Showing papers on "Outbreak published in 2021"

Study on the public psychological states and its related factors during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in some regions of China

Abstract: Background: As COVID-19 occurs suddenly and is highly contagious, this will inevitably cause people anxiety, depression, etc. The study on the public psychological states and its related factors du...

Obesity and diabetes as high-risk factors for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

Abstract: The outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has become an evolving worldwide health crisis With the rising prevalence of obesity and diabetes has come an increasing awareness of their impacts on infectious diseases, including increased risk for various infections, post-infection complications and mortality from critical infections Although epidemiological and clinical characteristics of Covid-19 have been constantly reported, no article has systematically illustrated the role of obesity and diabetes in Covid-19, or how Covid-19 affects obesity and diabetes, or special treatment in these at-risk populations Here, we present a synthesis of the recent advances in our understanding of the relationships between obesity, diabetes and Covid-19 along with the underlying mechanisms, and provide special treatment guidance for these at-risk populations

Indoor transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Abstract: It is essential to understand where and how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is transmitted. Case reports were extracted from the local Municipal Health Commissions of 320 prefectural municipalities in China (not including Hubei Province). We identified all outbreaks involving three or more cases and reviewed the major characteristics of the enclosed spaces in which the outbreaks were reported and their associated indoor environmental aspects. Three hundred and eighteen outbreaks with three or more cases were identified, comprising a total of 1245 confirmed cases in 120 prefectural cities. Among the identified outbreaks, 53.8% involved three cases, 26.4% involved four cases, and only 1.6% involved ten or more cases. Home-based outbreaks were the dominant category (254 of 318 outbreaks; 79.9%), followed by transport-based outbreaks (108; 34.0%), and many outbreaks occurred in more than one category of venue. All identified outbreaks of three or more cases occurred in indoor environments, which confirm that sharing indoor spaces with one or more infected persons is a major SARS-CoV-2 infection risk.

The Effects of Social Media Use on Preventive Behaviors during Infectious Disease Outbreaks: The Mediating Role of Self-relevant Emotions and Public Risk Perception.

Abstract: While there has been increasing attention to the role of social media during infectious disease outbreaks, relatively little is known about the underlying mechanisms by which social media use affects risk perception and preventive behaviors during such outbreaks. Using data collected during the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) outbreak in South Korea, this study explores the relationships among social media use, risk perception, and preventive behaviors by examining the mediating role of two self-relevant emotions: fear and anger. The findings demonstrate that social media use is positively related to both of these emotions, which are also positively related to the public's risk perception. The findings also indicate that social media use can significantly increase preventive behaviors via the two self-relevant emotions and the public's risk perception.

Infectious disease in an era of global change.

Abstract: The twenty-first century has witnessed a wave of severe infectious disease outbreaks, not least the COVID-19 pandemic, which has had a devastating impact on lives and livelihoods around the globe. The 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak, the 2013-2016 Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa and the 2015 Zika virus disease epidemic all resulted in substantial morbidity and mortality while spreading across borders to infect people in multiple countries. At the same time, the past few decades have ushered in an unprecedented era of technological, demographic and climatic change: airline flights have doubled since 2000, since 2007 more people live in urban areas than rural areas, population numbers continue to climb and climate change presents an escalating threat to society. In this Review, we consider the extent to which these recent global changes have increased the risk of infectious disease outbreaks, even as improved sanitation and access to health care have resulted in considerable progress worldwide.

Mental health burden for the public affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in China: Who will be the high-risk group?

Abstract: In December, 2019, an outbreak of respiratory illness caused by Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) emerged in Wuhan, China and spread rapidly to other parts of China and around the world. We aimed to identify high-risk groups whose mental health conditions were vulnerable to the COVID-19 outbreak. Data were collected from 7,236 self-selected participants measured by anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and sleep quality. The overall prevalence of anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and poor sleep quality were 35.1%, 20.1%, and 18.2%, respectively. People aged < 35 years reported a higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms than people aged ≥ 35 years. Healthcare workers have the highest rate of poor sleep compared to other occupations. Healthcare workers/younger people who spent a high level of time (≥ 3 hours/day) had a particular higher prevalence of anxiety symptoms than in those who spent less time (< 1 hours/day and 1-2 hours/day) on the outbreak. During the COVID-19 outbreak, healthcare workers and younger people were at an especially high-risk of displaying psychological impact when they spent too much time thinking about the outbreak. Continuous monitoring of the psychological consequences for high-risk population should become routine as part of targeted interventions during times of crisis.I.

COVID-19: A Review on the Novel Coronavirus Disease Evolution, Transmission, Detection, Control and Prevention.

Abstract: Three major outbreaks of the coronavirus, a zoonotic virus known to cause respiratory disease, have been reported since 2002, including SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and the most recent 2019-nCoV, or more recently known as SARS-CoV-2. Bats are known to be the primary animal reservoir for coronaviruses. However, in the past few decades, the virus has been able to mutate and adapt to infect humans, resulting in an animal-to-human species barrier jump. The emergence of a novel coronavirus poses a serious global public health threat and possibly carries the potential of causing a major pandemic outbreak in the naive human population. The recent outbreak of COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China has infected over 36.5 million individuals and claimed over one million lives worldwide, as of 8 October 2020. The novel virus is rapidly spreading across China and has been transmitted to 213 other countries/territories across the globe. Researchers have reported that the virus is constantly evolving and spreading through asymptomatic carriers, further suggesting a high global health threat. To this end, current up-to-date information on the coronavirus evolution and SARS-CoV-2 modes of transmission, detection techniques and current control and prevention strategies are summarized in this review.

Viral infection and Transmission in a large well-traced outbreak caused by the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant

Abstract: Summary We report the first local transmission of the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant in mainland China. All 167 infections could be traced back to the first index case. The investigation on daily sequential PCR testing of the quarantined subjects indicated the viral load of the first positive test of Delta infections was ∼1000 times higher than that of the 19A/19B strains infections back in the initial epidemic wave of 2020, suggesting the potential faster viral replication rate and more infectiousness of the Delta variant at the early stage of the infection. The 126 high-quality sequencing data and reliable epidemiological data indicated some minor intra-host single nucleotide variants (iSNVs) could be transmitted between hosts and finally fixed in the virus population during the outbreak. The minor iSNVs transmission between donor-recipient contribute at least 4 of 31 substitutions identified in the outbreak suggesting some iSNVs could quickly arise and reach fixation when the virus spread rapidly. Disease control measures, including the frequency of population testing, quarantine in pre-symptomatic phase and enhancing the genetic surveillance should be adjusted to account for the increasing prevalence of the Delta variant at global level.

Nosocomial transmission and outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019: the need to protect both patients and healthcare workers.

Abstract: To compile current published reports on nosocomial outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), evaluate the role of healthcare workers (HCWs) in transmission, and evaluate outbreak management practices. Narrative literature review. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has placed a large burden on hospitals and healthcare providers worldwide, which increases the risk of nosocomial transmission and outbreaks to “non-COVID” patients or residents, who represent the highest-risk population in terms of mortality, as well as HCWs. To date, there are several reports on nosocomial outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2, and although the attack rate is variable, it can be as high as 60%, with high mortality. There is currently little evidence on transmission dynamics, particularly using genomic sequencing, and the role of HCWs in initiating or amplifying nosocomial outbreaks is not elucidated. There has been a paradigm shift in management practices of viral respiratory outbreaks, that includes widespread testing of patients (or residents) and HCWs, including asymptomatic individuals. These expanded testing criteria appear to be crucial in identifying and controlling outbreaks.

Effects of Covid-19 outbreak on environment and renewable energy sector.

Abstract: Many articles have been written in the medical field related to the Covid-19 outbreak that has surrounded the World and killed many people However, its environmental and energy impacts have not been sufficiently studied Some sources argue that Covid-19 outbreak reduces pollution environmentally, while others say that environmentally significant damages await us On the other hand, it is wondered how the global flexible renewable energy sector will react to Covid-19 outbreak In this study, the effects of Covid-19 outbreak in terms of the environment and renewable energy sector in the literature were examined in detail and the findings obtained were discussed The main aim of this study is to shed light on the future studies of environmental and renewable energy researchers

A new comparative study on the general fractional model of COVID-19 with isolation and quarantine effects

Abstract: A generalized version of fractional models is introduced for the COVID-19 pandemic, including the effects of isolation and quarantine. First, the general structure of fractional derivatives and integrals is discussed; then the generalized fractional model is defined from which the stability results are derived. Meanwhile, a set of real clinical observations from China is considered to determine the parameters and compute the basic reproduction number, i.e., R 0 ≈ 6.6361 . Additionally, an efficient numerical technique is applied to simulate the new model and provide the associated numerical results. Based on these simulations, some figures and tables are presented, and the data of reported cases from China are compared with the numerical findings in both classical and fractional frameworks. Our comparative study indicates that a particular case of general fractional formula provides a better fit to the real data compared to the other classical and fractional models. There are also some other key parameters to be examined that show the health of society when they come to eliminate the disease.

Etiological Agents Implicated in Foodborne Illness World Wide.

Abstract: This mini review focuses on foodborne illnesses and outbreaks caused by food-producing animals because statistical information of the foodborne illnesses is important in human health and food industry. Contaminated food results in 600 million cases of foodborne diseases and 420,000 deaths worldwide every year. The world population is currently 7.8 billion, and 56 million people die every year; of these, every year, 7.69% of people experience foodborne diseases, and 7.5% of annual deaths (56 million deaths) was died by foodborne illness in the world. A majority of such patients are affected by norovirus and Campylobacter. Listeria monocytogenes is the most fatal. In the United States, except for those caused by Campylobacter, the number of foodborne diseases did not decrease between 1997 and 2017, and cases caused by Toxoplasma gondii are still being reported (9 cases in 2017). The percentage of foodborne illnesses caused by food-producing animals was 10.4%-14.1% between 1999 and 2017 in the United States. In Europe, foodborne illnesses affect 23 million people every year and cause approximately 5,000 deaths. Europe has more Campylobacter- and Salmonella-related cases than in other countries. In Australia, the highest number of cases are due to Campylobacter, followed by Salmonella. In Korea, Escherichia coli followed by norovirus. Campylobacter- and Clostridium perfringens-related cases have been reported in Japan as well. This review suggests that Campylobacter, Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, and E. coli, which are usually isolated from animal-source food products are associated with a high risk of foodborne illnesses.

First reported nosocomial outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a pediatric dialysis unit.

Abstract: Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a life-threatening respiratory condition caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and was initially detected in China in December 2019. Currently, in Germany >140 000 cases of COVID-19 are confirmed. Here we report a nosocomial outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the pediatric dialysis unit of the University Hospital Munster (UHM). Methods Single-step real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) from nasopharyngeal swabs was used to diagnose the index patient and identify infected contacts. Epidemiological links were analyzed by patient interviews and medical record reviews. In addition, each contact was assessed for exposure to the index case and monitored for clinical symptoms. Cycle threshold (Ct) values of all positive test results were compared between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. Results Forty-eight cases were involved in this nosocomial outbreak. Nine contact cases developed laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 infections. Two SARS-CoV-2-positive cases remained clinically asymptomatic. Eleven cases reported flulike symptoms without positive results. Ct values were significantly lower in cases presenting typical COVID-19 symptoms, suggesting high viral shedding (P = .007). Conclusions Person-to-person transmission was at the heart of a hospital outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 between healthcare workers (HCWs) and patients in the pediatric dialysis unit at UHM. Semiquantitative rRT-PCR results suggest that individuals with high viral load pose a risk to spread SARS-CoV-2 in the hospital setting. Our epidemiological observation highlights the need to develop strategies to trace and monitor SARS-CoV-2-infected HCWs to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in the hospital setting.

Preliminary report of an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in mink and mink farmers associated with community spread, Denmark, June to November 2020.

Abstract: In June-November 2020, SARS-CoV-2-infected mink were detected in 290 of 1,147 Danish mink farms. In North Denmark Region, 30% (324/1,092) of people found connected to mink farms tested SARS-CoV-2-PCR-positive and approximately 27% (95% confidence interval (CI): 25-30) of SARS-CoV-2-strains from humans in the community were mink-associated. Measures proved insufficient to mitigate spread. On 4 November, the government ordered culling of all Danish mink. Farmed mink constitute a potential virus reservoir challenging pandemic control.

Psychological distress in patients with serious mental illness during the COVID-19 outbreak and one-month mass quarantine in Italy.

Abstract: © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Psychological distress in patients with serious mental illness during the COVID-19 outbreak and one-month mass quarantine in Italy

Guillain-Barre syndrome in 220 patients with COVID-19

Abstract: This review summarises and discusses recent findings concerning the pathophysiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, treatment, and outcome of SARS-CoV-2-associated Guillain-Barre syndrome (SC2-GBS). By the end of December 2020, at least 220 patients with SC2-GBS have been published in 95 papers. SC2-GBS is most likely secondary due to an immune reaction against SARS-CoV-2 since the virus has not been found in the CSF of any SC2-GBS patient so far reported. SC2-GBS occurs in each age group and does not differ from non-SC2-GBS regarding clinical presentation and treatment, but the outcome of SC2-GBS is worse compared to non-CS2-GBS patients, and the prevalence/incidence of GBS most likely increased since the outbreak of the pandemic. Early diagnosis of SC2-GBS is warranted to apply appropriate treatment in due time and to improve the overall outcome from the infection.

Off-season RSV epidemics in Australia after easing of COVID-19 restrictions

Abstract: Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is an important cause of acute respiratory infection (ARI) with the most severe disease in the young and elderly1,2. Non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and travel restrictions for controlling COVID-19 have impacted the circulation of most respiratory viruses including RSV globally, particularly in Australia, where during 2020 the normal winter epidemics were notably absent3-6. However, in late 2020, unprecedented widespread RSV outbreaks occurred, beginning in spring, and extending into summer across two widely separated states of Australia, Western Australia (WA) and New South Wales (NSW) including the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Genome sequencing revealed a significant reduction in RSV genetic diversity following COVID-19 emergence except for two genetically distinct RSV-A clades. These clades circulated cryptically, likely localized for several months prior to an epidemic surge in cases upon relaxation of COVID-19 control measures. The NSW/ACT clade subsequently spread to the neighbouring state of Victoria (VIC) and caused extensive outbreaks and hospitalisations in early 2021. These findings highlight the need for continued surveillance and sequencing of RSV and other respiratory viruses during and after the COVID-19 pandemic as mitigation measures introduced may result in unusual seasonality, along with larger or more severe outbreaks in the future.

Frequency of Routine Testing for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in High-risk Healthcare Environments to Reduce Outbreaks

Abstract: Routine asymptomatic testing strategies for COVID-19 have been proposed to prevent outbreaks in high-risk healthcare environments. We used simulation modeling to evaluate the optimal frequency of viral testing. We found that routine testing substantially reduces risk of outbreaks, but may need to be as frequent as twice weekly.

Shedding of Infectious SARS-CoV-2 Despite Vaccination

Abstract: The SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant might cause high viral loads, is highly transmissible, and contains mutations that confer partial immune escape 1,2. Outbreak investigations suggest that vaccinated persons can spread Delta 3,4. We compared RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) data from 699 swab specimens collected in Wisconsin 29 June through 31 July 2021 and tested with a qualitative assay by a single contract laboratory. Specimens came from residents of 36 counties, most in southern and southeastern Wisconsin, and 81% of cases were not associated with an outbreak. During this time, estimated prevalence of Delta variants in Wisconsin increased from 69% to over 95%. Vaccination status was determined via self-reporting and state immunization records.

Resurgence of Ebola virus in 2021 in Guinea suggests a new paradigm for outbreaks.

Abstract: Seven years after the declaration of the first epidemic of Ebola virus disease in Guinea, the country faced a new outbreak—between 14 February and 19 June 2021—near the epicentre of the previous epidemic1,2. Here we use next-generation sequencing to generate complete or near-complete genomes of Zaire ebolavirus from samples obtained from 12 different patients. These genomes form a well-supported phylogenetic cluster with genomes from the previous outbreak, which indicates that the new outbreak was not the result of a new spillover event from an animal reservoir. The 2021 lineage shows considerably lower divergence than would be expected during sustained human-to-human transmission, which suggests a persistent infection with reduced replication or a period of latency. The resurgence of Zaire ebolavirus from humans five years after the end of the previous outbreak of Ebola virus disease reinforces the need for long-term medical and social care for patients who survive the disease, to reduce the risk of re-emergence and to prevent further stigmatization. The viral lineage responsible for the February 2021 outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea is nested within a clade that predominantly consists of genomes sampled during the 2013–2016 epidemic, suggesting that the virus might have re-emerged after a long period of latency within a previously infected individual.