Impact of coronavirus disease 2019 on the HIV testing and health care delivery at a university hospital in Taiwan, 2020-2021

Background: To contain the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, non-pharmacologic interventions, including lockdown and social distancing, may have adverse impact on access to HIV testing and care. This study investigated the impact of Covid-19 on HIV testing and care at a major hospital in Taiwan in 2020-2021. Method(s): The numbers of clients seeking anonymous HIV voluntary counseling and testing were compared 2 years before (2018-2019) and 2 years after Covid-19 outbreak (2020-2021). People living with HIV (PLWH) who sought care at the hospital during 2018-2021 were included to examine the status of HIV care delivery and disposition. Result(s): The annual number of HIV screening tests performed had significantly decreased from 2507 to 2794 in 2018 and 2019, respectively, to 2161 and 1737 in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The rate of discontinuation of HIV care among PLWH was 3.7% in 2019, which remained unchanged in 2020 (3.7%) and 2021 (3.8%). The respective percentage of annual plasma HIV RNA testing <2 times increased from 8.4% to 7.8% in 2018 and 2019 to 7.0% and 10.7% in 2020 and 2021, so was that of annual syphilis testing <2 times (10.1% and 8.8%-7.9% and 12.0%). The rates of plasma HIV RNA <200 copies/ml ranged from 97.0% to 98.1% in 2018-2021. Conclusion(s): During the Covid-19 pandemic, access to HIV counseling and testing was significantly limited. While the number of HIV-related testing decreased, the impact of Covid-19 on the continuity of antiretroviral therapy and viral suppression among PLWH appeared to be minimal in Taiwan. Copyright © 2022

A Novel Framework for Predicting the Spread of COVID-19 by Contact Tracing Through Smartphone

In recent times, COVID-19 is the most severe epidemic disease and it needs to be controlled as soon as possible. Promising ideas and mathematical models have been proposed to predict the number of infected people in a particular timeline and project its development tendency. In this paper, to further increase the accuracy of prediction, we propose a new model named AMSD model at an agent scale by combining three models that are widely used in this field: the social network model, the mobility model, and the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR) model. Initially, the mobility model could identify people's mobility patterns on weekdays and weekends, and during the day and at night. Then, by combining this model with the social network model, we could classify people by their social connections in the network, with a more accurate prediction of infected people. The basic SEIR model is enhanced to find the spread/growth of viruses between and within people and has four stages from susceptible to recovered. AMSD model, as the combination of these three models is a more comprehensive approach to better present and predict the propagation of COVID-19, which involves many more important social factors. © 2021 IEEE

Keep Running-AI Paintings of Horse Figure and Portrait

"Keep Running"is a collection of human and machine generated paintings using a generative adversarial network technology. The horse artworks are produced during the lockdown period in the Middle East due to the Covid-19. Many recent AI artworks are either generated in photo-realistic style, or abstract style with distorted faces, fragmented figures and a combination of unknown objects. Besides the cultural and historic symbols that horses represent in this region, what's unique with our work is showing the possibility of using AI to create horse paintings with distinguishable features and forms, while still rendering different aesthetic and even sentimental expressions in the horse paintings. Our first artwork is a series of storytelling-like paintings of an evolving horse figure in motion with changing backgrounds. Another one is a set of different horse portrait paintings that are presented in a grid with each of them evolved and generated stylishly from the same yet repeated machine processes. Our AI artworks are not just artistic and meaningful, but also paying a salute to the early works of machine-assisted art by Eadweard Muybridge and Andy Warhol, for their influences to the art world today. © 2020 Owner/Author.

Expert consensus on emergency medicine procedure optimization guided by routine prevention and control strategy for COVID-19

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a global public health emergency on 31 January 2020. Emergency medicine procedures in Emergency Department should be optimized to cope with the current COVID-19 pandemic by providing subspecialty services, reducing the spread of nosocomial infections, and promoting its capabilities to handle emerging diseases. Thus, the Chinese Society of Emergency Medicine and Wuhan Society of Emergency Medicine drafted this consensus together to address concerns of medical staffs who work in Emergency Department. Based on in-depth review of COVID-19 diagnosis and treatment plans, literatures, as well as management approval, this consensus proposes recommendations for improving the rationalization and efficiency of emergency processes, reducing the risk of nosocomial infections, preventing hospital viral transmission, and ensuring patient safety. © 2021 Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine Produced by Wolters KluwerMedknow. All rights reserved.

Infection prevention and control for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in hospital settings

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is public health emergency of international concern. Since December 2019, COVID-19 spread rapidly to 187 countries, leading to more than 10 million cases within 6 months. Currently, the effective antiviral drugs are limited and SARS-CoV-2 vaccine are under developed. Combating such emerging infectious disease, the best and feasible way is to strengthen and Implement specific infection prevention and control practice to control at the source, control along the path, control at the person, engineering and environmental controls. For healthcare facilities every visitor should be screened and triaged. Healthcare personnel working in facilities must properly use personal protective equipment and adheres to hand hygiene. Also, the hospital environment should undergo appropriate cleaning and surface disinfection. For the public, mask-wearing or social distancing is recommended if community spread is a concern. These Infection prevention and control measures are the cornerstones in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. © 2020 Society of Internal Medicine of Taiwan. All rights reserved.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19)

Coronaviruses are important pathogens common to humans and animals. In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (2019 novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV) was discovered in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, which caused a rapid spread of pneumonia cases in Wuhan and adjacent areas in China. Subsequently, there were more and more cases in other countries of the world. In February 2020, the World Health Organization named 2019 Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). In order to distinguish it from the 2003 severe acute respiratoiy syndrome (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, SARS), this 2019 new coronavirus pathogen is also known as SARS-CoV-2, as well as the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, MERS) are the most important three human coronavirus infections in the 21st century. This article introduces the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of COVID-19.