The effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on patients with chronic cardiovascular disease in Vietnam.

INTRODUCTION: We evaluated the impact of the lockdown policy during the COVID-19 pandemic on cardiovascular outpatients of a cardiology clinic in Vietnam from April to June 2020. We estimated the occurrence of different cardiovascular problems in general and the stability of blood pressure. METHODOLOGY: During the Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam, we conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate its impact on blood pressure stability of hypertensive patients treated as outpatients at the clinic of the University Medical Center (UMC), Ho Chi Minh City. RESULTS: The mean age of the recruited 493 patients was 62.2 ± 10.2 years. The stable blood pressure group consisted of 87% patients, while the unstable blood pressure group consisted of 13% patients. We found that 68% of the study population attended their follow-up appointments as scheduled: 87% with stable blood pressure versus only 13% with unstable blood pressure. Significant differences were noticed in body weight changes and cardiovascular problems between the two groups: body weight increase (22.6% vs. 10.2%), body weight decrease (3.2% vs. 6.7%), worsening of cardiovascular problems (35.5% vs. 17.9%) in the unstable and stable blood pressure groups, respectively. Multivariable regression analysis reflected the impact of the increase in body weight and occurrence of cardiovascular problems on the patients with unstable blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provided concrete proof of the impact of the lockdown on chronic patients, which should warrant further surveys, and evaluation of the lockdown policy.

Chicken infectious anaemia virus infections in chickens in northern Vietnam: epidemiological features and genetic characterization of the causative agent.

Since the first report of chicken infectious anaemia virus (CIAV) in Vietnam in 2013, there have not been many studies focused on the detection of CIAV or the molecular characteristics of the virus. This study attempted to investigate the presence of CIAV in northern Vietnam by molecular-based methods. Regarding the spatial distribution of CIAV, the PCR-based results showed that CIAV was detected in 47 out of 64 farms (73.4%) and in all 10 investigated provinces. Of the 119 samples assayed by PCR, 74 (62.2%) tested positive for CIAV DNA. By arranging the samples into different categories, it was found that CIAV was detected at high rates (above 50%) based on all 4 evaluated criteria as follows: production type of chicken, housing system, flock size and age group. Different housing systems were significantly associated with the detection rates of CIAV (P = 0.003). By genetic analyses, all of the Vietnamese CIAVs were found to (i) lack substitutions related to attenuation substitutions, (ii) group separately from vaccine-like CIAVs and (iii) belong to genogroups G2 and G3 of CIAV. Because of the wide distribution of CIAV and because the virus was confirmed not to be vaccine-like viruses, it is suggested that further studies be conducted on the clinical form of chicken infectious anaemia, as well as the immunosuppressive effect of CIAV on chickens in Vietnam.RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Wide distribution of chicken infectious anaemia virus (CIAV) in northern Vietnam.Vietnamese CIAVs belong to genogroups G2 and G3 of CIAV.