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Ashraful Hoque,1 Anindita Das Barshan,2 Forhad Uddin Hasan Chowdhury,2 Jannatul Fardous,3 Mohammad Jahid Hasan,3 Md Abdullah Saeed Khan,3 Ahmedul Kabir4 1Department of Blood Transfusion, Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 2Department of Medicine, Dhaka Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 3Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease Division, Pi Research Consultancy Center, Dhaka, Bangladesh; 4Department of Medicine, Mugda Medical College Hospital, Dhaka, BangladeshCorrespondence: Mohammad Jahid Hasan Email dr.jahid61@gmail.com; jahid@pircc.orgPurpose: The aim of the study was to assess the antibody response to the ChAdOx1-nCoV vaccine in individuals who were not previously infected by COVID-19.Patients and Methods: All people aged 18– 65 years who received their first vaccination with ChAdOx1-nCoV from March to May 2021 were approached for inclusion. Individuals with sufficient antibody titers against SARS-CoV-2 infection before vaccination were considered previously infected and were excluded from the analysis. We observed viral spike protein RBD-S1-specific IgG antibody levels at day 28 of the first dose of vaccination and day 14 of the second dose of vaccination (74 days from index vaccination). An optical density ratio (ODR) of > 1.1 was considered to have a positive antibody response, 0.8 to 1.1 borderline and < 0.8 was denoted as negative. Informed consent was ensured before enrollment, and ethical principles conformed with the current Declaration of Helsinki.Results: This observational study comprised 769 infection-naïve individuals (mean age 40.5 years, 38.9% female). Spike-specific IgG antibody responses elicited after the first and second doses of vaccine were 99.9% and 100%, respectively. The median ODR was 5.43 (interquartile range [IQR]: 4.32– 6.98) and 10.90 (IQR 9.02– 11.90) after the first and second doses. Higher age was associated with lower antibody levels after both dosages. However, no sex-specific variation was seen. People with comorbidity had a lower antibody level after the second dose. Tenderness (51.46%) and fever (19.30%) were the most common local and systemic side effects after vaccination.Conclusion: This study was one of the earlier attempts in the country to assess the antibody response to ChAdOx1-nCoV vaccine recipients. The results imply that general people should be encouraged to take the vaccine at their earliest.Keywords: ChAdOx1-nCoV, vaccine, COVID-19, Bangladesh, antibody response

Acute arboviral infections like dengue have a significant negative socioeconomic and health impact on many tropical and subtropical areas of the world. About 3.9 billion Individuals are at risk of contracting the dengue virus and Asia bears the brunt of that load. Bangladesh, like other south-east Asian countries faced a massive outbreak of dengue in 2019. This cross sectional study was done in three tertiary care centers in Dhaka, Bangladesh during this worst outbreak of dengue. The study was conducted from 1st July to 31st December, 2019 with an aim to describe the clinical and laboratory variations among severe dengue cases and to conduct a serotype survey. This might help to understand the future changes in the clinical or serological profile of the circulating dengue virus. The study enrolled 1978 participants who were grouped into group B (Patients with warning signs or risk factors who should be admitted for close observation as they approach critical phase) and C (Patients having severe plasma leakage leading to dengue shock and/or fluid accumulation with respiratory distress, severe organ impairment and severe metabolic abnormalities) according to national guidelines. Furthermore, 81 samples were serotyped using Qiagen One step RT-PCR kit (Cat. No: 210212). In addition sequencing (ABI sequencing platform) of partial C-prM gene of five DENV-3 isolates were done and analyzed (BLAST tool of NCBI) for phylogenetics (MEGA6 software package). Among the 1978 enrolled participants group B and C patients were 1580 (80%) and 398 (20%) respectively. The median (IQR) age of the patients were 26(11 to 41). Maximum proportion of the enrolled were male (72.3%) (p = 0.0002). Most common co- morbidities were hypertension (90; 4.5%) and DM (70; 3.5%). Group C patients more commonly presented with vomiting (p 0.133), diarrhea (p<0.0001) and abdominal pain (p 0.0203). The common mode of bleeding was melaena (12%). Thirteen (0.7%) patients succumbed to death, 12 of them belonged to group B who mostly presented with GI manifestations (99.9%) and melaena (12%). Only 5.6% of the cases were secondarily infected. In group C cases low hemoglobin and hematocrit was observed with high AST (p 0.004, 0.006 and 0.0016 respectively). Fluid requirement was also more in the same group (p<0.0001). Group B patients had a higher platelet requirement (p = 0.0070). Twelve patients (0.7%) required ICU. The management profile of these cases are showcased here which highlights minimal use of antibiotics and no application of steroids, which abides by the current national protocol. Furthermore, 81 samples from enrolled participants were serotyped and majority (79%) yielded DENV-3, followed by DENV 2 & 3 co-infection (13.6%) and DENV-2 alone (7.4%). Following phylogenetic analysis DENV-3 and DENV2 were deemed to be of genotype I and cosmopolitan variety respectively. This study presents the first instance of heterogeneous co-infection with several serotypes since 2000 in Bangladesh. It also gives an overview of serotype prevalence, management evaluation and clinical results that promises to navigate future control planning., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Chowdhury et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Objective: Obesity and type 2 diabetes (DM) are risk factors for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes, which disproportionately affect South Asian populations. This study aims to investigate the humoral and cellular immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 in adult COVID-19 survivors with overweight/obesity (Ov/Ob, BMI ≥ 23 kg/m2) and DM in Bangladesh., Methods: In this cross-sectional study, SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody and T-cell responses were investigated in 63 healthy and 75 PCR-confirmed COVID-19 recovered individuals in Bangladesh, during the pre-vaccination first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020., Results: In COVID-19 survivors, SARS-CoV-2 infection induced robust antibody and T-cell responses, which correlated with disease severity. After adjusting for age, sex, DM status, disease severity, and time since onset of symptoms, Ov/Ob was associated with decreased neutralizing antibody titers, and increased SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific IFN-γ response along with increased proliferation and IL-2 production by CD8 + T cells. In contrast, DM was not associated with SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody and T-cell responses after adjustment for obesity and other confounders., Conclusion: Ov/Ob is associated with lower neutralizing antibody levels and higher T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 post-COVID-19 recovery, while antibody or T-cell responses remain unaltered in DM., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Immunology.)

Background: Convalescent plasma has been widely used to treat COVID-19 and is under investigation in numerous randomized clinical trials, but results are publicly available only for a small number of trials. The objective of this study was to assess the benefits of convalescent plasma treatment compared to placebo or no treatment and all-cause mortality in patients with COVID-19, using data from all available randomized clinical trials, including unpublished and ongoing trials (Open Science Framework, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/GEHFX )., Methods: In this collaborative systematic review and meta-analysis, clinical trial registries (ClinicalTrials.gov, WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform), the Cochrane COVID-19 register, the LOVE database, and PubMed were searched until April 8, 2021. Investigators of trials registered by March 1, 2021, without published results were contacted via email. Eligible were ongoing, discontinued and completed randomized clinical trials that compared convalescent plasma with placebo or no treatment in COVID-19 patients, regardless of setting or treatment schedule. Aggregated mortality data were extracted from publications or provided by investigators of unpublished trials and combined using the Hartung-Knapp-Sidik-Jonkman random effects model. We investigated the contribution of unpublished trials to the overall evidence., Results: A total of 16,477 patients were included in 33 trials (20 unpublished with 3190 patients, 13 published with 13,287 patients). 32 trials enrolled only hospitalized patients (including 3 with only intensive care unit patients). Risk of bias was low for 29/33 trials. Of 8495 patients who received convalescent plasma, 1997 died (23%), and of 7982 control patients, 1952 died (24%). The combined risk ratio for all-cause mortality was 0.97 (95% confidence interval: 0.92; 1.02) with between-study heterogeneity not beyond chance (I 2  = 0%). The RECOVERY trial had 69.8% and the unpublished evidence 25.3% of the weight in the meta-analysis., Conclusions: Convalescent plasma treatment of patients with COVID-19 did not reduce all-cause mortality. These results provide strong evidence that convalescent plasma treatment for patients with COVID-19 should not be used outside of randomized trials. Evidence synthesis from collaborations among trial investigators can inform both evidence generation and evidence application in patient care., (© 2021. The Author(s).)

The clinical presentation of COVID-19 is varied: from asymptomatic to severe neurological syndrome like stroke can happen. Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) as a manifestation of COVID-19 is not very common. GBS is an acute immune-mediated polyradiculoneuropathy that usually occurs following previous exposure to infection. Here, we are reporting a case of GBS related to COVID-19 infection. The reported case presented with quadriparesis and was diagnosed with GBS after evaluation. At the same time, his RT-PCR for COVID-19 was also positive. Interestingly, this patient suffered from COVID-19 2 months before this presentation. He was successfully treated with intravenous immunoglobulin. The clinician should be aware of severe neurological complications such as GBS as a potentially life-threatening complication related to COVID-19., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this study., (Copyright © 2021 by S. Karger AG, Basel.)