RESUMO
Background: Temperature screening checkpoints have become prevalent in all public places during the COVID-19 pandemic. Contactless screening methods have been adopted for the early detection and isolation of febrile patients. The tympanic method closely resembles the body core temperature, however, they are not in use due to the disposal charges. This study aims to compare the efficacy of wrist and forehead temperature methods with the standard tympanic temperature. In light of the fact that a large population require rapid screening and that forehead temperature measurement being influenced by the environment, we investigated the accuracy and benefits of wrist temperature measurement in various environments. Material(s) and Method(s): This study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital in Perundurai, Tamilnadu. All the visitors who presented to the OPD between 6th April-13th May 2020 were included in the study. The exclusion criteria were those with ear discharge and tympanic membrane perforation. All the participants were made to wait for 10 minutes in the waiting hall to ensure temperature-controlled settings. We consecutively collected wrist, forehead, and tympanic temperature readings of all participants using infrared thermometers. Fever was defined as a temperature above 37.5degreeC. The data was analyzed using the Bland-Altmann plot in MS Excel 2016. Result(s): A total of 514 participants were enrolled in the study. The mean difference ranged from 2.10 to -2.00 for the forehead measurements and 2.00 to -2.00 for wrist measurements. The agreements for each method with tympanic temperature were calculated. (Forehead temperature: 1.23 to -1.17;Wrist temperature: 1.23 to -1.13). Conclusion(s): The study concluded that the wrist temperature was more stable than the forehead temperature. However, these methods did not provide any diagnostic cut-off value. Furthermore, the asymptomatic nature of some COVID-19 cases reduced the sensitivity of these tests. Further studies are advised to explore the validity of wrist temperature. Copyright © 2022 International Journal of Academic Medicine and Pharmacy. All rights reserved.
RESUMO
Vaccines are effective measures to curtail spread of infection in the community, as they break the chain of transmission and help to develop herd immunity, thereby reducing disease induced morbidity and mortality. This holds good for COVID-19 vaccines which are developed rapidly during this pandemic. No much information are available regarding the causes for why people are hesitant to take COVID-19 vaccine in Tamil Nadu even after suffering the ill effects of COVID-19 infection in its second wave. This study is taken up to investigate the attitude of people of Tamil Nadu towards COVID-19 vaccine and to analyse the reasons for vaccine hesitancy and demographic factors influencing vaccine hesitancy among the survey population. An online, cross sectional self-administered questionnaire was instrumentalized to survey adult participants from Tamil Nadu on the acceptability and attitude towards COVID-19 vaccines and to analyse the factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy. Logistic regression analysis was used to find the predictors of COVID-19 among the study population. A total of 2615 completed responses were taken up for survey. The public acceptance rate of COVID-19 was very high (86.3%) in Tamil Nadu. Regarding the attitude, majority of the participants (more than 80%) believed that vaccines are safe and accept that that Indian made vaccines are safe and also believed that government would provide vaccines for all at free of cost. But 51.2% participants expressed their fear of side effects which would prevent them from taking vaccines. Most trusted information regarding COVID-19 vaccines were through governmental agencies (50.8%) and through social media (42%-44%). vaccine hesitancy was noted in 36.9% of the participants. The reasons for vaccine hesitancy were multifactorial. Fear of vaccine related adverse effects (31.4%), non-availability of vaccines (20%), knowledge of multiple vaccine availability leading to confusion regarding safety and efficacy(16.9%) false belief that increasing incidence of corona infection after COVID-19 vaccination (10.8%), fear of associated medical illness (12.8%), influence of family and peer group with negative message(14%) and the belief that living in rural area would not be infected by corona virus and lack of awareness (7.15%,10.52% respectively) all contributed to vaccine hesitancy. In our study, the factors influencing vaccine hesitancy were noted in younger age, rural location, unemployment, non-graduates, unmarried and among smokers and alcoholics with statistically si gnificant values. Systematic interventions are required by public health authorities to reduce the level of vaccine hesitancy and improve their vaccine acceptance especially among the rural population. Instead of online survey, one to one, in person survey would bring real attitude of people 60% of who live in rural India. © 2021, SILAE (Italo-Latin American Society of Ethnomedicine). All rights reserved.
RESUMO
The entire world is now in a state of caution since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The overwhelmingly high spread and mortality rate due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not only made the headlines but also raised alarming concerns for the human community. Applications of nano-biotechnology, along with machine learning, have excellent potential in dealing with serious health issues, mainly in medical science. This review article aims to augment the multidimensional use of silver nanoparticles, especially in the fabrication of textiles and face masks, which could represent a new avenue for prevention. Furthermore, the disinfection of COVID-19, along with other pathogens using silver nanoparticles and machine learning could help in the risk assessment.