scholarly journals Early Epidemiological Features and Trends of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Southeast Asia: a Population-Level Observational Study

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingjian Zhu ◽  
Kleepbua Jirapat ◽  
Jian Shen ◽  
Sien Ping Chew ◽  
Joanna Wei Hui Tan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been ongoing in Southeast Asia since 13 January 2020. To guide intervention strategies and summarize beneficial experience, we describe the early epidemiological features and evaluate the trends of the COVID-19 outbreak in Southeast Asia. Methods: In this population-level observational study, we compiled a list of individual patients with COVID-19 and daily country-level case counts between 13 January 2020 and 16 March 2020 in Southeast Asia. Relevant spatiotemporal distributions, demographic characteristics and short-term trends were assessed. Results: A total of 1,346 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 217 (16.1%) recoveries and 18 (1.3%) deaths were reported in Southeast Asia as of 16 March 2020. The early transmission dynamics was fit with an exponential regression model: y=0.30e0.13x (p<0·01, adjusted R2 = 0.96). Using this model, we predicted that the cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia would exceed 10,000 by early April 2020. A total of 74 cities across 8 countries in Southeast Asia were affected by COVID-19 and most of the confirmed cases were located in 5 international metropolitan areas. Demographic analysis conducted on 925 confirmed cases indicated a median age of 44 years and a sex ratio of 1.25. Median age of local patient population was significantly higher than that of general population in corresponding country (p<0·01), whereas sex ratio did not significantly differ. Conclusions: The situation of COVID-19 endemic in Southeast Asia is intricate and not optimistic in the short-term. Dynamic disease surveillance and targeted intervention strategies are urgent.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingjian Zhu ◽  
Kleepbua Jirapat ◽  
Jian Shen ◽  
Sien Ping Chew ◽  
Joanna Wei Hui Tan ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been ongoing in Southeast Asia since 13 January 2020. We conducted an observational study to investigate underlying disease patterns of COVID-19 in Southeast Asia, and consequently to guide intervention strategies against the pandemic.Methods: In this population-level observational study set in Southeast Asia, we compiled a list of patients with COVID-19 (n = 925) and daily country-level case counts (n = 1346) from 13 January 2020 through 16 March 2020. All epidemiological data were extracted from official websites of the WHO and health authorities of each Southeast Asian country. Relevant spatiotemporal distributions, demographic characteristics, and short-term trends were assessed.Results: A total of 1,346 confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 217 (16.1%) recoveries and 18 (1.3%) deaths, were reported in Southeast Asia as of 16 March 2020. Early transmission dynamics were examined with an exponential regression model: y=0.30e0.13x (p<0·01, adjusted R2 = 0.96). Using this model, we predicted that the cumulative number of reported COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia would exceed 10,000 by early April 2020. A total of 74 cities across eight countries in Southeast Asia were affected by COVID-19. Most of the confirmed cases were located in five international metropolitan areas. Demographic analyses of the 925 confirmed cases indicated a median age of 44 years and a sex ratio of 1.25. The median age of the local patient population was significantly higher than that of the corresponding country’s general population (p<0·01), whereas the sex ratio did not significantly differ.Conclusions: The COVID-19 situation in Southeast Asia is unevenly geographically distributed and pessimistic in the short term. Age may play a significant role in both the susceptibility to and outcome of infection. Real-time active surveillance and targeted intervention strategies are urgently needed to contain the pandemic.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 348
Author(s):  
Thuy Thu Doan ◽  
Phimmasone Sisouvanh ◽  
Thanyakan Sengkhrua ◽  
Supranee Sritumboon ◽  
Cornelia Rumpel ◽  
...  

Organic amendments may improve the quality of acidic tropical agricultural soils with low organic carbon contents under conventional management (mineral fertilization and irrigation) in Southeast Asia. We investigated the effect of biochar, compost and their combination on maize growth and yield, soil physical, biological and chemical properties at harvesting time at four sites in three countries: Thailand, Vietnam and Laos. Treatments consisted of 10 t·ha−1 cow manure compost and 7 t·ha−1 of Bamboo biochar and their combination. Maize biomass production and cop yields were recorded for two seasons. Elemental content, pH and nutrient availability of soils were analyzed after the first growing season. We also characterized macrofauna abundance and water infiltration. Few changes were noted for maize biomass production and maize cop yield. Soil chemical parameters showed contrasting, site-specific results. Compost and biochar amendments increased soil organic carbon, pH, total K and N, P and K availability especially for sandy soils in Thailand. The combination of both amendments could reduce nutrient availability as compared to compost only treatments. Physical and biological parameters showed no treatment response. We conclude that the addition of compost, biochar and their mixture to tropical soils have site-specific short-term effects on chemical soil parameters. Their short-term effect on plants is thus mainly related to nutrient input. The site-dependent results despite similar crops, fertilization and irrigation practices suggest that inherent soil parameters and optimization of organic amendment application to specific pedoclimatic conditions need future attention.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 237802312098032
Author(s):  
Brandon G. Wagner ◽  
Kate H. Choi ◽  
Philip N. Cohen

In the social upheaval arising from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we do not yet know how union formation, particularly marriage, has been affected. Using administration records—marriage certificates and applications—gathered from settings representing a variety of COVID-19 experiences in the United States, the authors compare counts of recorded marriages in 2020 against those from the same period in 2019. There is a dramatic decrease in year-to-date cumulative marriages in 2020 compared with 2019 in each case. Similar patterns are observed for the Seattle metropolitan area when analyzing the cumulative number of marriage applications, a leading indicator of marriages in the near future. Year-to-date declines in marriage are unlikely to be due solely to closure of government agencies that administer marriage certification or reporting delays. Together, these findings suggest that marriage has declined during the COVID-19 outbreak and may continue to do so, at least in the short term.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yann Combret ◽  
Guillaume Prieur ◽  
Roger Hilfiker ◽  
Francis-Edouard Gravier ◽  
Pauline Smondack ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Little interest has been paid to expiratory muscle strength, and the impact of expiratory muscle weakness on critical outcomes is not known. Very few studies assessed the relationship between maximal expiratory pressure (MEP) and critical outcomes. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between MEP and critical outcomes. Methods This work was a secondary analysis of a prospective, observational study of adult patients who required mechanical ventilation for ≥ 24 h in an 18-bed ICU. MEP was assessed before extubation after a successful, spontaneous breathing trial. The relationships between MEP and extubation failure, and short-term (30 days) mortality, were investigated. Univariate logistic regressions were computed to investigate the relationship between MEP values and critical outcomes. Two multivariate analyses, with and without maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP), both adjusted using principal component analysis, were undertaken. Unadjusted and adjusted ROC curves were computed to compare the respective ability of MEP, MIP and the combination of both measures to discriminate patients with and without extubation failure or premature death. Results One hundred and twenty-four patients were included. Median age was 66 years (IQR 18) and median mechanical ventilation duration was 7 days (IQR 6). Extubation failure rate was 15% (18/124 patients) and the rate for 30-day mortality was 11% (14/124 patient). Higher MEP values were significantly associated with a lower risk of extubation failure in the univariate analysis [OR 0.96 95% CI (0.93–0.98)], but not with short-term mortality. MEP was independently linked with extubation failure when MIP was not included in the multivariate model, but not when it was included, despite limited collinearity between these variables. This study was not able to differentiate the respective abilities of MEP, MIP, and their combination to discriminate patients with extubation failure or premature death (adjusted AUC for the combination of MEP and MIP: 0.825 and 0.650 for extubation failure and premature death, respectively). Conclusions MEP is related to extubation failure. But, the results did not support its use as a substitute for MIP, since the relationship between MEP and critical outcomes was no longer significant when MIP was included. The use of MIP and MEP measurements combined did not reach higher discriminative capacities for critical outcomes that MEP or MIP alone. Trial Registration This study was retrospectively registered at https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02363231?cond=NCT02363231&draw=2&rank=1 (NCT02363231) in 13 February 2015


2012 ◽  
Vol 33 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 365-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Fauvel ◽  
François Brischoux ◽  
Marine Jeanne Briand ◽  
Xavier Bonnet

Long term population monitoring is essential to ecological studies; however, field procedures may disturb individuals. Assessing this topic is important in worldwide declining taxa such as reptiles. Previous studies focussed on animal welfare issues and examined short-term effects (e.g. increase of stress hormones due to handling). Long-term effects with possible consequences at the population level remain poorly investigated. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of widely used field procedures (e.g. handling, marking, forced regurgitation) both on short-term (hormonal stress response) and on long-term (changes in body condition, survival) scales in two intensively monitored populations of sea kraits (Laticauda spp.) in New Caledonia. Focusing on the most intensively monitored sites, from 2002 to 2012, we gathered approximately 11 200 captures/recaptures on 4500 individuals. Each snake was individually marked (scale clipping + branding) and subjected to various measurements (e.g. body size, head morphology, palpation). In addition, a subsample of more than 500 snakes was forced to regurgitate their prey for dietary analyses. Handling caused a significant stress hormonal response, however we found no detrimental long-term effect on body condition. Forced regurgitation did not cause any significant effect on both body condition one year later and survival. These results suggest that the strong short-term stress provoked by field procedures did not translate into negative effects on the population. Although similar analyses are required to test the validity of our conclusions in other species, our results suggest distinguishing welfare and population issues to evaluate the potential impact of population surveys.


Diabetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 70 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1067-P
Author(s):  
ELLEN BERNI ◽  
SARA JENKINS-JONES ◽  
CAROL ASTBURY ◽  
MARY N. BROWN ◽  
PHILLIP R. HUNT ◽  
...  

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