scholarly journals Timeline of SARS-CoV-2 Spread in Italy: Results from an Independent Serological Retesting

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 61
Author(s):  
Emanuele Montomoli ◽  
Giovanni Apolone ◽  
Alessandro Manenti ◽  
Mattia Boeri ◽  
Paola Suatoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neutralizing Antibodies ◽  
Neutralization Test ◽  
World Health ◽  
Independent Evaluation ◽  
Igg Binding ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
One Year ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Control Samples

The massive emergence of COVID-19 cases in the first phase of pandemic within an extremely short period of time suggest that an undetected earlier circulation of SARS-CoV-2 might have occurred. Given the importance of this evidence, an independent evaluation was recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) to test a subset of samples selected on the level of positivity in ELISA assays (positive, low positive, negative) detected in our previous study of prepandemic samples collected in Italy. SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were blindly retested by two independent centers in 29 blood samples collected in the prepandemic period in Italy, 29 samples collected one year before and 11 COVID-19 control samples. The methodologies used included IgG-RBD/IgM-RBD ELISA assays, a qualitative micro-neutralization CPE-based assay, a multiplex IgG protein array, an ELISA IgM kit (Wantai), and a plaque-reduction neutralization test. The results suggest the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in some samples collected in the prepandemic period, with the oldest samples found to be positive for IgM by both laboratories collected on 10 October 2019 (Lombardy), 11 November 2019 (Lombardy) and 5 February 2020 (Lazio), the latter with neutralizing antibodies. The detection of IgM and/or IgG binding and neutralizing antibodies was strongly dependent on the different serological assays and thresholds employed, and they were not detected in control samples collected one year before. These findings, although gathered in a small and selected set of samples, highlight the importance of harmonizing serological assays for testing the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and may contribute to a better understanding of future virus dynamics.

scholarly journals Timeline of SARS-CoV2 spread in Italy: results from an independent serological retesting

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuele Montomoli ◽  
Giovanni Apolone ◽  
Alessandro Manenti ◽  
Mattia Boeri ◽  
Paola Suatoni ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Neutralizing Antibodies ◽  
Virus Dynamics ◽  
Blood Samples ◽  
Independent Evaluation ◽  
Igg Binding ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The Future ◽  
One Year ◽  
Virus Spreading ◽  
Control Samples

The massive emergence of COVID19 cases in the first phase of pandemic within an extremely short period of time suggest that an undetected earlier circulation of SARS-CoV-2 might have occurred, as documented by several papers in different countries, including a few that reported positive cases even earlier the first cases identified in Wuhan. Given the importance of this evidence, an independent evaluation was recommended. Here we report the results of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies blind retesting of blood samples collected in the prepandemic period in Italy, and in control samples collected one year before, by two independent centers. Results suggest the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in some samples collected in the prepandemic period, though the detection of IgM and/or IgG binding and neutralizing antibodies is strongly dependent on the different serological assays and thresholds employed, while being absent in control samples collected one year before. These findings highlight the importance of harmonizing serological assays for testing SARS-CoV-2 virus spreading and may contribute to a better understanding the future virus dynamics.

scholarly journals Pandemic 2011: coming soon to a location near you.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Sacco
Keyword(s):  
Media Coverage ◽  
World Health ◽  
First Case ◽  
The World ◽  
Spanish Flu ◽  
Seasonal Flu ◽  
The Media ◽  
One Year ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Lower Death Rate

"H1 N1 is a virus that has been sensationalized by the media since the first case was discovered in Mexico during the spring of 2009. People around the world feared that the virus would mutate into something as severe as the 1918 Spanish flu, one of the deadliest plagues in history. However experts had discovered by June of 2009 that the Spanish flu was not comparable to H1 N1. Yet for six months newspaper reporters continued to compare the ew epidemic to the Spanish flu, thus keeping alive the threat of an unstoppable pandemic. One year has passed since the first case of H1 N1 was confirmed. After all of the attention that H1 N1 received, it proved to be not much different than a typical seasonal flu, resulting in a lower death rate (Schabas and Rau, 2010). Recently, a number of investigations have begun to determine if the World Health Organization (WHO) overemphasized the level of risk, resulting in a large quantity of sensationalized media coverage, and citizens in a state of panic.

scholarly journals Fighting Strategies Against the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic: Impact on Global Economy

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bapi Gorain ◽  
Hira Choudhury ◽  
Nagashekhara Molugulu ◽  
Rajani B. Athawale ◽  
Prashant Kesharwani
Keyword(s):  
Disease Transmission ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
World Health ◽  
World Population ◽  
Mortality And Morbidity ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Treatment Measures ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Health Organization

Sudden outbreak of a new pathogen in numbers of pneumonic patients in Wuhan province during December 2019 has threatened the world population within a short period of its occurrence. This respiratory tract–isolated pathogen was initially named as novel coronavirus 2019 (nCoV-2019), but later termed as SARS-CoV-2. The rapid spreading of this infectious disease received the label of pandemic by the World Health Organization within 4 months of its occurrence, which still seeks continuous attention of the researchers to prevent the spread and for cure of the infected patients. The propagation of the disease has been recorded in 215 countries, with more than 25.5 million cases and a death toll of more than 0.85 million. Several measures are taken to control the disease transmission, and researchers are actively engaged in finding suitable therapeutics to effectively control the disease to minimize the mortality and morbidity rates. Several existing potential candidates were explored in the prevention and treatment of worsening condition of COVID-19 patients; however, none of the formulation has been approved for the treatment but used under medical supervision. In this article, a focus has been made to highlight on current epidemiology on the COVID-19 infection, clinical features, diagnosis, and transmission, with special emphasis on treatment measures of the disease at different stages of clinical research and the global economic influence due to this pandemic situation. Progress in the development on vaccine against COVID-19 has also been explored as important measures to immunize people. Moreover, this article is expected to provide information to the researchers, who are constantly combating in the management against this outbreak.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the Economic, Environmental, and Social Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Japanese Tourism Industry

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
pp. 10302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yusuke Kitamura ◽  
Selim Karkour ◽  
Yuki Ichisugi ◽  
Norihiro Itsubo
Keyword(s):  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Social Impacts ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
World Health ◽  
Input Output ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Table Analysis ◽  
Health Organization

According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) annual Emissions Gap Report 2019, further reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are needed to reduce climate change impacts. In Japan, the 2030 Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) target is an emissions reduction of 26% compared to 2013. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has led to 43,341,451 confirmed cases and 1,157,509 confirmed deaths globally and affected 218 countries (as of 27 October 2020). In Japan, as of the same date, 96,948 infectious cases and 1724 deaths related to the new coronavirus had been recorded. These numbers continue to increase. In Japan, in March 2020, the number of international tourist arrivals decreased by about 93% compared to last year at the same period. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) reported several significant scenarios for the tourism industry. COVID-19 is the greatest shock to international tourism since 1950 and represents an abrupt end to the 10-year period of sustained growth that followed the 2009 financial crisis. It was thought that it would be possible to analyze the economic, environmental, and social impacts of rapid social changes. Thus, this study estimates changes in Japan’s tourist consumption, the carbon footprint (CFP), and employment due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic. The calculations in this study adopt a lifecycle approach using input–output tables. Based on these observations, this study uses four scenarios (SR 1, no recovery until December; SR 2, recovery from October; SR 3, recovery from July or September; and SR 0, same growth rate as 2018–2019) for Japan to calculate the CFP and employment change using input–output table analysis based on tourist consumption, which is a tourism metric. According to our results (2019 vs. SR 1 and 3), the consumption loss is between 20,540 billion yen (−65.1%) and 12,704 billion yen (−39.1%), the CFP reduction is between 89,488 Mt-CO2eq (−64.2%) and 54,030 Mt-CO2eq (−37.5%), and the employment loss is between 2,677,000 people (−64.2%) and 1,678,000 people (−37.5%). As of November 2020, the tourism industry continues to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the post-COVID-19 society, it will be necessary to maintain the GHG emissions reductions achieved in this short period and realize economic recovery. This recovery must also be sustainable for tourism stakeholders and society.

scholarly journals Heterogeneity of the COVID-19 epidemic in Australia: What can we learn from it?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuli Chen ◽  
Yibeltal Assefa
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
System Capacity ◽  
World Health ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
South Wales ◽  
The World ◽  
Effective Community ◽  
One Year ◽  
Health Organization

Abstract It has been more than one year since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic of COVID-19. Countries around the world are still struggling to control their epidemics. Australia has shown its resilience in the fight against the epidemic by providing a comprehensive response involving the whole-of-government and whole-of-society. Despite the overall successful national response, the epidemic in Australia has been heterogeneous across states. We conducted a mixed-methods study to analyze the epidemic and explain the variable manifestation of the epidemic across states in Australia. Most of the COVID-19 cases and deaths were in Victoria and New South Wales states due to differences in governance of the epidemic and public health responses (quarantine and contact tracing) among states. Countries could learn not only from Australia’s overall successful response, through good governance, effective community participation, adequate public health and health system capacity and multisectoral actions, but also from the heterogeneity of the epidemic among states. Successful response to epidemics in countries with a decentralized administration requires multi-level governance with alignment and harmonization of the response.

scholarly journals INFERTILITY MANAGEMENT THROUGH AYURVEDA SHODHANA KARMA- A CASE REPORT

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-173
Author(s):  
Pooja .S. Dhuria ◽  
Prathima
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Options ◽  
Female Infertility ◽  
Reproductive Age ◽  
World Health ◽  
Clinical Feature ◽  
Traditional System ◽  
The World ◽  
One Year ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Consecutive Cycle

Purpose: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimate that 60 to 80 million couples worldwide currently suffer from infertility. The female infertility has becomes major issue in current scenario due to the increasing number of incidences day by day. In India alone many couples suffers from infertility. The treatment options of female infertility also improving and traditional system of medicine such as Ayurveda describes female infertility broadly with its treatment protocol.Infertility affects women of reproductive age group all over the world. The infertility can be primary or secondary. Panchakarma can treat infertility successfully using various methods along with Ayurvedic formulations. Methodology: A Female Patient of 26 year came to OPD presenting with the complaints of inability to Conceive. Patient was complaining of delayed and heavy menstrual Periods as a clinical feature of PCOD which was diagnosed in USG report Patient was treated with Panchakarma and Ayurvedic Oral medicine. Vamana karma was done and in next Consecutive Cycle Patient got conceived. Result: In next Consecutive Cycle Patient got conceived and she is under regular Antenatal check up. Conclusion: Infertility is defined as a failure to conceive within one year or more years of regular unprotected coitus. PCOD occurs due to an imbalance caused by any of the three Doshas which affect the fertility of the female. These causes increase of Kapha and Vata Dosha and cause the formation of the multiple cysts in ovaries leading to anovulatory periods followed by obesity, hirustitsm. Vamana Karma helps in Strotoshudhi and help in the kapha disorders. Pushpadhanwa rasa act on the Manashanthi and Garbhakrut. Ashwagandha Ksheerpaka acts as Garbhasthapaka and Rasayana. The present study reveals the effective management of infertility associated with PCOD was managed by Shodana and Garbhasthapaka oushadhi KEYWORDS: PCOS, Artava Dusti ,Sthoulya, Infertility

scholarly journals Biomedical engineering and ethics: reflections on medical devices and PPE during the first wave of COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessia Maccaro ◽  
Davide Piaggio ◽  
Concetta Anna Dodaro ◽  
Leandro Pecchia
Keyword(s):  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
World Health ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Allocation Of Resources ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
One Year ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Clinical Engineers

AbstractIn March 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that humanity was entering a global pandemic phase. This unforeseen situation caught everyone unprepared and had a major impact on several professional categories that found themselves facing important ethical dilemmas. The article revolves around the category of biomedical and clinical engineers, which were among those most involved in dealing with and finding solutions to the pandemic. In hindsight, the major issues brought to the attention of biomedical engineers have raised important ethical implications, such as the allocation of resources, the responsibilities of science and the inadequacy and non-universality of the norms and regulations on biomedical devices and personal protective equipment. These issues, analyzed one year after the first wave of the pandemic, come together in the appeal for responsibility for thought, action and, sometimes, even silence. This highlights the importance of interdisciplinarity and the definitive collapse of the Cartesian fragmentation of knowledge, calling for the creation of more fora, where this kind of discussions can be promoted.

scholarly journals An Overview on Lambda, Epsilon, Kappa, Iota and Zeta Variants of Covid-19 and its Probability to Merge with Delta & Delta Plus, why it is a Concern

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 6895-6914
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
Neutralizing Antibodies ◽  
Spike Protein ◽  
World Health ◽  
South American ◽  
Infected Person ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

COVID-19 is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2 that belongs to the Corona groups. The subgroups of the coronavirus families are α, β, γ, and δ coronavirus. On June 15, 2021, the string λ of SARS-CoV-2 was evaluated as a variant of interest via the World Health Organization. This string has a high prevalence in some parts of South American countries, but it occurred only occasionally in Brazil. This study confirms that mutations in the λ -spike protein can be destroyed the neutralizing antibodies and increase infectivity. Coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 have an evolutionary superpower called “recombination” which permits the mixing of their genomes into novel combinations. Unlike regular mutation, which precedes slowly one change at a time, recombination can produce whole changes in a coronavirus genome. Although right now, δ-variant is a concern, a mixing of λ with other variants such as δ-variant is much more of a concern compared to alone variants. There is another item: the recombination can arise within the sample after it was taken from the infected person, not while it was inside their body.

scholarly journals Subunit Vaccine Against Sars-Cov-2 Using CTL and HTL Epitopes

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laila zahra ◽  
Yaser Daanial Khan
Keyword(s):  
B Cells ◽  
Subunit Vaccine ◽  
World Health ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Human Immune System ◽  
Th Cells ◽  
Short Period ◽  
The World ◽  
Precautionary Measures ◽  
Health Organization

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus 2 which is widely known as Sars-Cov-2 is a deadly virus that is the main cause of Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19). This plague affects the human immune system badly and adversely affects the human body. This disease emerged from Wuhan, China, and spread all over the world in a very short period. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the world about its dire consequences and directed all the countries to take strict precautionary measures and still, there are lots of things that need to be done. This study focuses on the in silico methods which use immunoinformatic approaches to build epitope-based subunit vaccine for SARS-COV-2 that is used to produce several positive immune responses within the host cell. Various B-cells, Tc cells, and Th cells containing different epitopes are considered for the inhibition of spike of SARS-COV-2. By following different approaches, eventually, the structure of the proposed vaccine consists of Tc, Th cells, and B-cells joined by different linkers was designed. Currently having B-cell as well as IFN-y made epitopes confirm the humoral and cell-mediated immune response developed by the proposed vaccine. An online server, PSIPRED is used to develop the model of vaccine. 15 antigenic epitopes were chosen from Spike protein to develop an effective vaccine. This vaccine was antiviral, non?allergic, and less toxic. The sequence of vaccine structure was then validated by different computational methods like Molecular Docking, RMSD, RMSF, and Molecular Dynamic Simulation. Java Codon adaption tool also known as JCat is used for maximal optimization of vaccine expression with vector.<br>

scholarly journals Seminiferous Tubules and Spermatogenesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amor Houda ◽  
Shelko Nyaz ◽  
Bakry Mohamed Sobhy ◽  
Almandouh Hussein Bosilah ◽  
Micu Romeo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seminiferous Tubule ◽  
Chromosomal Abnormalities ◽  
Genetic Material ◽  
World Health ◽  
Genetic Abnormalities ◽  
The World ◽  
American Society ◽  
One Year ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Health Organization

One of the major concerns of the world health community is the infertility. The definition of infertility according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) is the inability of a healthy couple to achieve a conception after one year of regular, unprotected intercourse. Fertility complications affect seven percent of the male. The causes of infertility were divided to non-obstructive and obstructive. But, in almost 75% of male infertility cases are idiopathic with predominance of the genetic abnormalities. Numerical or structural chromosomal abnormalities are considered as genetic abnormalities that occur during the meiotic division in spermatogenesis. These abnormalities get transferred to the Offspring, which affects the normal and even the artificial conception. In the human reproduction, sperm cells are considered as a delivery vehicle for the male genetic material packed in chromosomes, which are composed of nearly 2-meter Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule and their packaging proteins. This chapter points to grant a summarized description of individual components of the male reproductive system: the seminiferous tubule and spermatogenesis. Here, we describe step by step the structure of the testis seminiferous tubule and what occurs inside these tubules like cell communication and germ cell development from spermatogonia until spermatozoon. This book chapter is very useful for the biologists and physicians working in Assisted reproduction field to understand the physiology and pathology of spermatogenesis.

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