50 shades of lockdown: sex workers' hidden world during COVID pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge impact on psychological health and socioeconomic structures. The consequences of COVID-19 on the physical, psychological, and social spheres have been extensively studied, except for aspects concerning sexuality and sex workers, in terms of physical, social and economic impact, but also as a possible cause for viral transmission. METHODS: With the intention of counteracting the lack of research, from September 2020 to August 2022, we distributed an anonymous questionnaire to Sex Workers' associations aimed at investigating the impact of the pandemics on sex workers. In the period examined we received and reviewed 147 questionnaires from women, men, and transsexuals. CONCLUSIONS: The prevention of the viral transmission during a pandemic is of utmost importance but should not be exclusively promoted at the expense of other important prevention initiatives. Safeguarding psycho-physical health of the general population, including effective health educational communications emphasizing the importance of sexual activity in mental and physical health should be part of ongoing health objectives. These approaches need to include sex workers of all genders-particularly racialized and marginalized sex workers-in public health planning and messaging alongside structural interventions. Full decriminalization of sex work and access to workplace protections are key to protecting both sex workers' and clients' health. Sex workers of all genders have often been among the first hit by epidemics and the last to be protected-it is long past time to change that.

Echocardiographic screening in pediatric asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 outpatients: is it a useful test or an excess of zeal?

INTRODUCTION: Data regarding echocardiographic findings during follow-up of asymptomatic or pauci-symptomatic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are scarce in pediatric patients. The aim of the present study is to assess post-COVID-19 sequelae through echocardiography in children who have experienced mild SARS-CoV-2. METHODS: This single-center, retrospective, observational study enrolled a cohort of 133 pediatric outpatients, born between 2005 and 2022, with a history of asymptomatic or paucisymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, who underwent transthoracic echocardiographic (TTE) evaluation at an outpatient pediatric clinic in Northern Italy. RESULTS: The percentage of the pediatric activity of the clinic which was focused on post-COVID evaluation was not negligible, representing almost 10% of the ∼1500 pediatric patients examined from 1 January 2021 to 31 August 2022. According to ACEP classification, children enrolled in this study had previously experienced in 72.9% (97) asymptomatic COVID-19 and nearly 27% (36) a mild illness. Clinical and instrumental examinations did not show any relevant abnormality in the functional [left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), pulmonary artery systolic pressure (PASP)] or structural [interventricular septum diameter (IVSd), left ventricular internal diameter (LViD, end-diastolic volume (EDV), left atrium volume (LAV)] parameters examined related to SARS-CoV-2 infection in the total of 133 children. CONCLUSION: According to our results, children who experienced an asymptomatic or mild SARS-CoV-2 infection should not be systematically investigated with second-level techniques, such as TTE, in the absence of clinical suspicion or other risk conditions such as congenital heart diseases, comorbidities or risk factors.