Health Sciences
Abdel-Hady El-Gilany
Abstract
Background: Human Wellbeing (HWB) is synonymous with health and should be included when assessing health status at the individual and community levels.Methods: In this narrative literature review, Google Scholar and PubMed were searched for published full-text English publications and websites that included ...
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Background: Human Wellbeing (HWB) is synonymous with health and should be included when assessing health status at the individual and community levels.Methods: In this narrative literature review, Google Scholar and PubMed were searched for published full-text English publications and websites that included the keywords wellbeing, definition, types, measurement, and importance. All collected literature was evaluated for inclusion in the review. The most relevant articles were selected.Results: This overview outlines the various definitions of HWB and associated concepts. The aspects and public health benefits of well-being (WB) were discussed. The many tools used to measure HWB were listed. Finally, the public health concerns associated with WB were described.Conclusion: There is a need for effective collaboration among public health specialists, psychologists, sociologists, and physicians to operationally define the various socially and culturally relevant terminology associated with WB, which should be considered more than the absence of disease.
Clinical Epidemiology
Cristiane Faria de Oliveira Scarponi; Marcos Paulo Gomes Mol; Dirceu Bartolomeu Greco
Abstract
Background: Brazilian therapeutic guidelines for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were created in 2011, however data on medical practice adherence is scarce.Methods: The application of these principles to patient records from the Central Laboratory of Minas Gerais was compared in this cross-sectional ...
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Background: Brazilian therapeutic guidelines for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were created in 2011, however data on medical practice adherence is scarce.Methods: The application of these principles to patient records from the Central Laboratory of Minas Gerais was compared in this cross-sectional study (January to June 2014).Results: 47 physicians from 33 localities assisted 90 HCV-infected patients. However, though 84.4% of naive treatment patients met the indication criteria to begin therapy, the therapeutic guidelines were only fully applied to two patients. In contrast, 12 individuals were treated, with seven of them receiving pegylated interferon in combination with ribavirin (HCV-1 and three genotypes). Only two patients had therapeutic response monitoring (six months after the completion of therapy), and no retreatment was documented.Conclusion: Within the Public Health System, there was virtually little medical implementation of Brazilian therapeutic guidelines for HCV infection. These findings reinforce the notion that hepatitis C is still underdiagnosed and undertreated in Minas Gerais. There is a need to train clinicians to use the Clinical Protocol and Therapeutic Guidelines for the Treatment of Viral Hepatitis C, with the goal of both timely treatment indication and laboratory follow-up of patients.
COVID-19
Virendra Mane; Priya Prabhu; Poorva Bhalerao
Abstract
Background: The first wave of COVID-19 in India began to decline suddenly in September 2020 and appeared to be nearly over by the end of January 2021. At the time, no models or papers predicted or explained this decline. The authors hypothesized in their previous study that the cases decreased due to ...
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Background: The first wave of COVID-19 in India began to decline suddenly in September 2020 and appeared to be nearly over by the end of January 2021. At the time, no models or papers predicted or explained this decline. The authors hypothesized in their previous study that the cases decreased due to increased Relative Humidity during Monsoon and forecasted that another wave would begin with the dry season in February 2021 and would be contained by monsoon humidity. The current study was carried out to put the seasonality hypothesis to the test in 2021-22. The study also included findings about the effectiveness of policy control measures on case decline.Methods: Humidity cycles in India were studied to determine the most humid periods, which corresponded to changes in daily cases across the country, on a zone-by-zone basis, and in smaller regions. The enforcement date and subsequent case decline (if any) were observed for the effectiveness of policy control measures.Results: In low humidity periods, there was a clear relationship between relative humidity and case decline and case increase. Policy controls have been found to be effective in reducing and halting case increase, resulting in a subsequent decline.Conclusion: In India, COVID-19 increases during the dry season around February and decreases during the monsoon season. Policy controls (lockdowns) are an effective way to halt the virus's exponential spread. The findings may be useful in planning local control and prevention activities.
COVID-19
Kyosuke Ono
Abstract
Background: A mathematical investigation of the reasons for the fifth wave's quick expansion and reduction in Tokyo, Japan, is required to avoid the spread of subsequent COVID-19 infections. Methods: Using the simple IR theory underlying the susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) hypothesis of infectious ...
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Background: A mathematical investigation of the reasons for the fifth wave's quick expansion and reduction in Tokyo, Japan, is required to avoid the spread of subsequent COVID-19 infections. Methods: Using the simple IR theory underlying the susceptible-infectious-removed (SIR) hypothesis of infectious disease epidemics, infected persons (I), infection rate, and testing/isolation rate are determined from accessible data of daily positive cases (R) and testing numbers. Results: The rapid spread of illness from late July to mid-August was owing to a drop in the number of people tested to half that of weekdays during the Olympic Games' four and three-day vacations. The maximum number of daily positives would have been lowered to two-fifths of the actual positives in early August if the number of weekday tests had been maintained during these holidays and would have fallen monotonically thereafter. The infection rates mean value fell steadily from 0.65 in late August to around 0.25 by the end of September. The significant increase in vaccination rates is mostly to blame for the fall in infection rates. In Tokyo, the impact of mRNA-based vaccines on infection prevention and increased vaccination rates could reduce the infection rate to 1/2 on September 10 and 1/3 by the end of October. Conclusion: According to the findings, a new infection like the delta variant can be suppressed to less than the fifth wave by increasing vaccination rates, eliminating three consecutive holidays, and implementing a precautionary testing system that maintains the same number of tests on weekends as on weekdays in the event of a rapid spread of infection in an emergency.
COVID-19
Virendra Mane; Poorva Bhalerao
Abstract
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was expected to affect India severely; cases rose exponentially from May-June 2020, but around mid-September reached their peak and started declining. It showed a sign of the wave’s completion by the end of January 2021. This decline was not predicted by any models ...
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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic was expected to affect India severely; cases rose exponentially from May-June 2020, but around mid-September reached their peak and started declining. It showed a sign of the wave’s completion by the end of January 2021. This decline was not predicted by any models and the authors have not come across any explanation. Winter seasonality of influenza and similar viruses is well known and observed fact and that it has a direct correlation to the colder temperatures as well as lower humidity. Similarly, in low humidity, viruses are most viable, and they become ineffective as the humidity increases and reaches its maximum extent. This article hypothesizes and tries to explain the cause behind the first major decline and shows the subsequent rise of the second wave, and one short low humidity period followed by a high humidity period between the first and second waves. Methods: The humidity cycles in India were studied to find high and low relative humidity periods, which then corresponded to the daily cases in the country (macro-level), region (mid-level), and smaller regions (micro-level). Results: A definite correlation was observed between Monsoon-induced humidity and the incidence rate decline. This happens in 8 to 10 weeks. Incidence rates start declining about 4 weeks after the peak humidity is reached in a particular region. A decrease in humidity below 65% or 55% or lower causes an increase in the case increase/uptrend in about 3-4 weeks. Conclusion: COVID-19 has a seasonal peak in India, peaking in the middle of the monsoon season around mid-September and reaching its lowest levels in January-February. As humidity drops from February to June/July, a trend reversal and sharp rise are expected. The subsequent wave/case peak would be expected to be seen around mid-September 2021.