diagnostic algorithms, and real-time healthcare monitoring systems in COVID-19 detection and treatment. In this research, previous findings were cumulated showing that big data analytics can optimize healthcare services in Internet of Medical Things, and we contribute to the literature by indicating that data connectivity and sharing are pivotal in healthcare services. Throughout January 2022, a quantitative literature review of the Web of Science, Scopus, and ProQuest databases was performed, with search terms including “COVID-19” + “smart wearable Internet of Medical Things technologies,” “artificial intelligence-based diagnostic algorithms,” and “real-time healthcare monitoring systems.” As research published between 2020 and 2022 was inspected, only 127 articles satisfied the eligibility criteria. By taking out controversial or ambiguous findings (insufficient/irrelevant data), outcomes unsubstantiated by replication, too general material, or studies with nearly identical titles, we selected 31 mainly empirical sources. Data visualization tools: Dimensions (bibliometric mapping) and VOSviewer (layout algorithms). Reporting quality assessment tool: PRISMA. Methodological quality assessment tools include: AMSTAR, Dedoose, Distiller SR, and SRDR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 has spread across the globe in no time. In the beginning, people suffered due to the absence of efficacious drugs required to treat severely ill patients. Nevertheless, still, there are no established therapeutic molecules against the SARS-CoV-2. Therefore, repurposing of the drugs started against SARS-CoV-2, due to which several drugs were approved for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. This paper reviewed the treatment regime for COVID-19 through drug repurposing from December 8, 2019 (the day when WHO recognized COVID-19 as a pandemic) until today. We have reviewed all the clinical trials from RECOVERY trials, ACTT-1 and ACTT-2 study group, and other major clinical trial platforms published in highly reputed journals such as NEJM, Lancet, etc. In addition to single-molecule therapy, several combination therapies were also evaluated to understand the treatment of COVID-19 from these significant clinical trials. To date, several lessons have been learned on the therapeutic outcomes for COVID-19. The paper also outlines the experiences gained during the repurposing of therapeutic molecules (hydroxychloroquine, ritonavir/ lopinavir, favipiravir, remdesivir, ivermectin, dexamethasone, camostatmesylate, and heparin), immunotherapeutic molecules (tocilizumab, mavrilimumab, baricitinib, and interferons), combination therapy, and convalescent plasma therapy to treat COVID-19 patients. We summarized that anti-viral therapeutic (remdesivir) and immunotherapeutic (tocilizumab, dexamethasone, and baricitinib) therapy showed some beneficial outcomes. Until March 2021, 4952 clinical trials have been registered in ClinicalTrials.gov toward the drug and vaccine development for COVID-19. More than 100 countries have participated in contributing to these clinical trials. Other than the registered clinical trials (medium to large-size), several small-size clinical trials have also been conducted from time to time to evaluate the treatment of COVID-19. Four molecules showed beneficial therapeutic to treat COVID-19 patients. The short-term repurposing of the existing drug may provide a successful outcome for COVID-19 patients. Therefore, more clinical trials can be initiated using potential anti-viral molecules by evaluating in different phases of clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The novel coronavirus has created one of the biggest social and economic challenges in recent decades. Since a critical issue in overcoming a large‐scale pandemic involves finding effective treatments for the disease, there is typically urgent pressure on the health‐care sector to develop innovations to combat the pandemic. Recently, scholars have argued that repurposing – that is, reusing an existing innovation in a different context – allows for such rapid innovation responses and can reduce costs, as the groundwork has already been laid. In this paper, we compare these benefits with the considerable disadvantages associated with innovation repurposing, including lowered barriers to entry, which can lead to declining average quality and duplicate work. Using data on 2,456 COVID‐19‐related clinical trials initiated between December 2019 and July 2020, we find that merely one‐third of the trials actually investigated drugs or vaccines, whereas the rest focused on diagnostics and crisis management issues. In the trials concerning drug testing, we find that drug repurposing is a predominant innovation strategy, but many trials tested the same (combination of) drugs. This indicates an inefficient use of resources and reductions in the average variety and novelty of clinical trials. Furthermore, the small percentage of biopharmaceutical firms involved in the search for COVID‐19 treatments raises the question of whether firms may have insufficient incentives to redirect innovation efforts to respond to the pandemic. Our paper contributes to crisis management research, the nascent debate on COVID‐19, and the emerging literature on innovation repurposing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has become unprecedented challenge all over the world, especially for the healthcare sector. This disease being novel in its spread and impact has created a chaos globally. District hospital Pulwama falls within the administrative district of the Jammu and Kashmir region of India. This hospital is designated as a special COVID Care hospital since the spread of the Coronavirus. During this pandemic, even with scarce material and human resources, this hospital played a pivotal role in managing the crises caused by the spread of this dreadful communicable disease. There is an urgent need of having a relook at the role of secondary level health care institutes at district levels to meet the ever-growing health-related challenges. Policymakers need to take the present circumstances and the role played by these hospitals into account while drafting healthcare policies for the future. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) has provided an opportunity for this healthcare institution to learn and unlearn various methods and practices to deal with such situations in future. This paper is a sincere and genuine attempt to investigate the role of District hospital Pulwama in the Kashmir region of India, in mitigating the Coronavirus crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has become unprecedented challenge all over the world, especially for the healthcare sector. This disease being novel in its spread and impact has created a chaos globally. District hospital Pulwama falls within the administrative district of the Jammu and Kashmirregion of India. This hospital is designated as a special COVID Care hospitalsince the spread of the Coronavirus. During this pandemic, even with scarce material and human resources, this hospital played a pivotal role in managing the crises caused by the spread of this dreadful communicable disease. There is an urgent need of having a relook at the role of secondary level health care institutes at district levels to meetthe ever-growing health-related challenges. Policymakers need to take the present circumstancesand the role played by thesehospitals into account while drafting healthcare policies for the future. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2(SARSCoV-2)has provided an opportunity for thishealthcare institution to learn and unlearn various methods and practices to deal with such situations in future. This paper is a sincere and genuine attempt to investigate the role of District hospital Pulwama in the Kashmir region of India, in mitigating the Coronavirus crises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: The pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) since early 2020 is one of the most significant global health issues in history. Although there is currently no specific treatment for COVID-19, researchers have provided a whole array of potential treatments, both from the Western medicine approach, which is molecular target and pathogenesis based, and from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) approach, which is based on the exposure to toxins/pathogens and the balance of the body to combat them for recovery. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this research is to find combinations of Western medicine and TCM that may offer better therapeutic efficacy synergystically with a better adverse events profile. The findings of the research may provide a new insight in the development of the treatment of COVID-19. METHODS: From the Western medicine perspective, drugs target the mechanisms of viral infection, including the stages of viral entry (Arbidol, Camostat Mesylate, Convalescent Plasma therapy) and viral replication (Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Redemsivir, Ribavirin). Additional therapies target host defenses, preventing cytokine storms (Tocilizumab) and stimulating the immune system (Interferons). On the other hand, TCM also proposed a number of treatment methods for COVID-19 with new scientific approaches identifying their antiviral and immunomodulatory activities. The novel combination of Western medicine and TCM can be proposed by analyzing their respective molecular targets. RESULTS: Although TCM is not generally accepted in the Western community because of the general lack of knowledge on their detailed mechanisms, studies and clinical trials suggest that TCM could be beneficial in combating COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Based on the principle of combining TCM and Western medicine, two combinations are tested effective in clinical trials, and three possible combinations that might be effective are proposed in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we provide a simple ODEs model with a generic nonlinear incidence rate function and incorporate two treatments, blocking the virus binding and inhibiting the virus replication to investigate the impact of calibration on model predictions for the SARS-CoV-2 infection dynamics. We derive conditions of the infection eradication for the long-term dynamics using the basic reproduction number, and complement the characterization of the dynamics at short-time using the resilience and reactivity of the virus-free equilibrium are considered to inform on the average time of recovery and sensitivity to perturbations in the initial virus free stage. Then, we calibrate the treatment model to clinical datasets for viral load in mild and severe cases and immune cells in severe cases. Based on the analysis, the model calibrated to these different datasets predicts distinct scenarios: eradication with a non reactive virus-free equilibrium, eradication with a reactive virus-free equilibrium, and failure of infection eradication. Moreover, severe cases generate richer dynamics and different outcomes with the same treatment. Calibration to different datasets can lead to diverse model predictions, but combining long- and short-term dynamics indicators allows the categorization of model predictions and determination of infection severity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) undergoing maintenance hemodialysis have a poor prognosis and limited treatment options. Methods: This paper outlines the impact of COVID-19, its treatment, and the efficacy of vaccines in Japanese patients undergoing hemodialysis with a review of the literature. Results: Patients undergoing dialysis in dialysis facilities are at greater risk of exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 than the general population due to limited isolation capabilities. Therefore, vaccines are expected to be effective for patients undergoing dialysis. In addition, effective use of available medications is important because treatment options are limited. Conclusions: Efforts should be made to prevent the spread of the infection to high-risk patients undergoing dialysis while ensuring the effective use of vaccines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronavirus desease 2019 (COVID-19) is a pandemic that has occurred in the world since 2019. Researchers have carried out various ways in dealing with this disease, starting from the screening stage to the stage of treatment and therapy for COVID-19 patients. As the gateway to the COVID-19 problem, screening has an essential role in a diagnosis that leads to appropriate treatment. In this paper, we will focus on the screening stage using digital image processing techniques, namely in calculating the area of white spots in the lungs of COVID-19 patients. The white patches are an early indication of how badly COVID-19 is attacking the patient. We use X-Ray Thorax image objects as research data in this paper. Although the current experimental results show that this method has a successful performance of 71.11%, it is pretty promising for further development due to its simplicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 continues to spread across the globe at an exponential speed, infecting millions and overwhelming even the most prepared healthcare systems. Concerns are looming that the healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are mostly unprepared to combat the virus because of limited resources. The problems in LMICs are exacerbated by the fact that citizens in these countries generally exhibit low trust in the healthcare system because of its low quality, which could trigger a number of uncooperative behaviors. In this paper, we focus on one such behavior and investigate the relationship between trust in the healthcare system and the probability of potential treatment-seeking behavior upon the appearance of the first symptoms of COVID-19. First, we provide motivating evidence from a unique national online survey administered in Armenia–a post-Soviet LMIC country. We then present results from a large-scale survey experiment in Armenia that provides causal evidence supporting the investigated relationship. Our main finding is that a more trustworthy healthcare system enhances the probability of potential treatment-seeking behavior when observing the initial symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cases of the COVID-19 pandemic have spread throughout the world and caused a high mortality rate. This virus is self-limiting, so the healing process is related to the immune system. One of the medical therapies given to hospitalized COVID-19 patients is vitamin D-based therapy to boost the immune system against the COVID-19 virus. This paper aimed to determine the effectiveness of vitamin D-based therapy to reduce the clinical impact on COVID-19 patients. The clinical impacts observed in this systematic review were the length of hospital stay, length in the ICU stay, cure rate, severity, mortality rate, and signs of inflammation. A literature search was carried out on the Scopus, Sciencedirect, and PUBMED databases. Search articles using the keyword vitamin D therapy in COVID-19 patients. The final result of the search found 6 articles that met the specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. Vitamin D in its active form (1,25(OH)2D3) can enhance chemotaxis, phagocytic response, and production of antimicrobials such as cathelicidin from macrophages as a series of innate immune responses. Administration of vitamin D-based therapy can also reduce the severity, decrease pro-inflammatory cytokines, and mortality in COVID-19 patients. The paper shows that vitamin D-based therapy can reduce the clinical impact in COVID-19 patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bedridden people, especially at home, suffer from diverse pathologies beyond the main one that brings them to a specific position. Long-term cares are suitable at home to avoid congestions within hospital facilities. There are different technologies available to improve such people’s conditions in their daily life. The standing posture is the key solution to enhance people’s wellness amid the psychological burden due to the almost impossibility to be completely healed. The paper proposes the use of a polyfunctional and robotic bed capable of displaying many positions namely vertical, tilting, anti-trendelenburg with necessary graduation. A three-year monitoring of a patient, using a polyfunctional and robotic bed, suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), has been investigated. Different physiological parameters have been measured and, particularly, the variation of temperature has been measured in presence of body position connected to the robotic bed rotation that provokes biomechanical effort. It is demonstrated that certain body positions correspond to major and minor physical effort, hence major and minor oxygenation. An infrared camera has been used. As a positive result, the variation of posture has been delaying the increase of the pathological signs, because of better conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(SARS-CoV-2), was first identified in December 2019 as the cause of a respiratory illness designated coronavirus disease 2019, or Covid-19. Several therapeutic agents have been evaluated for the treatment of Covid-19, but none have yet been shown to be efficacious. Remdesivir (GS-5734), an inhibitor of the viral RNA-dependent, RNA polymerase with inhibitory activity against SARS-CoV and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), was identified early as a promising therapeutic candidate for Covid-19 because of its ability to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vitro. Besides, in nonhuman primate studies, remdesivir initiated 12 hours after inoculation with MERS-CoV9,10 reduced lung virus levels and lung damage. In the field of Medical Science, concerning the definition of the topological index on the molecular structure and corresponding medical, biological, chemical, pharmaceutical properties of drugs can be studied by the topological index calculation. In this paper, we compute some of the general temperature topological properties of remdesivir that the results in this paper may be useful in finding new drug and vaccine for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 principally weakens the hosts' innate immune system by impairing the interferon function and production. Type I interferons (IFNs) especially IFN-β are best known for their antiviral activities. IFNs accompanied by the standard care protocols have opened up unique opportunities for treating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The databases including PubMed, SCOPUS, EMBASE, and Google Scholar were searched up to October 30, 2020. The primary and secondary outcomes were considered discharge and mortality, respectively. The abovementioned outcomes of standard care protocol were compared with the standard care plus IFN-β in the confirmed COVID-19 patients. Out of 356 records identified, 12 randomized clinical trial studies were selected for full-text screening. Finally, 5 papers were included in the systematic review and 3 papers in the meta-analysis. The average mortality rate was reported as 6.195% and 18.02% in intervention and control groups, respectively. Likewise, the median days of hospitalization were lower in the intervention group (9 days) than the control group (12.25 days). According to meta-analysis, IFN-β was found to increase the overall discharge rate (RR = 3.05; 95% CI: 1.09–5.01). Our findings revealed that early administration of IFN-β in combination with antiviral drugs is a promising therapeutic strategy against COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A new coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Since the times of the 1918 influenza pandemic, malnutrition has been known as a risk factor for severity and mortality from viral pneumonia. Similarly, the recently identified SARS-Cov2 infection (COVID-19) and related pneumonia may be closely linked to malnutrition. Therefore, this study will contribute to new knowledge and awareness of the recording and evaluation of each COVID-19 patient's nutritional status by assessing the effect of malnutrition on ICU admission and death of COVID-19 patients in developing countries. Method: We conducted a prospective cohort study in adult COVID-19 patients admitted to selected COVID-19 Isolation and Treatment Centers, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Baseline data of the patients were collected using interviewer-administered structured questionnaire and data on the adverse outcomes of follow up were extracted from follow up chart. The main clinical outcomes (ICU admission and death) were captured every week of follow up. We ran a multivariate Cox's regression analysis to determine the relationship between malnutrition at admission and its effect on ICU admission and death. Results: A total of 581 COVID-19 patients were enrolled. From the total of recruited patients, 346 (59.6%) were males and 235 (40.4%) were females. The mean age of the respondents was 55 years (16.45) years. The Cox proportional hazard model controlled for sex, age group, number of co-morbidities, and number of medications found that malnutrition at admission was associated with ICU admission and death. When compared to well-nourished patients, the rate of ICU admission was significantly associated and found to be higher among underweight [(adjusted hazard ratio (AHR) = 10.02, 95% CI: (8.64–12.10)] and overweight [(AHR = 7.7, 95% CI: (6.41–9.62)] patients. The rate of survival probability was significantly associated and was found to be better among well-nourished patients (AHR = 0.06, 95% CI : (0.01–0.44) when compared with malnourished COVID-19 patients. Conclusion: Malnutrition at the time of admission was shown to increase the risk of ICU admission and mortality among COVID-19 patients. Therefore, it is vital to evaluate patients' nutritional condition early in their admission and provide timely intervention to minimize the effects on patients and the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]