HIV digital vaccine strategy: An application of blockchain technology in preventing the spread of HIV (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Liu ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Dingyong Sun ◽  
Xiying Wang
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Vaccine Strategy ◽  
Surveillance Network ◽  
High Risk Sexual Behavior ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Heavy Burden ◽  
Promising Solution ◽  
Susceptible Populations ◽  
And Control

UNSTRUCTURED The HIV epidemic imposes a heavy burden on societal development. Presently, the protection of susceptible populations is the most feasible method for eliminating the spread of HIV. Governments and other relevant industries are actively attempting to solve the problem. In view of the unavailability of biological vaccines, the best measures that can currently be applied are identification of HIV-infected persons and provision of treatment and behavioral intervention. This paper proposes a HIV digital vaccine strategy based on blockchain technology. In the proposed strategy, a decentralized surveillance network is jointly constructed using HIV high-risk individuals as application nodes and accredited testing agencies as authentication nodes. Following testing at the authentication nodes, the results are uploaded to the blockchain, which results in HIV high-risk individuals being able to determine the HIV infection status of each other in a convenient, anonymous, and credible manner. This reduces the occurrence of high-risk sexual behavior and effectively protects susceptible populations. The proposed strategy is a promising solution to prevent the spread of HIV. The performance of the decentralized surveillance network may lead to the restructuring of current government-funded infectious disease prevention and control modes that are centered on centers for disease control and prevention and hospitals to introduce revolutionary changes in public health systems globally.

HIV digital vaccine strategy: An application of blockchain technology in preventing the spread of HIV (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jia Liu
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Vaccine Strategy ◽  
Surveillance Network ◽  
High Risk Sexual Behavior ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
High Risk Populations ◽  
Heavy Burden ◽  
The Government ◽  
Susceptible Populations

UNSTRUCTURED The HIV epidemic poses a heavy burden on societal development. Presently, the protection of susceptible populations is the most feasible method for eliminating the spread of HIV. The government and other relevant industries always attempt at solving the problem, in view of the unavailability of biological vaccines, no better measures can take except identify HIV-infected persons, provide treatment and behavioral intervention. This study proposes a HIV digital vaccine strategy. Based on blockchain technology, a decentralized surveillance network has been jointly constructed using HIV high-risk individuals as application nodes and accredited testing agencies as authentication nodes. When testing accomplished at authentication nodes, the results uploaded to the blockchain, thus HIV high-risk populations can determine the HIV infection status of one another in a convenient, anonymous, and credible manner, thereby reducing the occurrences of high-risk sexual behavior and effectively protecting susceptible populations. This is a promising solution to prevent the spread of HIV. The performance of decentralized surveillance network may lead to the restructuring of current government-funded infectious disease prevention and control modes that are centered on centers for disease control and prevention and hospitals to introduce revolutionary changes in public health systems globally.

scholarly journals Compliance with Standard Precautions and Its Relationship with Views on Infection Control and Prevention Policy among Healthcare Workers during COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 3420
Author(s):  
Eliza Lai-Yi Wong ◽  
Kin-Fai Ho ◽  
Dong Dong ◽  
Annie Wai-Ling Cheung ◽  
Peter Sen-Yung Yau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Infection Control ◽  
High Risk Group ◽  
Infection Prevention And Control ◽  
Prevention Policy ◽  
Standard Precautions ◽  
Healthcare Settings ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
And Control ◽  
Infection Control And Prevention

Background: Standard precautions prevent the spread of infections in healthcare settings. Incompliance with infection control guidelines of healthcare workers (HCWs) may increase their risk of exposure to infectious disease, especially under pandemics. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of compliance with the infection prevention and control practices among HCWs in different healthcare settings and its relationship with their views on workplace infection control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Nurses in Hong Kong were invited to respond to a cross-sectional online survey, in which their views on workplace infection and prevention policy, compliance with standard precautions and self-reported health during pandemics were collected. Results: The respondents were dissatisfied with workplace infection and prevention policy in terms of comprehensiveness (62%), clarity (64%), timeliness (63%), and transparency (60%). For the protective behavior, the respondents did not fully comply with the standard precautions when they were involved in medical care. Their compliance was relatively low when having proper patient handling (54%) and performing invasive procedures (46%). A multivariate analysis model proved that the level of compliance of the standard precautions was positively associated with the satisfaction on infection control and prevention policy among high risk group (0.020; 95% CI: 0.005–0.036), while older respondents had higher level of compliance among the inpatient and outpatient groups (coefficient range: 0.065–0.076). The higher level of compliance was also significantly associated with working in designated team and having chronic condition of the respondents among high-risk and inpatient groups. Conclusions: Standard precautions are the most important elements to reduce cross-transmission among HCWs and patients while the satisfaction on infection control and prevention policy would increase the compliance among the high-risk group. An overall suboptimal compliance and poor views on the infection prevention and control guidelines is a warning signal to healthcare system especially during pandemics.

scholarly journals Diagnostic Accuracy of Web-Based COVID-19 Symptom Checkers: Comparison Study

10.2196/21299 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. e21299
Author(s):  
Nicolas Munsch ◽  
Alistair Martin ◽  
Stefanie Gruarin ◽  
Jama Nateqi ◽  
Isselmou Abdarahmane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Cleveland Clinic ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Medium Risk ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Sensitivity Specificity ◽  
And Control

Background A large number of web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers and chatbots have been developed; however, anecdotal evidence suggests that their conclusions are highly variable. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated the accuracy of COVID-19 symptom checkers in a statistically rigorous manner. Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the diagnostic accuracies of web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers. Methods We identified 10 web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers, all of which were included in the study. We evaluated the COVID-19 symptom checkers by assessing 50 COVID-19 case reports alongside 410 non–COVID-19 control cases. A bootstrapping method was used to counter the unbalanced sample sizes and obtain confidence intervals (CIs). Results are reported as sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC). Results The classification task between COVID-19–positive and COVID-19–negative for “high risk” cases among the 460 test cases yielded (sorted by F1 score): Symptoma (F1=0.92, MCC=0.85), Infermedica (F1=0.80, MCC=0.61), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (F1=0.71, MCC=0.30), Babylon (F1=0.70, MCC=0.29), Cleveland Clinic (F1=0.40, MCC=0.07), Providence (F1=0.40, MCC=0.05), Apple (F1=0.29, MCC=-0.10), Docyet (F1=0.27, MCC=0.29), Ada (F1=0.24, MCC=0.27) and Your.MD (F1=0.24, MCC=0.27). For “high risk” and “medium risk” combined the performance was: Symptoma (F1=0.91, MCC=0.83) Infermedica (F1=0.80, MCC=0.61), Cleveland Clinic (F1=0.76, MCC=0.47), Providence (F1=0.75, MCC=0.45), Your.MD (F1=0.72, MCC=0.33), CDC (F1=0.71, MCC=0.30), Babylon (F1=0.70, MCC=0.29), Apple (F1=0.70, MCC=0.25), Ada (F1=0.42, MCC=0.03), and Docyet (F1=0.27, MCC=0.29). Conclusions We found that the number of correctly assessed COVID-19 and control cases varies considerably between symptom checkers, with different symptom checkers showing different strengths with respect to sensitivity and specificity. A good balance between sensitivity and specificity was only achieved by two symptom checkers.

scholarly journals Diagnostic Accuracy of Web-Based COVID-19 Symptom Checkers: Comparison Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Munsch ◽  
Alistair Martin ◽  
Stefanie Gruarin ◽  
Jama Nateqi ◽  
Isselmou Abdarahmane ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Case Reports ◽  
Cleveland Clinic ◽  
Test Cases ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Medium Risk ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
Sensitivity Specificity ◽  
And Control

BACKGROUND A large number of web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers and chatbots have been developed; however, anecdotal evidence suggests that their conclusions are highly variable. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated the accuracy of COVID-19 symptom checkers in a statistically rigorous manner. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the diagnostic accuracies of web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers. METHODS We identified 10 web-based COVID-19 symptom checkers, all of which were included in the study. We evaluated the COVID-19 symptom checkers by assessing 50 COVID-19 case reports alongside 410 non–COVID-19 control cases. A bootstrapping method was used to counter the unbalanced sample sizes and obtain confidence intervals (CIs). Results are reported as sensitivity, specificity, F1 score, and Matthews correlation coefficient (MCC). RESULTS The classification task between COVID-19–positive and COVID-19–negative for “high risk” cases among the 460 test cases yielded (sorted by F1 score): Symptoma (F1=0.92, MCC=0.85), Infermedica (F1=0.80, MCC=0.61), US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (F1=0.71, MCC=0.30), Babylon (F1=0.70, MCC=0.29), Cleveland Clinic (F1=0.40, MCC=0.07), Providence (F1=0.40, MCC=0.05), Apple (F1=0.29, MCC=-0.10), Docyet (F1=0.27, MCC=0.29), Ada (F1=0.24, MCC=0.27) and Your.MD (F1=0.24, MCC=0.27). For “high risk” and “medium risk” combined the performance was: Symptoma (F1=0.91, MCC=0.83) Infermedica (F1=0.80, MCC=0.61), Cleveland Clinic (F1=0.76, MCC=0.47), Providence (F1=0.75, MCC=0.45), Your.MD (F1=0.72, MCC=0.33), CDC (F1=0.71, MCC=0.30), Babylon (F1=0.70, MCC=0.29), Apple (F1=0.70, MCC=0.25), Ada (F1=0.42, MCC=0.03), and Docyet (F1=0.27, MCC=0.29). CONCLUSIONS We found that the number of correctly assessed COVID-19 and control cases varies considerably between symptom checkers, with different symptom checkers showing different strengths with respect to sensitivity and specificity. A good balance between sensitivity and specificity was only achieved by two symptom checkers.

Self-Presentation and Self-Reported High Risk Sexual Behavior

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald J. Scandell ◽  
Susan L. Thomas ◽  
W. Dean Klinkenberg
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Behavior ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
High Risk Sexual Behavior ◽  
Risk Sexual Behavior

THE RISK FACTORS OF MOLAR PREGNANCY

2017 ◽  
pp. 53-58
Author(s):  
Lam Huong Le
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Gestational Trophoblastic Disease ◽  
Living Standard ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Uterine Perforation ◽  
Molar Pregnancy ◽  
Health It ◽  
Pregnancy Risk ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Control

Objectives: Molar pregnancy is the gestational trophoblastic disease and impact on the women’s health. It has several complications such as toxicity, infection, bleeding. Molar pregnancy also has high risk of choriocarcinoma which can be dead. Aim: To assess the risks of molar pregnancy. Materials and Methods: The case control study included 76 molar pregnancies and 228 pregnancies in control group at Hue Central Hospital. Results: The average age was 32.7 ± 6.7, the miximum age was 17 years old and the maximum was 46 years old. The history of abortion, miscarriage in molar group and control group acounted for 10.5% and 3.9% respectively, with the risk was higher 2.8 times; 95% CI = 1.1-7.7 (p<0.05). The history of molar pregnancy in molar pregnancy group was 9.2% and the molar pregnancy risk was 11.4 times higher than control group (95% CI = 2.3-56.4). The women having ≥ 4 times births accounted for 7.9% in molar group and 2.2% in control group, with the risk was higher 3.8 times, 95% CI= 1.1-12.9 (p<0.05). The molar risk of women < 20 and >40 years old in molar groups had 2.4 times higher than (95% CI = 1.1 to 5.2)h than control group. Low living standard was 7.9% in molar group and 1.3% in the control group with OR= 6.2; 95% CI= 1.5-25.6. Curettage twice accounted for 87.5%, there were 16 case need to curettage three times. There was no case of uterine perforation and infection after curettage. Conclusion: The high risk molar pregnancy women need a better management. Pregnant women should be antenatal cared regularly to dectect early molar pregnancy. It is nessecery to monitor and avoid the dangerous complications occuring during the pregnancy. Key words: Molar pregnancy, pregnancy women

Money Code Space

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack Parkin
Keyword(s):  
Open Source Software ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Research Problem ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Distributed Ledger ◽  
Start Up ◽  
Challenging Research ◽  
Digital Politics ◽  
Financial Transactions ◽  
And Control

Newly emerging cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology present a challenging research problem in the field of digital politics and economics. Bitcoin—the first widely implemented cryptocurrency and blockchain architecture—seemingly separates itself from the existing territorial boundedness of nation-state money via a process of algorithmic decentralisation. Proponents declare that the utilisation of cryptography to advance financial transactions will disrupt the modern centralised structures by which capitalist economies are currently organised: corporations, governments, commercial banks, and central banks. Allegedly, software can create a more stable and democratic global economy; a world free from hierarchy and control. In Money Code Space, Jack Parkin debunks these utopian claims by approaching distributed ledger technologies as a spatial and social problem where power forms unevenly across their networks. First-hand accounts of online communities, open-source software governance, infrastructural hardware operations, and Silicon Valley start-up culture are used to ground understandings of cryptocurrencies in the “real world.” Consequently, Parkin demonstrates how Bitcoin and other blockchains are produced across a multitude of tessellated spaces from which certain stakeholders exercise considerable amounts of power over their networks. While money, code, and space are certainly transformed by distributed ledgers, algorithmic decentralisation is rendered inherently paradoxical because it is predicated upon centralised actors, practices, and forces.

scholarly journals Information and information resources in COVID-19: Awareness, control, and prevention

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110165
Author(s):  
Mohammadhiwa Abdekhoda ◽  
Fatemeh Ranjbaran ◽  
Asghar Sattari
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Data Collection Instrument ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Control

This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the role of information and information resources in the awareness, control, and prevention of COVID-19. This study was a descriptive-analytical survey in which 450 participants were selected for the study. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data through SPSS. The findings show that a wide range of mass media has become well known as information resources for COVID-19. Other findings indicate a significant statistical difference in the rate of using information resources during COVID-19 based on age and gender; however, this difference is not significant regarding the reliability of information resources with regard to age and gender. Health information has an undisputable role in the prevention and control of pandemic diseases such as COVID-19. Providing accurate, reliable, and evidence-based information in a timely manner for the use of resources and information channels related to COVID-19 can be a fast and low-cost strategic approach in confronting this disease.

scholarly journals Exploring the mechanisms of collaboration between the Tuberculosis and Diabetes Programs for the control of TB-DM Comorbidity in Ghana

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Suhuyini Salifu ◽  
Khumbulani W. Hlongwana
Keyword(s):  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Control Program ◽  
Communicable Diseases ◽  
Local Health ◽  
National Tuberculosis Control Program ◽  
National Tuberculosis ◽  
Local Health Facility ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
And Control ◽  
Non Communicable Disease

Abstract Objectives To explore the mechanisms of collaboration between the stakeholders, including National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) and the Non-Communicable Disease Control and Prevention Program (NCDCP) at the national, regional, and local (health facility) levels of the health care system in Ghana. This is one of the objectives in a study on the “Barriers and Facilitators to the Implementation of the Collaborative Framework for the Care and Control of Tuberculosis and Diabetes in Ghana” Results The data analysis revealed 4 key themes. These were (1) Increased support for communicable diseases (CDs) compared to stagnant support for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), (2) Donor support, (3) Poor collaboration between NTP and NCDCP, and (4) Low Tuberculosis-Diabetes Mellitus (TB-DM) case detection.

scholarly journals 451. Evaluation of Exposure History in Healthcare Personnel with Coronavirus 2019 Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S293-S293
Author(s):  
Sandra Silva ◽  
Thriveen Mana ◽  
Davinder Bhullar ◽  
Beatrice Tabor ◽  
Curtis Donskey
Keyword(s):  
High Risk ◽  
Risk Exposure ◽  
Healthcare Personnel ◽  
Administrative Personnel ◽  
Asymptomatic Carriage ◽  
Moderate Disease ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
History Of ◽  
Exposure History ◽  
Atypical Presentations

Abstract Background During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, many healthcare personnel (HCP) have developed COVID-19. However, there is uncertainty regarding whether severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was acquired at work versus in the community. Methods We conducted a cohort study to examine exposure history of personnel with COVID-19 infection or asymptomatic carriage in a VA healthcare system. High-risk exposures were classified based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria. Results Of 578 personnel tested, 49 (8%) had nasopharyngeal swabs with positive PCR results, including 45 (92%) with and 4 (8%) without COVID-19 symptoms. Of the 49 cases, 21 (43%) had a documented high-risk exposure at work, including 14 exposures to COVID-19 patients and 7 exposures to colonized or infected personnel. Exposures to infected patients most often were a result of delays in recognition of COVID-19 due to atypical presentations. Exposures to personnel with COVID-19 most often involved activities such as meals when facemasks were not worn. Most cases occurred among nurses (26, 53%) and administrative personnel (10, 20%); only 3 physicians developed COVID-19. No cases occurred in personnel working on COVID-19 wards. All personnel had mild or moderate disease. Conclusion Forty-three percent of healthcare personnel with COVID-19 had prior high-risk exposures at work. Improved detection of patients with atypical presentations and efforts to reduce high-risk contacts among personnel may reduce the risk for acquisition of SARS-CoV-2. Disclosures All Authors: No reported disclosures

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