title: Epidemiological research priorities for public health control of the ongoing global novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak

text: Infections with 2019-nCoV can spread from person to person, and in the earliest phase of the outbreak the basic reproductive number was estimated to be around 2 2, assuming a mean serial interval of 7 5 days [2] The serial interval was not precisely estimated, and a potentially shorter mean serial interval would have corresponded to a slightly lower basic reproductive number Control measures and changes in population behaviour later in January should have reduced the effective reproductive number However, it is too early to estimate whether the effective reproductive number has been reduced to below the critical threshold of 1 because cases currently being detected and reported would have mostly been infected in mid- to late-January Average delays between infection and illness onset have been estimated at around 5–6 days, with an upper limit of around 11-14 days [2,5], and delays from illness onset to laboratory confirmation added a further 10 days on average [2]


An invited commentary on "Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on surgical practice-part 1". Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on surgical practice: Time to embrace telehealth in surgery


An invited commentary on "Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on surgical practice-part 1". Impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on surgical practice: Time to embrace telehealth in surgery Metastatic melanoma treatment with checkpoint inhibitors in the COVID-19 era: experience from an Italian Skin Cancer Unit


Guest Editorial


Donning the powered air-purifying respirator in an emergency obstetric setting amid the COVID-19 outbreak in Singapore: a balance between safety and urgency


title: The impact of unplanned school closure on children's social contact: rapid evidence review

text: BackgroundEmergency school closures are often used as public health interventions during infectious disease outbreaks to minimise the spread of infection. However, if children continue mixing with others outside the home during closures, the effect of these measures may be limited.AimThis review aimed to summarise existing literature on children's activities and contacts made outside the home during unplanned school closures.MethodsIn February 2020, we searched four databases, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Embase and Web of Science, from inception to 5 February 2020 for papers published in English or Italian in peer-reviewed journals reporting on primary research exploring children's social activities during unplanned school closures. Main findings were extracted.ResultsA total of 3,343 citations were screened and 19 included in the review. Activities and social contacts appeared to decrease during closures, but contact remained common. All studies reported children leaving the home or being cared for by non-household members. There was some evidence that older child age (two studies) and parental disagreement (two studies) with closure were predictive of children leaving the home, and mixed evidence regarding the relationship between infection status and such. Parental agreement with closure was generally high, but some disagreed because of perceived low risk of infection and issues regarding childcare and financial impact.ConclusionEvidence suggests that many children continue to leave home and mix with others during school closures despite public health recommendations to avoid social contact. This review of behaviour during unplanned school closures could be used to improve infectious disease modelling.


title: A survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motility and functional investigations in Europe and considerations for recommencing activities in the early recovery phase

text: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic, declared by WHO on March 13, 2020, had a major global impact on the healthcare system and services. In the acute phase, the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the aerodigestive tract limited activities in the gastroenterology clinic and procedures to emergencies only. Motility and function testing was interrupted and as we enter the recovery phase, restarting these procedures requires a safety-focused approach with adequate infection prevention for patients and healthcare professionals. METHODS: We summarized knowledge on the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the aerodigestive tract and the risk of spread with motility and functional testing. We surveyed 39 European centers documenting how the pandemic affected activities and which measures they are considering for restarting these measurements. We propose recommendations based on current knowledge as applied in our center. RESULTS: Positioning of catheters for gastrointestinal motility tests carries a concern for aerosol-borne infection of healthcare workers. The risk is low with breath tests. The surveyed centers stopped almost all motility and function tests from the second half of March. The speed of restarting and the safety measures taken varied highly. CONCLUSIONS AND INFERENCES: Based on these findings, we provided recommendations and practical relevant information for motility and function test procedures in the COVID-19 pandemic era, to guarantee a high-quality patient care with adequate infection prevention.


Cardiovascular disease and the impact of COVID-19


Response to Letters to the Editor about the Safe Handling of Containers of Expressed Human Milk in all Settings During the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic


title: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and its implications for cardiovascular care: expert document from the German Cardiac Society and the World Heart Federation

text: Coronavirus diseases 2019 (COVID-19) has become a worldwide pandemic affecting people at high risk and particularly at advanced age, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease. As cardiovascular patients are at high risk but also have dyspnea and fatigue as leading symptoms, prevention, diagnostics and treatment in these patients are important to provide adequate care for those with or without COVID-19 but most importantly when comorbid cardiovascular conditions are present. Severe COVID-19 with acute respiratory distress (ARDS) is challenging as patients with elevated myocardial markers such as troponin are at enhanced high risk for fatal outcomes. As angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is regarded as the viral receptor for cell entry and as the Coronavirus is downregulating this enzyme, which provides cardiovascular and pulmonary protection, there is ongoing discussions on whether treatment with cardiovascular drugs, which upregulate the viral receptor ACE2 should be modified. As most of the COVID-19 patients have cardiovascular comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease and heart failure, which imposes a high risk on these patients, cardiovascular therapy should not be modified or even withdrawn. As cardiac injury is a common feature of COVID-19 associated ARDS and is linked with poor outcomes, swift diagnostic management and specialist care of cardiovascular patients in the area of COVID-19 is of particular importance and deserves special attention.


title: Blood donation and the global COVID-19 pandemic: areas for social science research

text: In the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic, blood collection agencies (BCAs) around the world are operating under unprecedented conditions. As social scientists in donor research in Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands, we provide some early observations on donor and public responses to the pandemic and identify areas for donor research moving forward. Given the significant variation among countries and BCAs, we cannot claim to present an exhaustive list that will apply to all countries and BCAs; however, we consider the following topic areas to be important based on our observations and knowledge of donation scholarship.


docid: ducrtloy

title: "COVIDphobia" influences early otolaryngology diagnoses


title: COVID-19 Related Misinformation on Social Media: A Qualitative Study from Iran

text: BACKGROUND: Background: During outbreaks of diseases a great amount of health threatening misinformation is produced and released. In the web-2 era much of this misinformation is disseminated via social media where information could spread easily and quickly. Monitoring social media content provides crucial insights for health managers to manage the crisis. OBJECTIVE: Objective: Given the misinformation surrounding COVID-19 outbreak, this study was aimed to analyze contents of the most commonly used social networks in Iran that is among the affected countries. METHODS: Methods: A social media monitoring conducted through a qualitative design to analyze the discussions of social media users about the content related to COVID-19 transferred via Iranian medical faculty members` groups in Telegram and Whats App during Feb 20 to March 20, 2020 emphasizing the misinformation. Discourse analysis was applied and the written dialogues and discussions regarding misinformation about different aspects of the outbreak between medical faculty members all over the country were analyzed. RESULTS: Results: Cultural factors, demand pressure for information during the crisis, the easiness of information dissemination via social networks, marketing incentives and the poor legal supervision of online contents are the main reasons of misinformation dissemination. Disease statistics; treatments, vaccines and medicines; prevention and protection methods; dietary recommendations and disease transmission ways are the main subjective categories of releasing misinformation regarding novel coronavirus outbreak. Consequences of misinformation dissemination regarding disease include psychosocial; economic; health status; health system and ethical ones. Active and effective presence of health professionals and authorities on social media during the crisis and the improvement of public health literacy in the long term are the most recommended strategies for dealing with issues related to misinformation. CONCLUSIONS: Conclusion: This study contributes the management of COVID-19 outbreak trough providing applicable insights for health managers to manage public information in this challenging time.


Recommandations de la Société française de chirurgie oncologique (SFCO) pour l'organisation de la chirurgie oncologique durant l'épidémie de COVID-19./ [French Society for Surgical Oncology (SFCO) guidelines for the management of surgical oncology in the pandemic context of COVID 19]


title: Infectious bronchitis virus inhibits activation of the TLR7 pathway, but not the TLR3 pathway

text: Various strains of infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) cause different forms of infectious bronchitis with different clinical signs. Here, primary chicken embryo kidney (CEK) cells and specific-pathogen-free (SPF) chickens were infected with three pathogenic IBV strains, and it was observed that the TLR7-MYD88 pathway was inhibited but the TLR3-TIRF pathway was activated. After treatment with poly(I:C)-LMW, poly (I:C)-LMW/LyoVec, and Imiquimod, the replication of IBV was significantly suppressed after 24 h. However, treatment with TLR3 pathway inhibitors such as Pepinh-TRIF, celastrol, chloroquine, and BX795 resulted in increased replication of IBV after 36 h. These results also showed that chloroquine and celastrol were most effective inhibitors of the antiviral response at 48 hpi.


title: Coinfection with SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory pathogens in COVID-19 patients in Guangzhou, China

text: The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; previously provisionally named 2019 novel coronavirus or 2019-nCoV) disease (COVID-19) in China at the end of 2019 has caused a global pandemic and remains as a major public health issue This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


docid: fvadxest

title: Metagenomic Nanopore sequencing of influenza virus direct from clinical respiratory samples

text: Influenza is a major global public health threat as a result of its highly pathogenic variants, large zoonotic reservoir, and pandemic potential Metagenomic viral sequencing offers the potential for a diagnostic test for influenza virus which also provides insights on transmission, evolution, and drug resistance and simultaneously detects other viruses We therefore set out to apply the Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing method to metagenomic sequencing of respiratory samples We generated influenza virus reads down to a limit of detection of 102 to 103 genome copies/ml in pooled samples, observing a strong relationship between the viral titer and the proportion of influenza virus reads (P=4 7×10-5) Applying our methods to clinical throat swabs, we generated influenza virus reads for 27/27 samples with mid-to-high viral titers (cycle threshold [CT] values, <30) and 6/13 samples with low viral titers (CT values, 30 to 40) No false-positive reads were generated from 10 influenza virus-negative samples Thus, Nanopore sequencing operated with 83% sensitivity (95% confidence interval [CI], 67 to 93%) and 100% specificity (95% CI, 69 to 100%) compared to the current diagnostic standard Coverage of full-length virus was dependent on sample composition, being negatively influenced by increased host and bacterial reads However, at high influenza virus titers, we were able to reconstruct >99% complete sequences for all eight gene segments We also detected a human coronavirus coinfection in one clinical sample While further optimization is required to improve sensitivity, this approach shows promise for the Nanopore platform to be used in the diagnosis and genetic analysis of influenza virus and other respiratory viruses


docid: gyrnnrox

title: In the fight against the new coronavirus outbreak, we must also struggle with human bias


docid: eztyjsiw

title: Navigating the Dynamics of Financial Embeddings over Time

text: Financial transactions constitute connections between entities and through these connections a large scale heterogeneous weighted graph is formulated. In this labyrinth of interactions that are continuously updated, there exists a variety of similarity-based patterns that can provide insights into the dynamics of the financial system. With the current work, we propose the application of Graph Representation Learning in a scalable dynamic setting as a means of capturing these patterns in a meaningful and robust way. We proceed to perform a rigorous qualitative analysis of the latent trajectories to extract real world insights from the proposed representations and their evolution over time that is to our knowledge the first of its kind in the financial sector. Shifts in the latent space are associated with known economic events and in particular the impact of the recent Covid-19 pandemic to consumer patterns. Capturing such patterns indicates the value added to financial modeling through the incorporation of latent graph representations.


Drug misuse rose 30% in past decade and covid-19 could worsen situation, UN report warns


title: Renin-angiotensin system and SARS-CoV-2 interaction: underlying mechanisms and potential clinical implications

text: Renin-angiotensin system (RAS) inhibition supposedly increases the expression of angiotensin converting enzyme 2, serving as a binding site for SARS-CoV-2. Concerns arose regarding therapy with RAS inhibition during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pharmacological restraining the classical RAS axis might be beneficial due to the reduction of deleterious effects of angiotensin II and enhancement of the anti-inflammatory angiotensin 1-7 pathway. Unless large controlled studies are performed, RAS inhibition remains the cornerstone therapy in populations with cardiovascular disorders.


Stroke in COVID-19 patients-A case series from Italy


title: Considerations for head and neck oncology practices during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: Wuhan and Toronto experience

text: The practices of head and neck surgical oncologists must evolve to meet the unprecedented needs placed on our health care system by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Guidelines are emerging to help guide the provision of head and neck cancer care, though in practice, it can be challenging to operationalize such recommendations. Head and neck surgeons at Wuhan University faced significant challenges in providing care for their patients. Similar challenges were faced by the University of Toronto during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) pandemic in 2003. Herein, we outline our combined experience and key practical considerations for maintaining an oncology service in the midst of a pandemic.


title: Then Tell Me What You Think About Morality: A Freedom of Expression Perspective on the CJEU's Decision in FACK JU GÖHTE (C-240/18 P)

text: This case note on the CJEU's decision in Fack Ju Göhte focuses on morality bars and freedom of expression in EU trade mark law. Based on the presumption that a refusal to register a trade mark for being contrary to accepted principles of morality interferes with freedom of expression, an empirical concept of morality appears incompatible with freedom of expression. However, the test for morality developed by the CJEU seems to employ such an empirical concept at least partially. In addition, the test seems to lack legal certainty. In light of freedom of expression, both represent a potential shortcoming of the decision.


title: Approaching Otolaryngology Patients During the COVID-19 Pandemic

text: Objective. To describe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patient presentations requiring otolaryngology consultation and provide recommendations for protective measures based on the experience of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) departments in 4 Chinese hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study Design. Retrospective case series. Setting. Multicenter. Subjects and Methods. Twenty hospitalized COVID-19 patients requiring ENT consultation from 3 designated COVID-19 hospitals in Wuhan, Shanghai, and Shenzhen were identified. Data on demographics, comorbidities, COVID-19 symptoms and severity, consult reason, treatment, and personal protective equipment (PPE) use were collected and analyzed. Infection control strategies implemented for ENT outpatients and emergency room visits at the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University were reported. Results. Median age was 63 years, 55% were male, and 95% were in severe or critical condition. Six tracheotomies were performed. Posttracheotomy outcomes were mixed (2 deaths, 2 patients comatose, all living patients still hospitalized). Other consults included epistaxis, pharyngitis, nasal congestion, hyposmia, rhinitis, otitis externa, dizziness, and tinnitus. At all hospitals, powered air-supply filter respirators (PAPRs) were used for tracheotomy or bleeding control. PAPR or N95-equivalent masks plus full protective clothing were used for other complaints. No inpatient ENT providers were infected. After implementation of infection control strategies for outpatient clinics, emergency visits, and surgeries, no providers were infected at the Eye and ENT Hospital of Fudan University. Conclusions and Relevance. COVID-19 patients require ENT consultation for many reasons, including tracheotomy. Otolaryngologists play an indispensable role in the treatment of COVID-19 patients but, due to their work, are at high risk of exposure. Appropriate protective strategies can prevent infection of otolaryngologists.


Surviving the trauma of COVID-19


title: From plague to coronavirus: vessel trajectory data from ship automatic identification systems for epidemic modeling1

text: In addition to moving people and goods, ships can spread disease. Vessel trajectory data from ship Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) is available online and can be extracted and analyzed, as we illustrate in the case of the current coronavirus epidemic. This data should be included in epidemiological models of disease transmission to complement air traffic data and inform operational responses.


Coronaviruses in animals and humans


Failing Another National Stress Test on Health Disparities


title: The history and value of face masks

text: In the human population, social contacts are a key for transmission of bacteria and viruses. The use of face masks seems to be critical to prevent the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 for the period, in which therapeutic interventions are lacking. In this review, we describe the history of masks from the middle age to modern times.


Structural Biology Aids the Research of New Anti-COVID-19 Drugs


title: Impact of industrial activities on atmospheric volatile organic compounds in Sihwa-Banwol, the largest industrial area in South Korea

text: The impact of industrial activities on atmospheric volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the Sihwa-Banwol complexes, i.e., the largest industrial area in Korea, was investigated. More than 60 VOCs were determined from 850 samples collected from four sites in and around the complexes through a 2-year monitoring campaign from 2005 to 2007. The VOCs of particular concern found in the area were benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, xylenes, trichloroethylene, and formaldehyde, given their toxicity, concentration, and detection frequency. Toluene was the most abundant one. The VOC concentration rankings were consistent with their emission rankings. Most VOCs had higher concentrations at the industrial sites than at residential sites, indicating a significant impact of industrial emissions. The ambient levels of benzene and formaldehyde were additionally affected by vehicular emissions and secondary formation, respectively. Overall, the VOC levels increased in winter and at night, because of the local weather conditions. In contrast, the formaldehyde concentration increased in summer, owing to its secondary formation in the atmosphere. The ambient VOC levels in Sihwa-Banwol were higher than those in other parts of Korea. Additionally, the cumulative cancer risks posed by the toxic VOCs exceeded a tolerable risk level of 1 × 10-4 in not only the industrial areas but also the residential areas. The sum of the non-cancer risks in both areas significantly exceeded the threshold criterion of 1. The large amounts of aromatic compounds emitted from the industrial complexes are believed to play a crucial role in the elevated levels of surface ozone in the Seoul metropolitan area during the summer season. Therefore, comprehensive measures for controlling the VOC emissions in the Sihwa-Banwol area need to be prioritized to reduce the health risks for residents of not only this area but also the capital Seoul and its surrounding areas.


Multidisciplinary guidance to manage comatose patients with severe COVID-19


title: First expert elicitation of knowledge on drivers of emergence of the COVID-19 in pets

text: Infection with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induces the coronavirus infectious disease 19 (COVID-19). Its pandemic form in human population and its probable animal origin, along with recent case reports in pets, make drivers of emergence crucial in domestic carnivore pets, especially cats, dogs and ferrets. Few data are available in these species; we first listed forty-six possible drivers of emergence of COVID-19 in pets, regrouped in eight domains (i.e. pathogen/disease characteristics, spatial-temporal distance of outbreaks, ability to monitor, disease treatment and control, characteristics of pets, changes in climate conditions, wildlife interface, human activity, and economic and trade activities). Secondly, we developed a scoring system per driver, then elicited scientific experts (N = 33) to: (i) allocate a score to each driver, (ii) weight the drivers scores within each domain and (iii) weight the different domains between them. Thirdly, an overall weighted score per driver was calculated; drivers were ranked in decreasing order. Fourthly, a regression tree analysis was used to group drivers with comparable likelihood to play a role in the emergence of COVID-19 in pets. Finally, the robustness of the expert elicitation was verified. Five drivers were ranked with the highest probability to play a key role in the emergence of COVID-19 in pets: availability and quality of diagnostic tools, human density close to pets, ability of preventive/control measures to avoid the disease introduction or spread in a country (except treatment, vaccination and reservoir(s) control), current species specificity of the disease causing agent and current knowledge on the pathogen. As scientific knowledge on the topic is scarce and still uncertain, expert elicitation of knowledge, in addition with clustering and sensitivity analyses, is of prime importance to prioritize future studies, starting from the top five drivers. The present methodology is applicable to other emerging pet diseases.


New therapeutic opportunities for COVID-19 patients with Tocilizumab: Possible correlation of interleukin-6 receptor inhibitors with osteonecrosis of the jaws


docid: yieqptpb

title: Personal protective equipment and possible routes of airborne spread during the COVID-19 pandemic


title: Clinical Utility of Buccal Swabs for Sars-Cov-2 Detection in Covid-19-Infected Children

text: SARS-CoV-2 was detected from at least 1 buccal specimen in 9 out of 11 COVID-19-infected children (81.8%). The viral loads in buccal specimens were substantially lower than those in nasopharyngeal specimens. Buccal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 are not good as screening specimens for COVID-19 in children.


title: Increased plasma level of apelin with NYHA grade II and III but not IV

text: The change in plasma apelin level in heart failure (HF) patients is controversial. We investigated the change in plasma apelin level in HF patients versus control and non-HF patients. The plasma level of apelin was measured by ELISA and plasma level of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) by fluorescence immunoassay. We included 101 patients with HF, 32 patients without HF and 20 controls. The three groups did not differ in general and clinical characteristics. Plasma levels of apelin and BNP were both higher in HF patients than non-HF patients and controls. Plasma levels of apelin and BNP were not correlated. Plasma level of BNP was increased with increasing New York Heart Association grade and apelin level was decreased. Apelin level was lower in HF patients with NYHA grade IV than in controls and non-HF patients. Apelin level had 75% diagnostic value for HF, and BNP level had 96.8% diagnostic value. At a cutoff of 6.44 ng/mL apelin level, sensitivity was 69.3%, and specificity 97.1%. However, the diagnostic of apelin for NYHA II patients was higher than that of BNP (99.6% vs. 96.1%). These results suggested that apelin might be particularly useful in association with BNP in mild HF patients.


docid: lwipyymp

title: Dataset on dynamics of Coronavirus on Twitter

text: In this data article, we provide a dataset of 8,982,694 Twitter posts around the coronavirus health global crisis. The data were collected through the Twitter REST API search. We used the rtweet R package to download raw data. The term searched was "Coronavirus" which included the word itself and its hashtag version. We collected the data over 23 days, from January 21 to February 12, 2020. The dataset is multilingual, prevailing English, Spanish, and Portuguese. We include a new variable created from other four variables; it is called "type" of tweets, which is useful for showing the diversity of tweets and the dynamics of users on Twitter. The dataset comprises seven databases which can be analysed separately. On the other hand, they can be crossed to set other researches, among them, trends and relevance of different topics, types of tweets, the embeddedness of users and their profiles, the retweets dynamics, hashtag analysis, as well as to perform social network analysis. This dataset can attract the attention of researchers related to different fields on knowledge, such as data science, social science, network science, health informatics, tourism, infodemiology, and others.


Venous cerebral thrombosis in COVID-19 patient


docid: xaxtbmzd

title: End-of-life care in the emergency department for the patient imminently dying of a highly transmissible acute respiratory infection (such as COVID-19)


Increased CD4/CD8 ratio as a risk factor for critical illness in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): a retrospective multicentre study


How we deal with the COVID-19 epidemic in an Italian paediatric onco-haematology clinic located in a region with a high density of cases


title: Addendum: Primary care management of the coronavirus (COVID-19)

text: No abstract available.


Management of inflammatory bowel disease during COVID-19 pandemic


title: Modeling the impact of mass influenza vaccination and public health interventions on COVID-19 epidemics with limited detection capability

text: The emerging coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has caused a COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 causes a generally mild, but sometimes severe and even life-threatening infection, known as COVID-19. Currently, there exist no effective vaccines or drugs and, as such, global public authorities have so far relied upon non pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Since COVID-19 symptoms are aspecific and may resemble a common cold, if it should come back with a seasonal pattern and coincide with the influenza season, this would be particularly challenging, overwhelming and straining the healthcare systems, particularly in resource-limited contexts, and would increase the likelihood of nosocomial transmission. In the present study, we devised a mathematical model focusing on the treatment of people complaining of influenza-like-illness (ILI) symptoms, potentially at risk of contracting COVID-19 or other emerging/re-emerging respiratory infectious agents during their admission at the health-care setting, who will occupy the detection kits causing a severe shortage of testing resources. The model is used to assess the effect of mass influenza vaccination on the spread of COVID-19 and other respiratory pathogens in the case of a coincidence of the outbreak with the influenza season. Here, we show that increasing influenza vaccine uptake or enhancing the public health interventions would facilitate the management of respiratory outbreaks coinciding with the peak flu season, especially, compensate the shortage of the detection resources. However, how to increase influenza vaccination coverage rate remains challenging. Public health decision- and policy-makers should adopt evidence-informed strategies to improve influenza vaccine uptake.


title: Novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and neurodegenerative disorders

text: During the last few months, the whole humanity is experiencing largest and most severe sudden influx of COVID-19 outbreak caused by the novel coronavirus (CoV) originated from Wuhan, China. According to the WHO reports, total 3 862 676 positive cases and 265 961 deaths have been recorded worldwide due to COVID-19 infection as of May 9, 2020. CoVs are a large family of viruses (enveloped, single-stranded RNA viruses), which includes severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV). New SARS CoV2 is the members of Betacoronavirus genus. These viruses cause infections in bats, camels and humans, and a few other associated species. Despite many neurologic complications associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is still unclear whether these symptoms results from direct neural injury or due to some other reason. Currently, it appears that most of the neurological symptoms of COVID-19 are nonspecific and secondary to the systemic illness. A single case of acute hemorrhagic necrotizing encephalopathy has been reported. SARS-CoV-2 associated Guillain-Barré syndrome is an atypical case. Till today, no convincing evidence is available to confirm that the SARS-CoV-2 virus directly affects nerves system in humans. However, postinfection surveillance will be necessary to identify the possible post-COVID-19 neurologic syndromes.


title: Air Pollution and Covid-19: The Role of Particulate Matter in the Spread and Increase of Covid-19's Morbidity and Mortality

text: Sars-cov-2 virus (Covid-19) is a member of the coronavirus family and is responsible for the pandemic recently declared by the World Health Organization. A positive correlation has been observed between the spread of the virus and air pollution, one of the greatest challenges of our millennium. Covid-19 could have an air transmission and atmospheric particulate matter (PM) could create a suitable environment for transporting the virus at greater distances than those considered for close contact. Moreover, PM induces inflammation in lung cells and exposure to PM could increase the susceptibility and severity of the Covid-19 patient symptoms. The new coronavirus has been shown to trigger an inflammatory storm that would be sustained in the case of pre-exposure to polluting agents. In this review, we highlight the potential role of PM in the spread of Covid-19, focusing on Italian cities whose PM daily concentrations were found to be higher than the annual average allowed during the months preceding the epidemic. Furthermore, we analyze the positive correlation between the virus spread, PM, and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), a receptor involved in the entry of the virus into pulmonary cells and inflammation.


Analysis of Characteristics in Death Patients with COVID-19 Pneumonia without Underlying Diseases


Adaptive neurology in COVID-19 times


Design and Impact of a COVID-19 Multidisciplinary Bundled Procedure Team


title: SARS-CoV-2 and HIV coinfection: clinical experience from Rhode Island, United States

text: INTRODUCTION: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has infected >6 million people worldwide since December 2019. Global reports of HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection are limited. To better understand the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on persons with HIV and improve their care, we present an outpatient and inpatient clinical experience of HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection from Rhode Island, US. METHODS: We describe outpatient and inpatient preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic, and present a case series of all known patients with HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection at The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital, and The Miriam Hospital Infectious Diseases and Immunology Center, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The Infectious Diseases and Immunology Center rapidly prepared for outpatient and inpatient care of persons with HIV and SARS-CoV-2. Between 30 March and 20 May 2020, 27 patients with HIV were diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2. Twenty were male, six female and one transgender female; average age was 49 years; 13/27 were Hispanic and 6/27 were African American. All had HIV viral load <200 copies/mL and were on antiretroviral therapy with CD4 count range 87 to 1441 cells/µL. Twenty-six of the 27 had common COVID-19 symptoms for one to twenty-eight days and most had other co-morbidities and/or risk factors. Nine of the 27 were hospitalized for one to thirteen days; of those, three lived in a nursing home, six received remdesivir through a clinical trial or emergency use authorization and tolerated it well; eight recovered and one died. Overall, 17% of known Center people had HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection, whereas the comparable state-wide prevalence was 9%. CONCLUSIONS: We highlight challenges of outpatient and inpatient HIV care in the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic and present the largest detailed case series to date from the United States on HIV/SARS-CoV-2 coinfection, adding to limited global reports. The aggregated clinical findings suggest that the clinical presentation and outcomes of COVID-19 appear consistent with those without HIV. Whether SARS-CoV-2 infection is more frequent among persons with HIV remains to be determined. More data are needed as we develop our understanding of how HIV and antiretroviral therapy are affected by or have an impact on this pandemic.


title: SEI1I2HRSVM model applied to the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) in Paraguay

text: In the present article a mathematical model is proposed to research the current coronavirus outbreak (SARS-CoV-2) in Paraguay, describing the multiple transmission paths in the infection dynamics, following the susceptible, exposed, infectious, hospitalized, with lost immunity and recovered individuals, as well as the role of the virus in the environment and deaths from COVID-19 or other reasons. In order to reflect the impact of the control measures adopted by the government and the population, the model employs variable transmission rates that change with the epidemiological status and environmental conditions. The model is validated, and its application is demonstrated with data publicly available.


title: Robust Recursive Partitioning for Heterogeneous Treatment Effects with Uncertainty Quantification

text: Subgroup analysis of treatment effects plays an important role in applications from medicine to public policy to recommender systems. It allows physicians (for example) to identify groups of patients for whom a given drug or treatment is likely to be effective and groups of patients for which it is not. Most of the current methods of subgroup analysis begin with a particular algorithm for estimating individualized treatment effects (ITE) and identify subgroups by maximizing the difference across subgroups of the average treatment effect in each subgroup. These approaches have several weaknesses: they rely on a particular algorithm for estimating ITE, they ignore (in)homogeneity within identified subgroups, and they do not produce good confidence estimates. This paper develops a new method for subgroup analysis, R2P, that addresses all these weaknesses. R2P uses an arbitrary, exogenously prescribed algorithm for estimating ITE and quantifies the uncertainty of the ITE estimation, using a construction that is more robust than other methods. Experiments using synthetic and semi-synthetic datasets (based on real data) demonstrate that R2P constructs partitions that are simultaneously more homogeneous within groups and more heterogeneous across groups than the partitions produced by other methods. Moreover, because R2P can employ any ITE estimator, it also produces much narrower confidence intervals with a prescribed coverage guarantee than other methods.


Emlékezés Robicsek Ferenc professzorra


Preparing ophthalmologists for the use of mechanical ventilation during the COVID-19 pandemic


COVID-19 Global Pandemic: Options for Management of Gynecologic Cancers


COVID-19 in the endoscopy ward: A potential risk for gastroenterologists


Protocols, Personal Protective Equipment Utilization and Psychological/Financial Stressors within Endoscopy Units in Mid-Pandemic: A Large Survey of Hospital-based and Ambulatory Endoscopy Centers in the U.S


title: Symptomatic Protective Action of Glycyrrhizin (Licorice) in COVID-19 Infection?

text: The role of the ACE2 enzyme in the COVID-19 infection is 2-fold, with opposing implications for the disease development. 1. The membrane bound angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) serves as the entry point of COVID-19 2. Conversely, it supports an anti-inflammatory pathway. This led to the controversy of the impact of medications, which influence its expression. ACE2 is part of the wider renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and is upregulated via compounds, which inhibits the classical ACE, thereby plasma aldosterone and aldosterone receptor (MR) activation. MR activation may therefore protect organs from binding the COVID-19 by reducing ACE2 expression. Glycyrrhizin (GL) is a frequent component in traditional Chinese medicines, which have been used to control COVID-19 infections. Its systemically active metabolite glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) inhibits 11beta hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase(11betaHSD2) and activates MR in organs, which express this enzyme, including the lungs. Does this affect the protective effect of ACE2? Importantly, GL has anti-inflammatory properties by itself via toll like receptor 4 (TLR4) antagonism and therefore compensates for the reduced protection of the downregulated ACE2. Finally, a direct effect of GL or GA to reduce virus transmission exists, which may involve reduced expression of type 2 transmembrane serine protease (TMPRSS2), which is required for virus uptake. Glycyrrhizin may reduce the severity of an infection with COVID-19 at the two stages of the COVID-19 induced disease process, 1. To block the number of entry points and 2. provide an ACE2 independent anti-inflammatory mechanism.


Emergency tracheal intubation in patients with COVID-19: is it any different? Comment on Br J Anaesth 2020; 125: e28-e37


title: The socio-economic determinants of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic

text: The magnitude of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has an enormous impact on the social life and the economic activities in almost every country in the world. Besides the biological and epidemiological factors, a multitude of social and economic criteria also govern the extent of the coronavirus disease spread in the population. Consequently, there is an active debate regarding the critical socio-economic determinants that contribute to the resulting pandemic. In this paper, we contribute towards the resolution of the debate by leveraging Bayesian model averaging techniques and country level data to investigate the potential of 29 determinants, describing a diverse set of socio-economic characteristics, in explaining the coronavirus pandemic outcome. We show that the true empirical model behind the coronavirus outcome is constituted only of few determinants, but the extent to which each determinant is able to provide a credible explanation varies between countries due to their heterogeneous socio-economic characteristics. To understand the relationship between the potential determinants in the specification of the true model, we develop the coronavirus determinants Jointness space. In this space, two determinants are connected with each other if they are able to jointly explain the coronavirus outcome. As constructed, the obtained map acts as a bridge between theoretical investigations and empirical observations, and offers an alternate view for the joint importance of the socio-economic determinants when used for developing policies aimed at preventing future epidemic crises.


Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations are taking a leading role in COVID-19 health communication


Clarifying the role of lung ultrasonography in COVID-19 respiratory disease


title: Diagnostic performance of COVID-19 serology assays

text: INTRODUCTION: The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 outbreak as a world pandemic on 12th March 2020. Diagnosis of suspected cases is confirmed by nucleic acid assays with real-time PCR, using respiratory samples. Serology tests are comparatively easier to perform, but their utility may be limited by the performance and the fact that antibodies appear later during the disease course. We aimed to describe the performance data on serological assays for COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A review of multiple reports and kit inserts on the diagnostic performance of rapid tests from various manufacturers that are commercially available were performed. Only preliminary data are available currently. RESULTS: From a total of nine rapid detection test (RDT) kits, three kits offer total antibody detection, while six kits offer combination SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG detection in two separate test lines. All kits are based on colloidal gold-labeled immunochromatography principle and one-step method with results obtained within 15 minutes, using whole blood, serum or plasma samples. The sensitivity for both IgM and IgG tests ranges between 72.7% and 100%, while specificity ranges between 98.7% to 100%. Two immunochromatography using nasopharyngeal or throat swab for detection of COVID-19 specific antigen are also reviewed. CONCLUSIONS: There is much to determine regarding the value of serological testing in COVID-19 diagnosis and monitoring. More comprehensive evaluations of their performance are rapidly underway. The use of serology methods requires appropriate interpretations of the results and understanding the strengths and limitations of such tests.


The challenge of mental health during Covid-19 outbreak: experience from metropolitan area of Milan


title: Information Overload: A Method to Share Updates among Frontline Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic

text: Since COVID-19 was classified as a pandemic, the stream of important information from multiple sources is constant and always changing. As the pandemic evolves, the need to report relevant information to frontline providers remains crucial. A 1-page centralized document termed a "quicksheet" was developed to include guidelines, policies, and practical information and to serve as a reference tool for our clinicians. It was updated and distributed frequently, up to once daily. It was initially embraced as an important resource for resident physicians and then quickly adopted by the entire department as a necessary reference and communication tool during the ongoing crisis. The quicksheet has been a beneficial tool to distill and organize the most important and relevant information for frontline staff, and we hope that it can serve as a template for departments and health care workers in other hospital systems to adopt.


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title: Los efectos psicológicos de la COVID-19./ Los efectos psicológicos de la COVID-19./ Psychological effects of COVID-19


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title: Modeling Epidemic Spreading through Public Transit using Time-Varying Encounter Network

text: Passenger contact in public transit (PT) networks can be a key mediate in the spreading of infectious diseases. This paper proposes a time-varying weighted PT encounter network to model the spreading of infectious diseases through the PT systems. Social activity contacts at both local and global levels are also considered. We select the epidemiological characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as a case study along with smart card data from Singapore to illustrate the model at the metropolitan level. A scalable and lightweight theoretical framework is derived to capture the time-varying and heterogeneous network structures, which enables to solve the problem at the whole population level with low computational costs. Different control policies from both the public health side and the transportation side are evaluated. We find that people's preventative behavior is one of the most effective measures to control the spreading of epidemics. From the transportation side, partial closure of bus routes helps to slow down but cannot fully contain the spreading of epidemics. Identifying"influential passengers"using the smart card data and isolating them at an early stage can also effectively reduce the epidemic spreading.


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title: Expert consensus on elderly patients with hip fracture under epidemic of novel coronavirus pneumonia/ 中华创伤杂志

text: With the spread of novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) in December 2019, the management and rehabilitation of elderly patients with hip fractures and protection of medical staff face new challenges, and need to be adjusted appropriately under this very circumstances. Hip fractures in the elderly account for more than half of osteoporotic fractures. Expert group formulate this consensus so as to make better decision against this epidemic and protect patients' families and medical staff. This consensus elaborates not only epidemic condition of NCP, but also general principles of medical admission, treatment and protection for both medical staff and patients, in order to provide some reference and promote the standardization of clinical diagnosis and treatment of elderly patients with hip fractures under the condition of NCP.


title: Preparedness and Lessons Learned from the Novel Coronavirus Disease

text: In a short span, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has captured global consciousness by significantly affecting the day-to-day life of humans and emerged as a public health emergency. Undoubtedly, it indicates that lessons learnt from the past epidemics of coronaviruses such as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), had not enough and thus left us ill-prepared to deal with the challenges that COVID-19 pandemic is currently posing. Currently, as a global pandemic, COVID-19 poses major challenges and thus forcing the entire world to lockdown. However, the disease has prepared humankind in facing such outbreaks at present as well as in the future. Besides, it has also taught numerous lessons that are worth considering and implementing to make the world a better reality.


title: Pay Transparency and Cracks in the Glass Ceiling

text: Each year since 2018, more than 10,000 UK firms have been required to publicly disclose their gender pay gap and gender composition. This paper studies how this transparency policy affects the occupational outcomes and wages of male and female workers. Theoretically, pay transparency represents an information shock that alters the bargaining power of male and female employees vis-\`a-vis the firm in an asymmetric way. As women are currently underpaid, this shock may improve women's relative outcomes. We test these theoretical predictions using a difference-in-difference strategy that exploits the variation in the UK mandate across firm size and time. Our results show that pay transparency increases the probability that women are hired in above-median-wage occupations by 5 percent compared to the pre-policy mean. Additionally, it leads to a 2.8 percent decrease in male real hourly pay in treated firms compared to control ones. Combining the difference-in-difference strategy with a text analysis of job listings, we also find suggestive evidence that treated firms in industries with a high gender pay gap become more likely to post wage information than firms in the control group.


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title: Application of refined management in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic in non-isolated areas of a general hospital

text: Objective: This article summarizes the experience in the prevention and control of coronavirus disease 2019(COVID-19) epidemic in non-isolated areas in a general hospital. Methods: Based on refined management theory, we professionally developed the standards for prevention and control of COVID-19 in non-isolated areas, systematically implemented various prevention and control measures, performed gridding audit, effectively communicated among teams and between doctors and patients assisted by information techniques, and reported results for quality improvement. Results: There was no hospital acquired COVID-19 infections among staff in the hospital. The rates of mask wearing, epidemiological history screening and the medical supplies disinfection were all 100% in the hospital. The accuracy rate of mask wearing of patients and their families was 73.79% and the compliance of their hand hygiene was 40.78%. Conclusion: Refined management strategies for the prevention and control of COVID-19 infection in non-isolated areas of the general hospital are effective. The accuracy rate of mask wearing and hand hygiene compliance of patients and their families need to be further improved.


Medical Students Improving Health Care Beyond Clinical Rotations During the COVID-19 Outbreak


Donald Trump: a political determinant of covid-19


title: SARS-CoV-2-A Tough Opponent for the Immune System

text: Coronaviruses recently returned with a new one, SARS-CoV-2, related to a potentially severe respiratory disease-called the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Research shows that the SARS-CoV-2 can be clustered with the Bat SARS-like coronavirus. Bats possess an additional, innate ability for antiviral defense, and, on the other hand, the potential to go hand-in-hand with the virus to generate variability. Besides the high potential of the novel coronavirus in compromising the respiratory system, its rapid transmission and ability to engage many hosts in severe forms of infections or immunopathological complications make it a tough opponent for the immune system. The interactions between SARS-CoV2 and the host immune system result in unleashing tremendous amounts of cytokines, and these cytokines make a storm that would determine the outcome (recovery or death) of the lungs of the patient.


Medical education adaptations during a pandemic: Transitioning to virtual student support


Viral dynamics in mild and severe cases of COVID-19


§refers to: Camdessanche JP, Morel J,Pozzetto B, Paul S. COVID-19 may induce Guillain-Barré syndrome.COVID-19 and Guillain-Barré syndrome : response§


title: COVID-19 gone bad: A new character in the spectrum of the hyperferritinemic syndrome?

text: The severe form of COVID-19 share several clinical and laboratory features with four entities gathered under the term "hyperferritinemic syndromes" and including macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), adult-onset Still's disease (AOSD), catastrophic anti-phospholipid syndrome (CAPS) and septic shock. COVID-19 systemic inflammatory reaction and "hyperferritinemic syndromes" are all characterized by high serum ferritin and a life-threatening hyper-inflammation sustained by a cytokines storm which eventually leads to multi-organ failure. In this review, we analyze the possible epidemiological and molecular mechanisms responsible for hyper-inflammation in patients with severe COVID-19 and we underline the similarities between this condition and "hyperferritinemic syndromes" which would allow considering severe COVID-19 as a fifth member of this spectrum of inflammatory conditions.


title: Clinical analysis of 23 cases of 2019 novel coronavirus infection in Xinyang City, Henan Province/ 中华危重病急救医学

text: Objective@#To analyze the epidemiological characteristics and clinical features of the patients with 2019-nCoV infection, so as to provide basis for clinical diagnosis.@*Methods@#The epidemiology, clinical symptoms, laboratory and radiologic data of 23 patients with 2019-nCoV infection admitted to the Fifth People's Hospital of Xinyang City from January 22,2020 to January 29, 2020 were retrospectively analyzed.@*Results@#The 23 patients with 2019 nCov infection consisted of 15 men and 8 women, and the median age was 46.0 (40.5, 52.0) years (27-80 years); 9 of them had basic disease (39%), including hypertension (17%), cardiovascular diseases (17%), diabetes (9%), hypothyroidism (4%) and old tuberculosis (4%). All the 23 patients had contact history in Wuhan area or with confirmed infections. Clinical symptoms included: fever (100%), cough (70%), expectoration (43%), myalgia (26%), headache (17%) and dyspnea (17%), and the less common symptoms were diarrhea (4.3%). Blood routine test: white blood cells (WBC) < 4×109/L in 11 cases (48%), (4-10)×109/L in 10 cases (43%), >10 × 109/L in 2 cases (9%); lymphocytopenia in 13 cases (56%). All 23 patients had different degrees of infective lesions in chest CT examination, with 9 cases (39%) on one side and 14 cases (61%) on both sides. Classification: 19 mild cases, 4 severe cases, no critical or death case. Complications included acute respiratory distress syndrome [4 (17%)]. No case was reported with the damage of liver or kidney function and with secondary infection.@*Conclusions@#Epidemic history of contact, fever, pneumonia signs of chest CT, normal or decreased count of WBC and lymphocytopenia are the clinical basis for diagnosis of the disease. However, at present, the treatment of patients has not been completed, the effective treatment strategy and final prognosis are not clear.


title: COVID-19 under spotlight: A close look at the origin, transmission, diagnosis, and treatment of the 2019-nCoV disease

text: Months after the outbreak of a new flu-like disease in China, the entire world is now in a state of caution. The subsequent less-anticipated propagation of the novel coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19, not only made it to headlines by an overwhelmingly high transmission rate and fatality reports, but also raised an alarm for the medical community all around the globe. Since the causative agent, SARS-CoV-2, is a recently discovered species, there is no specific medicine for downright treatment of the infection. This has led to an unprecedented societal fear of the newly born disease, adding a psychological aspect to the physical manifestation of the virus. Herein, the COVID-19 structure, epidemiology, pathogenesis, etiology, diagnosis, and therapy have been reviewed.


title: The role of directionality, heterogeneity and correlations in epidemic risk and spread

text: Most models of epidemic spread, including many designed specifically for COVID-19, implicitly assume that social networks are undirected, i.e., that the infection is equally likely to spread in either direction whenever a contact occurs. In particular, this assumption implies that the individuals most likely to spread the disease are also the most likely to receive it from others. Here, we review results from the theory of random directed graphs which show that many important quantities, including the reproductive number and the epidemic size, depend sensitively on the joint distribution of in- and out-degrees ("risk"and"spread"), including their heterogeneity and the correlation between them. By considering joint distributions of various kinds we elucidate why some types of heterogeneity cause a deviation from the standard Kermack-McKendrick analysis of SIR models, i.e., so called mass-action models where contacts are homogeneous and random, and some do not. We also show that some structured SIR models informed by complex contact patterns among types of individuals (age or activity) are simply mixtures of Poisson processes and tend not to deviate significantly from the simplest mass-action model. Finally, we point out some possible policy implications of this directed structure, both for contact tracing strategy and for interventions designed to prevent superspreading events. In particular, directed networks have a forward and backward version of the classic"friendship paradox"-- forward links tend to lead to individuals with high risk, while backward links lead to individuals with high spread -- such that a combination of both forward and backward contact tracing is necessary to find superspreading events and prevent future cascades of infection.


title: Lungeembolisme ved covid-19./ Lungeembolisme ved covid-19./ Pulmonary embolism in cases of COVID-19

text: BACKGROUND: Emerging reports indicate a high incidence of venous thromboembolism in patients hospitalised for SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia during the spring 2020 pandemic. The pronounced pulmonary and systemic inflammatory responses observed in these patients may contribute to a transient hypercoagulable state. In this setting, pulmonary embolism may cause further respiratory distress and clinical deterioration. CASE PRESENTATION: We describe the clinical course of three patients admitted with SARS-CoV-2 infection and respiratory distress, where pulmonary embolism was detected during the course of the hospitalisation. Two of the cases occurred despite early institution of standard dosage of low molecular weight heparin thromboprophylaxis, and in one case, pulmonary embolism was diagnosed during the convalescent phase of an otherwise benign COVID-19 disease course. INTERPRETATION: These cases highlight the importance of awareness of the potentially increased incidence of venous thromboembolism in COVID-19 disease. Further research is required to establish appropriate clinical management guidelines for prevention of thromboembolic complications in COVID-19.


title: Non-integrable threshold singularites of two-point functions in perturbation theory

text: In perturbation theory, the spectral densities of two-point functions develop non-integrable threshold singularities at higher orders. In QCD, such singularities emerge when calculating the diagrams in terms of the pole quark mass, and they become stronger when one rearranges the perturbative expansion in terms of the running quark mass. In this paper we discuss the proper way to handle such singularities.


Current smoking is not associated with COVID-19


The World Glaucoma Association During the COVID-19 Pandemic


title: Clinical and computed tomographic (CT) images characteristics in the patients with COVID-19 infection: What should radiologists need to know?

text: OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical and computed tomographic (CT) features in the patients with COVID-19 pneumonia confirmed by the real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) amplification of the viral DNA from a sputum sample. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Clinical information and CT findings of a total of 14 patients with COVID-19 infection (age range, 12-83 years; females 6) were analyzed retrospectively. The clinical information includes the history of exposure, laboratory results, and the symptoms (such as fever, cough, headache, etc.); CT findings of chest include the extension and distribution of lesion, the ground-glass opacity (GGO), consolidation, bronchovascular enlarged, irregular linear appearances, pleural effusion, and lymphadenopathy. RESULTS: Eight patients had the exposure history for recent travel to Wuhan of Hubei province (8/14, 57%), 6 had the exposure to patients with COVID-19 infection. Significant statistical differences were observed in lymphocyte percentage decreased and C-reactive protein elevated (pâ=â0.015). Seven patients had fever, 7 had cough, 2 had headache, 3 had fatigue, 1 had body soreness, 3 had diarrhea, and 2 had no obvious symptoms. In chest CT examination, 10 patients were positive (10/14, 71.43%). Among these patients, 9 had lesions involving both lungs (9/10, 90%), 8 had lesions involving 4 to 5 lobes (8/10, 80%). Most of lesions were distributed peripherally and the most significant lesions were observed in the right lower lobe in 9 patients (9/10, 90%). Nodules were observed in 5 patients (5/10, 50%); GGO, consolidation, and bronchovascular enlarged were shown in 9 patients (9/10, 90%); irregular linear appearances were revealed in 7 patients (7/10, 70%); and pleural effusions were exhibited in 2 patients (2/10, 20%). Last, no patients showed lymphadenopathy. CONCLUSION: There were some typical CT features for diagnosis of COVID-19 pneumonia. The radiologists should know these CT findings and clinical information, which could help for accurate analysis in the patients with 2019 novel coronavirus infection.


title: Robots and COVID-19: Challenges in integrating robots for collaborative automation

text: Objective: The status of human-robot collaboration for assembly applications is reviewed and key current challenges for the research community and practitioners are presented. Background: As the pandemic of COVID-19 started to surface the manufacturers went under pressure to address demand challenges. Social distancing measures made fewer people available to work. In such situations, robots were pointed at to support humans to address a shortage in supply. An important activity where humans are needed in a manufacturing value chain is assembly. HRC assembly systems are supposed to safeguard coexisting humans, perform a range of actions, and often need to be reconfigured to handle product variety. This requires them to be resilient and adaptable to various configurations during their operational life. Besides the potential advantages of using robots the challenges of using them in an industrial assembly are enormous. Methods: This mini-review summarizes the challenges of industrial deployment of collaborative robots for assembly applications. Applications: The documented challenges highlight the future research directions in human-robot interaction for industrial applications.


Public health policies can reduce inequalities as we come out of lockdown


Cardiovascular disease and COVID-19: implications for prevention, surveillance and treatment


Consideration of dornase alfa for the treatment of severe COVID-19 ARDS


title: Outcome of Coronavirus spectrum infections (SARS, MERS, COVID 1 -19) during pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

text: Objective: The aim of this systematic review was to report pregnancy and perinatal outcomes of Coronavirus (CoV) spectrum infections, and particularly COVID-19 disease due to SARS-COV-2 infection during pregnancy. Data sources: Medline, Embase, Cinahl and Clinicaltrials.gov databases were searched electronically utilizing combinations of word variants for "coronavirus" or "severe acute respiratory syndrome" or "SARS" or "Middle East respiratory syndrome" or "MERS" or "COVID-19" and "pregnancy". The search and selection criteria were restricted to English language. Study eligibility criteria: Inclusion criteria were pregnant women with a confirmed Coronavirus related illness, defined as either SARS, MERS or COVID-19. Study appraisal and synthesis methods: We used meta-analyses of proportions to combine data and reported pooled proportions. The pregnancy outcomes observed included miscarriage, preterm birth, pre-eclampsia, preterm prelabor rupture of membranes, fetal growth restriction, and mode of delivery. The perinatal outcomes observed were fetal distress, Apgar score < 7 at five minutes, neonatal asphyxia, admission to neonatal intensive care unit, perinatal death, and evidence of vertical transmission. Results: 19 studies including 79 women were eligible for this systematic review: 41 pregnancies (51.9%) affected by COVID-19, 12 (15.2%) by MERS, and 26 (32.9%) by SARS. An overt diagnosis of pneumonia was made in 91.8% and the most common symptoms were fever (82.6%), cough (57.1%) and dyspnea (27.0%). For all CoV infections, the rate of miscarriage was 39.1% (95% CI 20.2-59.8); the rate of preterm birth < 37 weeks was 24.3% (95% CI 12.5-38.6); premature prelabor rupture of membranes occurred in 20.7% (95% CI 9.5-34.9), preeclampsia in 16.2% (95% CI 4.2-34.1), and fetal growth restriction in 11.7% (95% CI 3.2-24.4); 84% were delivered by cesarean; the rate of perinatal death was 11.1% (95% CI 84.8-19.6) and 57.2% (95% CI 3.6-99.8) of newborns were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit. When focusing on COVID-19, the most common adverse pregnancy outcome was preterm birth < 37 weeks, occurring in 41.1% (95% CI 25.6-57.6) of cases, while the rate of perinatal death was 7.0% (95% CI 1.4-16.3). None of the 41 newborns assessed showed clinical signs of vertical transmission. Conclusion: In mothers infected with coronavirus infections, including COVID-19, >90% of whom also had pneumonia, PTB is the most common adverse pregnancy outcome. Miscarriage, preeclampsia, cesarean, and perinatal death (7-11%) were also more common than in the general population. There have been no published cases of clinical evidence of vertical transmission. Evidence is accumulating rapidly, so these data may need to be updated soon. The findings from this study can guide and enhance prenatal counseling of women with COVID-19 infection occurring during pregnancy.


title: Glycyrrhetinic acid and its derivatives as potential alternative medicine to relieve symptoms in nonhospitalized COVID-19 patients

text: SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious, and infection by this virus results in COVID-19, manifesting predominantly symptoms in the lower respiratory system. Detection of viral genomic materials by RT-PCR is the gold standard for diagnosis. Suspected COVID-19 patients who had a documented history of exposure and exhibited symptoms, but did not have positive PCR test results, were generally self-quarantined with prescriptions aiming to help attenuate their symptoms. These prescriptions are however neither specific nor highly effective for COVID-19 treatment. Given the rapidly growing pandemic and the overwhelmed medical system, the number of self-quarantined patients is increasing. There is an urgent need of alternative medicine to help patients relieve symptoms during self-quarantine, and to potentially help increase their chances of survival and recovery from the infection. We report here a case of severe COVID-19 that never had a positive PCR test result during disease progression but was confirmed with antibody test post recovery. This patient was self-quarantined and received diammonium glycyrrhizinate (DG), a steroid-like molecule, in combination with vitamin C as alternative medicine. This patient went through severe COVID-19 but eventually recovered upon the implementation of this treatment regimen, suggesting potential therapeutic effects of DG as alternative medicine to help relieve COVID-19 symptoms.


title: A Toolkit for Analyzing and Visualizing Online Users via Reshare Cascade Modeling

text: Modeling online discourse dynamics is a core activity in understanding the spread of information, both offline and online, and emergent online behavior. There is currently a disconnect between the practitioners of online social media analysis - usually social, political and communication scientists - and the accessibility to tools capable of handling large quantities of online data, and examining online users and their behavior. We present two tools,birdspotter and evently, for analyzing online users based on their involvement in retweet cascades. birdspotter provides a toolkit to measure social influence and botnets of Twitter users. While it leverages the multimodal information of tweets, such as text contents, evently augments the user measurement by modeling the temporal dynamics of information diffusions using self-exciting processes. Both tools are designed for users with a wide range of computer expertise and include tutorials and detailed documentation. We illustrate a case study of a topical dataset relating to COVID-19, using both tools for end-to-end analysis of online user behavior.


Managing food protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: Expert recommendations


title: Pathophysiological characteristics and therapeutic approaches for pulmonary injury and cardiovascular complications of coronavirus disease 2019

text: The pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has emerged as a major health crisis, with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) having infected over a million people around the world within a few months of its identification as a human pathogen. Initially, SARS-CoV-2 infects cells in the respiratory system and causes inflammation and cell death. Subsequently, the virus spreads out and damages other vital organs and tissues, triggering a complicated spectrum of pathophysiological changes and symptoms, including cardiovascular complications. Acting as the receptor for SARS-CoV entering mammalian cells, angiotensin converting enzyme-2 (ACE2) plays a pivotal role in the regulation of cardiovascular cell function. Diverse clinical manifestations and laboratory abnormalities occur in patients with cardiovascular injury in COVID-19, characterizing the development of this complication, as well as providing clues to diagnosis and treatment. This review provides a summary of the rapidly appearing laboratory and clinical evidence for the pathophysiology and therapeutic approaches to COVID-19 pulmonary and cardiovascular complications.


title: Changes of hematological and immunological parameters in COVID-19 patients

text: The aim of this study was to identify the changes of hematologic and immunological parameters in COVID-19 patients. We collected and analyzed the data of 117 patients who were laboratory confirmed as SARS-CoV-2 infection. The cases were divided into regular group, severe group and critically ill group according to the sixth edition scheme for COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment of China. The laboratory tests included blood routine, cellular and humoral immunity indices, biochemical detections and inflammatory biomarker. Compared with regular patients, severe and critically ill patients had significantly lower lymphocyte count (p < 0.01), decreased red blood cell and hemoglobin (p < 0.01), low levels of immunoglobulin G (p < 0.05) and significantly higher in D-dimer (p < 0.0001), fibrinogen (p < 0.01), white blood cell count (p < 0.01), neutrophil count (p < 0.0001), interleukin-6 (p < 0.05), C-reactive protein (p < 0.01), procalcitonin (p < 0.01), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (p < 0.05), ferritin (p < 0.01) and lactate dehydrogenase (p < 0.0001). The specific immunoglobulin G antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 in severe and critically ill patients were significantly lower than that in regular patients (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that the lymphocyte counts, red blood cell counts and the immunoglobulin G antibodies of COVID-19 patients were impaired to varying degrees and the blood was in a state of hypercoagulation, which were more obvious in critically ill patients.


title: Is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) a new standard of care for type 1 respiratory failure in COVID-19 patients? A retrospective observational study of a dedicated COVID-19 CPAP service

text: The aim of this case series is to describe and evaluate our experience of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to treat type 1 respiratory failure in patients with COVID-19. CPAP was delivered in negative pressure rooms in the newly repurposed infectious disease unit. We report a cohort of 24 patients with type 1 respiratory failure and COVID-19 admitted to the Royal Liverpool Hospital between 1 April and 30 April 2020. Overall, our results were positive; we were able to safely administer CPAP outside the walls of a critical care or high dependency unit environment and over half of patients (58%) avoided mechanical ventilation and a total of 19 out of 24 (79%) have survived and been discharged from our care.


title: An Italian Experience of Spirituality from the Coronavirus Pandemic

text: In this letter to the editor, the authors tell their personal experience in the fight against Coronavirus pandemic and call for more spirituality needed to battle in the COVID-19 emergency. They commemorate the story of many Italian priests who have died in this tragedy and claim that spiritual skills for healthcare workers are especially important in a disaster scenario like this COVID 19 pandemic, to relieve stress and psychic sufferance of the same healthcare professionals as well as of patients and their families.


Evidence of Added Value of Chest CT in Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pneumonia With Initial Negative RT-PCR Results


"Remote Monitoring of Intranasal Ketamine Self-Administration as Maintenance Therapy in Treatment-Resistant Depression (TRD): A Novel Strategy for Vulnerable and At-Risk Populations to COVID-19?"


"What Were You Before the War?" Repurposing Psychiatry During the COVID-19 Pandemic


title: How Should the Rehabilitation Community Prepare for 2019-nCoV?

text: With the novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV) pandemic spreading quickly in the United States and the world, it is urgent that the rehabilitation community quickly understands the epidemiology of the virus and what we can and must do to face this microbial adversary at the early stages of this likely long global pandemic. The 2019-nCoV is a novel virus so most of the world's population does not have prior immunity to it. It is more infectious and fatal than seasonal influenza, and definitive treatment and a vaccine are months away. Our arsenal against it is currently mainly social distancing and infection control measures.


What can we learn about corticosteroid therapy as a treatment for COVID-19?


Telemedicine for neuromuscular disorders during the COVID-19 outbreak


title: Leveraging the power of mutual aid, coalitions, leadership, and advocacy during COVID-19

text: The COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the norms, patterns, and power structures in the United States that privilege certain groups of people over others. This article describes COVID-19 as an unprecedented catalyst for social transformation that underscores the need for multilevel and cross-sectoral solutions to address systemic changes to improve health equity for all. The authors propose that the American Psychological Association (APA) and its membership can initiate systemic change, in part, by (a) supporting mutual aid organizations that prioritize the needs of vulnerable communities; (b) leveraging the efforts and strides APA psychologists have already made within the association, in the profession, and in policymaking to attend to the health equity and the needs of marginalized communities; (c) building capacity for collaboration between a broad coalition of health associations, health experts, and policymakers to address the physio-psycho-socioeconomic needs of disadvantaged communities; and (d) increasing the APA's participation in the formulation and implementation of an advocacy agenda that prioritizes the physical and psychological health of the communities whose lives are most endangered by COVID-19. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


title: Pulmonary High-Resolution Computed Tomography (HRCT) Findings of Patients with Early-Stage Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Hangzhou, China

text: BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to investigate the imaging manifestations of early-stage coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and to provide imaging basis for early detection of suspected cases and stratified intervention. MATERIAL AND METHODS From 20 January 2020 to 2 February 2020, 6 patients diagnosed with COVID-19, including 1 male and 5 females, were retrospectively reviewed in Zhejiang Hospital. These cases were clinically assessed and classified as common COVID-19. All patients underwent thoracic high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) within 2 days after the onset of symptoms, and their images were viewed by 2 radiologists who were blind to their clinical records. RESULTS CT images of 6 confirmed patients were collected. Two of the 6 patients (33.3%) had bilateral lung involvements and 4 (66.7%) had single-lung involvement. Two cases (33.3%) had a single lesion, 2 cases (33.3%) had 2 lesions, and 2 cases (33.3%) had multiple lesions. There were 2 cases (33.3%) with focal subpleural distribution and 1 case (16.7%) along the bronchial vascular bundle. Five cases (83.3%) had ground-glass opacities, 4 cases (66.7%) had ground-glass nodules, 1 case (16.7%) had thickened lobular septum, 2 cases (33.3%) had thickened bronchial wall, 2 cases (33.3%) had halo sign,1 case (16.7%) had crazy-paving sign, and 1 case (16.7%) had tree-in-bud sign. CONCLUSIONS The imaging manifestations of early-stage COVID-19 are relatively mild, and the imaging findings of some patients are not typical, which can easily lead to missed diagnoses. Thus, suspected cases need to be closely monitored, and epidemiological history and clinical laboratory examination should also be considered during diagnosis.


docid: mnoyffvw

title: Global resource shortages during COVID-19: Bad news for low-income countries


title: Disproportionate Case Reduction After Ban of Elective Surgeries During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic

text: STUDY DESIGN: This is a retrospective case analysis. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to illustrate the numerical effects of regulatory restrictions of elective surgery at an orthopaedic university hospital. SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic all over the world places extraordinary demands on health care systems which are forced to ensure structural and personnel capacities. Consequently, hospitals may only perform urgent interventions. Spine patients, however, often need urgent surgery and, moreover, bear an above-average perioperative risk frequently requiring postoperative surveillance on intensive care units (ICUs). Facing this dilemma, we want to share our practice and its unexpected numerical effects. METHODS: We compare case statistics during normal operation, directly before and after implementation of regulatory measures. We also analyzed the differences in ICU utilization, complexity and duration of interventions and the patient population. RESULTS: Spine surgical interventions have been reduced by 42.7%. Regulatory restriction of "elective surgeries" in pandemic situations results in reduced ICU utilization, however in a disproportionate manner. Although other specialized surgeries can be reduced by 59%, surgical spine cases are only diminishable by 24%. The spine surgery-related ICU occupancy has been reduced by 35%. CONCLUSION: The disproportionate effect of case reduction needs to be considered while calculating resources released by regulatory limitation of "elective surgeries" on a (inter-)national level.


Unleashing the Power of Laboratory Developed Tests: Closing Gaps in COVID Diagnosis and Beyond


This Spring Is Different


title: COVID-19 Contact-Tracing Mobile Apps: Evaluation and Assessment for Decision Makers

text: A number of groups, from governments to non-profits, have quickly acted to innovate the contact-tracing process: they are designing, building, and launching contact-tracing apps in response to the COVID-19 crisis. A diverse range of approaches exist, creating challenging choices for officials looking to implement contact-tracing technology in their community and raising concerns about these choices among citizens asked to participate in contact tracing. We are frequently asked how to evaluate and differentiate between the options for contact-tracing applications. Here, we share the questions we ask about app features and plans when reviewing the many contact-tracing apps appearing on the global stage.


title: Clinical Presentation of COVID19 in Dementia Patients

text: OBJECTIVE: No studies analyzing the role of dementia as a risk factor for mortality in patients affected by COVID-19. We assessed the prevalence, clinical presentation and outcomes of dementia among subjects hospitalized for COVID19 infection. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: COVID wards in Acute Hospital in Brescia province, Northern Italy. PARTICIPANTS: We used data from 627 subjects admitted to Acute Medical wards with COVID 19 pneumonia. MEASUREMENTS: Clinical records of each patients admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of COVID19 infection were retrospectively analyzed. Diagnosis of dementia, modalities of onset of the COVID-19 infection, symptoms of presentation at the hospital and outcomes were recorded. RESULTS: Dementia was diagnosed in 82 patients (13.1%). The mortality rate was 62.2% (51/82) among patients affected by dementia compared to 26.2% (143/545) in subjects without dementia (p<0.001, Chi-Squared test). In a logistic regression model age, and the diagnosis of dementia resulted independently associated with a higher mortality, and patients diagnosed with dementia presented an OR of 1.84 (95% CI: 1.09-3.13, p<0.05). Among patients diagnosed with dementia the most frequent symptoms of onset were delirium, especially in the hypoactive form, and worsening of the functional status. CONCLUSION: The diagnosis of dementia, especially in the most advanced stages, represents an important risk factor for mortality in COVID-19 patients. The clinical presentation of COVID-19 in subjects with dementia is atypical, reducing early recognition of symptoms and hospitalization.


docid: khtevgay

title: Quantitative analysis of solid dosage forms of cefixime using Raman spectroscopy

text: Quantification of antibiotics is of significant importance because of their use in the prevention and treatment of different diseases. Cefixime (CEF) is a cephalosporin antibiotic that is used against bacterial infections. In the present study, Raman spectroscopy has been applied for the identification and quantification of Raman spectral features of cefixime with different concentrations of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) and excipients in solid dosage forms. The changes in Raman spectral features of API and excipients in the solid dosage forms of cefixime were studied and Raman peaks were assigned based on the literature. Multivariate data analysis techniques including the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares Regression analysis (PLSR) have been performed for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of solid dosage forms of cefixime. PCA was found helpful in differentiating all the Raman spectral data associated with the different solid dosage forms of cefixime. The coefficient of determination (R2), mean absolute error (MAE), and mean relative error (MRE) for the calibration data-set were 0.99, 0.72, and 0.01 respectively and for the validation data-set were 0.99, 3.15, and 0.02 respectively, that shows the performance of the model. The root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) and root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) were found to be 0.56 mg and 3.13 mg respectively.


SARS-CoV-2 infection in ambulatory and hospitalised Spanish children


High population densities catalyse the spread of COVID-19


Mechanical Ventilation in COVID-19: Interpreting the Current Epidemiology


title: Reversing the testing effect by feedback is a matter of performance criterion at practice

text: Retrieval practice is generally considered to be one of the most effective long-term learning strategies and is presumed to be more favorable than repeated study. However, a few recent studies have demonstrated that repetitive feedback at final recall can reverse the long-term advantage of testing over restudy. The result that feedback at long-term tests can dramatically decrease the relative effectiveness of retrieval-based learning could be important for both theoretical and practical reasons. Considering that these earlier studies administered low retrieval success at retrieval practice, we investigated whether the effect of feedback on the testing effect is modulated by the level of retrieval success during practice. In three experiments the level of success at retrieval practice was manipulated by multiple pre-practice learning trials, and multiple tests with feedback were applied after a 1-week retention interval at final recall. Our results have demonstrated that a feedback-induced reversed testing effect was present only at low retrieval success during practice (Experiment 1), whereas with moderate (Experiment 2) and high retrieval success (Experiment 3) during practice a significant testing effect emerged and no reversed testing effect was found even after repeated cycles of feedback. These results point to the conclusion that the level of retrieval success was the key factor in reversing the testing effect in earlier studies. Application of high retrieval success during practice can produce long-lasting accessible memories even in learning settings applying multiple tests with feedback.


title: The substantial awareness role of web-based and social media platforms in developing countries during a pandemic scenario: the example of COVID-19

text: BACKGROUND: During the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19, social media platforms have shown effectiveness in information dissemination. Delivering evidence-based medical knowledge and trustworthy recommendations is a difficult mission for classical entities, especially in a war-torn country with a fragile health system. In this context, the role of non-governmental scientific organizations was proven, filling the gap between original scientific sources and a non-English speaking population. METHODS: We reviewed an example of an organization named Syrian Researchers, which publishes based-on-reliable-sources of scientific content and has massive reachability across Middle East and beyond. RESULTS: We strongly believe that this model is a simple and suitable approach that may be helpful for other low-income or war-torn countries in the context of health-related disasters. CONCLUSIONS: This subject is of high importance and we believe that this approach may ameliorate public health knowledge, thus, participate in defying the COVID-19 consequences.


Geroscience and the Coronavirus Pandemic: The Whack-a-Mole Approach is not Enough


title: Establishing and managing a quarantine and isolation centre in COVID-19 pandemic

text: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a recent pandemic which has spread to over 200 countries of the world since its outbreak. As of 21st April, 2020, more than 2.3 million confirmed cases have been reported. The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a strategic preparedness response plan for countries at risk. This is based on the knowledge of previous epidemics and experience shared by Chinese health authorities. There is special emphasis on strict 'quarantine and isolation' of suspected/diagnosed cases. Pakistan is a developing country with a weak healthcare system. Pakistan Armed Forces have always provided services to the countrymen during natural and man-made disasters. During this pandemic the largest rehabilitation institute in the country was converted into a 130-bed dedicated isolation and quarantine facility for the COVID-19 patients. We will share our experience of establishing and managing this quarantine and isolation facility and highlight the achievements and out-of-the-box solutions applicable for low resource countries like Pakistan.


COVID-19 in Children: Clinical Approach and Management- Correspondence


title: The Views of Medical Faculty Students in Turkey Concerning the COVID-19 Pandemic

text: The aim of this study was to elicit the views of medical faculty students regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. This descriptive study was performed with Ondokuz Mayis University Medical Faculty students on 24-27 March, 2020. The Medical Faculty currently has 2051 students. A questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. For that purpose, the authors designed a questionnaire specifically for this research via the "Google Forms" web. This consisted of 40 open- and close-ended questions. The questionnaire was completed by 1375 (67.1%) students. Accordingly, 52.4% of medical students reported feeling mentally unwell. Although 50.8% of medical students reported generally/usually obtaining information about COVID-19 through the social media, 82.0% did not trust information/messages arriving through the social media and WhatsApp. We found that 86.7% of students regarded frequent hand washing as the most important means of protection against COVID-19, and 19.3% of students did not regard the COVID-19 pandemic as a severe public health problem for Turkey at that moment. In addition, 61.6% of students stated that a suppression strategy involving tight restrictions need to be applied to being the pandemic under control in Turkey. Use can be made of medical students in the transmission of accurate information during the COVID-19 pandemic. Students can be excellent activists on these subjects in countries in which medical education is suspended. Measures therefore need to be taken concerning the transmission of up to date and accurate information to medical students.


Solidarity with China as it holds the global front line during COVID-19 outbreak


EU health law and policy in and after the COVID-19 crisis


Covid-19 pandemic containment: following the example of military submariners


Covid-19: Lack of capacity led to halting of community testing in March, admits deputy chief medical officer


title: Cancer diagnostic rates during the 2020 'lockdown', due to COVID-19 pandemic, compared with the 2018-2019: an audit study from cellular pathology

text: AIMS: We performed an audit to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic-related delay in the diagnosis of major cancers at a Pathology Unit of a Secondary Care Hospital Network in Italy. METHODS: A comparison was made among the number of first cellular pathological diagnoses of malignancy made from the 11th to the 20th week of the years 2018-2020. RESULTS: Cancer diagnoses fell in 2020 by 39% compared with the average number recorded in 2018 and 2019. Prostate cancer (75%) bladder cancer (66%) and colorectal cancer (CRC; 62%) had the greatest decrease. CRC was identified as carrying a potentially important diagnostic delay. CONCLUSIONS: For CRC corrective procedures (continuing mass screening tests; patient triage by family physicians; diagnostic procedures alternative to colonoscopy; predictive evaluation on biopsy samples) were advised. Our simple audit model is widely applicable to avoid pandemic-related delay in clinical diagnosis of cancer.


title: COVID-19: Perspectives From Nurses Across the Country

text: The COVID-19 pandemic that is sweeping across the globe has impacted all health care professionals in multiple ways. This article surveyed a cross-section of the nursing profession from across the United States from the ANCC Practice Transition Accreditation Program® and ANCC Commission on Accreditation in Practice Transition Program. The article summarizes how they responded to the pandemic, addressed challenges, and learned valuable lessons. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2020;51(7):304-308.].


title: COVID-19 : caractéristiques cliniques, biologiques et radiologiques chez l'adulte, la femme enceinte et l'enfant. Une mise au point au cÅur de la pandémie./ [COVID-19: Clinical, biological and radiological characteristics in adults, infants and pregnant women. An up-to-date review at the heart of the pandemic]

text: The spread of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, discovered in China in January 2020, led to a pandemic as early as March 2020, forcing every health care system in the affected countries to adapt quickly. In order to better address this major health crisis, which has given rise to numerous scientific publications, we have synthesized the main original clinical studies to facilitate the day-to-day management of patients with COVID-19. We detail the early signs and progression of the disease as well as the different clinical forms, including extra-pulmonary, as known at the beginning of this pandemic. We focus on clinical, biological and CT markers predictive of severity or mortality. Finally, we discuss the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection in populations suspected to be at high risk of severe forms.


[Discussion and suggestion on the classification of severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019 in Chinese experts' consensus on diagnosis and treatment of severe and critical coronavirus disease 2019]


title: A Municipality-Based Approach Using Commuting Census Data to Characterize the Vulnerability to Influenza-Like Epidemic: The COVID-19 Application in Italy

text: In February 2020, Italy became the epicenter for COVID-19 in Europe, and at the beginning of March, the Italian Government put in place emergency measures to restrict population movement. Aim of our analysis is to provide a better understanding of the epidemiological context of COVID-19 in Italy, using commuting data at a high spatial resolution, characterizing the territory in terms of vulnerability. We used a Susceptible-Infectious stochastic model and we estimated a municipality-specific infection contact rate () to capture the susceptibility to the disease. We identified in Lombardy, Veneto and Emilia Romagna regions (52% of all Italian cases) significant clusters of high , due to the simultaneous presence of connections between municipalities and high population density. Local simulated spreading in regions, with different levels of infection observed, showed different disease geographical patterns due to different values and commuting systems. In addition, we produced a vulnerability map (in the Abruzzi region as an example) by simulating the epidemic considering each municipality as a seed. The result shows the highest vulnerability values in areas with commercial hubs, close to the highest populated cities and the most industrial area. Our results highlight how human mobility can affect the epidemic, identifying particular situations in which the health authorities can promptly intervene to control the disease spread.


Epidemiologia e Covid-19 in Italia. Consentire e coordinare l'accesso ai dati per un'ampia collaborazione nelle valutazioni cliniche ed epidemiologiche./ [Epidemiology and Covid-19 in Italy. Accessing and sharing data to foster collaboration]


title: Individualizing Risk Prediction for Positive COVID-19 Testing: Results from 11,672 Patients

text: BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is sweeping the globe. Despite multiple case-series, actionable knowledge to tailor decision-making proactively is missing. RESEARCH QUESTION: Can a statistical model accurately predict infection with COVID-19? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: We developed a prospective registry of all patients tested for COVID-19 in Cleveland Clinic to create individualized risk prediction models. We focus here on the likelihood of a positive nasal or oropharyngeal COVID-19 test. A least absolute shrinkage and selection operator logistic regression algorithm was constructed that removed variables that were not contributing to the model's cross-validated concordance index. After external validation in a temporally and geographically distinct cohort, the statistical prediction model was illustrated as a nomogram and deployed in an online risk calculator. RESULTS: In the development cohort, 11,672 patients fulfilled study criteria, including 818 patients (7.0%) who tested positive for COVID-19; in the validation cohort, 2295 patients fulfilled criteria, including 290 patients who tested positive for COVID-19. Male, African American, older patients, and those with known COVID-19 exposure were at higher risk of being positive for COVID-19. Risk was reduced in those who had pneumococcal polysaccharide or influenza vaccine or who were on melatonin, paroxetine, or carvedilol. Our model had favorable discrimination (c-statistic = 0.863 in the development cohort and 0.840 in the validation cohort) and calibration. We present sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value, and positive predictive value at different prediction cutoff points. The calculator is freely available at https://riskcalc.org/COVID19. INTERPRETATION: Prediction of a COVID-19 positive test is possible and could help direct health care resources. We demonstrate relevance of age, race, sex, and socioeconomic characteristics in COVID-19 susceptibility and suggest a potential modifying role of certain common vaccinations and drugs that have been identified in drug-repurposing studies.


Inpatient Use of Ambulatory Telemetry Monitors for COVID-19 Patients Treated With Hydroxychloroquine and/or Azithromycin


Virtual House Calls: Telemedicine and Reforming the Health Care Delivery Model with Strategies Implemented in a Novel Coronavirus Pandemic