Virus Diseases Commons^™

Ritual During Covid-19, Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg, Ryan Lemasters, Jacob Riccioni

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the participation and practice of religious rituals. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Western Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Gender, Monastic Life, And The Lay Community During The Pandemic, Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the monastic life of both Buddhists and Catholics. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Wester Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

Coronavirus (Covid-19) And Religious Holidays In The U.S., Stephen Covell, Diane Riggs, Cameron Borg, Jarrett Stalinger, Jacob Riccioni

Modules for Teaching Pandemic Response and Religion in the USA

The following teaching module is designed for high school and college level instructors who seek to teach a lesson on the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on the celebration of religious holidays, such as Ramadan, Passover, and Easter. The teaching module features a lesson plan, case studies, and assignments that can be incorporated as the instructor sees fit. This teaching module was created by Western Michigan University's Department of Comparative Religion.

The Lived Experience Of Postpartum Anxiety During Covid-19: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Walker Ladd Phd, Jenny De Decker

The Qualitative Report

The experience of pregnancy and postpartum anxiety disorders results in adverse birth outcomes and the disrupted development of infants and children. Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has designated pregnant and postpartum women as more vulnerable to COVID-19 (CDC, 2021), and perinatal mood and anxiety disorders rates have increased. However, research regarding the lived experience of women with postpartum anxiety (PPA) during a global pandemic remains lacking. Using van Manen’s hermeneutic phenomenological research method, we interviewed eight women self-identifying as having had PPA during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis revealed five themes describing the lived …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Anti-Hiv Activity Of Mono- And Di-Substituted Phosphonamidate Conjugates Of Tenofovir, Aaminat Qureshi, Louise A. Ouattara, Naglaa Salem El-Sayed, Amita Verma, Gustavo F. Doncel, Muhammad Iqbal Choudhary, Hina Siddiqui, Keykavous Parang

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The activity of nucleoside and nucleotide analogs as antiviral agents requires phosphorylation by endogenous enzymes. Phosphate-substituted analogs have low bioavailability due to the presence of ionizable negatively-charged groups. To circumvent these limitations, several prodrug approaches have been proposed. Herein, we hypothesized that the conjugation or combination of the lipophilic amide bond with nucleotide-based tenofovir (TFV) (1) could improve the anti-HIV activity. During the current study, the hydroxyl group of phosphonates in TFV was conjugated with the amino group of L-alanine, L-leucine, L-valine, and glycine amino acids and other long fatty ester hydrocarbon chains to synthesize 43 derivatives. Several …

Disparities In Adult Critical Care Resources Across Pakistan: Findings From A National Survey And Assessment Using A Novel Scoring System, Mustafa Ali Khan, Hamna Shahbaz, Ali Aahil Noorali, Anam Noor Ehsan, Mareeha Zaki, Fahham Asghar, Mohammed Moizul Hassan, Haroon Muhammad Arshad, Muhammad Sohaib, Adil H. Haider

Medical College Documents

Background: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, concerted efforts were made by provincial and federal governments to invest in critical care infrastructure and medical equipment to bridge the gap of resource-limitation in intensive care units (ICUs) across Pakistan. An initial step in creating a plan toward strengthening Pakistan's baseline critical care capacity was to carry out a needs-assessment within the country to assess gaps and devise strategies for improving the quality of critical care facilities.
Methods: To assess the baseline critical care capacity of Pakistan, we conducted a series of cross-sectional surveys of hospitals providing COVID-19 care across the country. …

Integrating Conformational Dynamics And Perturbation-Based Network Modeling For Mutational Profiling Of Binding And Allostery In The Sars-Cov-2 Spike Variant Complexes With Antibodies: Balancing Local And Global Determinants Of Mutational Escape Mechanisms, Gennady M. Verkhivker, Steve Agajanian, Ryan Kassab, Keerthi Krishnan

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

n this study, we combined all-atom MD simulations, the ensemble-based mutational scanning of protein stability and binding, and perturbation-based network profiling of allosteric interactions in the SARS-CoV-2 spike complexes with a panel of cross-reactive and ultra-potent single antibodies (B1-182.1 and A23-58.1) as well as antibody combinations (A19-61.1/B1-182.1 and A19-46.1/B1-182.1). Using this approach, we quantify the local and global effects of mutations in the complexes, identify protein stability centers, characterize binding energy hotspots, and predict the allosteric control points of long-range interactions and communications. Conformational dynamics and distance fluctuation analysis revealed the antibody-specific signatures of protein stability and flexibility of the …

A Case Of Pleural Tuberculosis Vs Latent Tuberculosis Reactivation As A Result Of Covid-19 Infection And Treatment, Wesley Tang, Lex Leonhardt, Aamir Pervez, Satish Sarvepalli

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

The reactivation of latent tuberculosis occurs when a patient living with Mycobacterium tuberculosis enters a state where the immune system is suppressed. Since early 2021, the standard of care has been to provide corticosteroids in patients with COVID-19 infection in hospitalized patients receiving supplemental oxygen or mechanical ventilation. The immunomodulatory effects of corticosteroids are potentially detrimental for patients with latent vs active tuberculosis, with concomitant SARS-CoV2 infection. We present one of the first few cases in the literature detailing a case of reactivation of latent tuberculosis vs. pleural tuberculosis as a consequence of COVID-19, and who underwent subsequent corticosteroid treatment.

A Case Of Adult Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome Following Covid-19 Vaccine, Meghan Brown, Nika Zorko Garbajs, Simon Zec, Hisham Mushtaq, Anwar Khedr, Abbas Bashir Jama, Ibtisam Rauf, Mikael Mir, Aishwarya Reddy Korsapati, Shikha Jain, Thoyaja Koritala, Ramesh Adhikari, Amos Lal, Ognjen Gajic, Juan Pablo Domecq, Sarah Goksoy, Brian Bartlett, Amit Sharma, Nitesh Kumar Jain, Syed Anjum Khan

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome is a life-threatening condition associated with elevated inflammatory markers and multiple organ injury. A diagnosis of exclusion, it has been reported after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection (SARS-CoV-2) in children and adults; recently it has been described in some post-COVID-19 vaccinated individuals. The prognosis with supportive care and immunomodulatory therapy is good, although some individuals may require treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU). Here we report a case of a 58-year-old man who developed multi-organ failure after receiving the second dose of the Moderna mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine. He required critical organ support in the …

What About Anosmia From Covid-19 ?, Sharanya S E Santhi, Sara Elnour, Steven B Lippmann

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

A Changing Epidemic And The Rise Of Opioid-Stimulant Co-Use, Saeed Ahmed, Zouina Sarfraz, Azza Sarfraz

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 126), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

A Pilot Phase Ib/Ii Study Of Whole-Lung Low Dose Radiation Therapy (Ldrt) For The Treatment Of Severe Covid-19 Pneumonia: First Experience From Africa, Mansoor Saleh, Karishma Sharma, Jasmit Shah, Farrok Karsan, Angela Waweru, Martin Musumbi, Reena Shah, Shahin Sayed, Innocent Abayo, Noureen Karimi, Stacey Gondi, Sehrish Rupani, Grace Kirathe, Heldah Amariati

Internal Medicine, East Africa

Background: Low dose radiation therapy (LDRT) has been used for non-malignant conditions since early 1900s based on the ability of single fractions between 50–150 cGy to inhibit cellular proliferation. Given scarcity of resources, poor access to vaccines and medical therapies within low and middle income countries, there is an urgent need to identify other cost-effective alternatives in management of COVID-19 pneumonia. We conducted a pilot phase Ib/II investigator-initiated clinical trial to assess the safety, feasibility, and toxicity of LDRT in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. Additionally, we also assessed clinical …

Conscious And Unconscious Bias: The Hidden Pandemic Of Biases In Healthcare Exacerbated By Covid-19, Ibtisam Rauf, Abigail Hartmann, Alexandre Koumtchev, Syed Anjum Khan, Rahul Kashyap

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Background

There are limited data on unconscious bias in healthcare, but there is consistent evidence that it alters clinical decision-making. COVID-19 exacerbated many pre-existing disparities, and this paper seeks to identify, deconstruct, and propose mitigation strategies for a few of them.

Discussion

Five of the largest disparities amplified by the pandemic are discussed in this paper. Older people, Black people, uninsured people, rural communities, and people with lower education levels have been disproportionally affected in both morbidity and mortality.

Conclusions

The disparities discussed above did not occur in a vacuum but are the result of systemic issues. Equity starts with …

Is There A Bias Toward Unvaccinated Covid-19 Patients?, Abbas B. Jama, Anwar Khedr, Hisham Mushtaq, Nitesh K. Jain, Thoyaja Koritala, Syed Anjum Khan

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

With more than 22% of the United States still not vaccinated for COVID-19, we are trying to shed some light on whether there is any bias when treating unvaccinated COVID-19 patients. We highlight several reports where some individuals or organizations displayed possible bias, whether implicit or explicit. We examine the legal and ethical implications of these biases and offer a general overview of how to tackle them.

Viral Infections In Pakistan: Prevalence, Factors Affecting Spread, And Recommendations For Control, Zehra Naseem, Maaha Ayub, Sharaf Ali Shah, Syed Asad Ali, Syed Hani Abidi

Medical College Documents

Pakistan is endemic to a number of viral infections, owing to its humid climate, topographical variation, soaring population, and lack of education and awareness. These viruses may have several different modes of transmission, including respiratory or airborne transmission, sexual transmission, blood-borne, fecal-oral transmission, vector-borne transmission, and transmission following an organ transplant. Although several different microorganisms are responsible for causing these infections, a few viruses are found more commonly in Pakistan and are primarily responsible for causing infections. In this study, we present a review of the most recent studies on different viruses, transmitted through various transmission routes, found commonly in …

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 125), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Gain-Of-Signal Assays For Probing Inhibition Of Sars-Cov-2 Mpro/3clpro In Living Cells, Seyed Arad Moghadasi, Morgan A Esler, Yuka Otsuka, Jordan T Becker, Sofia N Moraes, Constance B Anderson, Srinivas Chamakuri, Christopher Belica, Chloe Wick, Daniel A Harki, Damian W Young, Louis Scampavia, Timothy P Spicer, Ke Shi, Hideki Aihara, William L Brown, Reuben S Harris

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The main protease, Mpro, of SARS-CoV-2 is required to cleave the viral polyprotein into precise functional units for virus replication and pathogenesis. Here, we report quantitative reporters for Mpro function in living cells in which protease inhibition by genetic or chemical methods results in robust signal readouts by fluorescence (enhanced green fluorescent protein [eGFP]) or bioluminescence (firefly luciferase). These gain-of-signal systems are scalable to high-throughput platforms for quantitative discrimination between Mpro mutants and/or inhibitor potencies as evidenced by validation of several reported inhibitors. Additional utility is shown by single Mpro amino acid variants and structural information combining to demonstrate that …

Treating Cytokine Storm In Patients With Covid-19, Ahmed Abdelhaleem, Deekshitha Turaka, Shameera Shaik Masthan, Steven B Lippmann

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 124), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Pneumococcal Carriage In Infants Post-Pcv10 Introduction In Pakistan: Results From Serial Cross-Sectional Surveys, Shahira Shahid, Amala Khan, Muhammad Imran Nisar, Farah Khalid, Muhammad Farrukh Qazi, Sheraz Ahmed, Furqan Kabir, Aneeta Hotwani, Sahrish Muneer, Syed Asad Ali, Anita K. M. Zaidi, Fyezah Jehan

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

The 10-valent pneumococcal vaccine was introduced in Pakistan's Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) in 2013 as a 3 + 0 schedule without catchup. We conducted three annual cross-sectional surveys from 2014-2016 to measure vaccine-type (VT) carriage in infants from a rural part of Pakistan. Nasopharyngeal specimens were collected by random sampling of infants from two union councils of Matiari. Samples were then transported to the Infectious Disease Research Laboratory (IDRL) at the Aga Khan University within 6-8 h of collection. Serotypes were established using sequential multiplex PCR. Of the 665 children enrolled across three surveys, 547 were culture-positive for pneumococcus. …

Rural-Urban And Within-Rural Differences In Covid-19 Mortality Rates, Yue Sun, Kent Jason G. Cheng, Shannon M. Monnat

Journal of Rural Social Sciences

Since late-2020, COVID-19 mortality rates have been higher in rural than in urban America, but there has also been substantial within-rural heterogeneity. Using CDC data, we compare COVID-19 mortality rates across the rural-urban continuum as well as within rural counties across different types of labor markets and by metropolitan adjacency. As of October 1, 2021, the cumulative COVID-19 mortality rate was 247.0 per 100,000 population in rural counties compared to 200.7 in urban counties. Higher COVID-19 mortality rates in rural counties are explained by lower average educational attainment and lower median household income. Within rural counties, mortality rates have been …

Sars-Cov-2 Neuroinvasion, Inflammatory Neurodegeneration And Alzheimer's Disease, Yuhai Zhao, Walter J. Lukiw

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Microrna, The Innate-Immune System And Sars-Cov-2, James M. Hill, Walter J. Lukiw

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

The single-stranded viral RNA (ssvRNA) known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that causes COVID-19 can be effectively inactivated by a number of natural ribonucleic acid-based host cell defenses. One of the most important of these defenses includes the actions of a class of small non-coding RNAs (sncRNAs) known as microRNAs (miRNAs). Via base-pair complementarity miRNAs are capable of specifically targeting ssvRNA sequences such as SARS-CoV-2 promoting its inactivation and neutralization. RNA-sequencing and bioinformatics analysis indicate that multiple naturally-occurring human miRNAs have extensive complementarity to the SARS-CoV-2 ssvRNA genome. Since miRNA abundance, speciation, and complexity vary significantly …

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 123), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Care Continuum Of Youth Living With Hiv: Qualitative Study Of The Scale It Up Program Clinical Sites, Tyra Dark, Sitaji Gurung, Mary Dooley, Kit N. Simpson, Seyram A. Butame, Sylvie Naar

Publications and Research

The study objective was to explore the impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions on the clinics’ ability to provide continuous healthcare services to youth (15–24 years) living with HIV (YLWH). One focused semi-structured interview was conducted with each HIV clinic site—resulting in ten interviews. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques assisted by NVIVO coding software and themes indicating barriers and facilitators to providing uninterrupted healthcare were elicited. Six themes were identified that affected the care continuum of YLWH: Timeframe of clinic preparation to address COVID-19 restrictions; impact on treatment cascade monitoring data; impact on patient care; impact on staff and …

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 122), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Public Transportation Air Circulation And Virus Mitigation Study, Aly Tawfik, Deify Law, Juris Grasis, Joseph Oldham, Moe Salem

Mineta Transportation Institute

COVID-19 may have forever changed our world. Given the limited space and air circulation, potential infections on public transportation could be concerningly high. Accordingly, this study has two objectives: (1) to understand air circulation patterns inside the cabins of buses; and (2) to test the impact of different technologies in mitigating viruses from the air and on surfaces inside bus cabins. For the first objective, different devices, metrics and experiments (including colored smoke; videotaping; anemometers; pressure differentials; particle counts; and 3D numerical simulation models) were utilized and implemented to understand and quantify air circulation inside different buses, with different characteristics, …

Hemoglobin As A Predictor For Covid-19 Disease Severity, Nicholas Sarcia, Dan Thai, Andrea M. Bodine Md

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Background: The dilemma of who is at highest risk for COVID-19 severe disease and death persists. Hemoglobin levels may be an indicator of COVID-19 disease severity. There is inconsistent data on Emergency Department (ED) hemoglobin levels and severity of disease. Our objective was to examine if COVID-19 patients presenting with abnormal hemoglobin levels have an increased risk of severe disease and in-hospital mortality.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, MA to investigate the relationship of COVID-19 disease severity with hemoglobin level. Inclusion criteria consisted of ED patients over 18 years with …

Disease Severity In Covid-19 Breakthrough Cases, Dan Thai, Nicholas Sarcia, Andrea M. Bodine Md

Advances in Clinical Medical Research and Healthcare Delivery

Background

Vaccine breakthrough is a phenomenon wherein vaccinated individuals become infected with disease despite adequate protection. During this study period, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported 66.6% of US people have been fully vaccinated. Any measures to improve trust would increase vaccination rates. This study aims to understand vaccine breakthrough cases in COVID-19 by comparing their severity to unvaccinated cases. Our objective is to compare disease severity based on the worst initial vital signs (temperature, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation), length of stay (LOS), and age between vaccinated and unvaccinated COVID-19 cases.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective cohort study at …