title: Global Coronavirus Pandemic (SARS CoV-2): Past, Present, And Future Of Pediatric Dermatology

text: Two months have passed since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19), caused by the SARS CoV-2 virus, on March 11, 2020. Medical and healthcare workers have continued to be on the frontline to defeat this disease, however, continual changes are being made to their working habits which are proving to be difficult. Although the skin is not the main target of the SARS CoV-2 infection, it is strongly involved both directly and indirectly, in many aspects of dermatological disease management, and particularly in pediatric dermatology. In this manuscript, our goal was to provide a "up-to-date" account on this topic, through analysis of current literature and sharing our experiences during this pandemic. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


title: Global coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV-2): Past, present, and future of pediatric dermatology

text: Two months have passed since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the pandemic of the Coronavirus Disease 19 (COVID-19), caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, on 11 March 2020. Medical and healthcare workers have continued to be on the frontline to defeat this disease, however, continual changes are being made to their working habits which are proving to be difficult. Although the skin is not the main target of the SARS-CoV-2 infection, it is strongly involved both directly and indirectly, in many aspects of dermatological disease management, and particularly in pediatric dermatology. In this manuscript, our goal was to provide a "up-to-date" account on this topic, through analysis of current literature and sharing our experiences during this pandemic.


title: Incidence trend of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in China/ 上海预防医学

text: Objective To investigate the epidemical characteristics and analyze the incidence trend of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in China. Methods The daily new confirmed cases of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) in China from January 25 to February 8,2020 were collected for epidemiological descriptive analysis. Results During the period from January 25 to February 8, 2020, the number of daily new confirmed cases fell for five consecutive days, from 890 cases on February 3 to 509 cases on February 8. Conclusion The incidence of 2019 novel coronavirus diseases (COVID-19) slowed down in 30 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) except Hubei and Xinjiang production and construction corps , but the overall situation is still not optimistic. It is imperative to pay close attention to the origin and destination of migrant workers and the incidence of disease in various areas, and take targeted measures to strengthen prevention and control of the disease.


COVID-19: The Isolation That Has Brought Us Together


title: Long Survival and Prolonged Remission after Surgery and Chemotherapy in a Metastatic Mismatch Repair Deficient Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Carcinoma with MLH1/PMS2 Immunodeficiency and Minimal Microsatellite Shift

text: Pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) are rare and very aggressive neoplasms with dismal prognosis, especially when metastatic or with negative prognostic factors, such as vascular invasion. To the best of our knowledge, no case of pancreatic NEC with mismatch repair deficiency has been reported to date. We describe a 62-year-old patient who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for a NEC located in the pancreatic head, with peripancreatic lymph node metastases. Tumor necrosis was prominent and the Ki67 proliferative index was 60%. One year after the diagnosis, the patient experienced recurrence with a left supraclavicular lymph node metastasis, which was surgically removed, followed by standard cisplatin-etoposide chemotherapy. Neoplastic cells showed combined loss of expression of MLH1 and PMS2 in both primary tumor and lymph node metastasis. Microsatellite instability (MSI) test using a mononucleotide repeats pentaplex PCR (BAT-25, BAT-26, NR-21, NR-22, and NR-24) revealed minimal mononucleotide shifts showing deletion of less than 3 bp at NR-21, BAT-26, NR-24, and NR-22 loci. MLH1 methylation analysis revealed absence of the gene promoter methylation. BRAF and KRAS mutations were not detected. In gut, NECs' mismatch repair deficiency phenotype has been reported in about 10% of cases, and it represents an independent factor of more favorable outcome. Likewise, our patient is currently alive with a follow-up of more than 12 years after pancreaticoduodenectomy, by itself an unexpected finding for such an aggressive neoplasm.


Reply to Wachholz and Jacinto


Patient-Driven Discontinuation of Dupilumab During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Two Academic Hospital Clinics at the University of Toronto


title: Lessons from being challenged by COVID-19

text: We present results of different approaches to model the evolution of the COVID-19 epidemic in Argentina, with a special focus on the megacity conformed by the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, including a total of 41 districts with over 13 million inhabitants. We first highlight the relevance of interpreting the early stage of the epidemic in light of incoming infectious travelers from abroad. Next, we critically evaluate certain proposed solutions to contain the epidemic based on instantaneous modifications of the reproductive number. Finally, we build increasingly complex and realistic models, ranging from simple homogeneous models used to estimate local reproduction numbers, to fully coupled inhomogeneous (deterministic or stochastic) models incorporating mobility estimates from cell phone location data. The models are capable of producing forecasts highly consistent with the official number of cases with minimal parameter fitting and fine-tuning. We discuss the strengths and limitations of the proposed models, focusing on the validity of different necessary first approximations, and caution future modeling efforts to exercise great care in the interpretation of long-term forecasts, and in the adoption of non-pharmaceutical interventions backed by numerical simulations.


title: Novel coronavirus infection in children outside of Wuhan, China

text: BACKGROUND: Since December 8, 2019, an epidemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread rapidly, but information about children with COVID-19 is limited. METHODS: This retrospective and the single-center study were done at the Public Health Clinic Center of Changsha, Hunan, China. We identified all hospitalized children diagnosed with COVID-19 between January 8, 2019 and February 19, 2020, in Changsha. Epidemiological and clinical data of these children were collected and analyzed. Outcomes were followed until February 26th, 2020. RESULTS: By February 19, 2020, nine pediatric patients were identified as having 2019-nCoV infection in Changsha. Six children had a family exposure and could provide the exact dates of close contact with someone who was confirmed to have 2019-nCoV infection, among whom the median incubation period was 7.5 days. The initial symptoms of the nine children were mild, including fever (3/9), diarrhea (2/9), cough (1/9), and sore throat (1/9), two had no symptoms. Two of the enrolled patients showed small ground-glass opacity of chest computed tomography scan. As of February 26, six patients had a negative RT-PCR for 2019-nCoV and were discharged. The median time from exposure to a negative RT-PCR was 14 days. CONCLUSIONS: The clinical symptoms of the new coronavirus infection in children were not typical and showed a less aggressive clinical course than teenage and adult patients. Children who have a familial clustering or have a family member with a definite diagnosis should be reported to ensure a timely diagnosis.


Scientists put survivors' blood plasma to the test


title: Modeling the molecular impact of the SARS-CoV-2 infection on the renin-angiotensin system

text: Infection by the SARS-CoV-2 virus is mediated by the binding of its spike protein to the membrane-bound angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), which plays a pivotal role in the renin-angiotensin system (RAS). The understanding of RAS dysregulation due to this viral infection is of fundamental importance to better understand the pathogenic mechanisms and risk factors of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, and to design effective therapeutic strategies. To address this issue, we built a mathematical model of RAS based on data about protein and peptide concentrations in normotensive and hypertensive individuals. We first tested our model on clinical data on the action of antihypertensive RAS-blocking drugs in control individuals. Despite the simplicity of our model, it reproduces very well, without any fitting of additional parameters, the impact of a series of drugs, i.e. angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I), direct renin inhibitors (DRI) and angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB). We applied our model to analyze the impact of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the RAS system, which we modeled through a downregulation of ACE2 related to viral load. Moreover, we analyzed the effect of RAS-blockers and other RAS-targeting drugs, i.e. human recombinant ACE2 (rhACE2) and angiotensin 1-7 peptide (Ang1-7), on the RAS system of normotensive and hypertensive COVID-19 patients. We found that while ACE-I, DRI, rhACE2 and Ang1-7 tend to improve the clinical outcomes in a tension-dependent manner, the use of ARB appears to worsen it. The mathematical model that we developed offers the interesting possibility of testing in silico the RAS dysregulation upon SARS-CoV-2 infection and of predicting how risk factors as well as different drugs, alone or in combination, impact on RAS and disease severity.


title: Total Variation Regularization for Compartmental Epidemic Models with Time-Varying Dynamics

text: Compartmental epidemic models are among the most popular ones in epidemiology. For the parameters (e.g., the transmission rate) characterizing these models, the majority of researchers simplify them as constants, while some others manage to detect their continuous variations. In this paper, we aim at capturing, on the other hand, discontinuous variations, which better describe the impact of many noteworthy events, such as city lockdowns, the opening of field hospitals, and the mutation of the virus, whose effect should be instant. To achieve this, we balance the model's likelihood by total variation, which regulates the temporal variations of the model parameters. To infer these parameters, instead of using Monte Carlo methods, we design a novel yet straightforward optimization algorithm, dubbed Iterated Nelder--Mead, which repeatedly applies the Nelder--Mead algorithm. Experiments conducted on the simulated data demonstrate that our approach can reproduce these discontinuities and precisely depict the epidemics.


Necessity of 45-Day Transesophageal Echocardiography After the WATCHMAN Procedure Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic


title: From COVID-19 research to vaccine application: why might it take 17 months not 17 years and what are the wider lessons?

text: It is often said that it takes 17 years to move medical research from bench to bedside. In a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) world, such time-lags feel intolerable. In these extraordinary circumstances could years be made into months? If so, could those lessons be used to accelerate medical research when the crisis eases?To measure time-lags in health and biomedical research as well as to identify ways of reducing them, we developed and published (in 2015) a matrix consisting of overlapping tracks (or stages/phases) in the translation from discovery research to developed products, policies and practice. The matrix aids analysis by highlighting the time and actions required to develop research (and its translation) both (1) along each track and (2) from one track to another, e.g. from the discovery track to the research-in-humans track. We noted four main approaches to reducing time-lags, namely increasing resources, working in parallel, starting or working at risk, and improving processes.Examining these approaches alongside the matrix helps interpret the enormous global effort to develop a vaccine for the 2019 novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. Rapid progress in the discovery/basic and human research tracks is being made through a combination of large-scale funding, work being conducted in parallel (between different teams globally and through working in overlapping tracks), working at greater (but proportionate) risk to safety than usual, and adopting various new processes. The overlapping work of some of the teams involves continuing animal research whilst entering vaccine candidates into Phase I trials alongside planning their Phase II trials. The additional funding available helps to reduce some of the usual financial risks in moving so quickly. Going forward through the increasingly large human trials for safety, dosage and efficacy, it will be vital to overlap work in parallel in the often challenging public policy and clinical tracks. Thus, regulatory and reimbursement bodies are beginning and preparing rapid action to pull vaccines proving to be safe and effective through to extraordinarily rapid application to the general population. Monitoring the development of a COVID-19 vaccine using the matrix (modified as necessary) could help identify which of the approaches speeding development and deployment could be usefully applied more widely in the future.


Blocking information on COVID-19 can fuel the spread of misinformation


title: Coronavirus (COVID-19): ARIMA based time-series analysis to forecast near future

text: COVID-19, a novel coronavirus, is currently a major worldwide threat. It has infected more than a million people globally leading to hundred-thousands of deaths. In such grave circumstances, it is very important to predict the future infected cases to support prevention of the disease and aid in the healthcare service preparation. Following that notion, we have developed a model and then employed it for forecasting future COVID-19 cases in India. The study indicates an ascending trend for the cases in the coming days. A time series analysis also presents an exponential increase in the number of cases. It is supposed that the present prediction models will assist the government and medical personnel to be prepared for the upcoming conditions and have more readiness in healthcare systems.


title: Connecting data, tools and people across Europe: ELIXIR's response to the COVID-19 pandemic

text: ELIXIR, the European research infrastructure for life science data, provides open access to data, tools and workflows in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ELIXIR's 23 nodes have reacted swiftly to support researchers in their combined efforts against the pandemic setting out three joint priorities: 1. Connecting national COVID-19 data platforms to create federated European COVID-19 Data Spaces; 2. Fostering good data management to make COVID-19 data open, FAIR and reusable over the long term; 3. Providing open tools, workflows and computational resources to drive reproducible and collaborative science. ELIXIR's strategy is based on the support given by our national nodes - collectively spanning over 200 institutes - to research projects and on partnering with community initiatives to drive development and adoption of good data practice and community driven standards. ELIXIR Nodes provide support activities locally and internationally, from provisioning compute capabilities to helping collect viral sequence data from hospitals. Some Nodes have prioritised access to their national cloud and compute facilities for all COVID-19 research projects, while others have developed tools to search, access and share all data related to the pandemic in a national healthcare setting.


title: Vexing, Veiled, and Inequitable: Social Distancing and the "Rights" Divide in the Age of COVID-19

text: Although unprecedented in scope and beyond all our life experiences, sweeping social distancing measures are not without historical precedent. Historically, racism, stigma, and discrimination resulted in grossly inequitable application of disease containment measures. But history also provides examples in which broad measures enjoyed remarkable public support. When it comes to COVID-19, blame and division continue to shape containment responses. But the COVID-19 pandemic also resonates with moments in which there was broad social support for containment precisely because lockdowns or stay at home orders are, on the surface, remarkably equitable. Yet even in a context in which a majority of Americans support social distancing, small but coordinated conservative groups are challenging social distancing as a matter of individual rights. In sharp contrast, vulnerable populations, who bear the heaviest burden of disease, have claimed a right to social distancing as a matter of protection.


Skin amidst COVID-19 pandemic


Combination prevention for COVID-19


title: Incubation period of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infections among travellers from Wuhan, China, 20-28 January 2020

text: A novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is causing an outbreak of viral pneumonia that started in Wuhan, China. Using the travel history and symptom onset of 88 confirmed cases that were detected outside Wuhan in the early outbreak phase, we estimate the mean incubation period to be 6.4 days (95% credible interval: 5.6-7.7), ranging from 2.1 to 11.1 days (2.5th to 97.5th percentile). These values should help inform 2019-nCoV case definitions and appropriate quarantine durations.


title: Under the COVID-19 lockdown: Rapid review about the unique case of North Cyprus

text: COVID-19 has been causing tragic outcomes all over the world. On one island nation, North Cyprus, that has been politically isolated from the rest of the world due to a very complicated history and political stance, the rapid enforcement of lockdown measures, despite having negative psychological effects, helped interfere with the spread of COVID-19 and flatten the curve. We propose that the traumas of the past may have caused resilient factors when faced with the psychological impact of COVID-19, and lack of trust toward the capacities of governing bodies may have caused people take strict precautions to help contain the spread of the virus. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


A blueprint for recovery for the postcoronavirus (COVID-19) world


title: Coronavirus disease-19 and fertility: viral host entry protein expression in male and female reproductive tissues

text: OBJECTIVE: To identify cell types in the male and female reproductive systems at risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection because of the expression of host genes and proteins used by the virus for cell entry. DESIGN: Descriptive analysis of transcriptomic and proteomic data. SETTING: Academic research department and clinical diagnostic laboratory. PATIENT(S): Not applicable (focus was on previously generated gene and protein expression data). INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Identification of cell types coexpressing the key angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and transmembrane serine protease 2 (TMPRSS2) genes and proteins as well as other candidates potentially involved in SARS-CoV-2 cell entry. RESULT(S): On the basis of single-cell RNA sequencing data, coexpression of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 was not detected in testicular cells, including sperm. A subpopulation of oocytes in nonhuman primate ovarian tissue was found to express ACE2 and TMPRSS2, but coexpression was not observed in ovarian somatic cells. RNA expression of TMPRSS2 in 18 samples of human cumulus cells was shown to be low or absent. There was general agreement between publicly available bulk RNA and protein datasets in terms of ACE2 and TMPRSS2 expression patterns in testis, ovary, endometrial, and placental cells. CONCLUSION(S): These analyses suggest that SARS-CoV-2 infection is unlikely to have long-term effects on male and female reproductive function. Although the results cannot be considered definitive, they imply that procedures in which oocytes are collected and fertilized in vitro are associated with very little risk of viral transmission from gametes to embryos and may indeed have the potential to minimize exposure of susceptible reproductive cell types to infection in comparison with natural conception.


title: Genetic factors associated with response to as-needed aflibercept therapy for typical neovascular age-related macular degeneration and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy

text: In the present study, we investigated the association between susceptible genetic variants to age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and response to as-needed intravitreal aflibercept injection (IAI) therapy for exudative AMD including both typical neovascular AMD and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) over 12-months. A total of 234 patients with exudative AMD were initially treated with 3 monthly IAI and thereafter as-needed IAI over 12 months. Seven variants of 6 genes including ARMS2 A69S (rs10490924), CFH (I62V:rs800292 and rs1329428), C2-CFB-SKIV2L(rs429608), C3 (rs2241394), CETP (rs3764261) and ADAMTS-9 (rs6795735) were genotyped for all participants using TaqMan technology. After adjusting for age, gender, baseline BCVA and AMD subtype, A (protective) allele of C2-CFB-SKIV2L rs429608 was associated with visual improvement at 12-month (P = 0.003). Retreatment was associated with T(risk) allele of ARMS2 A69S (P = 2.0 × 10-4; hazard ratio: 2.18:95%CI: 1.47-3.24) and C(risk) allele of CFH rs1329428 (P = 2.0 × 10-3; hazard ratio: 1.74:95%CI: 1.16-2.59) after adjusting for the baseline confounders. The need for additional injections was also associated with T allele of ARMS2 A69S (P = 1.0 × 10-5) and C allele of CFH rs1329428 (P = 3.0 × 10-3) after adjusting for the baseline confounders. The variants of ARMS2 and CFH are informative for both physicians and patients to predict recurrence and to quantify the need for additional injections.


COVID-19: cosa dice oggi l'epidemiologia ai decisori?/ [COVID-19: what does epidemiology tell to decisionmakers?]


Are there any association between COVID-19 severity and immunosuppressive therapy?


title: Geographical tracking and mapping of coronavirus disease COVID-19/severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic and associated events around the world: how 21st century GIS technologies are supporting the global fight against outbreaks and epidemics

text: In December 2019, a new virus (initially called 'Novel Coronavirus 2019-nCoV' and later renamed to SARS-CoV-2) causing severe acute respiratory syndrome (coronavirus disease COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, and rapidly spread to other parts of China and other countries around the world, despite China's massive efforts to contain the disease within Hubei. As with the original SARS-CoV epidemic of 2002/2003 and with seasonal influenza, geographic information systems and methods, including, among other application possibilities, online real-or near-real-time mapping of disease cases and of social media reactions to disease spread, predictive risk mapping using population travel data, and tracing and mapping super-spreader trajectories and contacts across space and time, are proving indispensable for timely and effective epidemic monitoring and response. This paper offers pointers to, and describes, a range of practical online/mobile GIS and mapping dashboards and applications for tracking the 2019/2020 coronavirus epidemic and associated events as they unfold around the world. Some of these dashboards and applications are receiving data updates in near-real-time (at the time of writing), and one of them is meant for individual users (in China) to check if the app user has had any close contact with a person confirmed or suspected to have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the recent past. We also discuss additional ways GIS can support the fight against infectious disease outbreaks and epidemics.


title: Optimising Secondary Prevention and Cardiac Rehabilitation for Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Position Statement from the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand (CSANZ)

text: BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has introduced a major disruption to the delivery of routine health care across the world. This provides challenges for the use of secondary prevention measures in patients with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD). The aim of this Position Statement is to review the implications for effective delivery of secondary prevention strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic. CHALLENGES: The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced limitations for many patients to access standard health services such as visits to health care professionals, medications, imaging and blood tests as well as attendance at cardiac rehabilitation. In addition, the pandemic is having an impact on lifestyle habits and mental health. Taken together, this has the potential to adversely impact the ability of practitioners and patients to adhere to treatment guidelines for the prevention of recurrent cardiovascular events. RECOMMENDATIONS: Every effort should be made to deliver safe, ongoing access to health care professionals and the use of evidenced based therapies in individuals with CVD. An increase in use of a range of electronic health platforms has the potential to transform secondary prevention. Integrating research programs that evaluate the utility of these approaches may provide important insights into how to develop more optimal approaches to secondary prevention beyond the pandemic.


title: A HaloTag-TEV genetic cassette for mechanical phenotyping of proteins from tissues

text: Single-molecule methods using recombinant proteins have generated transformative hypotheses on how mechanical forces are generated and sensed in biological tissues. However, testing these mechanical hypotheses on proteins in their natural environment remains inaccesible to conventional tools. To address this limitation, here we demonstrate a mouse model carrying a HaloTag-TEV insertion in the protein titin, the main determinant of myocyte stiffness. Using our system, we specifically sever titin by digestion with TEV protease, and find that the response of muscle fibers to length changes requires mechanical transduction through titin's intact polypeptide chain. In addition, HaloTag-based covalent tethering enables examination of titin dynamics under force using magnetic tweezers. At pulling forces < 10 pN, titin domains are recruited to the unfolded state, and produce 41.5 zJ mechanical work during refolding. Insertion of the HaloTag-TEV cassette in mechanical proteins opens opportunities to explore the molecular basis of cellular force generation, mechanosensing and mechanotransduction.


title: Photosynthetic protein classification using genome neighborhood-based machine learning feature

text: Identification of novel photosynthetic proteins is important for understanding and improving photosynthetic efficiency. Synergistically, genome neighborhood can provide additional useful information to identify photosynthetic proteins. We, therefore, expected that applying a computational approach, particularly machine learning (ML) with the genome neighborhood-based feature should facilitate the photosynthetic function assignment. Our results revealed a functional relationship between photosynthetic genes and their conserved neighboring genes observed by 'Phylo score', indicating their functions could be inferred from the genome neighborhood profile. Therefore, we created a new method for extracting patterns based on the genome neighborhood network (GNN) and applied them for the photosynthetic protein classification using ML algorithms. Random forest (RF) classifier using genome neighborhood-based features achieved the highest accuracy up to 87% in the classification of photosynthetic proteins and also showed better performance (Mathew's correlation coefficient = 0.718) than other available tools including the sequence similarity search (0.447) and ML-based method (0.361). Furthermore, we demonstrated the ability of our model to identify novel photosynthetic proteins compared to the other methods. Our classifier is available at http://bicep2.kmutt.ac.th/photomod_standalone, https://bit.ly/2S0I2Ox and DockerHub: https://hub.docker.com/r/asangphukieo/photomod.


The COVID-19 Pandemic: Consideration for Brain Infection


Prevalence and Characteristics of Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Patients With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Infection in the United States: A Multicenter Cohort Study


title: Insights into aphid prey consumption by ladybirds: Optimising field sampling methods and primer design for high throughput sequencing

text: Elucidating the diets of insect predators is important in basic and applied ecology, such as for improving the effectiveness of conservation biological control measures to promote natural enemies of crop pests. Here, we investigated the aphid diet of two common aphid predators in Central European agroecosystems, the native Coccinella septempunctata (Linnaeus) and the invasive Harmonia axyridis (Pallas; Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) by means of high throughput sequencing (HTS). For acquiring insights into diets of mobile flying insects at landscape scale minimizing trapping bias is important, which imposes methodological challenges for HTS. We therefore assessed the suitability of three field sampling methods (sticky traps, pan traps and hand-collection) as well as new aphid primers for identifying aphid prey consumption by coccinellids through HTS. The new aphid primers facilitate identification to species level in 75% of the European aphid genera investigated. Aphid primer specificity was high in silico and in vitro but low in environmental samples with the methods used, although this could be improved in future studies. For insect trapping we conclude that sticky traps are a suitable method in terms of minimizing sampling bias, contamination risk and trapping success, but compromise on DNA-recovery rate. The aphid diets of both field-captured ladybird species were dominated by Microlophium carnosum, the common nettle aphid. Another common prey was Sitobion avenae (cereal aphid), which got more often detected in C. septempunctata compared to H. axyridis. Around one third of the recovered aphid taxa were common crop pests. We conclude that sampling methodologies need constant revision but that our improved aphid primers offer currently one of the best solutions for broad screenings of coccinellid predation on aphids.


COVID-19: opening a new paradigm in thromboprophylaxis for critically ill patients?


title: SARS-CoV-2, a Threat to Privacy?

text: The global SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is currently putting a massive strain on the world's critical infrastructures. With healthcare systems and internet service providers already struggling to provide reliable service, some operators may, intentionally or unintentionally, lever out privacy-protecting measures to increase their system's efficiency in fighting the virus. Moreover, though it may seem all encouraging to see the effectiveness of authoritarian states in battling the crisis, we, the authors of this paper, would like to raise the community's awareness towards developing more effective means in battling the crisis without the need to limit fundamental human rights. To analyze the current situation, we are discussing and evaluating the steps corporations and governments are taking to condemn the virus by applying established privacy research.


COVID-19 e Estado de Hipercoagulabilidade: Uma Nova Perspectiva Terapêutica./ COVID-19 e Estado de Hipercoagulabilidade: Uma Nova Perspectiva Terapêutica./ COVID-19 and Hypercoagulable State: A New Therapeutic Perspective


SARS-CoV-2 and dentistry


title: Effects of air pollutants on the transmission and severity of respiratory viral infections

text: Particulate matter, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ozone, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are among the outdoor air pollutants that are major factors in diseases, causing especially adverse respiratory effects in humans. On the other hand, the role of respiratory viruses in the pathogenesis of severe respiratory infections is an issue of great importance. The present literature review was aimed at assessing the potential effects of air pollutants on the transmission and severity of respiratory viral infections. We have reviewed the scientific literature regarding the association of outdoor air pollution and respiratory viruses on respiratory diseases. Evidence supports a clear association between air concentrations of some pollutants and human respiratory viruses interacting to adversely affect the respiratory system. Given the undoubted importance and topicality of the subject, we have paid special attention to the association between air pollutants and the transmission and severity of the effects caused by the coronavirus named SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19. Although to date, and by obvious reasons, the number of studies on this issue are still scarce, most results indicate that chronic exposure to air pollutants delays/complicates recovery of patients of COVID-19 and leads to more severe and lethal forms of this disease. This deserves immediate and in-depth experimental investigations.


title: The SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Pipeline: an Overview

text: Purpose of Review: The goal of this review is to provide a timely overview on efforts to develop a vaccine for the 2019 novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Recent Findings: Previous research efforts to develop a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) vaccine in the years following the 2003 pandemic have opened the door for investigators to design vaccine concepts and approaches for the COVID-19 epidemic in China. Both SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 exhibit a high degree of genetic similarity and bind to the same host cell ACE2 receptor. Based on previous experience with SARS-CoV vaccines, it is expected that all COVID-19 vaccines will require careful safety evaluations for immunopotentiation that could lead to increased infectivity or eosinophilic infiltration. Besides this, a COVID-19 vaccine target product profile must address vaccinating at-risk human populations including frontline healthcare workers, individuals over the age of 60, and those with underlying and debilitating chronic conditions. Among the vaccine technologies under evaluation are whole virus vaccines, recombinant protein subunit vaccines, and nucleic acid vaccines. Summary: Each current vaccine strategy has distinct advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is paramount that multiple strategies be advanced quickly and then evaluated for safety and efficacy. Ultimately, the safety studies to minimize undesired immunopotentiation will become the most significant bottleneck in terms of time.


title: COVID-19 and the production of knowledge regarding recommendations during pregnancy: a scoping review

text: OBJECTIVE: to map the production of knowledge regarding recommendations for providing care to pregnant women dealing with the novel coronavirus. METHOD: scoping review, using a broadened strategy to search databases and repositories, as well as the reference lists in the sources used. Data were collected and analyzed by two independent reviewers. Data were analyzed and synthesized in the form of a narrative. RESULTS: the final sample was composed of 24 records, the content of which was synthesized in these conceptual categories: clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment, working pregnant women, vaccine development, complications, prenatal care, vertical transmission, and placental transmissibility. It is recommended to confirm pregnancy and disease early on, to use technological resources for screening and providing guidance and support to pregnant women. CONCLUSION: recommendations emphasize isolation, proper rest, sleep, nutrition, hydration, medications, and in the more severe cases, oxygen support, monitoring of vital signs, emotional support, and multiprofessional and individualized care. Medications should be used with caution due to a lack of evidence. Future research is needed to analyze the impact of the infection at the beginning of pregnancy and the psychological aspects of pregnant women infected with the virus.


title: Disability Rights as a Necessary Framework for Crisis Standards of Care and the Future of Health Care

text: In this essay, we suggest practical ways to shift the framing of crisis standards of care toward disability justice. We elaborate on the vision statement provided in the 2010 Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Medicine) "Summary of Guidance for Establishing Crisis Standards of Care for Use in Disaster Situations," which emphasizes fairness; equitable processes; community and provider engagement, education, and communication; and the rule of law. We argue that interpreting these elements through disability justice entails a commitment to both distributive and recognitive justice. The disability rights movement's demand "Nothing about us, without us" requires substantive inclusion of disabled people in decision-making related to their interests, including in crisis planning before, during, and after a pandemic like Covid-19.


Virtual Cafes: An Innovative Way for Rapidly Disseminating Educational Best Practices and Building Community During COVID-19


Adrenomedullin in COVID-19 induced endotheliitis


title: Air pollution in Ontario, Canada during the COVID-19 State of Emergency

text: In March of 2020, the province of Ontario declared a State of Emergency (SOE) to reduce the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). This disruption to the economy provided an opportunity to measure change in air pollution when the population spends more time at home with fewer trips. Hourly air pollution observations were obtained for fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides and ozone from the Ontario air monitoring network for 2020 and the previous five years. The analysis is focused on a five-week period during the SOE with a previous five-week period used as a control. Fine particulate matter did not show any significant reductions during the SOE. Ozone concentrations at 12 of the 32 monitors were lower than any of the previous five-years; however, four locations were above average. Average ozone concentrations were 1 ppb lower during the SOE, but this ranged at individual monitors from 1.5 ppb above to 4.2 ppb below long-term conditions. Nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxides demonstrated a reduction across Ontario, and both pollutants displayed their lowest concentrations for 22 of 29 monitors. Individual monitors ranged from 1 ppb (nitrogen dioxide) and 5 ppb (nitrogen oxides) above average to 4.5 (nitrogen dioxide) and 7.1 ppb (nitrogen oxides) below average. Overall, both nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen oxides demonstrated a reduction across Ontario in response to the COVID-19 SOE, ozone concentrations suggested a possible reduction, and fine particulate matter has not varied from historic concentrations.


COVID-19 Guideline Modifications as CMS Announces "Opening Up America Again": Comments from the Society of Surgical Oncology


title: Biodiversity and Phylogenetic Relationships of Novel Bacteriocinogenic Strains Isolated from Animal's Droppings at the Zoological Garden of Lille, France

text: This study aimed at exploring droppings of animals living in captivity in the zoological garden (Zoo) of Lille (France), as novel sources of bacteriocinogenic strains. A collection of 295 bacterial isolates was constituted from droppings of capybara, alpaca, muntjac, zebra, tapir, rhinoceros, binturong, armadillo, saki monkey and cockatoo. Of 295 isolates, 51 exhibited antagonism against a panel of pathogenic target bacteria like Escherichia coli MC4100, Clostridium perfringens DSM 756 and Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica Newport ATCC6962. Remarkably, within this collection, only 2 Gram-negative bacilli exhibited activity against E. coli MC4100 strain used as target organism. Then, the 16S rDNA sequencing revealed these thereafter cited species, Pediococcus pentosaceus, Weissella cibaria, E. coli, Lactobacillus reuteri, Enterococcus hirae and Enterococcus faecalis. Characterization of this antagonism has revealed 11 strains able producing extracellular protease-sensitive inhibitory compounds. These strains included E. coli ICVB442 and ICVB443, Ent. faecalis ICVB472, ICVB474, ICVB477 ICVB479, ICVB481, ICVB497 and ICVB501 and Ped. pentosaceus ICVB491 and ICVB492. The genomes of the 5 most promising bacteriocinogenic strains were sequenced and analysed with Bagel4 software. Afterwards, this bioinformatics analysis permitted to locate genes encoding bacteriocins like colicin Y (E. coli), enterocin 1071A, enterocin 107 B (Ent. faecalis) and penocin A (Ped. pentosaceus), associating the above-mentioned antibacterial activity of proteinaceous nature to possible production of bacteriocins. All these results enabled us to select different bacteriocinogenic strains for a further characterization in terms of beneficial traits.


Pandemic: examining readiness for infectious disease outbreaks


Collateral effects of COVID-19 pandemic in pediatric hematooncology: Fatalities caused by diagnostic delay


A Bold Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: Medical Students, National Service, and Public Health


title: Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Household Contacts of a Healthcare Provider, Wuhan, China

text: We found that all 5 asymptomatic household contacts of a Wuhan, China, physician with coronavirus disease had severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 detected by PCR. The index patient and 2 contacts also had abnormal chest computed tomography scans. Asymptomatic infected household contacts of healthcare workers with coronavirus disease might be underrecognized.


title: SARS-CoV-2 viral spike G614 mutation exhibits higher case fatality rate

text: AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic is caused by infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The major mutation detected to date in the SARS-CoV-2 viral envelope spike protein, which is responsible for virus attachment to the host and is also the main target for host antibodies, is a mutation of an aspartate (D) at position 614 found frequently in Chinese strains to a glycine (G). We sought to infer health impact of this mutation. RESULT: Increased case fatality rate correlated strongly with the proportion of viruses bearing G614 on a country by country basis. The amino acid at position 614 occurs at an internal protein interface of the viral spike, and the presence of G at this position was calculated to destabilise a specific conformation of the viral spike, within which the key host receptor binding site is more accessible. CONCLUSION: These results imply that G614 is a more pathogenic strain of SARS-CoV-2, which may influence vaccine design. The prevalence of this form of the virus should also be included in epidemiologic models predicting the COVID-19 health burden and fatality over time in specific regions. Physicians should be aware of this characteristic of the virus to anticipate the clinical course of infection.


title: A Sever case of of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Gansu

text: An outbreak infection with the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has developed in Wuhan since December 2019.This paper describes the first critical case in Gansu China.


COVID-19 and cancer: do we really know what we think we know?


The dilemmas of the classification of SARS-CoV-2 infection without clinical manifestations: Asymptomatic or presymptomatic


Governance of the Covid-19 response: a call for more inclusive and transparent decision-making


Predictive Mathematical Models of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Underlying Principles and Value of Projections


title: The impact of the novel coronavirus on trauma and orthopaedics in the UK

text: At first glance, the novel coronavirus pandemic and orthopaedic surgery appear separate entities. Orthopaedic surgeons are not generally considered front-line staff in terms of the treatment of the disease that the novel coronavirus causes compared with anaesthetic and medical colleagues. However, the impact that the novel coronavirus is likely to have on the musculoskeletal injury burden and the morbidity associated with chronic musculoskeletal disease is significant. This article summarises the strategies currently being developed for the remodelling of orthopaedic services in the UK and the emergency British Orthopaedic Association Standards for Trauma and Orthopaedic guidelines released on 24 March 2020 in managing urgent orthopaedic patients during the novel coronavirus pandemic.


Oncology in the Time of COVID-19


title: Corona Games: Masks, Social Distance and Mechanism Design

text: Pandemic response is a complex affair. Most governments employ a set of quasi-standard measures to fight COVID-19 including wearing masks, social distancing, virus testing and contact tracing. We argue that some non-trivial factors behind the varying effectiveness of these measures are selfish decision-making and the differing national implementations of the response mechanism. In this paper, through simple games, we show the effect of individual incentives on the decisions made with respect to wearing masks and social distancing, and how these may result in a sub-optimal outcome. We also demonstrate the responsibility of national authorities in designing these games properly regarding the chosen policies and their influence on the preferred outcome. We promote a mechanism design approach: it is in the best interest of every government to carefully balance social good and response costs when implementing their respective pandemic response mechanism.


title: Identification and characterization of Jingmen tick virus in rodents from Xinjiang, China

text: Jingmen tick virus (JMTV) is a recently identified virus which provides an unexpected connection between segmented and unsegmented RNA viruses. Recent investigations reveal that JMTV including JMTV-like virus (Alongshan virus) could be associated with human disease, suggesting the significance of JMTV in public health. To better understand the genetic diversity and host range of JMTV, a total of 164 rodents representing 8 species were collected in Qapqal Xibe county of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, and were screened for JMTVs using RT- PCR. Consequently, JMTV was identified in 42 rodents including 23 Microtus arvalis voles (24.5%), 9 Apodemus uralensis mice (29.0%), 5 Mus musculus mice, 1 Rhombomys opimus gerbil, 1 Meriones tamariscinus gerbil, 1 Meriones libycus gerbil, 1 Cricetulus migratorius hamster and 1 Microtus gregalis vole. Interestingly, nearly complete genome sequences were successfully recovered from 7 JMTV positive samples. Although the newly identified rodent JMTVs were closely related to those previously identified in ticks from China, based on the phylogenetic analysis of the S1, S2 and S3 segments, the newly identified rodent viruses clustered into two genetic groups. One group comprised of viruses only found in M. arvalis, while another group included viruses from A. uralensis, C. migratorius and M. gregalis. However, all rodent viruses clustered together in the S4 tree. Considering rodents live in close proximity to humans, more efforts are needed to investigate the role of rodents in the evolution and transmission of JMTV in nature.


title: Aesthetic presence: The role of the arts in the education of creative arts therapists in the classroom and online

text: Literature about the integral role of the arts in learning is widely available, but much less has been written about how the arts and aesthetics support education in the creative arts therapies, particularly in the online learning environment. This article introduces the concept of aesthetic presence within the Community of Inquiry pedagogical model in line with values espoused within a Universal Design for Learning framework. The authors contextualize this concept with examples of how attention to the use of aesthetic and multimedia strategies in the classroom and in the online learning environment may foster openness and connection, encourage flexibility, humor, critical thinking, and animate and facilitate conversations about emergent and emotionally difficult themes while increasing accessibility for different kinds of learners.


"Questionable" peer review in the publishing pandemic during the time of COVID-19: implications for policy makers and stakeholders


Coinfection of Influenza Virus and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-COV-2)


title: Modelling spatial variations of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa

text: Clinical and epidemiological evidence has been advanced for human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus rampaging the world since late 2019. Outliers in the human-to-human transmission are yet to be explored. In this study, we examined the spatial density and leaned statistical credence to the global debate. We constructed spatial variations of clusters that examined the nexus between COVID-19 attributable deaths and confirmed cases. We rely on publicly available data on confirmed cases and death across Africa to unravel the unobserved factors, that could be responsible for the spread of COVID-19. We relied on the dynamic system generalised method of moment estimation procedure and found a ~0.045 Covid19 deaths as a result of confirmed cases in Africa. We accounted for cross-sectional dependence and found a basis for the strict orthogonal relationship. Policy measures were discussed.


Clinical characteristics and prognosis in cancer patients with COVID-19: A single center's retrospective study


title: Identification of Antiviral Drug Candidates against SARS-CoV-2 from FDA-Approved Drugs

text: Drug repositioning is the only feasible option to immediately address the COVID-19 global challenge. We screened a panel of 48 FDA-approved drugs against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) which were preselected by an assay of SARS-CoV. We identified 24 potential antiviral drug candidates against SARS-CoV-2 infection. Some drug candidates showed very low 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC50s), and in particular, two FDA-approved drugs-niclosamide and ciclesonide-were notable in some respects.


title: Evaluation of two automated and three rapid lateral flow immunoassays for the detection of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

text: INTRODUCTION: Several SARS-CoV-2 immunoassays have been developed recently. The purpose of this study was to assess the performance of five immunoassays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. METHODS: Two quantitative automated immunoassays (Maglumi™2019-n-Cov IgG and IgM and Euroimmun Anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgA assays) and three lateral flow rapid tests were performed. This retrospective study included 200 residual sera from patients and healthy volunteers. Case serum samples (n = 128) were obtained from COVID-19 patients confirmed by RT-qPCR and CT-scan. Days since onset of symptoms was collected from their medical records. Control non-SARS-CoV-2 samples (n = 72) were obtained from anonymous stored residual serum samples. RESULTS: Maglumi™ IgG/IgM tests showed overall less sensitivity than Euroimmun IgG/IgA test (84.4 % versus 64.3 %). Both tests showed similar specificities of IgG at 99 % and 100 %, respectively. The results from the lateral flow assays were easily interpretable with unambiguous coloured reading bands. The overall sensitivity of the three tests was similar (around 70 %) without any significant differences. The sensitivity of the three lateral flow assays and also of the serological quantitative assays increased during the second week after symptom onset and all reached similar values (91 %-94 %) after 14 days. CONCLUSION: This study shows accurate and equivalent performance of the five serological antibody assays (ELISA, CLIA and three lateral flow tests) in detecting SARS-CoV-2 antibodies 14 days after the onset of COVID-19 symptoms. This is compatible with their application in specific clinical contexts and in determining epidemiological strategies for the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: The effect of the 2019 novel coronavirus pandemic on college students in Wuhan

text: OBJECTIVE: This study explored a multiple mediation model in Wuhan's college students. Positive thinking and resilience were identified as mediators between 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) victimization experiences and mental health. METHOD: The sample included 384 from 4 universities in Wuhan, China. Four structured instruments were applied to the college students, including scale of the 2019-nCoV coronavirus victimization experience, scale of the positive thinking, scale of the resilience, and scale of the mental health. The responses were scored using a 5-point Likert scale. Structural equation models were used to construct measurement and structural models. RESULTS: The findings confirmed that the 2019-nCoV victimization experience was a negative predictor of mental health; positive thinking and resilience were strong mediators between 2019-nCoV victimization experience and mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that a complete model was significant because positive thinking compensated for resilience. Notably, these 2 strong mediators will vastly resist the negative influences of 2019-nCoV victimization experience on mental health in Wuhan's college students until the end of the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


title: Attaining the quadruple aim of worker well-being in the CovID-19 crisis: Competing ethical priorities

text: The COVID-19 pandemic presents ethical challenges to health care organizations and society as a whole regarding protection from a lethal communicable disease In traditional medical ethics, we make an appeal to the duty of the professional to serve in the face of personal peril At the same time, health care organizations are obligated to furnish protective equipment and provide a safe workplace in order to mitigate risk The ethical calculus of utility, or greatest good for the greatest number, supplies some guidance in situations of scarce resources by sustaining as large a presence of front line workers through prevention or therapeutic intervention to combat disease Determinations of utility do not absolve health care organizations of a duty to protect and avert future crises through better planning A misguided pursuit of efficiency has resulted in excessive burden of risk for health workers providing direct patient care and for workers in supporting roles There is an important duty to plan to lessen such risk in future pandemics


Management of nutritional consultations in local clinics during SARS-CoV-2 pandemic


title: Haldane Phase in Spin-1 Bosons with a Flat Band

text: We demonstrate that the Haldane phase can be realized with ultracold spin-1 atoms loaded on a lattice which has a flat band at the bottom of the band structure. The many-body ground state of the model Hamiltonian is exactly solvable in a special case, which turns out to serve as a representative of the Haldane phase. In this system, the Haldane phase is protected by $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ spin rotation symmetry or time-reversal symmetry. Depending on several parameters, the Hamiltonian can either be in a gapped Haldane or a gapless critical phase. In a certain limit, the phase diagram is determined analytically by perturbation theory, while for general cases, the phase diagram is studied numerically by the variational uniform matrix product state (VUMPS) algorithm.


title: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Radiology Research Enterprise: Radiology Scientific Expert Panel

text: The current COVID-19 crisis continues to grow and has resulted in marked changes to clinical operations. In parallel with clinical preparedness, universities have shut down the majority of scientific research activities. Radiology researchers are currently grappling with these challenges that will continue to affect current and future imaging research. The purpose of this article is to describe the collective experiences of a diverse international group of academic radiology research programs in managing their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The acute response at six distinct institutions will first be described, exploring common themes, challenges, priorities, and practices. This will be followed by reflections about the future of radiology research in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Adapting Head and Neck Cancer Management in the Time of COVID-19


title: Risk factors associated with COVID-19 infection: a retrospective cohort study based on contacts tracing

text: This study aimed to estimate the attack rates, and identify the risk factors of COVID-19 infection. Based on a retrospective cohort study, we investigated 11,580 contacts of COVID-19 cases in Guangdong Province from 10 January to 15 March 2020. All contacts were tested by RT-PCR to detect their infection of SARS-COV-2. Attack rates by characteristics were calculated. Logistic regression was used to estimate the risk factors of infection for COVID-19. A total of 515 of 11,580 contacts were identified to be infected with SARS-COV-2. Compared to young adults aged 20-29 years, the infected risk was higher in children (RR: 2.59, 95%CI: 1.79-3.76), and old people aged 60-69 years (RR: 5.29, 95%CI: 3.76-7.46). Females also had higher infected risk (RR: 1.66, 95%CI: 1.39-2.00). People having close relationship with index cases encountered higher infected risk (RR for spouse: 20.68, 95%CI: 14.28-29.95; RR for non-spouse family members: 9.55, 95%CI: 6.73-13.55; RR for close relatives: 5.90, 95%CI: 4.06-8.59). Moreover, contacts exposed to index case in symptomatic period (RR: 2.15, 95%CI: 1.67-2.79), with critically severe symptoms (RR: 1.61, 95%CI: 1.00-2.57), with symptoms of dizzy (RR: 1.58, 95%CI: 1.08-2.30), myalgia (RR: 1.49, 95%CI: 1.15-1.94), and chill (RR: 1.42, 95%CI: 1.05-1.92) had higher infected risks. Children, old people, females, and family members are susceptible of COVID-19 infection, while index cases in the incubation period had lower contagiousness. Our findings will be helpful for developing targeted prevention and control strategies to combat the worldwide pandemic.


title: Understanding Knowledge and Behaviors Related to CoViD-19 Epidemic in Italian Undergraduate Students: The EPICO Study

text: Background: On February 2020, the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic began in Italy. In order to contain the spread of the virus, the Italian government adopted emergency measures nationwide, including closure of schools and universities, workplaces and subsequently lockdown. This survey was carried out among Italian undergraduates to explore their level of knowledge about the epidemic and the behaviors they adopted during the lockdown. Methods: An electronic questionnaire was administered to the students attending three Italian universities. Results: A good level of knowledge about the epidemic and its control was registered in the sample, mainly among students attending life sciences degree courses. The majority of the students did not modify their diet and smoking habits, while a great part of the sample reported a decrease in physical activity (PA). Conclusions: Students from life sciences courses showed a higher awareness regarding the infection and the control measures. The lockdown caused an important reduction of PA. Preventive interventions should transform the restrictive measures also as an opportunity to improve lifestyle.


The SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak: Diagnosis, Infection Prevention, and Public Perception


title: COVID-19 and older people in Asia: Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia calls to actions

text: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has casted a huge impact on global public health and the economy. In this challenging situation, older people are vulnerable to the infection and the secondary effects of the pandemic and need special attention. To evaluate the impacts of COVID-19 on older people, it is important to balance the successful pandemic control and active management of secondary consequences. These considerations are particularly salient in the Asian context, with its diversity among countries in terms of sociocultural heritage, healthcare setup and availability of resources. Thus, the Asian Working Group for Sarcopenia summarized the considerations of Asian countries focusing on responses and difficulties in each country, impacts of health inequity related to the COVID-19 pandemic and proposed recommendations for older people, which are germane to the Asian context. More innovative services should be developed to address the increasing demands for new approaches to deliver healthcare in these difficult times and to establish resilient healthcare systems for older people. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; 9999: n/a-n/a.


title: Migrant workers and COVID-19

text: OBJECTIVES: Daily numbers of COVID-19 in Singapore from March to May 2020, the cause of a surge in cases in April and the national response were examined, and regulations on migrant worker accommodation studied. METHODS: Information was gathered from daily reports provided by the Ministry of Health, Singapore Statues online and a Ministerial statement given at a Parliament sitting on 4 May 2020. RESULTS: A marked escalation in the daily number of new COVID-19 cases was seen in early April 2020. The majority of cases occurred among an estimated 295 000 low-skilled migrant workers living in foreign worker dormitories. As of 6 May 2020, there were 17 758 confirmed COVID-19 cases among dormitory workers (88% of 20 198 nationally confirmed cases). One dormitory housing approximately 13 000 workers had 19.4% of residents infected. The national response included mobilising several government agencies and public volunteers. There was extensive testing of workers in dormitories, segregation of healthy and infected workers, and daily observation for fever and symptoms. Twenty-four dormitories were declared as 'isolation areas', with residents quarantined for 14 days. New housing, for example, vacant public housing flats, military camps, exhibition centres, floating hotels have been provided that will allow for appropriate social distancing. CONCLUSION: The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted migrant workers as a vulnerable occupational group. Ideally, matters related to inadequate housing of vulnerable migrant workers need to be addressed before a pandemic.


title: Modelling the second wave of COVID-19 infections in France and Italy via a Stochastic SEIR model

text: COVID-19 has forced quarantine measures in several countries across the world. These measures have proven to be effective in significantly reducing the prevalence of the virus. To date, no effective treatment or vaccine is available. In the effort of preserving both public health as well as the economical and social textures, France and Italy governments have partially released lockdown measures. Here we extrapolate the long-term behavior of the epidemics in both countries using a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR) model where parameters are stochastically perturbed to handle the uncertainty in the estimates of COVID-19 prevalence. Our results suggest that uncertainties in both parameters and initial conditions rapidly propagate in the model and can result in different outcomes of the epidemics leading or not to a second wave of infections. Using actual knowledge, asymptotic estimates of COVID-19 prevalence can fluctuate of order of ten millions units in both countries.


Regulating drugs, medical devices, and diagnostic tests in the European Union: early lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic?


Impact of COVID-19 outbreak on spinal pathology: single center first impression


Disinformation, Misinformation and Inequality-Driven Mistrust in the Time of COVID-19: Lessons Unlearned from AIDS Denialism


Management of Traumatic Spinal Fracture in Patient with Coronavirus Disease 2019 Situation


Evidence of mother-to-newborn infection with COVID-19


title: Out of Hospital Management of LVAD Patients During COVID-19 Outbreak

text: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been declared a pandemic touching thousands of patients all around the world. Patients supported with left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are usually affected by long-standing cardiovascular diseases and subjected to variations of the normal cardiovascular physiology, thus requiring an even closer monitoring during the COVID-19 outbreak. Nevertheless, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a drastic reduction of routine clinical activities and a consequent risk of looser connections between LVAD patients and their referring center. Potential deleterious effects of such a situation can be delayed recognition of LVAD-related complications, misdiagnosis of COVID-19 and impaired social and psychological well-being for patents and families. As one of the largest LVAD programs worldwide, we designed a sustainable and enforceable telemonitoring algorithm which can be easily adapted to every LVAD center so to maintain optimal quality of care of LVAD patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.


Pain Management Best Practices from Multispecialty Organizations During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Public Health Crises-Evaluating the Risk of Infection Associated with Corticosteroid Injections


Tuberculosis and HIV responses threatened by COVID-19


title: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells in obstetrical and gynecological diseases

text: Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) are a heterogeneous group of myeloid-origin cells which have immunosuppressive activities in several conditions, such as cancer and inflammation. Recent research has also associated MDSCs with numerous obstetrical and gynecological diseases. During pregnancy, MDSCs accumulate to ensure maternal-fetal immune tolerance, whereas they are decreased in patients who suffer from early miscarriage or preeclampsia. While the etiology of endometriosis is still unknown, abnormal accumulation of MDSCs in the peripheral blood and peritoneal fluid, alongside an increased level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been observed in these patients, which is central to the cellular immune regulations by MDSCs. Additionally, the regulation of MDSCs observed in tumors is also applicable to gynecologic neoplasms, including ovarian cancer and cervical cancer. More recently, emerging evidence has shown that there are high levels of MDSCs in premature ovarian failure (POF) and in vitro fertilization (IVF), but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. In this review, the generation and mechanisms of MDSCs are summarized. In particular the modulation of these cells in immune-related obstetrical and gynecological diseases is discussed, including potential treatment options targeting MDSCs.


title: Emerging evidence for neuropsycho-consequences of COVID-19

text: The pandemic novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become a global concern in which respiratory system is not the only one involved. Previous researches have presented the common clinical manifestations including respiratory symptoms (i.e., fever and cough), fatigue and myalgia. However, there is limited evidence for neurological and psychological influences by SARS-CoV-2. In this review, we discuss the common neurological manifestations of COVID-19 including acute cerebrovascular disease (i.e., cerebral hemorrhage) and muscle ache. Possible viral transmission to the nervous system may occur via circulation, an upper nasal transcribrial route and/or conjunctival route. Also, we cannot ignore the psychological influence on the public, medical staff and confirmed patients. Dealing with public psychological barriers and performing psychological crisis intervention are an important part of public health interventions.


Reopening Schools in the Time of Pandemic: Look to the School Nurses


title: Spectrum of chest computed tomographic (CT) findings in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) patients in India

text: PURPOSE: To report the spectrum of chest computed tomographic (CT) imaging findings in coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) infected Indian patients. METHODS: This was a prospective descriptive study comprising 147 consecutive reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) positive patients who underwent CT chest. Prevalence, distribution, extent and type of abnormal lung findings were recorded. RESULTS: Among the total study cohort of 147 patients, 104 (70.7 %) were males and 43 (29.3 %) were females with mean age of 40.9â¯±â¯17.2 years (range 24-71 years). We observed lung parenchymal abnormalities in 51 (34.7 %) cases whereas 96 (65.3 %) RT-PCR positive cases had a normal chest CT. Only 12.2 % of the patients were dyspneic, 6.1 % had desaturation, 7.4 % had increased respiratory rate and 10.9 % had comorbidities. Among the patients with abnormal CT findings bilateral 39/51 (76.5 %), multilobar (88.2 %) lung involvement with a predominant peripheral and posterior distribution was commonly observed. With regards to the type of opacity, ground glass opacity (GGO) was the dominant abnormality found in all 51 (100 %) cases. Pure GGO was observed in 15 (29.4 %), GGO with crazy paving pattern was seen in 15 (29.4 %) and GGO mixed with consolidation was noted in 21(41.2 %). Peri-lesional or intralesional segmental or subsegmental pulmonary vessel enlargement was observed in 36 (70.6 %) cases. CONCLUSION: In this study population predominantly with mild symptoms and few comorbidities, two-thirds of RT-PCR positive patients had a normal chest CT; whereas the remaining patients showed typical findings of predominant GGOs with a bilateral distribution and peripheral predominance.


title: COVID-19 Waves: Importance of Accumulative Mortality per Million Inhabitants

text: The reported number of new cases underestimates the real spread of COVID-19 pandemic because of non-tested asymptomatic people and limited global access to reliable diagnostic tests. In this context, COVID-19 mortality with confirmed diagnosis becomes an attractive source of information to be included in the analysis of perspectives and proposals. Objective data are required to calculate the capacity of resources provided by health systems. New strategies are needed to stabilize or minimize the mortality surge. However, we will not afford this goal until more alternatives were available. We still need an effective treatment, an affordable vaccine, or a collective achievement of sufficient immunity (reaching up to 70% of the whole population). At any time, the arriving waves of the pandemic are testing the capacity of governments. The health services struggle to keep the plateau in a steady-state below 100 deaths per million inhabitants. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the alternatives and supplies based on the current and near-future expected demands imposed by the number of deaths by COVID-19. Estimating COVID-19 mortality in various scenarios with the gradual release of social constraints will help predict the magnitude of those arriving waves.


title: Cost-effectiveness analysis of genetic diagnostic strategies for Lynch syndrome in Italy

text: Lynch syndrome (LS) is an autosomal dominant condition caused by pathogenic variants in mismatch repair (MMR) genes that predispose individuals to different malignancies, such as colorectal cancer (CRC) and endometrial cancer. Current guidelines recommended testing for LS in individuals with newly diagnosed CRC to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality in relatives. Economic evaluations in support of such approach, however, are not available in Italy. We developed a decision-analytic model to analyze the cost-effectiveness of LS screening from the perspective of the Italian National Health System. Three testing strategies: the sequencing of all MMR genes without prior tumor analysis (Strategy 1), a sequential IHC and MS-MLPA analysis (Strategy 2), and an age-targeted strategy with a revised Bethesda criteria assessment before IHC and methylation-specific MLPA for patients ≥ than 70 years old (Strategy 3) were analyzed and compared to the "no testing" strategy. Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) in relatives after colonoscopy, aspirin prophylaxis and an intensive gynecological surveillance were estimated through a Markov model. Assuming a CRC incidence rate of 0.09% and a share of patients affected by LS equal to 2.81%, the number of detected pathogenic variants among CRC cases ranges, in a given year, between 910 and 1167 depending on the testing strategy employed. The testing strategies investigated, provided one-time to the entire eligible population (CRC patients), were associated with an overall cost ranging between 1,753,059.93-10,388,000.00. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of the Markov model ranged from 941.24 /QALY to 1,681.93 /QALY, thus supporting that "universal testing" versus "no testing" is cost-effective, but not necessarily in comparison with age-targeted strategies. This is the first economic evaluation on different testing strategies for LS in Italy. The results might support the introduction of cost-effective recommendations for LS screening in Italy.


Supplements for COVID-19: A modifiable environmental risk


title: Early phylogenetic estimate of the effective reproduction number of SARS-CoV-2

text: To reconstruct the evolutionary dynamics of the 2019 novel-coronavirus recently causing an outbreak in Wuhan, China, 52 SARS-CoV-2 genomes available on 4 February 2020 at Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data were analyzed. The two models used to estimate the reproduction number (coalescent-based exponential growth and a birth-death skyline method) indicated an estimated mean evolutionary rate of 7.8 × 10-4 subs/site/year (range, 1.1 × 10-4 -15 × 10-4 ) and a mean tMRCA of the tree root of 73 days. The estimated R value was 2.6 (range, 2.1-5.1), and increased from 0.8 to 2.4 in December 2019. The estimated mean doubling time of the epidemic was between 3.6 and 4.1 days. This study proves the usefulness of phylogeny in supporting the surveillance of emerging new infections even as the epidemic is growing.


Coronavirus Disease 2019 and Children: What Pediatric Health Care Clinicians Need to Know


A coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak in a hospital and hospital closure: A note


title: Validation and Psychometric Evaluation of the Italian Version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale

text: Background: The advent of COVID-19 worldwide has led to consequences for people's health, both physical and psychological, such as fear and anxiety. This is the case in Italy, one of the countries most affected by the pandemic. Given the heightened fear concerning COVID-19 in Italy., the present study analyzed the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S). Methods: The sample comprised 250 Italian participants who were administered Italian versions of the FCV-19S, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Severity Measure for Specific Phobia-Adult (SMSP-A). Several psychometric tests were performed to investigate the validity and reliability of the test including confirmatory factor analysis. Results: Analysis of the data showed satisfactory psychometric characteristics and confirmed the scale's unidimensional properties. The seven FCV-19S items had acceptable correlations with the test total (from .443 to .784). Furthermore, the loadings on the factor were significant and strong (from .684 to .897). The internal consistency was very good (α = .871). Construct validity for the FCV-19S was supported by significant and positive correlations with the HADS (r=.649) and SMSP-A (r=.703). Conclusions: The Italian version of the Fear of COVID-19 Scale is valid and reliable in assessing fear of COVID-19 among the general Italian population.


title: Stroke and mechanical thrombectomy in patients with COVID-19: technical observations and patient characteristics

text: BACKGROUND: COVID-19 infections have been shown to be associated with a range of thromboembolic disease. OBJECTIVE: To describe our endovascular experience in a consecutive series of patients with COVID-19 who presented with large vessel occlusions, and to describe unique findings in this population. METHODS: Mechanical thrombectomy was performed on five consecutive patients with COVID-19 with large vessel occlusions. A retrospective study of these patients was performed. Patient demographics, laboratory values, mechanical thrombectomy technique, and clinical and angiographic outcomes were reviewed. RESULTS: Four patients with COVID-19 presented with anterior circulation occlusions and one patient with COVID-19 presented with both anterior and posterior circulation occlusions. All patients had coagulation abnormalities. Mean patient age was 52.8 years. Three patients presented with an intracranial internal carotid artery occlusion. Two patients presented with an intracranial occlusion and a tandem thrombus in the carotid bulb. One patient presented with an occlusion in both the internal carotid and basilar arteries. Clot fragmentation and distal emboli to a new vascular territory were seen in two of five (40%) patients, and downstream emboli were seen in all five (100%) patients. Patient clinical outcome was generally poor in this series of patients with COVID-19 large vessel occlusion. CONCLUSION: Our series of patients with COVID-19 demonstrated coagulation abnormalities, and compared with our previous experience with mechanical thrombectomy in large vessel occlusion, this group of patients were younger, had tandem or multiple territory occlusions, a large clot burden, and a propensity for clot fragmentation. These patients present unique challenges that make successful revascularization difficult.


title: Disability and quality of life before and during the COVID-19 outbreak: A cross-sectional study in inflammatory bowel disease patients

text: Background/Aim: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic disorder affecting patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL) which adds to their disability. Little is known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HRQoL of IBD patients. We aimed to evaluate HRQoL in IBD patient's pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic using the IBD-disk questionnaire and explore associations between socio demographic factors, disease types, severity and impaired HRQoL in patients with IBD. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care centre in Saudi Arabia between November 2019 and March 2020 at the outpatient IBD clinics. The HRQoL of patients was assessed using the 10-item IBD-disk questionnaire. Results: A total of 59 IBD patients (40 Crohn's disease, 19 Ulcerative colitis) with a mean disease duration of 3.5 years were included. Most of the patients (77.97%) were on biologics while 35.59% were on immune modulators, 16.94% on 5-ASA, and 3.38% were on corticosteroids. There was no difference between any of the 10 IBD-disk variables pre and post-COVID-19 pandemic apart from the perception of body image, where there was a slightly more negative perception with an increase from 2.53 to 3.39 (P = 0.05) There was no significant difference in HRQoL between patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease in any of domains. Conclusion: The current study showed that disability and HRQoL appears to be unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic among our cohort, however further studies with longer follow up and larger sample size is needed.


Cutaneous manifestations in COVID-19: a first perspective


There is nothing new under the sun: ageism and intergenerational tension in the age of the COVID-19 outbreak


Treatment of nasal bridge ulceration related to protective measures for the COVID-19 epidemic


Detailed hemodynamics of fulminant myocarditis caused by COVID-19


title: Moral injury in the wake of coronavirus: Attending to the psychological impact of the pandemic

text: Moral injury is a helpful lens through which we can better understand and prepare for the downstream psychosocial impact faced by health care providers during the coronavirus pandemic. Moral injury is psychological weight caused by a transgression of one's own or shared morals and values and can manifest as guilt, shame, inability to self-forgive, demoralization, and, in the worst case, self-harming behaviors. Given the morally challenging and life-threatening decisions our health care workers need to make daily in the face of consistent and ongoing death and loss, it is important to prepare for moral injury and the psychological toll by offering psychological support early and as often as needed at both the personal and institutional level. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


title: A framework for assessing glaucoma progression using structural and functional indices jointly

text: PURPOSE: While many tests and indices are available to identify glaucoma progression, using them in combinations may decrease overall specificity. The aim of this study was to develop a framework for assessing glaucoma progression using structural and functional indices jointly for a fixed specificity. METHODS: The study included 337 eyes of 207 patients with ocular hypertension or primary open-angle glaucoma selected from the Diagnostic Innovations in Glaucoma Study or the African Descent and Glaucoma Evaluation Study. All patients had at least 9 visits. Each visit had retinal nerve fiber layer thickness (RNFLT) and mean sensitivity from static automated perimetry (SAP MS) measured within a one-month window. Simple linear regression was applied to assess deterioration in each index for series of 5 to 9 visits. To identify progression using the two indices jointly, marginal significance levels set at a specificity of 95% were derived for two criteria: ANY (worsening on either RNFLT or SAP MS) and ALL (worsening on both RNFLT and SAP MS). Positive rate (percentage of eyes flagged as progressing) was determined individually for each index, as well as for the ANY and ALL criteria. RESULTS: Compared to SAP MS, RNFLT had higher positive rates (15% to 45%) for all series lengths. For the joint analyses, the positive rate was on average 12% higher for the ANY criterion compared to the ALL criterion. While RNFLT-alone had comparable positive rates and time-to-detection as the ANY criterion, each uniquely identified a subset of eyes (Kappa = 0.55 to 0.75). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides a simple framework for assessing glaucoma progression with data from two tests jointly, without compromising specificity. This framework can be extended to include two or more parameters, can accommodate global or regional indices, and can eventually be used with novel parameters identified as predictive of glaucoma progression.


Cutaneous lupus erythematosus patients in a high-epidemic COVID-19 area, Bergamo, Italy


title: Neurological Implications of COVID-19 Infections

text: The magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic will result in substantial neurological disease, whether through direct infection (rare), para-infectious complications (less rare), or critical illness more generally (common). Here, we raise the importance of stringent diagnosis and data collection regarding neurological complications of COVID-19; we urge caution in the over-diagnosis of neurological disease where it does not exist, but equally strongly encourage the concerted surveillance for such conditions. Additional to the direct neurological complications of COVID-19 infection, neurological patients are at risk of harm from both structural limitations (such as number of intensive care beds), and a hesitancy to treat with certain necessary medications given risk of nosocomial COVID-19 infection. We therefore also outline the specific management of patients with neuroinflammatory diseases in the context of the pandemic. This article describes the implications of COVID-19 on neurological disease and advertises the Neurocritical Care Society's international data collection collaborative that seeks to align data elements.


The behavioral pattern of patients with frontotemporal dementia during the COVID-19 pandemic


title: Mobility Based SIR Model For Pandemics -- With Case Study Of COVID-19

text: In the last decade, humanity has faced many different pandemics such as SARS, H1N1, and presently novel coronavirus (COVID-19). On one side, scientists are focusing on vaccinations, and on the other side, there is a need to propose models that can help us in understanding the spread of these pandemics as it can help governmental and other concerned agencies to be well prepared, especially from pandemics, which spreads faster like COVID-19. The main reason for some epidemic turning into pandemics is the connectivity among different regions of the world, which makes it easier to affect a wider geographical area, often worldwide. In addition, the population distribution and social coherence in the different regions of the world is non-uniform. Thus, once the epidemic enters a region, then the local population distribution plays an important role. Inspired by these ideas, we proposed a mobility-based SIR model for epidemics, which especially takes into account pandemic situations. To the best of our knowledge, this model is first of its kind, which takes into account the population distribution and connectivity of different geographic locations across the globe. In addition to presenting the mathematical proof of our model, we have performed extensive simulations using synthetic data to demonstrate our model's generalizability. To demonstrate the wider scope of our model, we used our model to forecast the COVID-19 cases for Estonia.


title: Characterization of SETD1A haploinsufficiency in humans and Drosophila defines a novel neurodevelopmental syndrome

text: Defects in histone methyltransferases (HMTs) are major contributing factors in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Heterozygous variants of SETD1A involved in histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4) methylation were previously identified in individuals with schizophrenia. Here, we define the clinical features of the Mendelian syndrome associated with haploinsufficiency of SETD1A by investigating 15 predominantly pediatric individuals who all have de novo SETD1A variants. These individuals present with a core set of symptoms comprising global developmental delay and/or intellectual disability, subtle facial dysmorphisms, behavioral and psychiatric problems. We examined cellular phenotypes in three patient-derived lymphoblastoid cell lines with three variants: p.Gly535Alafs*12, c.4582-2_4582delAG, and p.Tyr1499Asp. These patient cell lines displayed DNA damage repair defects that were comparable to previously observed RNAi-mediated depletion of SETD1A. This suggested that these variants, including the p.Tyr1499Asp in the catalytic SET domain, behave as loss-of-function (LoF) alleles. Previous studies demonstrated a role for SETD1A in cell cycle control and differentiation. However, individuals with SETD1A variants do not show major structural brain defects or severe microcephaly, suggesting that defective proliferation and differentiation of neural progenitors is unlikely the single underlying cause of the disorder. We show here that the Drosophila melanogaster SETD1A orthologue is required in postmitotic neurons of the fly brain for normal memory, suggesting a role in post development neuronal function. Together, this study defines a neurodevelopmental disorder caused by dominant de novo LoF variants in SETD1A and further supports a role for H3K4 methyltransferases in the regulation of neuronal processes underlying normal cognitive functioning.


title: [Consideration on improving public health emergency management ability of current medical health system]

text: COVID-19 is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). Direct economic loss is expected to be much more than that of SARS outbreak in 2003. The risk factors of COVID-19 epidemic at the early stage incluede the misjudgment of the epidemic, delay in reporting this emerging infectious disease, nosocomial infection-caused transmission of the virus into local communities, and weak public health interventions. The infection rate (or the incidence) reflects the prophylactic effect in population. Case fatality reflects the therapeutic effect of clinical intervention. There were sufficient medical resources at the national top levels accumulated in Wuhan. Furthermore, medical professionals and sufficient medical supplies from other provinces have been assigned to join in the fighting against the epidemic in Wuhan. However, the case fatality in Wuhan has being kept the highest in China, indicating that clinical treatment for this virus-caused emerging infectious disease, whose pathogenesis remains to be elucidated, had a limited effect in controlling this epidemic. The unusual, extremely costly public health interventions including the temporarily city quarantine and transportation ban issued by the central government are crucial in controlling this epidemic. The control of epidemic indicates the importance of public health measures but also reflected its insufficient capacity in China. Recently, profit-seeking mechanism run in Chinese health service system disorganized the balance of clinical service and public health service patterns in China, promoting the vicious circle of "attaching importance to clinical treatment and despising disease prophylaxis" , damaging the infrastructure of public health capacity, thus contributing to the formation of the inevitability in various fortuities of public health emergency. To strength the capacity of our medical service system to respond to public health emergency efficiently, two key issues should be considered. First, public health service, which should be fixed as the health section of the governments' public services by the law, must be greatly improved to meet the increasing health needs of the publics. Second, the vicious circle of profit-seeking-caused "attaching importance to clinical treatment and despising disease prophylaxis" should be immediately broken to optimize the national health service system in China by increasing the investment in public health service.


title: Ibuprofen and thromboembolism in SARS-COV2

text: Recent and developing literature has begun reporting on the incidence of thromboembolic events associated with COVID-19. Klok et al. analysed 184 SARS-CoV2-positive ICU patients in two Dutch University Hospitals, reporting an incidence of thrombotic complications to be 31%, with Pulmonary Embolism (PE) comprising 81% of these complications. [1] Moreover, Cui et al. reports on a population of 81 ICU patients at the Union Hospital, Wuhan, an incidence of 25% in VTE, also possibly related to worse prognosis.[2] Wang et al. collected data from 1026 COVID-19 positive patients in 31 provincial administrative regions in China and found 40% of the patients as high risk for VTE according to the Padua Prediction Score, with 11% being predicted to go on developing VTE. [3] Other reports and studies have also discussed the role of acute PE in COVID-19. Recent studies have also reported and advised on the use of prophylactic Low Molecular Weight Heparin (LMWH) in COVID-19 patients, to prevent the severe outcomes associated with thromboembolic complications.


Serratia marcescens outbreak in the intensive care unit during the COVID-19 pandemic: A paradoxical risk?


COVID infection and sentinel lymph node procedure for melanoma: Management in a dermato-oncology center in a high-risk pandemic area


title: [Analysis of variation and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 genome]

text: OBJECTIVE: To analyze the evolution and variation of SARS-CoV-2 during the epidemic starting at the end of 2019. METHODS: We downloaded the full-length genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2 from the databases of GISAID and NCBI. Using the software for bioinformatics including MEGA-X, BEAST, and TempEst, we constructed the genomic evolution tree, inferred the time evolution signal of the virus, calculated the tMRCA time of the virus and analyzed the selection pressure of the virus during evolution. RESULTS: The phylogenetic tree showed that SARS-CoV-2 belonged to the Sarbecovirus subgenus of ß Coronavirus genus together with bat coronavirus BetaCoV/bat/Yunnan/RaTG13/2013, bat-SL-CoVZC45, bat-SL-CoVZXC21 and SARS-CoV. The genomic sequences of SARS-CoV-2 isolated from the ongoing epidemic showed a weak time evolution signal with an average tMRCA time of 73 days (95% CI: 38.9-119.3 days). No positive time evolution signal was found between SARS-CoV-2 and BetaCoV/bat/Yunnan/RaTG13/2013, but the former virus had a strong positive temporal evolution relationship with bat-SL-CoVZC45 and SARS-CoV. The major cause for mutations of SARS-CoV-2 was the pressure of purification selection during the epidemic. CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 may have emerged as early as November, 2019, originating most likely from bat-associated coronavirus. This finding may provide evidence for tracing the sources and evolution of the virus.


Using Telehealth Groups to Combat Loneliness in Older Adults Through COVID-19


Might the many positive COVID19 subjects in Italy have been caused by resident bat-derived zoonotic ß-coronaviruses instead of the Wuhan (China) outbreak?


POCUS to Guide Fluid Therapy in COVID-19


Pregnancy and Pandemic Disease


Single cell transcriptome revealed SARS-CoV-2 entry genes enriched in colon tissues and associated with coronavirus infection and cytokine production


Dialysis Care for Undocumented Immigrants With Kidney Failure in the COVID-19 Era: Public Health Implications and Policy Recommendations


Letter to the Editor: Support Through Social Networks of e-Health in Adults with Primary Immunodeficiencies During COVID-19 Pandemic


title: [Practice and thinking of acute respiratory infection surveillance for the response of emerging respiratory diseases in Shanghai]

text: Shanghai Municipal Center for Disease Control and Prevention has implemented an active comprehensive surveillance project of acute respiratory infections in adults in Shanghai, including influenza like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). By testing and identifying a variety of respiratory pathogens, it was found that influenza viruses were the main pathogens in 172 ILI cases in 2019. The positive rates of influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 virus, influenza A (H3N2) virus and influenza B virus Victoria lineage were 30.81%, 14.53% and 30.55%, respectively. The positive detection of influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 virus peaked in the first quarter. The positive rate of enterovirus/human rhinovirus was 6.40%, with a positive detection peak in the third quarter, while the positive rate of adenovirus was 4.65% with a positive detection peak in the second quarter of the year. Two human coronavirus (HCoV)-OC43 positive samples, 1 HCoV-HKU1 positive sample and 1 HCoV-NL63 positive sample were detected, respectively, and no HCoV-229E positive sample was detected. The detection rate of Staphylococcus aureus was 17.44%, and the detection rate of Klebsiella pneumoniae was 9.88%. Influenza viruses were also the main pathogens in 1 447 SARI cases. The positive rates of influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 virus, influenza A (H3N2) virus and influenza B virus Victoria lineage were 5.46%, 1.73% and 0.30%, respectively. The positive detection of influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 virus (17.50%) peaked in the first quarter. The total positive detection rate of enterovirus/human rhinovirus was 2.97%, the positive detection peaked in the first quarter. The positive rate of Mycoplasma pneumoniae was 3.25% and the positive rate of Legionella was 1.04%. 5 HCoV-229E positive samples, 10 HCoV-OC43 positive samples, 7 HCoV-HKU1 positive samples and 6 HCoV-NL63 positive samples were detected. Eight strains of Staphylococcus aureus, 4 strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and 3 strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae were detected after cultures. By implementing the active surveillance, we not only detected a case of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus in time, but also preliminary understood the pathogenic spectrum characteristics and seasonality of ILI and SARI in Shanghai. In recent years, the surveillance methods have been continuously improved and the number of sentinel hospitals has increased gradually. In particular, for the response to COVID-19, the Surveillance Information Reporting System of Acute Respiratory Infection based on HIS system has been promoted to cover the whole city, which might lay a foundation for the active surveillance and early warning of emerging infectious diseases in the future.


title: Implementation of rapid SARS-CoV-2 antigenic testing in a laboratory without access to molecular methods: Experiences of a general hospital

text: BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 Ag (Antigen) Respi-Strip assay is a new immunochromatographic diagnostic tool recently available for antigenic diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. The proposed sensitivity is not higher than 60 %, but its high specificity allows both quick decisions for the management of patients and confirmation by molecular diagnosis for only negative tests. However, from the first tests performed, we suspected that the sensitivity observed with routine use was much lower than that announced by the manufacturer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Over a period of one month, we compared the negative results obtained with the COVID-19 Ag Respi-Strip kit with those obtained from qRT-PCR performed in a laboratory qualified for the molecular diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. All samples tested were naso-pharyngeal smears from UTM-RT medium. RESULTS: Of 774 patients tested, 714 negative samples were sent for confirmation, and 159 were found to be positive by qRT-PCR. The median positive percentage agreement was 23.9 % (95 % CI: 14.2 %-38.2 %). The Cohen's kappa score was 0.35. CONCLUSION: Using this immunochromatographic assay as a triage test did not significantly reduce the number of samples outsourced for COVID-19 confirmation by qRT-PCR. In addition, even if the turn-around time is short, the assay is completely manual, which is not suitable for large volumes of routine samples. The sensitivity of this rapid test is poor, and improvements are needed to enhance its performance.


Asymptomatic coronavirus infection: MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)


Localising an asset-based COVID-19 response in Ecuador


Peaceful Goodbyes: Providing End-of-Life Care to Patients with COVID-19