scholarly journals Modeling Predictive Age-Dependent and Age-Independent Symptoms and Comorbidities of Patients Seeking Treatment for COVID-19: Model Development and Validation Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yingxiang Huang ◽  
Dina Radenkovic ◽  
Kevin Perez ◽  
Kari Nadeau ◽  
Eric Verdin ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage and burden hospitals around the world. The epidemic started in Wuhan, China, and was subsequently recognized by the World Health Organization as an international public health emergency and declared a pandemic in March 2020. Since then, the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have had an unparalleled effect on all aspects of life. OBJECTIVE With increasing total hospitalization and intensive care unit admissions, a better understanding of features related to patients with COVID-19 could help health care workers stratify patients based on the risk of developing a more severe case of COVID-19. Using predictive models, we strive to select the features that are most associated with more severe cases of COVID-19. METHODS Over 3 million participants reported their potential symptoms of COVID-19, along with their comorbidities and demographic information, on a smartphone-based app. Using data from the >10,000 individuals who indicated that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, we leveraged the Elastic Net regularized binary classifier to derive the predictors that are most correlated with users having a severe enough case of COVID-19 to seek treatment in a hospital setting. We then analyzed such features in relation to age and other demographics and their longitudinal trend. RESULTS The most predictive features found include fever, use of immunosuppressant medication, use of a mobility aid, shortness of breath, and severe fatigue. Such features are age-related, and some are disproportionally high in minority populations. CONCLUSIONS Predictors selected from the predictive models can be used to stratify patients into groups based on how much medical attention they are expected to require. This could help health care workers devote valuable resources to prevent the escalation of the disease in vulnerable populations.

10.2196/25696 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. e25696
Author(s):  
Yingxiang Huang ◽  
Dina Radenkovic ◽  
Kevin Perez ◽  
Kari Nadeau ◽  
Eric Verdin ◽  
...  

Background The COVID-19 pandemic continues to ravage and burden hospitals around the world. The epidemic started in Wuhan, China, and was subsequently recognized by the World Health Organization as an international public health emergency and declared a pandemic in March 2020. Since then, the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have had an unparalleled effect on all aspects of life. Objective With increasing total hospitalization and intensive care unit admissions, a better understanding of features related to patients with COVID-19 could help health care workers stratify patients based on the risk of developing a more severe case of COVID-19. Using predictive models, we strive to select the features that are most associated with more severe cases of COVID-19. Methods Over 3 million participants reported their potential symptoms of COVID-19, along with their comorbidities and demographic information, on a smartphone-based app. Using data from the >10,000 individuals who indicated that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in the United Kingdom, we leveraged the Elastic Net regularized binary classifier to derive the predictors that are most correlated with users having a severe enough case of COVID-19 to seek treatment in a hospital setting. We then analyzed such features in relation to age and other demographics and their longitudinal trend. Results The most predictive features found include fever, use of immunosuppressant medication, use of a mobility aid, shortness of breath, and severe fatigue. Such features are age-related, and some are disproportionally high in minority populations. Conclusions Predictors selected from the predictive models can be used to stratify patients into groups based on how much medical attention they are expected to require. This could help health care workers devote valuable resources to prevent the escalation of the disease in vulnerable populations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mutiara Adelina ◽  
Fifi Dwijayanti

Infectious diseases are one of the biggest threats to humans. Currently, the world is in the outbreak condition causes of the COVID-19 virus which is started from Wuhan, China in December 2019. This disease was spread out rapidly throughout the World and was announced as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020(1). The infected number of SARS-CoV-2 was over 84 million people and caused over 1 million death cases in the worldwide. Indonesia had more than 800.000 infectious cases and 23.000 of death cases with the highest cases in Jakarta (2). This virus can be transmitted by two ways, such as direct contact (cough, sneeze, and droplet inhalation) and contact transmission (contact with oral, nasal, and eye mucous membranes) of person with COVID-19 (3). The current COVID-19 pandemic makes various challenges in prevention and control of infections in hospitals. Health care workers (HCWs) have been providing care to suspected, probable or confirmed COVID-19 patients that make them in high-risk condition. Several study indicated that many HCWs have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 in many hospitals worldwide (4)(5)(6).


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. 474-477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Rafael Moscote Salazar ◽  
Deepak Agrawal ◽  
Harsh Deora ◽  
Amit Agrawal

Abstract Neurotrauma is a critical public health problem that deserves the attention of the world health community. The unprecedented pandemic of SARS-COV 2 has led to a tremendous strain on medical facilities including intensive care and availability of blood products. In addition, due to lockdown in most nations and diverting of medical attention elsewhere, neurotrauma has taken a back seat. Despite this, any case of trauma presenting during this time should receive the best possible care. However, it is also imperative to safeguard the health care workers from this infection, too. The number of health care workers losing their lives to this infection is ever rising. We here present a possible workflow using a checklist approach such that errors and cross-infections are minimized and there is no reduction in the level of care received by any trauma case. This article has been written with a special focus on middle-income countries where resources may already be strained due to the sudden case burden. We hope to minimize death “caused” by COVID-19 and “related” to it.


2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryanne McGuckin ◽  
John Govednik

Hand hygiene (HH) is the single most important procedure health care workers (HCWs) can follow to reduce the risk of spreading health care–associated infections, yet compliance with this simple task remains at less than 50%. One of the reasons often cited for noncompliance is irritant contact dermatitis (ICD) resulting from repeated exposure to HH products and procedure. This literature review used the World Health Organization’s components of empowerment as a guideline for the search and development of a clinical model to address HCW HH and ICD.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Cantoni ◽  
Martin Mayora-Neto ◽  
Angalee Nadesalingam ◽  
David A. Wells ◽  
George W. Carnell ◽  
...  

One of the defining criteria of Variants of Concern (VOC) is their ability to evade pre-existing immunity, increased transmissibility, morbidity and/or mortality. Here we examine the capacity of convalescent plasma, from a well defined cohort of healthcare workers (HCW) and Patients infected during the first wave from a national critical care centre in the UK, to neutralise B.1.1.298 variant and three VOCs; B.1.1.7, B.1.351 and P.1. Furthermore, to enable lab to lab, country to country comparisons we utilised the World Health Organisation (WHO) International Standard for anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoglobulin to report neutralisation findings in International Units. These findings demonstrate a significant reduction in the ability of first wave convalescent plasma to neutralise the VOCs. In addition, Patients and HCWs with more severe COVID-19 were found to have higher antibody titres and to neutralise the VOCs more effectively than individuals with milder symptoms. Widespread use of the WHO International Standard by laboratories in different countries will allow for cross-laboratory comparisons, to benchmark and to establish thresholds of protection against SARS-CoV-2 and levels of immunity in different settings and countries.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saidi Mgata ◽  
Stephen Oswald Maluka

Abstract Background Antenatal care (ANC) provided by a trained health care provider is important for monitoring pregnancy thereby reducing potential risks for the mother and child during pregnancy and delivery. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least four ANC visits to all pregnant women. While the proportion of women who attend at least one ANC in low-income countries is high, most pregnant women start their first ANC attendance very late. In Tanzania only 24% of pregnant women start their first ANC attendance before the fourth month of pregnancy. While factors for the utilization of antenatal care in general have been widely studied, there is paucity of studies on the factors affecting timing of the first ANC attendance. This study aimed to understand individual, community, and health system factors that lead to the delay in seeking ANC services among pregnant women in Ilala Municipal in Dar es Salaam region, Tanzania. Methods A qualitative exploratory study, using in-depth interviews with 20 pregnant women and five health care workers was conducted in three different health facilities in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Thematic analysis approach was used to analyse the data. Results Individual perceptions of antenatal care, past experience with pregnancy, fear of pregnancy disclosure, and socio-cultural beliefs were the key individual and social factors for late ANC attendance. Shortage of trained health care workers, lack of spouse’s escort and health providers’ disrespect to pregnant women were the main health system barriers to early ANC attendance. Conclusions This study concludes that community members should be sensitized about the importance of early ANC attendance. Additionally, while spouse’s escort policy is important for promoting PMTCT, the interpretation of the policy should not solely be left to the health providers. District and regional health officials should provide correct interpretation of this policy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chaojie Wei ◽  
Yufeng Yuan ◽  
Zhenshun Cheng

AbstractSince the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) identified in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019, it has been characterized as a pandemic by World Health Organization (WHO). It was reported that asymptomatic persons are potential sources of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We present an outbreak among health-care workers incited by a doctor who cared a patient with COVID-19 in a Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which indicates existence of super-spreader even during incubation period.


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (15) ◽  
pp. 748-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianlei Cao ◽  
Wen-Jun Tu ◽  
Wenlin Cheng ◽  
Lei Yu ◽  
Ya-Kun Liu ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In December 2019, a series of pneumonia cases of unknown cause emerged in Wuhan, Hubei, China. In this study, we investigate the clinical and laboratory features and short-term outcomes of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods All patients with COVID-19 admitted to Wuhan University Zhongnan Hospital in Wuhan, China, between 3 January and 1 February 2020 were included. All those patients were with laboratory-confirmed infections. Epidemiological, clinical, and radiological characteristics; underlying diseases; laboratory tests; treatments; complications; and outcomes data were collected. Outcomes were followed up at discharge until 15 February 2020. Results The study cohort included 102 adult patients. The median age was 54 years (interquartile ranger, 37–67 years), and 48.0% were female. A total of 34 patients (33.3%) were exposed to a source of transmission in the hospital setting (as health-care workers, patients, or visitors) and 10 patients (9.8%) had a familial cluster. There were 18 patients (17.6%) who were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), and 17 patients died (mortality, 16.7%; 95% confidence interval, 9.4–23.9%). Those patients who survived were younger, were more likely to be health-care workers, and were less likely to suffer from comorbidities. They were also less likely to suffer from complications. There was no difference in drug treatment rates between the survival and nonsurvival groups. Those patients who survived were less likely to require admission to the ICU (14.1% vs 35.3% of those admitted). Chest imaging examinations showed that patients who died were more likely to have ground-glass opacity (41.2% vs 12.9% in survivors). Conclusions The mortality rate was high among the COVID-19 patients described in our cohort who met our criteria for inclusion in this analysis. The patient characteristics seen more frequently in those who died were the development of systemic complications following onset of the illness and a severity of disease requiring admission to the ICU. Our data support those described by others indicating that COVID-19 infection results from human-to-human transmission, including familial clustering of cases, and from nosocomial transmission. There were no differences in mortality among those who did or did not receive antimicrobial or glucocorticoid drug treatments.


2004 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-16
Author(s):  
Dennis Bowie

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is becoming an increasing problem for health care workers. The World Health Organization predicts that in the year 2020, this disease will be the fifth most prevalent disease worldwide, up from 12th place, and it will be the third most common cause of death, up from sixth place in 1997 (1). Hospitalization and mortality rates for COPD continue to rise in Canada (2). Therefore, the burden of COPD on Canadians, the health care system and physicians is obvious.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (32) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timileyin Adedrian ◽  
Stephanie Hitchcock ◽  
Lyndsay M. O’Hara ◽  
Jane M. Michalski ◽  
J. Kristie Johnson ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Interactions with health care workers are often thought to be associated with the spread of microbes in the hospital setting. We have examined the genomic diversity of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates from the gloves and gowns of health care workers from four hospitals in three states.


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