Journal of Infection and Public Health

BACKGROUNDConstant mutation in the SARS-COV2 virus genetic material is resulting in the appearance of new variants frequently hence the overall virulence, treatment resistance, replication modalities, transmissions rates and COVID-19 signs & symptoms are all changing regularly. METHODOLOGYFrom 1 January 2021 to 30 August 2022, the clinical lab at Fatima Jinnah General & Chest Hospital Quetta, Balochistan, determined a total of 3375 individuals to be COVID-19 positive because RT-PCR detected ORF...

ObjectiveTo estimate the ascertainment rate of novel coronavirus (COVID-19). MethodsWe analyzed the epidemiological dataset of confirmed cases with COVID-19 in Japan as of 28 February 2020. A statistical model was constructed to describe the heterogeneity of reporting rate by age and severity. We estimated the number of severe and non-severe cases, accounting for under-ascertainment. ResultsThe ascertainment rate of non-severe cases was estimated at 0.44 (95% confidence interval: 0.37, 0.50), ...

BackgroundA variant strain of SARS-CoV-2, VOC202012/01, emerged in the UK in September, 2020. Its infectiousness was estimated as higher than that of the original strain. ObjectWe estimated the infectiousness of the variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 in comparison to that of the original strain under conditions prevailing in Japan. MethodsWe estimated infectiousness through a simple susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model by strain. The study period was March 1-28, 2020. The information used for ...

New variants of SARS-COV-2 have been found in various countries. Especially, the UK has been attacked by Indias Delta Plus, and the spread of infection has been very rapid, since it is extremely infectious. Fortunately, however, the number of deaths has been stayed flat, where deaths are reported to be those who are not yet received a shot of COVID-19 vaccine. In this short not, we would like to consider why the number of deaths is so small, compared with high cases, around the infection peak, w...

Ebola virus is a highly pathogenic RNA virus that causes haemorrhagic fever in human. With very high mortality rate, Ebola virus is considered as one of the dangerous viruses in the world. Although, the Ebola outbreaks claimed many lives in the past, no satisfactory treatment or vaccine have been discovered yet to fight against Ebola. For this reason, in this study, various tools of bioinformatics and immunoinformatics were used to design possible vaccines against Zaire Ebola virus strain Maying...

AimWe aimed to investigate the differences in clinical features (specifically, patterns of symptoms) of the COVID-19 patients in the early and late stage of this large scale COVID-19 outbreak in Shaanxi Province in China based on data from a large scale survey. MethodsThis study used baseline data from a large survey to investigate the characteristics of the COVID-19 pandemic in Shaanxi province from Dec.2022 to Jan. 2021. A total of 44 sampling clusters (11 villages in rural areas and 33 resid...

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has changed which affects the risk of COVID-19 infection for specific subgroups. We focused on the subgroups based on the factors (sex, age, and vaccination) and COVID-19 strains (Alpha, Delta, and Omicron). Past studies focused on analyzing these factors based on one geographic region or one COVID-19 strain. Therefore, there is a need to understand these factors association with risk of COVID-19 infection through analyzing data from various geogr...

BackgroundDespite the World Health Organizations declaration of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, reinfection persists and continues to strain the global healthcare system. With the emergence of the most recent variant of SARS-CoV-2 named JN.1, retrospective analysis of epidemiological characteristics of previous cases involving the Omicron variant is essential to provide references for preventing reinfection caused by the ongoing new SARS-Cov-2 variants. MethodsThis retrospective cohort study ...

BackgroundGlobally, the novel coronavirus, is a public health problem causing respiratory infections. Since the outbreak of severe acute and Middle East respiratory syndromes coronavirus was not reported to cause human infections. Now, it become an epidemic proportion with growing number of cases and deaths. MethodsA scoping review was conducted following the methodological framework. In this scoping review, 50 records published before 28 March, 2020 were included and discussed to better unders...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused changes in respiratory infectious disease patterns. We analyzed de-identified data of microbiology assays of nasopharyngeal samples and blood samples of children with acute respiratory infection (ARI) visited Vinmec Times City International hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam from January 2019 to December 2023 to examine the overall pattern of viral and bacterial emerging pathogens associated with ARI in children before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The data wa...

IntroductionThe World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak to be a public health emergency and international concern and recognized it as a pandemic. The aim of this study was to estimate the epidemiologic parameters of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic for clinical and epidemiological help. MethodsFour electronic databases including Web of Science, Medline (PubMed), Scopus and Google Scholar were searched for literature published from early December 2019 up to 23 March 2020. The...

While the global health burden of COVID-19 continues, multifaceted epidemiological surveillance is required to monitor the epidemics dynamics and its population-wide risk. We proposed a simple framework using a population-wide snapshot questionnaire survey to estimate the incidence and protective effect of immunity by natural infection or vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 JN.1 variant. Our results revealed that in Japan in February 2024, the personal risk of infection was substantially higher ...

Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 may resist vaccine- or infection-induced immunity thereby increasing the risk of reinfections in previously infected persons. This study aimed to investigate the clinical severity and the average time to the onset of Omicron reinfection. This survey study collected clinical data on Omicron reinfection. Information on time of infection, reinfection interval, overall clinical presentation, and severity of infection was reported. The total prevalence of symptoms am...

QuestionIs ultra-short-wave diathermy (USWD) safe and effective in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ? DesignSingle-centre, evaluator-blinded, two-arm, parallel design, randomized controlled clinical trial. ParticipantsModerate and severe COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory syndrome. InterventionUSWD for 10 minutes twice daily for 12 consecutive days along with standard medical treatment (USWD group, n = 25), versus standard medical treatment alone (control group, n = 25). Outcome mea...

Misophonia is a disorder of decreased tolerance to specific sounds or their associated stimuli that has been characterized using different language and methodologies. The absence of a common understanding or foundational definition of misophonia hinders progress in research to understand the disorder and develop effective treatments for individuals suffering from misophonia. From June 2020 through January 2021, a project was conducted to determine whether a committee of experts with diverse expe...

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated worldwide investigation into a myriad of potential therapeutic agents, including corticosteroids. The first RCT reporting results on the impact of systemic corticosteroids on COVID-19 in a peer reviewed journal was the RECOVERY trial published in July, 2020. The RECOVERY trial showed a reduced risk of 28-day mortality in patients who received oral or intravenous dexamethasone for 10 days. This study is a meta-analysis of peer reviewed RCTs aims to ...

ObjectiveTo analyze the epidemiological and intergenerational clinical characteristics of COVID-19 patients associated with cluster, so as to understand the rules of the patients associated with cluster of this outbreak and provide help for the prevention and control of COVID-19. MethodsAll close contacts of the patient were screened since the first supermarket employee with COVID-19 was identified. A retrospective analysis was made on the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of the con...

ObjectivesWe aimed to explore the frequencies of nasal symptoms in patients with COVID-19, including loss of smell and taste, as well as their presentation as the first symptom of the disease and their association with the severity of COVID-19. MethodsIn this retrospective study, 1,206 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 patients were included and followed-up by telephone call one month after discharged from Tongji Hospital, Wuhan. Demographic data, laboratory values, comorbidities, symptoms, and num...

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the linear and nonlinear relationships between ionized calcium levels and 28-day mortality in patients with sepsis in the intensive care unit (ICU) and to provide clinicians with a direction for laboratory index testing and a basis for a calcium supplementation program. MethodsThe data of patients with sepsis were extracted from the Medical Information Mart for Intensive Care (MIMIC-IV) database, iCa served as the exposure variable, and 28-day mortality...

The Japanese government has declared a national emergency and travel entry ban since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic began. As of June 19, 2020, there have been no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iwate. Here, we analyzed the excess deaths as well as the number of patients and medical earnings due to the pandemic from prefectural hospitals located in one of the least-affected areas in Japan. From January to March 2020, the excess death rates per month were not significantly higher...