RESUMEN
PURPOSE: Identifying the factors influencing the preventive practices of the healthcare workers (HCWs) is crucial during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) because the HCWs are exposed to unparalleled levels of risks. Such concern is starting to be explored worldwide although there is only a single study available in Bangladesh with a limited scope of explorations of the domain. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the factors determining better preventive practices of HCWs toward COVID-19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional one-to-one survey was carried out using a validated questionnaire from December 15, 2020 to March 15, 2021 among a sample of 640 HCWs from Khulna, a southwestern division of Bangladesh, consisting of ten districts. The measures included socio-demographics, knowledge, attitude, and preventive practices related information. A binary logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify factors determining preventive practices of HCWs toward COVID-19. RESULTS: More than half of the respondents (62%) were following better preventive practices. Besides, around 70% of them had better knowledge and attitudes toward the disease. Regression analysis showed a number of major determining factors of the HCWs' better preventive practices including being a nurse or other professionals (ie, radiologists and pathologists), being graduates, working in coronavirus isolation units, managing COVID-19 patients, having previous training, and having better attitudes toward COVID-19. CONCLUSION: The findings confirmed that the HCWs were generally practicing preventive manners although these trends followed were not at the standard level. So, providing guidance and information from authentic sources and organizing proper training could possibly enhance the preventive behavior in managing COVID-19 patients.
RESUMEN
Tracing the globally circulating severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) phylogenetic clades by high-throughput sequencing is costly, time-consuming, and labor-intensive. We here propose a rapid, simple, and cost-effective amplification refractory mutation system (ARMS)-based multiplex reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay to identify six distinct phylogenetic clades: S, L, V, G, GH, and GR. Our multiplex PCR is designed in a mutually exclusive way to identify V-S and G-GH-GR clade variants separately. The pentaplex assay included all five variants and the quadruplex comprised of the triplex variants alongside either V or S clade mutations that created two separate subsets. The procedure was optimized with 0.2-0.6 µM primer concentration, 56-60°C annealing temperature, and 3-5 ng/µl complementary DNA to validate on 24 COVID-19-positive samples. Targeted Sanger sequencing further confirmed the presence of the clade-featured mutations with another set of primers. This multiplex ARMS-PCR assay is a fast, low-cost alternative and convenient to discriminate the circulating phylogenetic clades of SARS-CoV-2.
