The lived experiences of tuberculosis survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic and government lockdown in South Africa: a qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health concern in South Africa, where prior to COVID-19 it was associated with more deaths than any other infectious disease. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted gains made in the global response to TB, having a serious impact on the most vulnerable. COVID-19 and TB are both severe respiratory infections, where infection with one places individuals at increased risk for negative health outcomes for the other. Even after completing TB treatment, TB survivors remain economically vulnerable and continue to be negatively affected by TB. METHODS: This cross-sectional qualitative study, which was part of a larger longitudinal study in South Africa, explored how TB survivors' experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions. Participants were identified through purposive sampling and were recruited and interviewed at a large public hospital in Gauteng. Data were analyzed thematically, using a constructivist research paradigm and both inductive and deductive codebook development. RESULTS: Participants (n = 11) were adults (24-74 years of age; more than half male or foreign nationals) who had successfully completed treatment for pulmonary TB in the past two years. Participants were generally found to be physically, socioeconomically, and emotionally vulnerable, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating or causing a recurrence of many of the same stressors they had faced with TB. Coping strategies during COVID similarly mirrored those used during TB diagnosis and treatment, including social support, financial resources, distraction, spirituality, and inner strength. CONCLUSIONS: Implications and suggestions for future directions include fostering and maintaining a strong network of social support for TB survivors.

Coping strategies employed by public psychiatric healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern Gauteng, South Africa.

Within the context of the novel coronavirus pandemic and new challenges to a resource-constrained public healthcare system, many healthcare workers in South Africa have faced numerous stressors that have compromised their mental health. While the current literature on COVID-19 in South Africa highlights the widespread psychosocial stress experienced by healthcare workers during the pandemic, little is known about the coping strategies utilized to continue service delivery and maintain one's mental health and well-being during this ongoing public health emergency. In this study, we sought to explore the coping strategies used by healthcare workers employed in the public psychiatric care system in southern Gauteng, South Africa during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. Psychiatric healthcare workers (n = 55) employed in three tertiary public hospitals and two specialized psychiatric facilities participated in in-depth interviews between July 2020 and March 2021. We found that coping strategies spanned multi-level and multi-systemic efforts. Intrapersonal, interpersonal, material, and structural coping were mapped across individual, family, and hospital systems. The most commonly utilized coping strategies included positive mindsets and reappraisal, social support systems, and COVID-19 specific protections. Findings also highlighted the contextual and interconnected nature of coping. Healthcare workers applied multiple coping strategies to combat the negative mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Better understanding these strategies, contexts in which they are employed, and how they interact can be used to develop evidence-based interventions to support healthcare workers experiencing healthcare-related stressors during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The lived experiences of Tuberculosis survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic and government lockdown in South Africa: a qualitative analysis.

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a major health concern in South Africa, where prior to COVID-19 it was associated with more deaths than any other infectious disease. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted gains made in the global response to TB, having a serious impact on the most vulnerable. COVID-19 and TB are both severe respiratory infections, where infection with the one place individuals at increased risk for negative health outcomes for the other. Even after completing TB treatment, TB survivors remain economically vulnerable and continue to be negatively affected by TB. Methods This cross-sectional qualitative study, which was part of a larger longitudinal study in South Africa, explored how TB survivors' experienced the COVID-19 pandemic and government restrictions. Participants were identified through purposive sampling and were recruited and interviewed at a large public hospital in Gauteng. Data were analyzed thematically, using a constructivist research paradigm and both inductive and deductive codebook development. Results Participants (n = 11) were adults (24-74 years of age; more than half male or foreign nationals) who had successfully completed treatment for pulmonary TB in the past two years. Participants were generally found to be physically, socioeconomically, and emotionally vulnerable, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating or causing a recurrence of many of the same stressors they had faced with TB. Coping strategies during COVID similarly mirrored those used during TB diagnosis and treatment, including social support, financial resources, distraction, spirituality, and inner strength. Conclusions Implications and suggestions for future directions include fostering and maintaining a strong network of social support for TB survivors.

Geographically representative scholarship and internationalization in school and educational psychology: A bibliometric analysis of eight journals from 2002-2016.

Although the discipline of school and educational psychology is arguably international (e.g., relevant research and practice is evident in more than 80 countries), there has been limited research examining the international scholarship published in school and educational psychology journals. Such an assessment is important because it provides one important metric for better understanding the field's level of internationalization. The purpose of this study was to evaluate every article (N = 4456) published from 2002 to 2016 across eight school and educational psychology journals that publish international scholarship. Each article's authorship and participant data were coded and reported in terms of respective country and geographical region. Research questions examined, for example, how the published scholarship aligns with international employment data for school psychologists and whether particular journals published a geographically wider breadth of articles. Overall findings indicated that although the field of school psychology is present in more than 80 countries, the overall scholarship in the reviewed journals predominantly features participants living in, and authors working in, North America or Western Europe. However, one journal (School Psychology International) published relatively more articles with participants from outside of these geographic regions. Also, journals affiliated with a national professional organization largely differed in their percentage of "within-nation" publications (e.g., articles with participants living in the same nation that sponsors the respective journal). Explanations of the data are discussed and several recommendations are made that, if followed, could improve the internationalization and geographical representation of scholarship in school and educational psychology.

Binding of aminoglycoside antibiotics to helix 69 of 23S rRNA.

Aminoglycosides antibiotics negate dissociation and recycling of the bacterial ribosome's subunits by binding to Helix 69 (H69) of 23S rRNA. The differential binding of various aminoglycosides to the chemically synthesized terminal domains of the Escherichia coli and human H69 has been characterized using spectroscopy, calorimetry and NMR. The unmodified E. coli H69 hairpin exhibited a significantly higher affinity for neomycin B and tobramycin than for paromomycin (K(d)s = 0.3 +/- 0.1, 0.2 +/- 0.2 and 5.4 +/- 1.1 microM, respectively). The binding of streptomycin was too weak to assess. In contrast to the E. coli H69, the human 28S rRNA H69 had a considerable decrease in affinity for the antibiotics, an important validation of the bacterial target. The three conserved pseudouridine modifications (Psi1911, Psi1915, Psi1917) occurring in the loop of the E. coli H69 affected the dissociation constant, but not the stoichiometry for the binding of paromomycin (K(d) = 2.6 +/- 0.1 microM). G1906 and G1921, observed by NMR spectrometry, figured predominantly in the aminoglycoside binding to H69. The higher affinity of the E. coli H69 for neomycin B and tobramycin, as compared to paromomycin and streptomycin, indicates differences in the efficacy of the aminoglycosides.