Imaging Features of Rhino-Orbito-Cerebral Mucormycosis in Postcovid-19 Patients

Background: An alarmingly rising number of instances of rhino-orbito-cerebral mucormycosis, a lethal invasive fungal illness, have been seen among the covid-19 survivors during the second wave in India. This disease is often found in immunocompromised individuals and in those with uncontrolled diabetes. Though the cause is said to be multifactorial the important cause is said to be the use of steroids by the patients without adequate medical supervision. The aim is to using data from 19 individuals with rhinocerebral mucormycosis, consistent radiographic characteristics were identified that might aid in the early identification of this condition. Material(s) and Method(s): A six-month, cross-sectional research carried out at the MGM Hospital in Warangal from May 2021 to October 2021. The 1.5 tesla GE MR SIGNA MRI machine and GE BRIGHTSPEED 16 slice CT unit were used to examine all patients suspected of having acute invasive fungal sinusitis who were either covid-19 positive or had recovered from covid-19 infection. Contrast study is done whenever indicated. Result(s): A total of 81 patients were imaged. On CT scans 23 patients (28.4%) had hyperdense lesions, 36 patients (44.4%) had hypodense lesions and 22 patients(27%) had isodense lesions. On MRI 56 patients (69%)had hyperintense signal and 25 patients (31%) had hypointense signal on T2-Weighted images. Conclusion(s): Mucormycosis is fatal invasive fungal disease which has the propensity to invade the periantral regions, pterygopalatine and sphenopalatine regions, orbits, skull base and in some cases causing fungal abscess in the brain. Imaging is essential for early diagnosis and prompt treatment, which significantly lowers morbidity and death. Copyright © 2022 Necati Ozpinar. All right reserved.

Social distancing and lockdown due to COVID-19: Impact on sleep and mood of adolescents

The unprecedented situation of countrywide lockdown with closure of physical schools, social distancing, and home confinement which arose due to COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the sleep and mood of all age groups. Adolescence is the age of transition from childhood to adulthood. Students in this phase are anxious with planning for future and thus fall an easy prey to unhealthy lifestyle including irregular sleep cycle and eating habits. Freedom to follow self-decided sleep schedule with extensive use of digital media and sedentary lifestyle during the pandemic further added to the trend of unhealthy lifestyle among them. This perspective is aimed to explore the effect of nationwide or regional lockdowns enforced for curtailment of COVID-19 infection on the mood and sleep habits of adolescents. There were some positive as well as negative impacts on the sleep quality and mood of adolescents. Although home confinement gave a lot of opportunities to follow own sleep schedules and eating habits such as those on weekends or vacations, it also increased the separation stress from their peers, anxiety and fear of disease, erratic sleep schedule, and screen time among adolescents. © 2022 Journal of Nature and Science of Medicine. All rights reserved.

Indian Public Interest and Anxiety Surge in COVID-19 Subsequent to a Strong Epidemic in Italy and Spain through a Survey using Google Trends

A new Coronavirus has caused panic wave among the public all over the world. It is being discussed extensively in various news channels and papers each day. The most affected countries are China, Italy, Spain, and USA. In India, more than 5000 cases have been reported and the number is increasing day by day. This paper has undertaken good use of Google Trends to analyse the public interest in COVID-19 outbreak. Google Trends has been used to collect data pertaining to Indian public interest in Corona Virus.Methods: Current data pertaining to public interest in Corona virus is extracted from Google Trends website by entering the search topic: COVID-19 with location set as India. The reported period is 10th March 2020 to 8th April 2020. The second data regarding mental health query of Indians is also extracted from the same tool.Results: As per the Google Trends observed for Indian public interest in COVID-19, the interest started rising from 10th March, 2020 and was gradually moving up till 21stMarch 2020 while number of reported corona cases in India had started emerging and lockdown was enforced on the public movement. The interest in COVID-19 doubled in just a time of one week from 21st march, 2020.Similar trend has been found with Indian mental hearth search queries showing first peak on 13th March, second on 19th and third on 24th March 2020. The last peak which is highest one involves almost triple population than the first peak. Hence Google trends can be used to predict the mental health and sensitivity of the people towards disease. © 2021 IEEE.

Community Insights Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Intention versus Hesitancy

Background: It is widely believed that vaccine hesitancy is prevalent. Achievement of COVID-19 vaccination depends upon public willingness towards immunization against this disease. This study aimed at revealing the underlying situation regarding community hesitancy for COVID-19 vaccine. This study was conducted to determine the level of acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine uptake among community and to seek association between socio-demographic factors and various perceptions about COVID-19 vaccine. Methods and Materials: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 390 health-care providers and general Pakistani people of age 20 years and above through non probability snowball sampling. An online questionnaire was used to gather data. The socio-demographic variables along with various concepts regarding intentions to take vaccine as well as hesitancy for the same were tried to bring on the surface. The p -value <= 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: This study reveals that 61.28% of participants desired to get vaccinated. There was significant association between the desire to get vaccination with participant's age & occupation (p value < 0.01). The significant association between the positive views of the health-care providers and the other study subjects (p<0.00) is highly encouraging. The other socio-demographic variables have varied effect on vaccine uptake intentions and hesitancy and require further research on this subject. Conclusion: The study conducted on three hundred & ninety respondents consistently reveals the significant association between the positive views of the health care providers and the other study subjects with the p-values lesser than 0.001. The study concludes that other socio-demographic fabric of the community showed varied effect on COVID 19 vaccine uptake intentions and hesitancy. Recommendation: 1. The broad based qualitative research is strongly recommended in order to better seek the community insights & perceptions regarding this public health issue. 2. The large number of Community people although want to get vaccinated against covid-19, still there is a widespread prevalent doubts about this vaccine as being not so safe for them. Such type of doubts among community necessitate that some counselling sessions be conducted in order to remove uncertainties among common people. Motivations of people need to be raised so as to increase the coverage of covid-19 vaccination.

Analysis and Prediction of Climate Change in Post-Covid19 India

Corona virus was first observed in Wuhan City of China in the end of the year 2019. In less than 3 months of its appearance, it turned out to be a global pandemic. The virus has affected more than 4.3 million of people across the globe till midmonth of May 2020. As a protective measure, many countries have enforced lockdown, which certainly reflected some beneficial effects on Nature. Lesser human-induced pollution has introduced us to a whole new healthy environment. This study is based on the observations of AOD (Aerosol Optical Depth) from the satellite Himawari-8. This study will also include the observation of tropospheric level of NO2 with the help of an instrument Aura-OMI over the region of southeast Asia (SEA). This study also focuses on measurements at ground level across several stations of Malaysia, to check the changes in level of aerosol and air pollutants caused by this lockdown. This lockdown has caused a considerable decrease in the level of AOD across Southeast Asia and also in the pollution current in oceans, a notable decrease of 27 percent to 30 percent of NO2 has also been observed in the troposphere. The respective amount of PM 10, PM 2.5, NO2, SO2, and CO has also decreased by 26-31%, 23- 32%, 63-64%, 9-20%, and 25-31%, in the region of Malaysia. Since, this reduction is favorable for our environment, it is also beneficial for one's health, and thus, it has become an interesting field of research related to health and pollution. © 2020 IEEE.