scholarly journals COVID-19: A Comprehensive View of Diverse Mitigation Measures, Biomaterials and Outlook

2021 ◽  
pp. 117-151
Author(s):  
Anu Mohandas ◽  
Lin Shi ◽  
Seeram Ramakrishna
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Study ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Complete Control ◽  
The Public ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Novel Virus ◽  
Regulatory Measures ◽  
Initial Recovery

COVID-19 the existing contagion is caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2). As of 1st March, 2021,  the statistical study shows, 114 million people all over the world have been affected by COVID-19 and in this about 2.53 million deaths have been reported with a recovery of 64.4 million cases. The most commonly testified signs of COVID-19 infection are pyrexia, tussis and tiredness; other symptoms that are less common include deprivation in senses (odor or flavor), pharyngitis, stuffy nose, cephalgia, gastroenteritis etc. Among the reported cases, approximately 10-15% progress to severe disease and 5% becomes critically ill. Most people recover at 2-6 weeks after exposure to the virus, but it is reported that there are some patients who may recur some symptoms for weeks or months after initial recovery although they are not infectious during this period. In this review article, we have briefly discussed the different diagnostic and detection measures that are being clinically practiced and the treatment methods including medicines and vaccines which has been undertaken in the fight against COVID-19. Recent advances in various regulatory measures comprising the application of biomaterials engineering (nanomaterials, biosensors, quantum dots, polymeric array-based vaccines, etc.) and the digital technologies are also discussed. Organoid cultures are also used against SARS-CoV-2 to understand the biological phenomena taking place in the human body through infection, and thereby establishing the necessary trials to control the infection. In short, there is a requirement of the combination of study from multidisciplinary areas to understand the virus better and develop more effective mitigation measures. There are still studies under examination to improve the public health and to have complete control over this novel virus.

scholarly journals Susceptibility/manifestations of different age groups with various comorbidities to COVID-19 infection

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (35) ◽  
pp. 7-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albin John ◽  
Freedom Ha ◽  
Mimi Zumwalt
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Healthcare Systems ◽  
Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 ◽  
The Public ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
The World ◽  
Novel Virus

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a great toll on many families. From its rapid spread to debilitating outcomes, the virus has wreaked havoc on healthcare systems around the world. As researchers study this novel virus, the public continues to seek more information on who is the most susceptible and which population will be affected by the more severe manifestations of the disease. As a result, scientists have started analyzing the variable effects of COVID-19 infection in different age groups. While the information is still nascent, these studies demonstrate that no one is immune, that all are susceptible to infection by this virus, and that certain demographics of the general population have more severe disease than others. This literature review examines how COVID-19 has affected different age groups, from neonates to older adults, by exploring statistics, mechanisms, and possible risk factors. This article will also investigate the role of comorbidities in increasing the severity of this viral infection. Key words: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, coronavirus, age, neonates, pregnancy, older adults, mechanism, comorbidities, angiotensin converting enzyme 2

scholarly journals Health System Response to COVID-19 and Future Pandemics

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 138-145
Author(s):  
Jai Prakash Narain ◽  
Natasha Dawa ◽  
Rajesh Bhatia
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health System ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
System Capacity ◽  
System Response ◽  
Emerging Infections ◽  
The Public ◽  
Novel Virus ◽  
Public Health Strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health and economic crisis of a scale never witnessed before. Beginning in China, it has within a few months devastated many countries around the globe, requiring an unprecedented mobilisation of health systems. While the disease caused by this novel virus is generally mild and self-limiting, the risk of severe disease is disproportionately high among elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. In the absence of a vaccine or treatment, the public health strategies include: (a) preventing transmission through early detection and isolation, tracing contacts and quarantining them and implementation of measures such as social distancing and hand hygiene and (b) reducing mortality by augmenting clinical management and shielding the most vulnerable populations in the society. The pandemic is yet another reminder that we need to invest in public health, ramp up national capacities to detect a disease early and respond rapidly to emerging infections, strengthen and respect our national institutions and rely on evidence base for policymaking. It is high time that we paid heed to these lessons and strengthened without any further delay our health system capacity, as epidemics and pandemics of this nature will continue to challenge public health well into the future.

The Specific Features of Public Relations Maintained by Libraries, Acting as Cultural Institutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-152
Author(s):  
Radosław Molenda
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Negative Stereotypes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
Significant Question

Showing the specificity of the work of the contemporary library, and the variety of its tasks, which go far beyond the lending of books. The specificity of the library’s public relations concerning different aspects of its activity. The internal and external functions of the library’s public relations and their specificity. The significant question of motivating the social environment to use the offer of libraries, and simulta-neously the need to change the negative perception of the library, which discourages part of its poten-tial users from taking advantage of its services. The negative stereotypes of librarians’ work perpetuated in the public consciousness and their harmful character. The need to change the public relations of libra-ries and librarians with a view to improving the realization of the tasks they face. Showing the public relations tools which may serve to change the image of librarians and libraries with particular emphasis on social media. This article is a review article, highlighting selected research on the librarian’s stereo-type and suggesting actions that change the image of librarians and libraries.

Accounting and Control as Mechanisms for Solving Economic Problems as Viewed by Russian Citizens of the Perestroika Era (Based on the Analysis of Letters to the Authorities)

2020 ◽  
pp. 15-28
Author(s):  
Ol’ga D. Popova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Mikhail Gorbachev ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Problems ◽  
Cooperative Movement ◽  
Administrative Reforms ◽  
Regulatory Measures ◽  
And Control ◽  
Boris Yeltsin

This article deals with the public attitude toward the economic reforms of 1989–1990, specifically, the citizens’ suggestions on how to improve the country’s economy. The author analyses previously unpublished letters written by Russian citizens and addressed to the country’s leaders (Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev) or sent to Soviet newspapers. To investigate people’s mental attitudes, the article focuses not only on social polling, but also on emotions, feelings, and thoughts shared by the letterwriters. The author of this article maintains that many citizens feared that the country would be swept away by the avalanche of capitalism and were prejudiced against perestroika-induced innovations. Habitual mental attitudes were undermined by the cooperative movement and private entrepreneurship. Various unrealistic and paradoxical suggestions were not infrequently made by the letter-writers who knew very little, if anything, about market economy. The majority of people suggested that command economy with its bureaucratic flavour should be improved. The analysis shows that Russian citizens’ mental attitudes were predominantly shaped by the notion of a bipolar world, as well as by Vladimir Lenin’s teaching about the socialist state and its role in the accounting and control over the Soviet state. The letters demonstrate that Russian citizens hoped to upgrade the Soviet economy through improvements introduced into the system of accounting and control, through harsher regulatory measures imposed on the economic system, as well as through rationing and strictly supervised distribution of goods. Many people believed that socialism was inviolable and that the Soviet economy could be improved by means of administrative reforms.

scholarly journals COVID-19 in obstetrics 2020: the experience at a New York City medical center

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (9) ◽  
pp. 892-899
Author(s):  
Ashlesha K. Dayal ◽  
Armin S. Razavi ◽  
Amir K. Jaffer ◽  
Nishant Prasad ◽  
Daniel W. Skupski
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Medical Center ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Asymptomatic Carriage ◽  
Global Spread ◽  
Workforce Flexibility

AbstractThe global spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus during the early months of 2020 was rapid and exposed vulnerabilities in health systems throughout the world. Obstetric SARS-CoV-2 disease was discovered to be largely asymptomatic carriage but included a small rate of severe disease with rapid decompensation in otherwise healthy women. Higher rates of hospitalization, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission and intubation, along with higher infection rates in minority and disadvantaged populations have been documented across regions. The operational gymnastics that occurred daily during the Covid-19 emergency needed to be translated to the obstetrics realm, both inpatient and ambulatory. Resources for adaptation to the public health crisis included workforce flexibility, frequent communication of operational and protocol changes for evaluation and management, and application of innovative ideas to meet the demand.

scholarly journals Robust estimation of SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in US counties

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanmo Li ◽  
Mengyang Gu
Keyword(s):  
Transmission Rate ◽  
Public Awareness ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Infectious Period ◽  
Protective Measures ◽  
Social Distancing ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Us ◽  
Local Officials ◽  
Us Counties

AbstractThe COVID-19 outbreak is asynchronous in US counties. Mitigating the COVID-19 transmission requires not only the state and federal level order of protective measures such as social distancing and testing, but also public awareness of time-dependent risk and reactions at county and community levels. We propose a robust approach to estimate the heterogeneous progression of SARS-CoV-2 at all US counties having no less than 2 COVID-19 associated deaths, and we use the daily probability of contracting (PoC) SARS-CoV-2 for a susceptible individual to quantify the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a community. We found that shortening by $$5\%$$ 5 % of the infectious period of SARS-CoV-2 can reduce around $$39\%$$ 39 % (or 78 K, $$95\%$$ 95 % CI: [66 K , 89 K ]) of the COVID-19 associated deaths in the US as of 20 September 2020. Our findings also indicate that reducing infection and deaths by a shortened infectious period is more pronounced for areas with the effective reproduction number close to 1, suggesting that testing should be used along with other mitigation measures, such as social distancing and facial mask-wearing, to reduce the transmission rate. Our deliverable includes a dynamic county-level map for local officials to determine optimal policy responses and for the public to better understand the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 on each day.

scholarly journals De-Coding the Contributions of the Viral RNAs to Alphaviral Pathogenesis

Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 771
Author(s):  
Autumn T. LaPointe ◽  
Kevin J. Sokoloski
Keyword(s):  
Host Response ◽  
Severe Disease ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Structural Proteins ◽  
Virulence Determinants ◽  
Healthy Individuals ◽  
Viral Rnas ◽  
Positive Sense ◽  
Identification And Characterization

Alphaviruses are positive-sense RNA arboviruses that are capable of causing severe disease in otherwise healthy individuals. There are many aspects of viral infection that determine pathogenesis and major efforts regarding the identification and characterization of virulence determinants have largely focused on the roles of the nonstructural and structural proteins. Nonetheless, the viral RNAs of the alphaviruses themselves play important roles in regard to virulence and pathogenesis. In particular, many sequences and secondary structures within the viral RNAs play an important part in the development of disease and may be considered important determinants of virulence. In this review article, we summarize the known RNA-based virulence traits and host:RNA interactions that influence alphaviral pathogenesis for each of the viral RNA species produced during infection. Overall, the viral RNAs produced during infection are important contributors to alphaviral pathogenesis and more research is needed to fully understand how each RNA species impacts the host response to infection as well as the development of disease.

scholarly journals IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON TOURISM IN GEORGIA-AN OVERVIEW

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nana Kvirkvelia ◽  
Mariam Tsitsagi
Keyword(s):  
Review Article ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
International Tourism ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Statistics ◽  
Support Measures ◽  
The World ◽  
Domestic Tourism ◽  
Mass Recovery

Coronavirus has posed a great challenge to the whole world, including Georgia. The restrictions have taken a heavy toll on the tourism industry worldwide. It has been clear since the spring of the current year that the mass recovery of international tourism will not be possible by 2020. Consequently, the necessity has led to changes, especially in the direction of domestic tourism. Countries apply different strategies. This review article is based on the results of a mini-survey and data from the National Statistics Office. It is analyzed what impact COVID-19 had on local tourism in Georgia, what is the public mood, which places were visited, where did the epidemic break out after the restrictions were lifted, what are the statistics of international tourists in Georgia, etc. Besides, tourism support measures developed around the world are discussed.

scholarly journals Numerical Modelling of Waves and Surge from Cyclone Mekunu (May 2018) in the Arabian Sea

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Sarker
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Modelling ◽  
Arabian Sea ◽  
Significant Loss ◽  
Mitigation Measures ◽  
Wave Transformation ◽  
Marine Structures ◽  
Loss Of Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Risk Reduction Measures ◽  
Set Up

Natural hazards like cyclones cause significant loss of life and damage to properties, ecosystems and marine structures and facilities. Numerical modelling of cyclones is carried out for deriving robust design conditions for coastal and marine structures and facilities. Cyclone modelling results are also used for emergency planning and decision-making to estimate potential loss of life, damage to properties and marine facilities and to develop rescue and mitigation measures and plan clean-up operations. Royal HaskoningDHV (RHDHV) has set up regional tidal hydrodynamic and wave transformation models covering the Arabian Sea to address the above issues. Cyclone Mekunu is relatively new (May 2018). A quick literature search by Royal HaskoningDHV has suggested that numerical modelling results of waves and surge on Cyclone Mekunu are hardly available in the public domain. Therefore, this paper has concentrated on this event to illustrate the use of numerical modelling to simulate waves and surge generated by cyclones. The MIKE21 model of DHI was used in the study. Sample results of waves and surge from the modelling study are presented in this paper for illustration purposes. Structural design considerations and cyclone risk reduction measures are also provided. The model could be used to simulate any cyclone generated anywhere within the Arabian Sea. The methodology described in this paper for modelling cyclone waves and surge in the Arabian Sea could also be applied to simulate cyclones at other sites around the world. The paper provides valuable information to the researchers and practitioners of the region on this relatively new event.

scholarly journals Implications of pre-existing asthma on COVID-19 pathogenesis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rakhee K. Ramakrishnan ◽  
Saba Al Heialy ◽  
Qutayba Hamid
Keyword(s):  
Severe Disease ◽  
Current Data ◽  
Public Healthcare ◽  
T Helper ◽  
The Public ◽  
Type 2 Immune Response ◽  
Asthma Patients ◽  
Common Respiratory Virus ◽  
Helper Type

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic spreading at an alarming rate has taken a heavy toll on the public healthcare systems and economies worldwide. An abnormal and overactivated inflammatory response is occasionally elicited by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and this hyperinflammation is associated with worse prognosis of COVID-19. Theoretically, one would expect asthma patients to be at a greater risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection considering their increased susceptibility to common respiratory virus-associated exacerbations. Surprisingly, current data do not consistently suggest an increased prevalence of asthma among COVID-19 patients. Considering the high global prevalence of asthma, the characteristics of the disease and/or their conventional therapy might play a role in their potential defense against COVID-19. This may be attributed to the T helper type 2 immune response predominantly seen in asthmatics. Likewise, asthma therapeutics, including corticosteroids and biologics, may in fact benefit the asthmatics by alleviating the development of hyperinflammation. On the other hand, elevated IL-17 levels are characteristically seen in a subset of asthma patients with severe disease as well as in COVID-19 patients. Targeting the IL-17 pathway as a treatment strategy could plausibly alleviate acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) in COVID-19 patients with asthma demonstrating a predominant T helper type 17 response. A clinical trial including a drug targeting this pathway may thus, constitute a logical addition to the global pursuit for effective therapeutics against COVID-19. The complex interplay between the asthma endotypes and COVID-19 is not very well understood and will be discussed in this mini-review.

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