Covid-19

Water and ethanol extracts of dried thyme ( Thymus vulgaris ) were analyzed for chemical composition, inhibition of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-ACE2 interaction, inhibition of ACE2 activity, and free radical scavenging capacity. Thirty-two compounds were identified in water extract (WE) and 27 were identified in ethanol extract (EE) of thyme through HPLC-MS. The WE (33.3 mg/mL) and EE (3.3 mg/mL) of thyme inhibited the spike protein-ACE2 interaction by 82.6 and 86.4%, respectively. The thyme WE at 5 mg/mL inhibited ACE2 activity by 99%, and the EE at 5 mg/mL inhibited ACE2 by 65...

U.S. prisons were especially susceptible to COVID-19 infection and death; however, data limitations have precluded a national accounting of prison mortality (including but not limited to COVID-19 mortality) during the pandemic. Our analysis of mortality data collected from public records requests (supplemented with publicly available data) from 48 Departments of Corrections provides the most comprehensive understanding to date of in-custody mortality during 2020. We find that total mortality increased by 77% in 2020 relative to 2019, corresponding to 3...

Background: In December 2021, the Region 1 Disaster Health Response System, the state of Vermont, and the National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network partnered to provide statewide access to disaster teleconsultations during COVID-19 surge conditions. In this case report, we describe how a disaster teleconsultation system was implemented in Vermont to provide access to temporary tele-critical care consultations during the Omicron COVID-19 surge. Methods: We measured the time from request of service to implementation and calculated descriptive statistics...

We aimed to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the lives of healthcare workers (HCWs) in the Dominican Republic. We also aimed to identify the types of resources that HCWs felt were needed to support their mental health. We used purposive and convenience sampling in four health centers in the eastern Dominican Republic to recruit 28 HCWs (doctors, nurses, psychologists, and community health workers) between April 2021 and August 2021. Through semi-structured interviews, we elicited HCWs experiences during the pandemic and how they felt these experiences impacted their mental health...

INTRODUCTION: Data regarding patients presenting with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) illness have not adequately been documented which provides distinct insights into low-resource settings like Ethiopia. Thus, the study aimed to compare epidemiological, clinical and laboratory profiles of patients presenting with acute respiratory syndrome illness in Addis Ababa Ethiopia. METHODS: We used a comparative cross-sectional study design among patients with SARS-CoV-2 illness at St...

The aim of this study was to analyze levels of fatigue and resilience of Brazilian graduate students during the COVID-19 pandemic and to determine whether there is an association between fatigue and resilience and sociodemographic and academic factors. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, and it was discovered that the variables associated with higher levels of resilience were age; having children; being retired; receiving income above five minimum wages; having had greater problems in other phases of the research schedule; coming from private universities; being from the north of Brazil; studying the area of Health; and having their research schedule unaffected during the pandemic...

BACKGROUND: Providing end-of-life care in a patient's home is challenging, especially if the nurse is from a different ethnic background from the patient. Evidence shows that people from an ethnic minority background often experience poorer end-of-life care due to care providers not understanding their care needs. AIM: To explore the experiences of community nursing staff caring for patients with an ethnic minority background at the end of their life. METHOD: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data was thematically analysed...

BACKGROUND: SARS-CoV-2 variants continue to circulate globally, even within highly vaccinated populations. The first-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccines elicit neutralizing immunoglobin G (IgG) antibodies that prevent severe COVID-19 but induce only weak antibody responses in mucosal tissues. There is increasing recognition that secretory immunoglobin A (SIgA) antibodies in the upper respiratory tract and oral cavity are critical in interrupting virus shedding, transmission, and progression of disease...

BACKGROUND: With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, reported rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea dropped and remained low for several months of 2020 as compared to 2019. Additional data are needed to reveal causes of reported rate changes. Here, we analyze STI-related conversations from the online-discussion platform Reddit to gain insight into the role of the pandemic on public experience of STIs in 2020. METHOD: We collected data from Pushshift's and Reddit's application programming interfaces via programs coded in Python...

OBJECTIVE: Investigating the experiences perceived by COVID-19 inpatients is a fundamental research area that is starting to be explored. For this reason, our objective was to provide the first Italian survey on COVID-19 inpatients' satisfaction, obtained through a self-completed questionnaire previously used in a reference study in a UK cohort of COVID-19 patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Hospitalized COVID-19 patients (>20 days) admitted to Ferrara University Hospital who underwent rehabilitation during their hospital stay were invited to complete an anonymous questionnaire...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to observe the changes in pleth variability index (PVI), perfusion index (PI) and other hemodynamic parameters in adult individuals who had had Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and were currently living a normal life. A further aim was to draw attention to the fact that some hemodynamic changes after COVID-19 may cause long-term health problems. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 174 adult individuals who had had COVID-19 and were currently living a normal life and 56 healthy individuals with similar demographic characteristics who had not had COVID-19 were included in the study...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate if inflammation biomarkers elabela, visfatin, and chemerin will be useful in the diagnosis of patients with COVID-19. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This prospective case-control study included 33 patients with COVID-19 and 30 healthy matched controls. 33 patients, aged 18 years and older, diagnosed with COVID-19 and followed up for one month were included in the study. Blood samples were taken from the patients on the first day they were diagnosed with COVID-19, and levels of elabela (ELA), visfatin, chemerin, white blood cells (WBC), C-reactive protein (CRP) and procalcitonin (PCT) were assessed...

OBJECTIVE: Tuberculosis (TB) is still a major global health problem, and it has been particularly concerning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Non-compliance with anti-TB treatment increases the number of multidrug-resistant cases, causing ongoing transmission and increased morbidity and mortality. The main factors causing TB patients' non-compliance are stigma and lack of financial resources. Stigma harms patients and may cause them to delay seeking and adhering to treatment. Thus, it is important to measure the public stigma surrounding TB...

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to demonstrate the relationship between thorax computed tomography (CT) findings at the time of admission and prognosis using a semiquantitative CT severity scoring system in patients diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) who tested positive for reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 305 patients aged 18 years and older who were diagnosed with COVID-19 confirmed by RT-PCR and underwent thorax CT at the time of admission, were included in the study between March and July 2020...

IMPORTANCE: The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented effects on hospital occupancy, with consequences for hospital operations and patient care. Previous studies of occupancy during COVID-19 have been limited to small samples of hospitals. OBJECTIVE: To measure the association between COVID-19 admission rates and hospital occupancy in different US areas and at different time periods during 2020. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases (2019-2020) for patients in nonfederal acute care hospitals in 45 US states, including the District of Columbia...

This Special Issue of the European Journal of Psychotraumatology (EJPT) presents 51 articles published between 2021 and 2023 and follows the Special Issue on pandemic-related traumatic stress research published in 2021 (O'Donnell, M. L., & Greene, T. [2021]. Understanding the mental health impacts of COVID-19 through a trauma lens. European Journal of Psychotraumatology , 12 (1), 1982502). Research on traumatic stress during the pandemic has cast the spotlight on vulnerable populations and groups, notably front-line healthcare workers; people faced with major losses including the deaths of loved ones; those who personally survived debilitating and often life-threatening viral infection; and students who were isolated and experienced profound delays in their education, relationships, and emerging independence...

School-based surveys of adolescents can be logistically difficult and exclude students who do not attend school. Social media recruitment could be a promising strategy to recruit representative samples of adolescents. However, few studies have compared adolescent survey data collected via different methodologies. Our team was conducting a school-based survey when the COVID-19 pandemic closed all schools, necessitating a shift to online adolescent recruitment. To achieve our goal of obtaining a sample of high school students throughout California, we placed ads on social media...

The COVID-19 pandemic may have exacerbated depression, anxiety, and executive function (EF) difficulties in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EF skills have been positively associated with mental health outcomes. Here, we probed the psychosocial impacts of pandemic responses in children with and without ASD by relating pre-pandemic EF assessments with anxiety and depression symptoms several months into the pandemic. We found that pre-pandemic inhibition and shifting difficulties, measured by the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function, predicted higher risk of anxiety symptoms...

INTRODUCTION: The waning antibody levels several months after prime vaccination and the persistent epidemics of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) around the world have generated great interest in the evaluation of a booster dose. We aimed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a homologous booster dose of the recombinant adenovirus type 5-vectored coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine (Ad5-nCoV). METHODS: In this trial, we recruited healthy adults aged 18-60 years who had received one dose of Ad5-nCoV vaccine (low, middle, or high dose) in the previous phase 1 trial approximately 6 months earlier, and then all participants received a booster dose of 5 × 1010 viral particles (low dose) intramuscularly...

The incidence and mortality rate of pancreatic cancer are increasing worldwide. Regional lymph nodes, liver, lung, and peritoneum are common sites of metastasis from pancreatic cancer, but the gastrointestinal tract is rare as a metastatic organ from pancreatic cancer. An 80-year-old man was referred to our department for a hypovascular pancreatic mass on contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT). Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration revealed adenocarcinoma, and he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer...