Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze the personal, social and psychological impact of COVID -19 on the mental health of students of age group 16 to 25. A response from N= 351 students (from the most affected state in India), provided a comparative analysis based on the gender, and background via t-test with significance factor of p[≤]0.5, to understand the pattern in issues related to mental health during the pandemic. The results show that female students are more concerned about health, and future, and are more prone to psychological issues like feelings of uncertainty, helplessness and outbursts than male students. Urban students population is more mentally affected than their rural counterparts, however time spent on the internet is almost the same despite the difference in infrastructure and resources. Also, there is an increase in need for solitude, being withdrawn and self-harm in male students require attention. A shift in perception from seeing family as a source of support to that of a restriction is indicated, although the benefits of a collectivistic society are undisputed. The results indicate that there is overall increased awareness about mental health among the student population and with programs/strategies focusing on background and gender, a significant improvement is attainable. Impact StatementThis study performs an analysis of the students response to questions based on social and self-perception as a result of COVID-19. It also discusses the nature of adaptive strategies espoused by them and their effectiveness in dealing with the pandemic, isolation, and the new normal. FundingNot applicable Conflicts of interest/Competing interestsThere was no conflict of interest

Nowadays, the whole World is under threat of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many fatalities and forced scientific communities to foster their Research and Development (R & D) activities. As a result, there is an enormous growth of scholarly literature on the subject. In order to combat this novel coronavirus, the open access to scientific literature is essential. On this line, many reputed academic institutions and publication firms have made their literature on COVID-19 accessible to all. By maintaining the database of updated information on global literature on Coronavirus disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) is playing a pivotal role. The present study analyzed 89 Indian publications on SARS-CoV-2 accessible through WHO COVID-19 database. The research data was restricted for the period of 2/3/2020 to 12/5/2020. The analysis was carried out in light of the objectives of the study. The study found the considerable and constant growth of Indian publications on COVID-19 from mid-April. It is interesting to note that the prolific authors belong to either AIIMS or ICMR institutes. Majority of the COVID-19 articles were found to be collaborative publications. The study noticed that no research publications on COVID-19 have appeared from North Eastern region. Regarding the research output on COVID-19, the performance of largest states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar was found to be poor. Delhi state contributed highest publications on COVID-19. The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi was the most productive institution in terms of publications. It is also important to note that the central government undertakings like AIIMS and ICMR, New Delhi and its affiliated institutions shared largest proportion of publications on COVID-19. The Indian Journal of Medical Research has emerged as the productive journal contributing highest number of the publications. The highest contribution in COVID-19 research takes the form of journal articles. In terms of research area, the majority of the publications were related to Epidemiology. The study reported covid, coronavirus, India, pandemic, sars etc. as the frequently occurred keywords in the COVID-19 publications. The highly cited publications were of evidenced based studies. It is observed that the studies pertaining to virology, diagnosis and treatment, clinical features etc. have received highest citations than general studies on epidemiology or pandemic.

IntroductionThe COVID-19 has emerged as a global concern for public health due to large scale outbreak. The number of confirmed cases has also been increased in India in past few weeks. The predictions for the COVID-19 can provide insights into the epidemiology of the disease, which helps policymakers to check health system capacities. MethodsWe obtained data on daily confirmed, recovered and deaths cases for a period of 21 days and have implemented the exponential growth model to predict the future cases for all the three components. The mathematical model was used to calculate the average reproduction number and herd immunity. We estimated the number of active cases till 30th of April. We have also tried to analyze the public health capacity to combat COVID-19 in India. ResultsIf the exponential growth in number of cases continue then the total number of active cases will be 2,49,635 until the end of April. The reproduction number for COVID-19 in India was found to be 2.56 and herd immunity as 61%. The cumulative cases predicted by the mathematical model was 1,20,203. DiscussionThis prediction provides an alarming situation for India in terms of public health preparedness. The number of tests is needed to increase to detect all the cases of COVID-19 in India. Though some serious preventive measures have been implemented, but India should be ready to face any sudden community outbreak.

PurposeResearch on the impact of social distancing on mental health during epidemics is limited, especially in India. The purpose of this study is to scale the association between anxiety and socio-demographic factors during Covid19 lockdown among the general Indian population. Design/methodology/approachA descriptive cross-sectional nationwide study was designed to enrol the general population. The inclusion criteria for this study were Indian citizens aged 18 years and above. The study was conducted from 29th March to 12th April 2020, using an online google questionnaire. The anxiety among respondents was detected and measured using a Generalised Anxiety Disorder Scale which consists of 7 questions (in English), i.e. GAD-7. FindingsRespondees were 392, and from these participants, the prevalence of anxiety was 25.3 per cent. Based on the bivariate logistic regression analysis, the predictors of anxiety were gender, religion, occupation as business/self-employed, marital status, family size, health status and sleep deprivation. ConclusionThis study reports the prevalence of anxiety among Indian population who were grounded at their homes during lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic in the country. Limitations(1) The selection of participants through non-random sampling. (2) Because of the cross-sectional character of the study, causal conclusions cannot be drawn. Originality/ValueThis paper fulfils an identified need to study the mental health status of the population under situations like lockdown, thereby helping fill a persistent gap in Indian research on this issue.

IntroductionEver since Sars CoV-2 infection has started from China and has taken the shape of pandemic the mortality associated with this disease has been under discussion and hypercoagubility, acute severe respiratory syndrome and sepsis with multi organ failure have been accursed as possible reasons of deaths in cases infected with novel Corona virus. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the cases admitted in our high dependency and Intensive care unit and tried to pinpoint the major cause of mortality in our cases. MethodsThis is a single center retrospective study carried out at Bahria International Hospital Lahore over a 3 month period (May 10th to July 10th 2020) in which we analyzed the clinical and biochemical profiles of the COVID-19 patients who died during this period. ResultsA total of 108 patients were admitted during this period out of which 11 patients died. 7 of them were men and 4 women. Majority of them had sudden cardiac arrest due to acute coronary syndrome followed by multiorgan dysfunction syndrome and acute respiratory distress syndrome. ConclusionAcute coronary syndrome due to hypercoagubility was the leading cause of death in our patients.

BackgroundPatients experiences with health care professionals are a central component of quality of care, complementing more technical aspects of care such as the appropriate use of medications and procedures. AimsThis study sought to assess patients quality of care and level of satisfaction in healthcare facilities in Cross River State, Nigeria. MethodsThe study adopted a descriptive cross sectional survey employing quantitative data collection method that utilized a semi-structured questionnaire to collect data from patients. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used where 405 respondents were selected through simple random sampling. A 27 items semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit data from respondents. Data collected were analyzed and presented using descriptive statistics. ResultsOn a multi response options, the study showed that more than half 294(72.8%) respondents were satisfied with the services provided by healthcare professionals on their current admission; more than half of the respondents 235(58.2%) were satisfied with previous care received; about half 197(48.8%) of the respondents complained about long waiting time to be seen on admission; more than half 209(51.7%) of the respondents strongly disagreed that the hospital/ward environment into which they were admitted was clean and conducive, with a significant proportion 335(82.9%) who were unable to get all the prescribed drugs from the facility, while just 69(17.2%) of those not satisfied could recall some instances/aspects of healthcare they were not satisfied with where 49(12.2%) recalled poor attitude of healthcare professionals. ConclusionsTimely care and better communication between patient and healthcare providers were recommended among others. What is already known on this topicO_LIThere is a recorded level of patients dissatisfaction with healthcare in the study setting. C_LI What this study addsO_LIPoor attitude of healthcare workers has been associated with patients dissatisfaction with healthcare. C_LIO_LIPoor attitude of healthcare workers has been associated with poor work environment which by extension affect the mental health of healthcare staff. C_LI How this study might affect research, practice or policyO_LIThis study outlines the implication of poor work environment on mental health of workers as by extension affects patients quality of care and as such calls better healthcare management by trained experts. C_LI

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is spreading rapidly across the country but Indias testing regime is far from the global standards. It is important to identify the states where testing needs expansion and the magnitudes of active COVID cases are higher focusing on current health infrastructure to meet the pandemic. The data on COVID-19 was extracted from the Application Programming Interface. Test positive rate, test per confirmed case, recovery rate, case fatality rate, and percent distribution of active cases were computed. Availability of hospitals, hospital beds, intensive care unit and ventilators per lakh population was also computed by public and private sector. The result revealed that, Maharashtra constitutes more than one-third positive cases in the country. More than a quarter of the active cases in India belonged to the Mumbai district of Maharashtra, followed by the Chennai district (9.4%) and Ahmedabad district (9.1%). Further, about 40 percent of the active cases in India belonged to the 11 districts of Maharashtra. The increased test positive rate in Maharashtra and Gujarat to almost double in last one month is a concern. In order to bring the states and the country in right track, the test positive rate need to be brought down to below 2 percent. The procurement of higher number of high throughput machine, the Cobas 6800 testing machine, is need of the hour. Only few states have adequate health infrastructure. The priority should be the laid on expansion of more laboratories and hospitals, storage of PPE kit, testing kit, and indigenously developed vaccines. HighlightsO_LIMaharashtra is having the highest number of positive cases followed by Gujarat and Tamil Nadu. Maharashtra constitutes more than one-third positive cases in the country, but the test per confirmed cases (8) is much lower than the other states. C_LIO_LIMore than a quarter of the active cases in India belonged to the Mumbai district (26.1%) of Maharashtra, followed by the Chennai district (9.4%) and Ahmedabad district (9.1%). Further, about 40 percent of the active cases in India belonged to the 11 districts of Maharashtra. C_LIO_LIThe test positive rate is higher in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi is a concern. C_LIO_LIThe recovery rate in India increased substantially by 26.5 percent point from 11.9 percent on April 14 to 38.4 percent on May 17, 2020. C_LIO_LIThe case fatality rate of Covid-19 in India declined by 0.2 percent from 3.4 percent on April 14 to 3.2 percent on May 17 in India. C_LIO_LIThe number of Dedicated Covid Hospitals is not sufficient in India. C_LIO_LIThe available ventilators in the country will deficit in near future to cater to a growing number of active Covid-19 patients and the burden of other communicable and non-communicable diseases. C_LIO_LIIndia has only 569 testing laboratories (396 govt. and 173 private) against its 1.35 billion population. The procurement of higher number of high throughput machine, the Cobas 6800 testing machine, is need of the hour. C_LI

Back groundUrinary tract infections are common bacterial infections that affect almost 150 million people internationally each year. A catheter-associated urinary tract infection arises when germs enter the urinary tract via a urinary catheter, leading to infection and have been linked with increased mortality, morbidity, healthcare costs in intensive care units. It is one of the highest prevalent health care-related infections, accounting for nearly 30% of intensive care unit (ICU) reports because of its association to urinary catheterization, but has great preventive potential. MethodInstitutional based cross-sectional study design applied to determine the prevalence and associated factors of Health care-associated urinary tract infections among adult 391 patients admitted to ICU from 2017 to 2019 GC at Addis Ababa Public Governmental Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, June-December 2020.Data had manually checked and entered to Epi-data manager version 4.6 and statistical analyses have been performed using SPSS version 23 software program. Strength of association between dependent and independent variables is assessed using crude odds ratio (COR) and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) with confidence Interval (CI) of 95%. Variables that had a value of P < 0.25 on bi-variate analysis were directly forward to be analyzed by multi variable analysis. Goodness of fit test had also computed for logistic regression using Hosmer and Lemeshow test resulted in (sig=0.073), finally having P-values < 0.05 is considered as statistically significant. Resultthe study find that the prevalence of Healthcare Associated Urinary Tract Infection among ICU admitted patients was 91(23.3%) 95%CI ;(19.2-27.4), While length of stay, Having tracheostomy, patients on Mechanical Ventilation and taking Proton pump inhibitor drugs were associated with HAUTI in the study area. ConclusionHealthcare-associated Urinary Tract infection is highly emerging clinical condition among ICU admitted patients in the study areas.

IntroductionThe COVID-19 outbreak created a major panic among all the citizens of the country owing to its severity, contagiousness within the community, lack of specific treatment and possibility of re-infection. All these factors along with the uncertain behaviour of the virus lead to state of fear and concern all throught out the nation. The current study represents the mental health survey conducted on the students of South Indiaafter the completion of one month quarantine period of the COVID-19 outbreak. MethodologyThe present study is a cross-sectional, web-based online survey which consists of 21-item DASS questionnaire. Thiswas used to assess the emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress. Using Google Forms, the questionnaire was randomly distributed among the pharmacy students of selected colleges. Mean with standard deviation was calculated for continuous variables and the number with percentage was calculated for categorical variables. ResultsA total of 500 participants responded to the questionnaire. More than half of the responses were received from females (65%). On assessment it was found that, 26 % of respondents reported severe to extremely severe depressive symptoms; 31.5 % of respondents reported severe to extremely severe anxiety symptoms, and 19 % reported severe to extremely severe stress levels. ConclusionIn India during the outbreak of COVID-19, an alarming number of students were found to have an impact on mental health due to the outbreak and were observed to have higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. The study findings shows the need of conducting more such studies and can be used to prepare appropriate psychological interventions to improvemental health among the young public during the pandemic.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to analyse the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of critical COVID-19 cases and investigate risk factors including comorbidities and age in relation with the clinical aftermath of COVID-19 in critical cases in Bangladesh. MethodsIn this retrospective study, epidemiological and clinical characteristics, complications, laboratory results, and clinical management of the patients were studied from data obtained from 168 individuals diagnosed with an advanced prognosis of COVID-19 admitted in two hospitals in Bangladesh. ResultsIndividuals in the study sample contracted COVID-19 through community transmission. 56.5% (n = 95) cases died in intensive care units (ICU) during the study period. The median age was 56 years and 79.2% (n=134) were male. Typical clinical manifestation included Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) related complications (79.2%), fever (54.2%) and cough (25.6%) while diabetes mellitus (52.4%), hypertension (41.1%) and heart diseases (16.7%) were the conventional comorbidities. Clinical outcomes were detrimental due to comorbidities rather than age and comorbid individuals over 50 were at more risk. In the sample, oxygen saturation was low (< 95% SpO2) in 135 patients (80.4%) and 158 (93.4%) patients received supplemental oxygen. Identical biochemical parameters were found in both deceased and surviving cases. Administration of antiviral drug Remdesivir and the glucocorticoid, Dexamethasone increased the proportion of surviving patients slightly. ConclusionsSusceptibility to developing critical illness due to COVID-19 was found more in comorbid males. These atypical patients require more clinical attention from the prospect of controlling mortality rate in Bangladesh.

BackgroundThe emergence of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) an infectious disease caused by the newly discovered severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) has caused a lot of harm to humanity. Healthcare workers who are the leading the charge in the fight against the virus can experience mental health challenges with anxiety being an important illness. Anxiety can become morbid quickly and ultimately affect function, hence the need to study its prevalence among HCWs, since they are a high-risk population. Studies across various regions worldwide reported elevated levels of anxiety amongst HCWs during the SARS, Ebola, and H1N1 pandemics. Nevertheless, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), an easily measured and ubiquitous member of the family of anxiety disorders has hardly been researched. However, new studies in Togo, China, India and Mexico have reported elevated levels of GAD in HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the complexities surrounding mental health care in Ghana, and Africa as a whole it would be expedient to uncover the prevalence of GAD among HCWs during the pandemic. Hence, a study at Family Health Hospital will provide information about the prevalence of COVID-19 related GAD among Health care workers representative of Ghana. AimThe aim of this study was to establish the prevalence of COVID-19 related GAD amongst healthcare workers, in a tertiary hospital in Accra. MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional study design using a self-administered questionnaire was employed. Nine-two (92) HCWs in the study area were sampled. A consecutive sampling technique was used to select the respondents for the study. The study was analyzed using SPSS version 25. The results were presented in summary tables and analyzed using frequencies and percentages. Chi square test performed on categorical data to test association between selected variables and their outcome with COVID-19 related GAD. ResultsThe GAD level among nurses was 55.4%, and for doctors it was 30.4%. The GAD level among medical laboratory technicians and pharmacists were 7.6% and 6.5% respectively. Furthermore, being age 50-69 years was a significant risk factor for developing GAD during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. Female HCWs were more likely to experience GAD. However, only 13.1% of the HCWs were considered to have Corona phobia. Perception of workplace as being high risk was positively correlated with mild to moderate forms of anxiety. However, perception of organizational support as being guaranteed in case one succumbed to the virus and confidence in PPE availability was not reported to be strong protective factors against GAD among HCWs. ConclusionCOVID-19 related GAD is a challenge amongst HCWs especially nurses in FHH. The management of the FHH should set up certain services such as psychological help lines, peer support programs as well as run a sensitization campaign to cater for the wellbeing of doctors as well as encourage mental health seeking behavior.

BackgroundNovel Coronavirus infection disease 2019 (NCOVID-19), caused by the corona virus, was first spotted in Wuhan, city of China, December 2019. The NCOVID-19 virus is spread among individuals through close communication in the form of droplets, not via airborne. Those individuals are at risk of infection who are in close contact with a NCOVID-19 patient or who take care of NCOVID-19 patients. Infection prevention and control measures are critical to prevent the possible spread of any infection in healthcare facilities. Therefore, healthcare workers should be aware of basic knowledge and all procedures concerning prevention and protection from NCOVID-19. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to evaluate the awareness level of healthcare workers toward NCOVID-2019 in Pakistan. Material and MethodsA questionnaire was generated according to WHO information that was circulated among the healthcare workers of different hospitals and medical institutes of Pakistan. Calculated sample size was 650. ConclusionHealthcare workers have insufficient knowledge of preventive measures and infection control. The authorities must take initiatives on urgent basis to increase the awareness among the healthcare workers and general public also so that the drastic circumstances can be avoided in the developing country like Pakistan.

Objectives: Current retrospective study aims to evaluate household Secondary Attack Rate (SAR) of COVID-19 in Gandhinagar (rural) district of Gujarat, India. Methods: Line-listing of 486 laboratory-confirmed patients, tested between 28th March to 2nd July was collected, out of them 80 (15% of overall sample) cases were randomly selected. Demographic, clinical and household details of cases were collected through telephonic interview. During interview 28 more patients were identified from the same household and were added accordingly. So, study included 74 unrelated cluster of households with 74 primary cases and 386 close contacts. Results: SAR in household contacts of COVID-19 in Gandhinagar was 8.8%. Out of 108, 8 patients expired (7.4%), where higher mortality was observed in primary cases (9.5%) as compared to secondary cases (3%). Occupational analysis showed that majority of the secondary cases (88%) were not working and hence had higher contact time with patient. No out-of-pocket expenditure occurred in 94% of the patients, in remaining 6% average expenditure of 1,49,633INR (2027 USD) was recorded. Conclusions: Key observations from the study are 1) SAR of 8.8% is relatively low and hence home isolation of the cases can be continued 2) Primary case is more susceptible to fatal outcome as compared to secondary cases 3) Government has covered huge population of the COVID-19 patients under cost protection. However, more robust studies with larger datasets are needed to further validate the findings.

BackgroundThe study aimed to analyze the demographic, comorbidities, biomarkers, pharmacotherapy, and ICU-stay with the mortality outcome of COVID-19 patients admitted in the intensive care unit of a tertiary care hospital in a low-middle income country, Bangladesh. MethodsThe retrospective cohort study was done in Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College Hospital from May to September 2020. All 112 patients who were admitted to ICU as COVID-19 cases (confirmed by RT-PCR of the nasopharyngeal swab) were included in the study. Demographic data, laboratory reports of predictive biomarkers, treatment schedule, and duration of ICU-stay of 99 patients were available and obtained from hospital records (non-electronic) and treatment sheets, and compared between the survived and deceased patients. ResultsOut of 99 patients admitted in ICU with COVID-19, 72 were male and 27 were female. The mean age was 61.08 years. Most of the ICU patients were in the 60 - 69 years of age group and the highest mortality rates (35.89%) were observed in this age range. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension were the predominant comorbidities in the deceased group of patients. A significant difference was observed in neutrophil count, creatinine and, NLR, d-NLR levels that raised in deceased patients. There was no significant difference as a survival outcome of antiviral drugs remdesivir or favipiravir, while the use of cephalosporin was found much higher in the survived group than the deceased group (46.66% vs 20.51%) in ICU. ConclusionsSusceptibility to developing critical illness due to COVID-19 was found more in comorbid males aged more than 60 years. There were wide variations of the biomarkers in critical COVID-19 patients in a different population, which put the healthcare workers into far more challenge to minimize the mortality in ICU in Bangladesh and around the globe during the peak of the pandemic.

Background and objectivesSARS-CoV-2 has wrecked the world for the past 17 months. India has been hit by the second wave of the virus which has been characterized by new symptoms. This study focuses on the pattern of infection over the last 13 months utilizing epidemic model to predict course of the pandemic. Material and methodsThe data was collected from covid19india.org to perform analysis based on age and gender distribution. Statistical analysis was performed to determine the relation between confirmed and recovered cases while SIR epidemic model was used to determine the course of the pandemic in the country and the changes that have occurred from the first to the second wave. Results and discussionsResults show infectivity rate to be higher in ages 20-50 while mortality is higher in 50-80 age group while 60-70% of the infected population are males. Each of the 9 states have their own salient feature curves of infection. It was seen that the confirmed and recovered cases are more correlated at present than previous wave. The curves for both waves show a polynomial distribution while the reproduction number data shows an almost U-shaped curve indicating decrease of infection spread in the middle phase when the first wave was on a decline before picking up again owing to the second wave. Interpretations and conclusionThe gender and age distribution shows that although lower age group is more infected, mortality is high for higher age groups, on the other hand males are more prone to the infection. The statistical analysis shows the nature of spread of the disease, the data of which is quantified by the SIR model based study.

Infant mortality rate (IMR) in India remains high by international standards. India accounts for largest number of global infant deaths. This study analyses the trend in IMR in India over almost four decades beginning 1981 through 2018. The analysis is based on the official estimates of IMR available through sample registration system. Long-term trend in IMR is analysed by using joinpoint regression analysis which reveals that the trend in IMR in India changed four times during the period 1981-2018 and the trend has been different for different states of the country. The annual proportionate decrease in IMR was the most rapid during 1985-92 in the country and in most of its states but slowed down considerably during the period 1992-99. The significant deceleration in the decrease in IMR during 1992-99 appears to be the result of the policy shift in the delivery of maternal and child health services. Had the decrease in IMR not decelerated during 1992-99, the IMR in India would have been decreased to less than 20 by 2018.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS CoV-2) virus has emerged as public health emergency affecting 206 countries worldwide. India is second highest currently worst effected by Covid 19 pandemic with close to 12.6 million cases and 1.6K deaths reported till date. Maharahstra is the highest Covid-19 burden state in India reporting quarter of overall cases. The city of Nagpur, in Maharashtra state, ranks 4th in terms of reported COVID-19 cases, with 2.5 lakh incidences and more than 4,000 deaths As the transmission rate of COVID-19 is high, it is imperative to study its disease epidemiology in regions of high endemicity to bolster our understanding of its spread, transmission dynamics and contact tracing to undertake appropriate public health control measures.. The present study was undertaken to study the incidence and trend of COVID-19 infection from various zonal regions of Nagpur city, using real time PCR (RT PCR). A retrospective study was carried out at Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) approved private molecular diagnostic laboratory in Nagpur from period of 4th May 2020 to 14th November 2020. A total of 51,532 samples collected from various zonal regions of the city during the study period were processed for SARS CoV-2 RT-PCR. Patient information was collected using a pre-defined study proforma which included demographic details such as name, age, gender, address, along with other information, like details of sample collected, kits used and date of sample collected and processed. The study reports an overall Covid-19 positivity of 34% in Nagpur region. The zone wise distribution of positive cases indicated high rate of COVID-19 in endemic regions of Nagpur such as Satranjipura (49%), Ashi nagar (44%), Gandhibagh (43%) & Lakadganj (43%). Rates of infection were high in economically productive age group (21-40) with males being more vulnerable than females. The result of present epidemiology study highlights important data with respect to regions of endemicity within Nagpur city zones. The present data has high public health importance and will be useful for local civic bodies and other community stake holders to undertake appropriate control measures in future epidemic waves of Covid 19. Interestingly, the Governments reduction in testing rates has been helpful in increasing testing per day. The authorization of private laboratories has also increased testing.

PurposeTo understand key meteorological parameters that influence the spread of COVID-19 in Mumbai, India (based on data from April 2020 - April 2021). MethodsThe meteorological parameters chosen were Temperature, Dew Temperature, Humidity, Pressure, Wind Speed. The underlying basic relationships between meteorological parameters and COVID-19 information for Mumbai was understood using Spearmans rank correlation coefficients. After establishing basic relationships, Linear analysis and Generalized Additive Models (GAM) were used to figure out statistically significant weather parameters and model them to explain the best possible variance in the pandemic data. ResultsA model of temperature and windspeed could explain 17.3% and 8.3% of variance in Daily new cases and Daily recoveries respectively. As for deaths occurring due to the virus, a model comprising of only pressure best explains a variance of 17.3% in the data. Non-Linear modelling based on GAM confirms the findings of linear analysis and establishes certain non-linear relationships as well. ConclusionSARS-CoV-2 belongs to the class of Human Coronaviruses (HCoV) which show seasonality depending on weather conditions. The above article focuses on understanding the underlying relationships between SARS-CoV-2 and meteorological parameters that would help progress basic research and formulation of policies around the disease for each weather/season. Competing interestThe authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

BackgroundEarly neonatal mortality occurs when a newborn dies within the first seven days of life. Despite interventions, newborn mortality in Ethiopia has grown over time (33 death per 1000 live births). Determinants varies on level of neonatal mortality. The studys goal was to determine magnitude of early newborn death, as well as its causes and drivers, in Newborn Intensive Care Unit of Referral hospital in Ethiopias Somali region. MethodsHealth facility based retrospective study review was conducted between May 2019 to May 2021 in Shiek Hassan Yabare Referral Hospital of Jigjiga University of Ethiopia. All neonates between 0 to 7 days admitted at NICU and get registered using the new NICU registration book from May 2019 to May 2021 with complete data were included. Kobo toolkit was used for data collection and analyzed in SPSS 20. Logistic regression model was used to estimate determinants. ResultThe magnitude of early neonatal mortality rate (defined as death between 0-7 days) of Ethiopias Somali region is estimated to be 130 per 1000 live births--That is say 130 newborn couldnt celebrate their seventh day in every 1000 live births. Hypothermia, prematurity, maternal death at birth and shorter length of stay in NICU were increasing the chance of neonatal mortality at early stage while neonatal resuscitation had shown protective effect against neonatal mortality. Similarly birth asphyxia, preterm, sepsis, and congenital abnormalities were major causes of admission and death in the NICU. ConclusionThe magnitude of early neonatal mortality is considerable and causes are preventable. Enhancing quality of care including infection prevention and hypothermia through mentorship and encouraging the Kangaroo Mother Care practice is necessary at childbirth and NICU of the Hospital.

Malaria remains a disease of endemicity in Sub-Saharan African countries but most particular in Nigeria. Pregnant women are among the vulnerable group of individuals most affected by the disease. However, previous studies focused on the effect of genotype variants and other covariates on malaria status with emphasis on the entire population regardless of vulnerability levels. Hence as part of the effort in controlling malaria within a particular malaria-vulnerable group (e.g. pregnant women), this study investigates the effect of genotype variants, weight, height and temperature on malaria status. A total of seven hundred and seven (707) pregnant women were recruited from two government healthcare facilities in Ibadan in Nigeria, for this study after necessary ethical approval and consent were obtained. Binary Logistic Regression was carried out using malaria positivity rate as dependent variable while genotype variants (AA, AC, AS, SC, SS), weight, height and temperature were the independent variables. The odd ratios were obtained for these independent variables as well as their level of statistical significance (p-values) in relation to malaria status. The odds ratio for genotypes AA, AC, AS, SC and SS of being malaria positive were 1, 0.3, 0.04, -14 and -14, respectively. The odds ratio for weight, height and temperature to influence malaria positivity status were -0.01, -0.02 and 0.04, respectively. However, genotype variants, weight, height and temperature were not significantly associated with malaria positivity status. These findings demonstrate that the only effective way of preventing malaria for pregnant women regardless of their genotype and other covariates, is to ensure the correct use of long lasting insecticidal treated nets and indoor residual spray. Also, all pregnant women should ensure that they carry out required antenatal care visits, that will include the administration of Intermittent Preventive Treatment in Pregnancy.