Factors That Influence Virtual Tourism Holistic Image: The Moderating Role of Sense of Presence

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically restricted domestic and foreign travel; thus, virtual tourism has become a new option for traveling. As regards virtual tourism, the present study seeks to investigate the effect of tourist involvement on the three components of holistic image, namely cognitive, affective, and conative images; the influence of cognitive, affective, and conative images on the construction of the holistic image; and the moderating effect of sense of presence on the relationships between cognitive, affective, and conative images on the holistic image. Prospective tourists were chosen as research subjects in the present study on non-immersive virtual reality (VR) tourism, or virtual tourism. Participants first watched the 360° VR tour video of AirPano. Afterward, they filled out an online questionnaire, of which 386 valid samples were collected for analyses. Results show that tourist involvement considerably affects cognitive, affective, and conative images, which significantly influence the holistic image. Furthermore, a sense of presence was found to positively moderate the relationships between (1) cognitive and holistic, (2) affective and holistic, and (3) conative and holistic images. These results may allow tourism marketing organizations to better understand how to strengthen the holistic image in the context of virtual tourism.

Modeling the Social Determinants of Official COVID-19 Reports in the Early Stages of the Pandemic

The goal of this paper is to examine the role of social factors in the formation of country reports related to COVID-19 in the early stages of the pandemic. To this end, a linked database of countries’ COVID-19 reports and five composite variables (which compress the information content of 162 preliminary selected socioeconomic indicators) is analyzed by using regression models with regional dummy interactions. The main findings not only reflect the importance of foreign travel restrictions and airport controls but also show that in Europe and Africa, more corrupt countries have reported significantly fewer cases and deaths than countries in other regions.

704. Contemporary Salmonella spp. Infections in Houston, TX (2019 and 2020) and Emergence of Cephalosporin Resistance

Background Salmonella spp. Infections are a significant cause of morbidity in children in the United States. Contemporary clinical and microbiological characteristics of pediatric Salmonella infections in urban cities are not well described. Methods We used a retrospective chart review of records (0-18 years of age) from a network of hospitals (n=11) in Houston, TX. Only patients with Salmonella spp. isolated from clinical samples in 2019 and 2020 were included. Demographic, clinical, and microbiological data were extracted from the medical record. Results A total of 35 pediatric cases of Salmonella spp infection were identified over the two-year period. Median age was 1.6 years with over one-third (13/35, 37.1%) under one year (Table 1). Nearly half (15/35, 42.9%) of patients required hospitalization with a median length of stay of 2 days. From cases with available clinical data (n=31), most common symptoms were fever (22/31, 71%) and bloody diarrhea (21/31, 67.7%) (Table 2). Bacteremia was detected in 17.1% (6/35) of cases (Table 3). Exposure history was elicited in 29% (9/31) of cases with foreign travel being most common risk factor (Table 2). All speciated isolates were Salmonella enterica with the majority (24/29, 82.8%) subspecies enterica. Of 24 samples with serotype information, the most common was infantis (Table 3). A single isolate was resistant to all antibiotics tested except meropenem (Table 3) and was recovered from a patient after travel to Pakistan. Nearly half of patients (15/31, 48.4%) received definitive therapy with a third generation cephalosporin antibiotic. Complications were rare and included septic arthritis/osteomyelitis (n=1), UTI (n=3), coagulopathy (n=1), and hepatitis (n=1). Conclusion Salmonella spp. Infections were common in the Houston metropolitan area over the 2-year period and occurred primarily in young children. Foreign travel seems to be a major risk factor for acquisition of this infection in children. For the first time, the identification of a multi-drug resistant Salmonella isolate suggests that this phenotype is likely to increase and highlights the importance of ongoing surveillance. Disclosures Anthony R. Flores, MD, MPH, PhD, Nothing to disclose Cesar A. Arias, M.D., MSc, Ph.D., FIDSA, Entasis Therapeutics (Grant/Research Support)MeMed Diagnostics (Grant/Research Support)Merk (Grant/Research Support)

Possible Discrimination in the Workspace Following Acceptance or Rejection of COVID-19 Vaccination – Opinions of Hungarian Employees

Hungary is proud of Katalin Karikó, who was born in Hungary and educated at the University of Szeged, including a doctorate level. Later she moved to the United States where gained many practical experiences at several renowned universities as a professor. She has played a key role in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine. Their opinions are influenced by their political views, religious backgrounds, life experiences, and the country’s turbulent historical past; citizens fear various discriminatory measures. In the first part of our research, the importance of vaccinations and the Hungarian and European regulations are described. In the second section, we demonstrate that sometimes discrimination can be legal. The third part discusses the quantitative research that was conducted about the expected discrimination that can be considered legitimate or illegal. Our opinions are related to foreign travel and the activity of human resource management

The impact of COVID-19 on foreign travel plans of Polish tourists in 2020

The aim of this article is to analyse foreign travel plans of Polish tourists in 2020 and how they were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The study is based on information collected through an online survey involving 355 respondents. The survey was anonymous and consisted of 6 questions. It was found that the outbreak of the pandemic significantly changed foreign travel plans of Poles in the analysed period. Only a third of the respondents said they were planning a tourist or recreational trip abroad. There was much less interest in countries like Turkey, Egypt or Tunisia, in favour of European countries, mainly those located in the Mediterranean area, such as Spain and Italy. The study has also shown that domestic tourism can be expected to increase, as indicated by data collected by the Polish Chamber of Tourism.

Malagasy art on the move: Materiality, home displays, and problems in decolonizing Christianity

This article explores how white US Christians’ home displays, including their decorative presentation of paintings, small sculptures, and other memorabilia of foreign travel, play a critical role in representing imperial geographies. Drawing upon long-term ethnographic research on the current aid partnership between Lutherans in the US and Madagascar, which stems from American Lutheran mission work in southern Madagascar (1888–2004), the article studies the relationship of contemporary white Minnesotans’ home displays about Madagascar with more historically-established projects of colonial knowledge production. The visual dimensions of materiality have been significant for building traces and imaginaries of far-flung places for home or metropole audiences in Christian colonization. Thus, by placing theories of Christian souvenirs and devotional objects in dialogue with work on Christian colonialism, the author examines home displays as a lesser-considered aspect of the colonial project in the metropole and considers the problems they raise for contemporary efforts to decolonize Christianity.

Implementation of an Electronic Travel Navigator to Enable "Identify-Isolate-Inform" for Emerging Infectious Diseases

Background: Travel screening can facilitate the identification of patients at risk for emerging infectious diseases, such as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). A travel navigator with associated decision support through a best practice advisory (BPA) was implemented in an electronic health record to build upon the CDC identify-isolate-inform framework. Compliance with documentation of travel history, symptom screening when appropriate, and isolation of suspect MERS patients were assessed. Methods: Adult and pediatric emergency department encounters at the Massachusetts General Hospital, a 1,035-bed, tertiary-care, academic health center in Boston, Massachusetts, from August 2018 to October 2019, were included. We categorized an encounter as adherent to initial travel screening if providers answered foreign, domestic, or no travel to the screen. Encounters were defined as nonadherent if they were recorded as unknown or if an answer was not selected. Adherence to completion of data entry for the subgroup of patients with documented foreign travel was further assessed for region- and country-level specification, completion of symptom screen, and response to the MERS BPA (Fig. 1). Results: In total, 127,866 encounters were included, of which 105,593 (83%) were adherent to initial travel screening. Among 4,498 encounters with documented foreign travel, 2,970 (66%) specified the region of travel, and 710 (16%) selected a country of travel from the listing. Moreover, 214 encounters had documented travel to the Middle East. Selection of Middle East or 1 of the 13 countries identified by the CDC as at risk for MERS triggered symptom screening for fever and cough, which was performed in 139 encounters (65%). Of these, 95 encounters documented absence of fever and cough, 15 documented fever and cough, 12 documented a cough alone, and 17 documented a fever alone through reporting or obtaining vitals. The MERS BPA was triggered in 37 encounters; 10 patients were ordered for isolation using the BPA. Of these, 4 patients met CDC criteria for a MERS patient under investigation and were tested; all were negative. Conclusions: Initial screening to document foreign travel is completed at a high rate; however, use of the travel navigator to specify region and country, key components necessary to prompt clinicians for symptom screening, are documented in a minority of encounters. Future interventions are needed to improve region and country capture and appropriate symptom screening, with isolation when appropriate.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

EP03 Parechovirus in a pathologist

Case report - Introduction A 42-year-old pathologist presented with a 1-week history of muscle pain and subjective weakness. CK level on 2 occasions was >3000. The patient was systemically well with no past medical history, medication, or foreign travel. He had 1-day history of shivering with no recorded pyrexia. He reported pain in his proximal muscles and neck and subjective muscle weakness and lack of finger dexterity with no objective findings. Case report - Case description Autoantibody panel and inflammatory markers were performed which were normal. Full blood count with differential white cell count including eosinophils was normal. There was a modest rise in transaminases. Myositis panel was negative. Full viral screen was positive for parechovirus with titre of 30 on several samples. MRI proximal musculature showed increased fluid signal in the perifascial region of both thighs primarily involving the hamstrings, not definitive for myositis but suggestive of fasciitis. Case report - Discussion Parechovirus is a picornavirus, often causing mild gastrointestinal or respiratory illness but has been associated with epidemic myalgia and myositis during outbreaks of parechovirus in a Japanese population. The patient improved spontaneously with CK reduced to 187 and improved symptoms after 1 week. We expect a good outcome and will review on patient's request if necessary. Case report - Key learning points Parechovirus can cause myofasciitis which is usually mild and self-limiting. It can be associated with elevated CK, transaminases and MRI findings and can be confirmed on respiratory viral swab.