Virus Diseases Commons^™

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 …

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 121), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 120), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Early Mobilization On Length Of Hospital Stay In Covid-19 Patients: A Critically Appraised Topic, Ashlee Hodges, Anna Claire Briscoe, Anna Beth Willoughby, Carlton Hubbard, Nathan Smith

Master of Occupational Therapy Student Critically Appraised Topics

For this project, we created a critically appraised topic to study the effects of early mobilization on length of hospital stay in COVID-19 patients in the ICU.

Covid-19 Case Complicated With Organizing Pneumonia And Pneumothorax: Correspondence, Hammad A. Bhatti, Minh Q. Ho

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.