INTRODUCTION: To avoid the risk of intellectual disabilities, newborns in Poland are screened for phenylketonuria and are recommended to start a life-long phenylalanine-restricted diet shortly after birth. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the health care for patients with classical phenylketonuria in Poland. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We reviewed the National Health Fund's reporting data concerning information on healthcare services for patients with classical phenylketonuria (PKU), which were reported to the payer by the healthcare service providers between 2009 and 2015. The analysis was prepared within the framework of mapping the health care needs of patients with metabolic diseases published in December 2016 (http://www.mapypotrzebzdrowotnych.mz.gov.pl/). RESULTS: A total of 2706 patients with PKU (including 1180 children) were registered in the healthcare system in the period covered. The estimated national prevalence of PKU was 1 per 7758 live births. Paediatric patients up to 12 moths of age accounted for over 40% of all visits to outpatient clinics. Patients over 28 years of age accounted for only 1% of all PKU patients receiving specialist outpatient care. There were twice as many clinics providing health care to children than to adults. The majority of adult patients received healthcare from the same providers as children. Sixty-nine percent of adults and 64% of children were treated in the two largest outpatient centres. There were 12 deaths, with a median age of 63 years. The working-age adults accounted for 50% of the deaths. CONCLUSIONS: Adult patients with PKU do not receive sufficient healthcare. The discontinuation of healthcare by adults with PKU can result from the lack of an adequate transition process from paediatric to adult care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has infected 33 million Americans and resulted in more than 600,000 deaths as of late Spring 2021. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx (BIL) people are disproportionately infected, hospitalized, and dying. Effective vaccines were rapidly developed and have been widely available in the United States since their initial rollout in late 2020-early 2021 but vaccination rates in BIL communities have remained low compared with non-BIL communities. Limited access to the vaccine, lack of customized information, and mistrust of the medical system, all contribute to vaccine hesitancy and low vaccination rates. Regrettably, COVID-19 is not the only vaccine-preventable illness with racial/ethnic inequities. Similar inequities are seen with the seasonal influenza vaccine. We review the racial/ethnic health disparities in COVID-19 illness and vaccination rates and what inequities contribute to these disparities. We use evidence from the seasonal influenza vaccination efforts to inform potential strategies to attenuate these inequities. The development of effective and sustainable strategies to improve vaccination rates and reduce factors that result in health inequities is essential in managing current and future pandemics and promoting improved health for all communities.

Abstract Background: Medical publications about anosmia with COVID-19 are scarce. We aimed to describe the prevalence and features of anosmia in COVID-19 patients. Methods: We retrospectively included COVID-19 patients with anosmia between March 1 and March 17, 2020. We used SARS-CoV-2 real time PCR in respiratory samples to confirm the cases. Results: Fifty-four of 114 patients (47%) with confirmed COVID-19 reported anosmia. Mean age of the 54 patients was 47 (16) years; 67% were females and 37% were hospitalized. The median Charlson comorbidity index was 0.70 (1.6 [0-7]). Forty-six patients (85%) had dysgeusia and 28% presented with pneumonia. Anosmia began 4.4 (1.9 [1-8]) days after infection onset. The mean duration of anosmia was 8.9 (6.3 [1-21]) days and 98% of patients recovered within 28 days. Conclusions: Anosmia was present in half of our European COVID-19 patients and was often associated with dysgeusia.

To fill the gaps between managerial distraction and disclosure quality of management earnings forecasts (MEFs), we examine the effects of managerial selective attention resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Using this pandemic in 2020 as an adverse shock potentially causing managerial distraction, results based on a difference-in-differences estimation suggest that managerial distraction had a negative effect on MEFs and affected forecast quality by increasing work burden and perceptual narrowing among managers, while cash reserves demonstrated a preventive function and alleviated such adverse effects. Our findings are robust, as supported by tests that address potential measurement errors.

Health workers and human rights advocates are urging the federal and provincial governments to extend public health insurance to all people living in Canada, regardless of immigration status, as outbreaks of COVID- 19 among migrant workers escalate In one recent open letter, more than 200 organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association, College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Canadian Paediatric Society, warned that "we place our entire society at risk by failing to guarantee health care to all people " More than 600 migrant farmworkers in Southwestern Ontario have tested positive for COVID-19, and three have died in recent weeks Migrant rights groups say overcrowded accommodations, a lack of protective gear, and pressure from employers to work while sick have contributed to the spread of the virus

Most long-term care facilities can offer residents with sufficiently material and physical care, but psychological support may not be always provided due to the tight financial budget or labor resources. Residents isolation and loneliness then become a big issue, especially for the residents. Social network systems (SNS) have been proved to be a more effective information transmission channel for thoughts, perspectives, and information sharing than traditional channels such as microblogging, e-mails, or telephones. This study conducted a quasi-experiment to identify factors that influence residents intention of using SNS and the impacts of SNS on them in a long-term care facility. The results showed that residents attached motivation of personal interacting is a significant factor that influences their intention to use the social network platform. Meanwhile, both the loneliness and depression scales of the participants were decreased significantly.

In this article, a qualitative analysis of the mathematical model of novel corona virus named COVID-19 under nonsingular derivative of fractional order is considered. The concerned model is composed of two compartments, namely, healthy and infected. Under the new nonsingular derivative, we, first of all, establish some sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of solution to the model under consideration. Because of the dynamics of the phenomenon when described by a mathematical model, its existence must be guaranteed. Therefore, via using the classical fixed point theory, we establish the required results. Also, we present the results of stability of Ulam's type by using the tools of nonlinear analysis. For the semianalytical results, we extend the usual Laplace transform coupled with Adomian decomposition method to obtain the approximate solutions for the corresponding compartments of the considered model. Finally, in order to support our study, graphical interpretations are provided to illustrate the results by using some numerical values for the corresponding parameters of the model.

BACKGROUND: Home care (HC) services are crucial to the health and social wellbeing of older adults, people with disabilities, and the chronically ill. Although the HC sector is growing rapidly in the USA, there is high job turnover among the HC aide workforce. HC provides an important alternative to facility-based care, yet it has often been overlooked within the larger health care system: most recently, in COVID-19 pandemic planning. The objective of the study was to characterize qualitatively the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on three key HC stakeholders: clients, aides, and agency managers. METHODS: The study included 37 phone interviews conducted during April C November 2020: HC clients (n = 9), aides (n = 16), and agency managers (n = 12). All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Qualitative analysis of the transcripts followed the grounded theory approach. The interview transcriptions were coded line-by-line into hierarchical themes with NVivo 12 software which allowed weighting of themes based on the number of interviews where they were coded. RESULTS: Fear of infection and transmission among HC clients and aides were strong themes. Infection prevention and control became the top priority guiding day-to-day business operations at agencies; sourcing adequate personal protective equipment for staff was the most urgent task. HC aides expressed concerns for their clients who showed signs of depression, due to increased isolation during the pandemic. The disappearance of comforting touch C resulting from physical distancing practices C altered the expression of compassion in the HC aide-client care relationship. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the pandemic has further increased psychosocial job demands of HC aides. Increased isolation of clients may be contributing to a wider public health problem of elder loneliness and depression. To support the HC stakeholders during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, for future pandemic planning or other health emergencies, it is important to improve HC aide job retention. This action could also ease the serious care services shortage among the growing population of older adults. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-07076-x.

Since December 2019, the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly from Wuhan (China) across the globe, affecting more than 200 countries by mid-2021, with over 190 M reported cases and around 4 M fatalities. During the first year of the pandemic, affected countries implemented a variety of non-pharmaceutical interventions to control virus transmission. In December 2020, countries started administering several authorised vaccines under a limited supply scenario. In this context, a SEIR-type continuous-time deterministic disease model was developed to explore the effect of vaccination in terms of vaccination rate and efficacy, together with varying non-pharmaceutical protection measures, on disease incidence in the initial phase of vaccination. For this, the model incorporates (i) a protection measure including low (self-protection), medium (mobility limitation), high (closure of indoor facilities) and very high (lockdown) protection levels, (ii) quarantine for confirmed cases, and (iii) vaccination rate and efficacy of four type of vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, Astra Zeneca or Janssen). The model was verified and evaluated using the response timeline and vaccination strategies and rates in the Basque Country (N. Spain). Once the model performance was validated, different initial phase (when 30% of the population is vaccinated) vaccination scenarios were simulated, including (i) a realistic vaccine limited supply scenario, and (ii) four potential full vaccine supply scenarios where a unique vaccine type is administered. The Pfizer scenario resulted in the lowest prevalence of infection and cumulative mortality, particularly for low- and medium-level protection rates. However, regardless of the administered vaccine, a high-level protection scenario is the most effective to control the virus transmission and disease mortality in the studied initial phase of vaccination. The model here, which is based on this example, could be easily applied to other regions or countries, modifying the strategies implemented and initial conditions.

This book is part of the Human Centered Book Trilogy, the 2021 volumes of the Routledge Human Centered Management HCM Series HCM books are pioneering transformation from the traditional humans-as-a-resource approach of the industrial past, to the humans at the center management and organizational paradigm of the 21st century HCM is built on talent and wellbeing of people in the workplace driving work engagement, quality standards, high performance and productivity for long-term organizational sustainability in the global VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment This book was carefully crafted by recognized international human centered scholars from four continents Although all organizations seek to have an optimal culture, unstoppable disruptions in the VUCA environment easily derail even the best efforts Conventional assumptions of culture as a unifying organizational force are hardly defendable today HCM maintains that culture is not only about cohesiveness and consensus but effective management of conflict and disagreements continuously testing the capacity of people to work together This book is about organizational transformation positioning people at the center Complementary chapters integrate as antidotes to overcome disruptions in the VUCA environment and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic affecting people and organizations worldwide This and its two complementary titles Soft Skills for Human Centered Management and Global Sustainability and Sensible Leadership: Human Centered, Insightful and Prudent are timely readings for leaders, managers, researchers, academics, practitioners, students and the general public responsible for organizations across industries and sectors worldwide pursuing quality standards and organizational transformation to attain sustainability ? Designs and Patents Act 1988

Background Co-infection of High Risk Human Papillomavirus (HR-HPV) and HIV is thought to favour initiation of intraepithelial squamous cell lesion and subsequent progression to cervical carcinoma. Objectives Evaluation of cytological physiognomies in relation to possible age influence and the genotype distribution of human papillomaviruses among HPV/HIV co-infected and HPV monoinfected women in Kisii, Kenya. Methods The case-control study enrolled 42 HPV/HIV co-infected and 42 HPV monoinfected women. Cervical swabs were collected in ThinPrep vials for HPV tying and cytological analysis. HPV subtypes were assayed by Xpert? HPV system (GXHPV-CE-10). Results Mono-infected women aged 30-39 years had the highest proportion of low grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) at 14 (16.67%) while the co-infected aged 50-59 years had the highest proportion of high grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) at 9 (10.71%). HPV-16 genotype was the most predominant and it increased with age rise. Older coinfected and mono-infected women (>40 years) had HSIL and LSIL as the most predominant cytological grade respectively. Conclusion The predominance of HPV-16 and HPV-18/45 genotypes in the study setting is a consideration that would benefit targeted prophylactic vaccination programs. HPV testing and cervical cancer screening for young and older women on a regular basis ought to be reinforced.

We study, in this paper, infection dynamics when an epidemic emerges to many regions which are connected with their neighbors by any kind of anthropological movement. For this, we devise a multi-regions discrete-time model with the three classical SIR compartments, describing the spatial-temporal behaviors of homogenous susceptible, infected and removed populations. We suppose a large geographical domain, presented by a grid of colored cells, to exhibit at each instant i the spatial propagation of an epidemic which affects its different parts or sub-domains that we call here cells or regions. In order to minimize the number of infected individuals in some regions, we suggest an optimal control approach based on a travel-blocking vicinity strategy which aims to control a group of cells, or a patch, by restricting movements of infected people coming from its neighboring cells. We apply a discrete version of Pontryagins maximum principle to state the necessary conditions and characterization of the travel-blocking optimal controls. We provide cellular simulations based on discrete progressive-regressive iterative schemes associated with the obtained multi-points boundary value problems. For illustrating the modeling and optimal control approaches, we consider an example of 100 regions.

The explosive growth of digital information in recent years has amplified the information overload experienced by today's health-care professionals. In particular, the wide variety of unstructured text makes it difficult for researchers to find meaningful data without spending a considerable amount of time reading. Text mining can be used to facilitate better discoverability and analysis, and aid researchers in identifying critical trends and connections. This column will introduce key text-mining terms, recent use cases of biomedical text mining, and current applications for this technology in medical libraries.

The recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus has raised a lot of concerns on the effective strategies of diagnosing and managing such disease. As for governments and security agencies, the extent of the outbreak is a major concern regarding possible usage of bioweapons. As a result, a reflection on the existing forensic tools forms the basis of further research on the issue. Hence, an improvements on the application of bioinformatics in forensic investigations is a major area of concern for many medical and forensic researchers. This paper explores the advancements in bioinformatics as a forensic tool amid the developments in current novel coronavirus outbreak. Considering that there is limited resources to conduct a primary research on the novel coronavirus and the Covid-19 disease, a systematic review of the existing research is best suited for the research. Therefore, the research involves a review of the past research on bioinformatics and forensic investigations and its relations to the ongoing research on the novel coronavirus. ? 2020, Journal of Indian Academy of Forensic Medicine. All Rigths Reserved.

Severely afflicted patients with the COVID-19 may become in need of mechanical ventilation The cause of acute respiratory failure is a massive hyperinflammation in the lungs, and treatment with glucocorticoids is not recommended by the WHO A rare haematological disease, the virus-associated haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis syndrome (HLS), is associated with high mortality and a similar hyperinflammation syndrome Janus kinase (JAK) 1/2 inhibitor treatment is highly efficacious in HLS In this review, we discuss the rationales and perspectives for using JAK1/2 inhibitors in severely afflicted patients with COVID-19 pneumonia

PURPOSE OF REVIEW Pulmonary fibrosis is an incurable lung disease that leads to significant morbidity. In many patients, pulmonary fibrosis is progressive causing debilitating dyspnea that impairs patients' ability to perform everyday tasks and maintain independence. Informal caregivers provide invaluable support for patients with pulmonary fibrosis; however, support for the caregiver is inadequate. The purpose of this scoping review is to identify unmet needs for caregivers of pulmonary fibrosis patients. RECENT FINDINGS During the past 18 months, there has been an increase in studies about the impact of pulmonary fibrosis on the caregiver or carer of the patient with pulmonary fibrosis. These carers experience caregiver burden which includes negative psychological and physical effects on caregiver health because of the challenge in caring for someone with pulmonary fibrosis. Caregivers describe the need for help navigating the healthcare system. This includes supportive and informational needs, lack of access to comprehensive patient-centred care, geographically accessible specialty centres and psychological support for both patient and caregiver. SUMMARY Caregivers of pulmonary fibrosis patients have numerous unmet care needs that include education about the disease, symptom management, financial assistance, access to specialty centres, advanced care planning and psychological support. This resulting caregiver burden can be alleviated with comprehensive support tailored throughout the disease course.

BACKGROUND: The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) declares the airline transport regulation in January 2020 to help retard the spread of the novel coronavirus disease in China. This study is to examine the effect of airline transport regulation on confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease in megacities in China. METHODS: This study combines the multi-source data from the health data platform DXY, the airline data platform Airsavvi, the China Economic Internet Statistical Database and the China Railway website. The megacities whose airports have a passenger throughput of over 30 million per year (11 megacities: Wuhan, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Kunming, Xi'an, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Nanjing) are included in the analysis. The regression analysis is conducted in this study. RESULTS: The curvilinear relationship between the limitation on air traffic and confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus disease is identified (coefficient of the linear term = ?4.650, p-value < 0.01; coefficient of the quadratic term = 4.089, p-value < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the effectiveness of airline transport regulation in suppressing the development of this pandemic. The limitation on air traffic is found to negatively affect the confirmed cases in China's megacities. However, such effect marginally recedes as the strength of limitation intensifies. It suggests that comprehensive policy intervention is in need and air traffic can be one of important determinants that affect the epidemic development.

Ultraviolet Light Emitting Diode (UV LED) is becoming popular, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. UV LED has a specific wavelength with relatively narrow bandwidth, especially the one that has a shorter wavelength. On the other hand, UV LED has advantages in its low power consumption, compact size, and longer lifetime. This work shows that a wider bandwidth can be elicited by combining multiple UV LED sources. We have measured several low-cost UV LED, which is used as a germicidal lamp using a portable spectrometer that can detect a wavelength from 200 nm to 850 nm. The combined UV LED spectrum light ranges from 254 nm UVC to 400 nm UVA. The light spectrum produced by the LED shows a form of the Gaussian distribution model. Some LEDs have a peak wavelength at UVC around 270nm, and LEDs have a peak wavelength around 400nm at UVA. We can conclude that the low-cost UV LED can be used as a light source for portable or field spectrometers for specific wavelength.

During a disease outbreak/pandemic situation such as COVID-19, researchers are in a prime position to identify and develop peptide-based therapies, which could be more rapidly and cost-effectively advanced into a clinical setting. One drawback of natural peptide drugs, however, is their proteolytic instability; peptidomimetics can help to overcome this caveat. In this review, we summarize peptide and peptide-based therapeutics that target one main entry pathway of SARS-CoV-2, which involves the host ACE2 receptor and viral spike (S) protein interaction. Furthermore, we discuss the advantages of peptidomimetics and other potential targets that have been studied using peptide-based therapeutics for COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: : SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy is associated with significant maternal morbidity and increased rates of preterm birth. For this reason, COVID-19 vaccine administration in pregnancy has been endorsed by multiple professional societies including ACOG and SMFM despite exclusion of pregnant women from initial clinical trials of vaccine safety and efficacy. However, to date little data exists regarding outcomes after COVID-19 vaccination of pregnant patients. STUDY DESIGN: : A comprehensive vaccine registry was combined with a delivery database for an integrated healthcare system to create a delivery cohort including vaccinated patients. Maternal sociodemographic data were examined to identify factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination. Pregnancy and birth outcomes were analyzed, including a composite measure of maternal and neonatal pregnancy complications, the Adverse Outcome Index. RESULTS: : Of 2002 patients in the delivery cohort, 140 (7.0%) received a COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and 212 (10.6%) experienced a COVID-19 infection during pregnancy. The median gestational age at first vaccination was 32 weeks (range 13 6/7-40 4/7), and patients vaccinated during pregnancy were less likely than unvaccinated patients to experience COVID-19 infection prior to delivery (1.4% (2/140) vs. 11.3% (210/1862), P<0.001). No maternal COVID-19 infections occurred after vaccination during pregnancy. Factors significantly associated with increased likelihood of vaccination in a multivariable logistic regression model included older age, higher level of maternal education, being a non-smoker, use of infertility treatment for the current pregnancy, and lower gravidity. No significant difference in the composite adverse outcome (5.0% (7/140) vs. 4.9% (91/1862), P=0.95) or other maternal or neonatal complications, including thromboembolic events and preterm birth, was observed in vaccinated compared to unvaccinated patients. CONCLUSIONS: : Vaccinated pregnant women in this birth cohort were less likely to experience COVID-19 infection compared to unvaccinated pregnant patients, and COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy was not associated with increased pregnancy or delivery complications. The cohort was skewed toward late pregnancy vaccination, and thus findings may not be generalizable to vaccination during early pregnancy.