COVID-19 is a disease that mainly concerns the specialties of infectious and chest diseases. However, there was such a big epidemic all over the world that the experts of these specialties could not bear the patient burden. Many countries ,including Turkey, across the world, physicians of all specialties as well as preclinical doctors (residents) have taken care of patients in the COVID-19 outpatient and inpatient clinics. Dermatologists,too, started working as frontline physicians during the pandemic.

A document by Manju Chandiramani. Click on the document to view its contents.

Immune Thrombocytopenia (ITP) is a relatively common hematologic disorder characterized by isolated thrombocytopenia. In children it is usually associated with a history of a preceding viral infection provoked by common viruses. During the pandemic of Coronavirus Disease-19(COVID-19) few cases have been described in literature associated with previous COVID-19 infection(1,2). We describe the case of a 2-year-old boy who presented with ITP which was attributed to previous COVID-19 infection based on positive serology and hence we aspire to highlight the importance of including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2(SARS-CoV-2) in routine serology tests performed in children with ITP during the current pandemic.

Background: Individuals of any age can acquire SARS-CoV-2 infection, although adults of middle age and older are most commonly affected, and older adults are more likely to have severe disease. Therefore, the management of patients with COVID-19 over the age of 50 is very important. Aims: In this study, we aimed to investigate the epidemiological, clinical, and laboratory findings of COVID-19 patients over the age of 50 in a tertiary education and research hospital. Study Design: Single-center retrospective cross-sectional study. Methods: Patients older than 50 years of age who applied to the emergency service with suspected COVID-19 and had positive nasopharyngeal PCR were included in the study. The patients were divided into 3 groups according to their ages (50-64 years, 65-79 years, and 80 years and over, respectively). Demographic characteristics of the patients such as age, gender, admission symptoms, clinical findings, laboratory results, imaging results, and hospital follow-up periods were recorded. Results: A total of 119 patients were included in the study. Seventy-five patients were 50-64 years old (63.02%), 31 patients were 65-79 years (26.05%), and 13 patients were over 80 years old (10.9%). It was observed that fever and respiratory distress gradually increased with age (p = 0.019, p = 0.029). Considering the laboratory values between the groups, statistically significant differences were found in terms of anemia (p ˂ 0.05), lymphopenia (p ˂ 0.05), and the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (p = 0.009). Positive computed tomography findings were detected in 88 (73.9%) cases. The rates of service and intensive care hospitalization increased with age and were highest in patients over the age of 80 (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Age is an important risk factor in COVID-19 disease. In COVID-19 disease, special protocols should be established for elderly patients and studies involving larger patient samples should be conducted.

Background: A significant portion of COVID-19 sufferers have asthma. The impacts of asthma on COVID-19 progression are still unclear but a modifying effect is plausible as respiratory viruses are acknowledged to be an important trigger for asthma exacerbations and a different, potentially type-2 biased, immune response might occur. In this study, we compared the blood circulating cytokine response to COVID-19 infection in patients with and without asthma. Methods: Plasma samples and clinical information were collected from 80 patients with mild (25), severe (36) or critical (19) COVID-19 and 29 healthy subjects at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK. The concentrations of 51 circulating proteins in the plasma samples were measured with Luminex and compared between groups. Results: Total 16 pre-existing asthma patients were found (3 in mild, 10 in severe, and 3 in critical COVID-19). The prevalence of asthma in COVID-19 severity groups did not suggest a clear correlation between asthma and COVID-19 severity. Within the same COVID-19 severity group, no differences were observed between patients with or without asthma on oxygen saturation, CRP, neutrophil counts, and length of hospital stay. The mortality in the COVID-19 patients with asthma (12.5%) was not higher than that in patients without asthma (17.2%). No significant difference was found between asthmatic and non-asthmatic in circulating cytokine response in different COVID-19 severity groups, including the cytokines strongly implicated in COVID-19 such as CXCL10, IL-6, CCL2, and IL-8. Conclusions: Pre-existing asthma was not associated with an enhanced cytokine response after COVID-19 infection, disease severity or mortality.

Introduction: The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has demanded care changes for patients with chronic disease. Patients with CF are considered at higher risk of developing severe manifestations in the case of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and a need for new ways of safer care delivery has been required to avoid transmission. Objectives: To assess the impact of the lockdown during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and remote monitoring on patient’s health status and daily maintenance therapy in a middle-income resource setting. Methods: During the first wave of the pandemic period, we changed from regular clinic visits to telephone visit calls to monitor our patients’ health condition and adherence to physiotherapy and physical exercise. Results: A total of 120 patients or their caregivers have been contacted by telephone call visits over ten weeks. During this period, 38 patients (28.33%) were identified to have pulmonary exacerbation; 89.5% were prescribed oral antibiotics, 3% were hospitalized to get iv antibiotics and 8% of the patients presented other CF complications. Most of the patients did not change the frequency of the daily physiotherapy. Moreover, 71% of the patients who performed regular physical exercise changed the frequency and the type of exercise during the quarantine period. Interestingly, mean FEV1 and body weight increased significantly and after the lockdown period. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the implementation of telephone contact processes aiming for CF patients’ appropriate care is of great importance. Further studies are needed to evaluate patient outcomes when transitioning from face-to-face clinics to telemedicine clinics.

Abstract: Aims: The purpose of this study was to identify serologic and clinical factors in SARS-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) patients which may correlate and predict need for mechanical ventilation and mortality. Furthermore, we sought to determine if a diagnosis of heart failure and elevations in Pro B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (pro-BNP) predicted clinical endpoints. Methods: 135 patients age 18 or older admitted to Loma Linda University Medical Center with SARS-Co-2 between March 16, 2020 and June 8, 2020 were categorized by demographic data (age, race, and gender), clinical parameters (temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and peak fraction of inspired oxygen (FiO2)), and serologic markers pro-BNP. A regression analysis was done to correlate need for mechanical ventilation and mortality. Results: In univariate analysis, elevated pro-BNP correlated with need for mechanical ventilation (p=0.006) and mortality (p=0.001). In multivariate analysis, elevated pro-BNP was significantly associated with requiring intubation (OR 4.5, p=0.03). Each year of age (OR 1.08, p=0.006) and unit of BMI (OR= 1.05, p=0.03) were significantly associated with increased mortality. In patients without a diagnosis of heart failure, average pro-BNP was elevated (1141.66 ng/dL) however it did not correlate with need for intubation or mortality. Conclusions and clinical implications: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is associated with increased mortality and worse clinical outcomes in patients with heart failure. Despite a lack of heart failure diagnosis, elevated markers such as NT-Pro-BNP have been associated with increased mortality in COVID-19 hospitalized patients. Although no clear ‘cut-off’ has been described, our study findings suggest elevated pro-BNP may be a useful marker for disease severity and respiratory complications of COVID-19 patients with possible cardiac involvement. Similar to other single center findings, our study demonstrates worsened clinical outcomes for patients with advanced age and elevated body-mass index.

COVID-19: A New Challenge to the Teaching Management at a Conservatory of Music in ChinaYuan Zhoua, Kai Zhangb,*College of Continuing Education, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Tianjin, 300171, China.Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin Gong An Hospital, Tianjin, 300042, China.*Correspondence to: Kai Zhang, MD*Correspondence author at: Department of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, Tianjin Gong An Hospital, Tianjin, China.No. 78 Nanjing Road, Heping District, Tianjin,300042, China. Tel:008613043295598.E-mail address: coolzhangkai@163.com.Kai Zhang ORCID 0000-0002-7248-1451Yuan Zhou, MDCollege of Continuing Education, Tianjin Conservatory of Music, Tianjin, China.No.57 Shiyijing Road, Hedong District, Tianjin, 300171, China.E-mail address: lark.zhou@126.com.Number of words: 816.The number of Figure:2.

There are few accurate prognostic indications of the illness’s development and severity for COVID-19, despite certain biomarkers having been investigated. The unexpected nature of COVID-19’s course, which can quickly progress from asymptomatic to severe disease, lies at the heart of the disease’s intricacy. Predicting SARS-CoV-2 pathogenicity through laboratory biomarkers and as such, identifying the patients’ illness severity at the time of initial admission would be crucial in aiding patient care. In this study, we sought to evaluate hematological, biochemical and inflammatory biomarkers in COVID-19 patients. This was a cross-sectional research with 48 COVID-19 patients (16 asymptomatic/mild, 16 moderate, and 16 severe) and 48 age-sex matched COVID-19-negative clients from Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kenya. On admission, demographic information, symptoms, and laboratory test results were collected. Significantly, COVID-19 severity was associated with hemoglobin (p<0.0001), white blood cells (p=0.0022), hematocrit (p<0.0001), blood urea nitrogen (p=0.01), blood sodium (p=0.0002), potassium (p=0.0483), C-reactive protein (p=0.0002), and Lactate Dehydrogenase (p<0.0001). CRP showed a high positive connection (0.5433; p=0.0006) with COVID-19 severity, but LDH showed a mild positive correlation (0.2484; p<0.0001). When comparing asymptomatic/mild COVID-19 to severe COVID-19, discriminative accuracy for CRP and LDH was greatest (AUC:0.8867, 95% CI:0.7532-1.000) and (AUC:1.000, 95% CI:1.000-1.000), respectively. Inflammatory biomarkers, hematological and biochemical indices have the potential to complement SARS-CoV-2 testing and predict the course of COVID-19. This will be useful in designing appropriate care for COVID-19 patients through targeted therapy.

The SARS-CoV-2 immune response is crucial for disease management, although diminishing immunity raises the possibility of reinfection. In matched samples collected at one month and six to eight months after infection, we examined the immunological response to SARS-CoV-2 in a group of convalescent critically ill COVID-19 patients. The PBMCs were isolated from enrolled study participants and flow cytometry analysis was done to assess the lymphocyte subsets of naive, effector, central memory, and effector memory CD4+ or CD8+ T cells in COVID-19 patients at one month and six to eight months after infection. Immunophenotypic characterization of immune cell subsets was performed on individuals who were followed longitudinally for one month (n=44) and up to 6-8 months (n=25) after recovery from COVID infection. We observed that CD4+ T cells in hospitalized SARS-CoV-2 patients tended to decrease, whereas CD8+ T cells steadily recovered after one month, while there was a sustained increase in the population of effector T cells and effector memory T cells. Furthermore, COVID-19 patients showed persistently low B cells and a small increase in the NK cell population. In conclusion, our findings show that T cell responses were maintained at 6-8 months after infection. This opens new pathways for further research into the long-term effects in COVID-19 immunopathogenesis.

The immunological pathways that cause Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome after SARS-CoV-2 infection in children (MIS-C) remain under investigation. The aim of this study was to prospectively compare the T-cell cytokine expression profile between children with convalescent COVID-19 or MIS-C. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated from unvaccinated children with acute MIS-C (MIS-C_A) before immunosuppression, convalescent MIS-C (one month after syndrome onset, MIS-C_C), convalescent COVID-19 (one month after hospitalization) and healthy, unvaccinated controls. Intracellular expression of IL-4, IL-2, IL-17, IFN-γ, TNF-α and Granzyme B, post SARS-CoV-2-Spike antigenic mix stimulation of T cell subsets was analyzed by 13-colour Flow Cytometry. Twenty children (4 MIS-C_A, 4 MIS-C_C, 8 post-COVID-19, and 4 controls) with median age (IQR): 11.5(7.25-14) years were included in the study. From the comparison of the flow cytometry analysis of the 14 markers of MIS-C_A with the other 3 groups (MIS-C_C, post-COVID-19 and controls), statistically significant differences were identified for: 1. CD4 +IL-17 +/million CD3 +: 293.0 (256.4-870.9) vs 50.7 (8.4-140.5); P-value:0.03, vs 96.7 (89.2-135.4); P-value:0.03 and vs 8.7 (0.0-82.4); P-value:0.03, respectively, 2. CD8 +IL-17 +/million CD3 +: 335.2 (225.8-429.9) vs 78.0 (31.9-128.9) vs 84.1(0.0-204.6) vs 33.2 (0.0-114.6); P-value:0.05, respectively 3. CD8 +IFN-γ +/million CD3 +: 162.2 (91.6-273.4) vs 41.5 (0.0-77.4); P-value:0.03 vs 30.3(0.0-92.8); P-value:0.08, respectively. In children presenting with MIS-C one month after COVID-19 infection, T cells were found to be polarized towards IL-17 and IFN-γ production compared to those with uncomplicated convalescent COVID-19, a finding that could provide possible immunological biomarkers for MIS-C detection.

Aim: Both general medical and mental health services were disrupted during the pandemic. It is unclear how these disruptions played out for people with various mental health diagnoses. We compared change in mental health status and use of mental health services between four psychiatric groups: schizophrenia spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression, and anxiety/obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Method: Using a semi-structured interview, 492 psychiatric outpatients who had used psychiatric services of a university hospital before the pandemic were assessed on the phone during the pandemic. Results: About half of the sample reported a perceived need for contact with mental health services during the pandemic, half of whom actually used services. Need for contact was much lower in the schizophrenia group than other diagnostic groups, whereas actual use of services was lower in the unipolar depression and anxiety/OCD groups. Conclusions: Patients with severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorders, may not have been more disadvantaged than those with anxiety/depression spectrum disorders during the pandemic. The pandemic response structure of mental health services should be modified to fit the needs of anxiety/depression spectrum patients.

Objective  To investigate the expression of neuropeptide family members in the peripheral blood of children infected with COVID-19 and its correlation with inflammatory indicators. Methods  Blood samples were collected from 40 newly diagnosed children with COVID-19 infection and 17 hospitalized children with non-COVID-19 bronchial pneumonia in our hospital during the same period. Baseline clinical data were collected and analyzed. Expression and correlation analysis of neuropeptide-related molecules in peripheral blood were detected and analyzed by ELISA. Results  In this study, 43% of COVID-19 patients are male. 71% of non-COVID-19 patients are male. ACE and ACE2 in the COVID-19 group were not significantly higher than that in the non-COVID-19 group, and ACE2 in non-COVID-19 and moderate COVID-19 groups was higher than that in severe groups (p=0.04*; p=0.03*). ASCL1 in the non-COVID-19 group was higher than that in the COVID-19 group (p=0.04*). ASCL1 in the non-COVID group was higher than that in the severe COVID group (P=0.02*). There were no significant differences in SP, VIP, and GRP between COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 groups. ASCL1 respectively with N % (r = -0.534, p < 0.001 * * *), CRP (r =- 0.522, p < 0.001 * * *) negatively correlated, L % (r = 0.572, p< 0.001 * * *), AST (r = 0.496, p = 0.001 * *) were positively correlated. There was no significant correlation with WBC count, PLT count, ALT, LDH. Conclusions We found that, unlike adults, ACE and ACE2 were not high in children with COVID-19. ASCL1 in children with COVID-19 is lower than that in non-COVID-19 children, which may indicate that ASCL1 may be decreased in COVID-19 patients. At the same time, ASCL1 is negatively correlated with N% and CRP, suggesting that ASCL1 may play a certain role in COVID-19 inflammation.

Objective To report a case of Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis (GPA)with Diffuse alveolar hemorrhage(DAH)that developed following Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in an adolescent boy, and perform a literature review to better understand this disorder.Methods Retrospectively analyze the data of a case of GPA following COVID-19 infection, to summarize the clinical characteristics of GPA following COVID-19 infection by searching the database (PubMed,Wanfang Data,CNKI) and comprehensively analyze the literature results. Results 9 cases were reported，combined with our case，there were 10 cases of GPA following COVID-19 infection,including 4 males and 6 females,with an average age of(40.6±18.6)years,and the time interval between COVID-19 and diagnosis of GPA ranged from 1 day to 3 months for all 10 cases. The rate of mortality was 10.0%(1/10).Commonly seen clinical manifestations were cough(70.0%),dyspnea(50.0%),and Arthralgia/Myalgia(40.0%). CT scans showed ground-glass opacities，multifocal pulmonary nodules.Of all these patients, c-ANCA and PR3-antibody positivity were found .Conclusion COVID-19 pneumonia and COVID-19- induced new-onset GPA share many clinical and radiological features, making it challenging for clinicians to distinguish between the two. Our study also provided some clues about the diagnostic challenge of GPA induced by COVID-19.

Well-being across the early years plays an important role for life-long quality or life and learning. We examine the measurement invariance of a school well-being measure (How I Feel About My School [HIFAMS]) across the UK and Hong Kong. In context of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, we also assessed the measurement invariance across cohorts tested online and in-person in both the UK and Hong Kong. We found configural, metric and partial-scalar invariance across countries and assessment modalities. Child HIFAMS scores were inversely related to parental SDQ ratings in the UK, but not in Hong Kong. COVID-19 restrictions were strongly associated with HIFAMS in both the UK and Hong Kong. Our results highlight the utility of HIFAMS across cultures and assessment modalities, however contextual factors of time (e.g., COVID-19 restrictions and resulting feelings about school and peers) and place need to be considered.

Abstract Background: The purpose of this meta-analysis was to look at the relationship between hypernatremia and mortality in COVID-19 patients. Methods: We searched the PubMed, Web of science, Embase and Cochrane databases for articles published from the inception of the database until August 27, 2022. Three researchers reviewed the literature, retrieved data, and assessed the quality of the literature, respectively. A meta-analysis was performed using State 17 software to assess the value of the effect of hypernatremia on mortality in patients with new coronavirus pneumonia. Results: A total of 9 publications was finally included in this study, including a total of 11,801 patients with COVID-19, including 1,278 in the hypernatremia group and 10,523 in the normonatremia group. Meta-analysis showed that hypernatremia was associated with mortality in patients with COVID-19 [OR = 4.15, 95% CI (2.95-5.84), P = 0.002, I² = 66.7%] with a sensitivity of 0.36 [0.26, 0.48] and a specificity of 0.88 [ 0.83, 0.91]. The posterior probability of mortality was 42% in patients with COVID-19 hypernatremia and 15% in patients who did not have COVID-19 hypernatremia. Conclusion: According to available data, hypernatremia is associated with death in patients with COVID-19.

A document by Tansel İşkol. Click on the document to view its contents.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) results in several complications and mortality in ICU patients. The effect of enteral nutrition on the survival of COVID-19 patients in the ICU has been investigated in limited instances. The aim of this study is to investigate the association of enteral feeding with biochemical and pathological indices associated with mortality in COVID-19 patients. Methods: This case-control study was conducted on 240 patients with COVID-19 hospitalized in the ICU including 120 eventually dead patients as the cases and 120 discharged patients as the controls. All of the patients received enteral nutrition. Data on general information, anthropometric measurements, and the results of lab tests were collected. Results: The recovered patients received significantly more high protein (60.8% vs. 39.6%, P=0.004) and high volume (61.6% vs. vs. 42.3%, P=0.005) formula compared to the dead patients. Mortality was inversely associated with high volume (OR:0.45 CI95%, P=0.008) and high protein formula (OR:0.42 CI95%, P=0.003). The results remained significant after adjusting for age and sex. Further adjustment for underlying diseases and smoking, BMI, and APACHII did not change the results. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that there was a significant inverse association between mortality and high volume and high protein formula in COVID-19 patients that warrants further investigation.

The goal of the article has been to identify general risks of universities and faculties that are arising to them regarding the personal data in teaching, research and development based on the social and technological transformation during (and possibly after) the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic activities involve online and blended teaching using the online modern instruments of group electronic communication. The identified risks were based on the review of the literature and legal acts with quantitative research including 959 respondent questionnaires, validated through 7 structured interviews. The first risk involves a potential personal data breach in online communication. The second risk is a potential lack of a data protection training for employees, professors, or students, specifically including the training for employees on the safe leading of online meetings. The third risk involves a default public pre-setting of public access to accounts, files and folders (instead of private pre-setting). The fourth risk involves an insufficient awareness regarding the importance of getting to know privacy policies on various tools or websites and privacy settings in tools. Based on our research, we have come to conclusion that academic institutions should tighten up measures as well as practices regarding the aforementioned risks in order to comply with the GPDR regulation.

Background Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a multifaceted condition. The COVID-19 is associated with various ocular manifestations including conjunctivitis, retinal vein occlusion and optic neuritis. The case of VKH disease associated with SARS-CoV-2 was rare and the specific association is still unclear. Case Presentation In the present study, a 35-year-old female patient with no significant medical history presented with one week of bilateral blurred vision 2 weeks after a clinical course of COVID-19. Both eyes presented with bullous serous retinal detachments. She was diagnosed with incomplete Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada (VKH) disease. Early diagnosis and treatment of VKH disease are essential for the visual prognosis of this aggressive disease. Ocular inflammatory signs and visual acuity improved via corticosteroid therapy in this patient. The case of VKH disease associated with SARS-CoV-2 was rare and the specific association is still unclear. By reviewing similar studies previously reported, we discuss and summarize the potential mechanisms explaining the association between VKH disease and SARS-CoV-2. Conclusion Although the causality remains unclear, ophthalmologists and physicians should be aware of this possible association between VKH disease and COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 may play a potential immunological triggering role in VKH disease. However, further in-depth researches are necessary to investigate the clinical and epidemiological features, as well as the underlying mechanisms of it. Keywords: Vogt–Koyanagi–Harada disease; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; case report

Background: The efficacy of immunization against an airborne pathogen depends in part on its ability to induce antibodies at the major entry site of the virus, the mucosa. Recent studies have revealed that mucosal immunity is poorly activated after vaccination with mRNA vaccines, thus failing in blocking virus acquisition upon its site of initial exposure. Little information is available about the induction of mucosal immunity by inactivated and recombinant COVID-19 vaccines. This study aims to investigate this topic. Methods: Saliva and plasma samples from 440 healthy Congolese were collected including (1) fully vaccinated two month post vaccination with either an inactivated or a recombinant COVID-19 vaccine and (2) non-vaccinated control group. Total anti-SARS-COV-2 RBD IgG and IgA antibodies were assessed using in-house ELISAs for both specimens. Findings: Altogether, the positivity of IgG was significantly higher in plasma than in saliva samples both in vaccinated and non-vaccinated control groups. Inversely, IgA positivity was slightly higher in saliva than in plasma of vaccinated group. The overall IgG and IgA levels were respectively over 103 and 14 times lower in saliva than in plasma samples. We found a strong positive correlation between IgG in saliva and plasma also between IgA in both specimens (r = 0.70 for IgG and r = 052 for IgA). Interestingly, contrary to IgG, the level of salivary IgA was not different between seropositive control group and seropositive vaccinated group. No significant difference was observed between recombinant and Inactivated COVID-19 vaccines in total IgG and IgA antibody concentration release 2 months post vaccination both in plasma and saliva. Conclusion: Inactivated and recombinant COVID-19 vaccines in use in the Republic of Congo poorly activated mucosal IgA mediated antibody response two months post-vaccination.

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate and compare the clinical efficacy of lopinavir/ritonavir with oseltamivir plus hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of Covid-19, in order to find a better treatment for Covid-19 patients. Methods: In this single-center, mixed designed cohort study, 198 patients admitted for Covid-19, to Ziaeian Hospital, Tehran, Iran were included. According to the date of admission, the patients were received different treatments and divided into two groups. Group 1 received oseltamivir with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin whereas group 2 received lopinavir/ritonavir with azithromycin. Patients’ outcomes were measured based on duration of hospitalization, a requirement to intensive care unit (ICU) admission, need for intubation and mortality. Results: Patients in group 1 had greater clinical improvement and shorter duration of hospitalization. Although small in number, mortality, ICU admission, and intubation was also less in this group, but due to the small number of events in incidence of ICU admission, intubation, and mortality, it could not be analyzed and was not possible to investigate the relationship between the type of treatment and these variables. In group 1, one patient was admitted to ICU, while 12 patients were admitted to ICU in group2. None of the patients in group 1 required intubation whereas 4 in group 2 received intubation. One patient in group 1 and 9 patients in group 2 died. Conclusion: This study showed that administration of Oseltamivir plus hydroxychloroquine is likely to be associated with earlier clinical improvement and shorter duration of hospitalization however, further studies are required.

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic virus has spread throughout the world, millions of positive cases of COVID-19 have been registered and, even though there are millions of people already vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, a large part of the global population remains vulnerable to contracting the virus. Given the difficulty of massive sample collection in Puerto Rico and the restrictions to perform the molecular test to detect SARS-CoV-2, this study aims to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the TaqPath RT-PCR COVID-19 kit and a LAMP SARS-CoV-2 Laboratory Developed Test in paired nasopharyngeal, saliva, and urine samples. Automated RNA extraction was performed in the KingFisher Flex instrument, whilst PCR quantification of SARS-CoV-2 on the 7500 Fast Dx RT-PCR instrument using the TaqPath RT-PCR COVID-19 molecular test. The PCR data was interpreted by the COVID-19 Interpretive Software from Applied Biosystems and statistically analyzed with Cohen’s kappa coefficient (k). Cohen’s kappa coefficient (k) for paired nasal and saliva samples was found to be 0.52, showing moderate agreement. Nasal and saliva samples displayed concordance and it was determined that saliva samples had a higher viral load. Another objective was to compare the positive or negative result of the RT-PCR with the positive or negative result of LifeGene-Biomarks SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Colorimetric LAMP LDT, which resulted in 90% concordance. Due to this, the use of saliva and LifeGene-Biomarks SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Colorimetric LAMP test is suggested for further evaluation as an alternative to nasal, urine, and RT-PCR tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2, since it can be easily used in clinics, hospitals, the workplace, and at home, optimizing the surveillance and collection process, which helps mitigate the global public health and socioeconomic damage caused by airborne pandemics.

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Mpox outbreak, the Sudan Ebolavirus (SUDV) had arisen as a new menace in Uganda. Multiple human epidemics in Africa have been traced back to four genetically distinct strains: Sudan ebolavirus, Zaire ebolavirus, Bundibugyo virus, and Taï Forest virus. While African fruit bats are thought to be a reservoir host for the ebola virus, scientists throughout the world are looking for confirmatory evidences that bats play a significant role in the spread of the disease.