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Saat ini, gabungan swab nasofaring dan orofaring menjadi standar baku untuk pendeteksian Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) di Indonesia. Padahal sudah dilakukan pemeriksaan berbagai spesimen untuk pendeteksian SARS-CoV2 dengan angka akurasi yang dapat diandalkan yang diantaranya berupa swab nasofaring, swab orofaring dan saliva. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui spesifisitas, sensitivitas, tingkat kesesuaian hasil, angka akurasi dan CT Value pada swab nasofaring, swab orofaring, saliva, gabungan swab nasofaring dan saliva, gabungan swab orofaring dan saliva, serta gabungan swab nasofaring, orofaring dan saliva. Penelitian ini bersifat observasional dengan desain case control study. Populasi penelitian ini adalah koleksi swab nasofaring, swab orofaring, saliva serta gabungannya dari pasien yang datang untuk swab di Laboratorium PDRPI FK UNAND serta pasien rawatan RSUP dr.M.Djamil, Padang dan RSP UNAND yang dinyatakan positif atau negatif COVID-19 melalui pemeriksaan swab gabungan nasofaring dan orofaring yang terdeteksi di Laboratorium PDRPI FK UNAND. Besar sampel pada penelitian ini berjumlah 99 sampel yang terdiri dari 49 sampel positif dan 50 sampel negatif. Penelitian ini dilakukan selama 6 bulan dari bulan Mei hingga Oktober 2021 bertempat di Laboratorium Pusat Diagnostik dan Riset Penyakit Infeksi, Fakultas Kedokteran, Universitas Andalas, Padang (PDRPI FK UNAND). Berdasarkan data yang telah terkumpul melalui pendeteksian SARS-CoV2 menggunakan RT-qPCR, didapatkan bahwa spesimen orofaring memiliki tingkat sensitivitas, spesifisitas serta tingkat akurasi 98%, sedangkan spesimen lainnya 100%. Spesimen orofaring memiliki tingkat kesesuaian hasil 0.98, sedangkan spesimen lainnya 1. Spesimen swab nasofaring memiliki rerata CT Value paling rendah (ORF1ab : 27.70 +/- 7.58 dan N Gene : 27.44 +/- 7.65) dibanding spesimen lainnya untuk pemeriksaan SARS-CoV2. Berdasarkan analisis yang dilakukan, didapatkan bahwa seluruh spesimen dapat dijadikan alternatif pemeriksaan SARS-CoV2, namun diantara spesimen tersebut yang paling baik untuk digunakan sebagai pemeriksaan alternatif merupakan spesimen nasofaring tunggal, sedangkan spesimen saliva tunggal hampir sama dengan spesimen orofaring tunggal yang memilki rekomendasi paling rendah.

AbstractFrom public health perspectives of COVID-19 pandemic, accurate estimates of infection severity of individuals are extremely valuable for the informed decision making and targeted response to an emerging pandemic. This paper presents machine learning based prognostic model for providing early warning to the individuals for COVID-19 infection using the health care data set. In the present work, a prognostic model using Random Forest classifier and support vector regression is developed for predicting the Infection Susceptibility Probability (ISP) score of COVID-19 and it is applied on an open health care data set containing 27 field values. The typical fields of the health care data set include basic personal details such as age, gender, number of children in the household, marital status along with medical data like Coma score, Pulmonary score, Blood Glucose level, HDL cholesterol etc. An effective preprocessing method is carried out for handling the numerical, categorical values (non-numerical), missing data in the health care data set. The correlation between the variables in the health care data is analyzed using the correlation coefficient and heat map with a color code is used to identify the influencing factors on the Infection Susceptibility Probability (ISP) score of COVID-19. Based on the accuracy, Precision, Sensitivity and F-scores, it is noted that the random forest classifier provides an improved classification performance as compared to Support vector regression for the given health care data set. Android based mobile application software platform is developed using the proposed prognostic approach for enabling the healthy individuals to predict the susceptibility infection score of COVID-19 to take the precautionary measures. Based on the results of the proposed method, clinicians and government officials can focus on the highly susceptible people for limiting the pandemic spreadMethodsIn the present work, Random Forest classifier and support vector regression techniques are applied to a medical health care dataset containing 27 variables for predicting the susceptibility score of an individual towards COVID-19 infection and the accuracy of prediction is compared. An effective preprocessing is carried for handling the missing data in the health care data set. Correlation analysis using heat map is carried on the health care data for analyzing the influencing factors of Infection Susceptibility Probability (ISP) score of COVID-19. A confusion matrix is calculated for understanding the performance of classification of the based on the number of True-Positives, True-Negatives, False-Positives and False-Negatives. These values further used to calculate the accuracy, Precision, Sensitivity and F-scores.ResultsFrom the classification results, it is noted that the Random Forest classifier provides an classification accuracy of 99.7% precision of 99.8%, sensitivity of 98.8% and F-score of 99.29% for the given medical data set.ConclusionProposed machine learning approach can help the individuals to take additional precautions for protecting people from the COVID-19 infection, clinicians and government officials can focus on the highly susceptible people for limiting the pandemic spread.Abbreviation Table

Vaccines are one of the most effective and successful strategies employed to date to prevent and increase the population's immunity against several viral diseases. However, vaccine hesitancy among populations poses a potential danger to global health. This study focused on determining the vaccine acceptance rate and associated key determinants among veterinarians. A cross-sectional study using a web-based survey among veterinarians was conducted in the month of April 2021. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify key predictors for vaccine acceptance among veterinarians. A total of 305 veterinarians participated in this survey, of whom 39 respondents (12.8%) had received the COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine acceptance rate among respondents was 38.3% (excluding those that have taken the vaccine). Only 37.0 % of the respondents were confident about the safety and efficacy of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine in circulation in the country. Major perceived drivers for vaccine acceptability were safety (91.8%), possible adverse reactions (85.6%) and global acceptability (75.7%). The adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of vaccine acceptance increased by 2.3 times among male veterinarians than females (95% CI: 1.358-3.900; p = 0.002) in the multivariate model. In Nigeria, little is known about COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (VA) and predictors among animal healthcare providers, including veterinarians. The study found gender as a key sociodemographic predictor for VA. There is a need to address the sociodemographic determinants of vaccine hesitancy through public health efforts and increase COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and coverage in Nigeria.

Background New technologies offer great opportunities for health care systems but can also represent significant costs. Increasing the usage and development of medical technologies balancing cost and utility is a priority for many health care managers. Ensuring maximised diffusion and uptake of new technologies can be positively impacted by the degree of involvement of end-users in the purchasing and/or development of new products. While the idea that culture can promote or inhibit innovation is not new, innovation in the health care setting has only relatively recently been explored. Little information specific to university hospitals and procurement of innovation exists. The global COVID-19 pandemic has furthermore greatly influenced healthcare in the last months including medical procurement and innovation. This protocol details a planned qualitative research study to explore cultural factors influencing innovation at European university hospitals as well as the recent impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in depth. Methods Key informant interviews will be conducted at ten European university hospitals. The semi-structured interview guide includes questions on: the perspectives and experiences of staff in relation to the procurement of innovation; examples of past or ongoing projects in this area or in the area of digital health innovation; and changes related to COVID-19. Participant characteristics will be summarised with descriptive statistics. Multi-step thematic analysis using meaning condensation will be used to analyse transcribed data. Identified concepts will be linked with existing theories and/or factors identified by literature search. Results will be presented in narrative and table formats. Historical public procurement data will be downloaded from the European Union’s public procurement records portal TED. Trends from during COVID-19 will be statistically analysed in comparison to prior years. Discussion This manuscript describes the steps of our proposed qualitative study to explore cultural factors that contribute to successful and/or unsuccessful innovation in relation to digital health procurement, and the impact of COVID-19 on this field. Results will be used to provide points for consideration when conducting procurement of innovation, an important tool that organisations can use to drive digital research and development and a policy goal for the EU. Funding This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 826157.

Raising awareness about disease prevention behavior in adolescents is an effective measure for reducing the transmission of COVID-19. This study aimed to examine adolescent disease-prevention behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Indonesia and identify its associations with gender, region, and background-related factors. This was a cross-sectional study that involved 492 respondents between the ages of 12 to 18 years and currently attending junior high school or senior high school. The Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis H test was used. The findings indicated that the mean age of the respondents was 15.77 (SD = 1.42), the majority of the respondents were girls (76.4%), and most were living in Eastern Indonesia (81.5%). Girls placed a significantly higher effort for prevention than boys for self-precaution, social distancing, and following coughing and sneezing etiquette, with mean (SD) values of 21.48 (SD = 2.79), 20.40 (SD = 2.89), and 17.73 (SD = 2.44), respectively. Gender and region also had significant correlations with reported self-protection, social distancing, and self-immunity enhancement behavior (p< 0.05). It can be concluded that COVID-19-prevention measures practiced by adolescents differ according to gender, region, education level, both parents’ education level, and the father’s occupation.

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 is a zoonotic virus with a possible origin in bats and potential transmission to humans through an intermediate host. When zoonotic viruses jump to a new host, they undergo both mutational and natural selective pressures that result in non-synonymous and synonymous adaptive changes, necessary for efficient replication and rapid spread of diseases in new host species. The nucleotide composition and codon usage pattern of SARS-CoV-2 indicate the presence of a highly conserved, gene-specific codon usage bias. The codon usage pattern of SARS-CoV-2 is mostly antagonistic to human and bat codon usage. SARS-CoV-2 codon usage bias is mainly shaped by the natural selection, while mutational pressure plays a minor role. The time-series analysis of SARS-CoV-2 genome indicates that the virus is slowly evolving. Virus isolates from later stages of the outbreak have more biased codon usage and nucleotide composition than virus isolates from early stages of the outbreak. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00239-021-10008-2.

In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, staff and students at universities worldwide were forced to swiftly adapt to distance learning in order to continue with tertiary ed...

Infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) infection has been a major threat to the poultry industry worldwide. Current commercially available ELISA kits detect group-specific antibodies; however, to understand the status of field infection, a monoclonal antibody (mAb) blocking ELISA (b-ELISA) against local IBVs was developed. The selected mAb showed specificity to Taiwan IBV strains but had no cross-reactivity with the vaccine strain H120. Using the hemagglutination inhibition (HI) test as a standard, the cut-off value, sensitivity, and specificity of a b-ELISA using this mAb were evaluated in 390 field samples. The type-specificity of detection was validated using a panel of chicken hyperimmune sera. The results showed that the b-ELISA demonstrated high sensitivity (98.0%) and specificity (97.2%) of detection. The agreement between the results of the b-ELISA and the HI test was statistically significant (Kappa = 0.95), and there was no significant difference between these two methods (McNemar p = 0.72). The b-ELISA specifically detected Taiwan IBV serotypes but not three non-Taiwan IBV serotypes nor sera against other avian pathogens. This b-ELISA provides type-specific antibody detection of local IBV strains. It has the potential to serve as a rapid and reliable diagnostic method for IBV clinical infections in the field in Taiwan.

Introduction: While there is a significant amount of information about invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), meningococcal carriage, and meningococcal vaccines in children and adolescents, data in older adults are limited. Studies of meningococcal carriage and transmission modeling can be utilized to predict the spread of IMD and guide prevention and treatment strategies. Our study’s main objective was to assess the prevalece of Neisseria meningitidis (Nm) carriage, serogroup distribution, and associated risk factors among older adults in Türkiye. Methods: Nasopharyngeal samples were collected between December 2022 and January 2023 from a total of 329 older adults (65 years of age and above). The samples were tested via PCR for Nm, and a serogroup (A, B, C, Y, W, X, E, Z, H) analysis of the positive samples was performed. Results: In total, 329 adults over 65 years of age (150 females and 179 males; 69% were 65–75 years old and 31% were 75 years of age and older) were included in the study. Nm carriage was detected in 46 participants (13.9%), and the serogroup distribution was as follows: 2.4% MenY (n = 8), 1.8% MenB (n = 6), 0.2% MenW (n = 2), and 9.4% non-groupable (n = 31). Other serogroups were not detected. Between the meningococcal carriers and the non-carriers, there were no differences between previous vaccination histories (meningococcal, pneumococcal, influenza, and COVID-19), travel history for Hajj and/or Umrah, and the presence of chronic disease. Of the 16 cases positive for the serogroups Y, B, and W, 13 patients were between the ages of 65 and 74 and three patients were over 75 years old, and these three cases represented MenY. Conclusion: In our study, the percentage of meningococcal carriage was found to be 13.9%, the carriage rate for encapsulated strains was 4.8%, and the most common serogroup was MenY. Men Y was also the only serogroup detected in patients over 75 years of age. The MenY serogroup, which is one of the most important causes of IMD (especially in pneumonia cases) in people older than 65 years, was the most frequently carried serogroup in people over 65 years of age in our study. Adequate surveillance and/or a proper carriage study would help to define potential vaccination strategies for older adults.

Hand hygiene is among the most important factors of infection control in healthcare settings. Healthcare workers are the primary source of hospital-acquired infection. We assessed the current state of hand hygiene knowledge, perception, and practice among the healthcare workers in Qassim, Saudi Arabia. In this cross-sectional study, we used the hand hygiene knowledge and perception questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization. Knowledge and perceptions were classified into good (80–100%), moderate (60–79%), and poor (p p p p p < 0.05) to routinely use alcohol-based hand rubs than technicians. Our research highlighted gaps in hand hygiene knowledge, perception and practice among healthcare workers in Qassim, Saudi Arabia and the importance of training in this regard.