Coronavirus articles list

Pharmacists stand alongside with other professionals in representing essential healthcare during health emergencies such as COVID-19 pandemic. The present study seeks to explore the behavior and attitude of community pharmacists across various pharmacies throughout this pandemic towards the safety of workplace environment for staff and patients. An online questionnaire has been prepared and distributed to 145 community pharmacies during March to May, 2020. The collected results and data showed that community pharmacists in Libya have a good knowledge and adherence to preventive and protective measures published by FIP, WHO and other health-related organizations to protect themselves and society from infection. The pharmacist role in educating and information provision of the current disease and its management is still going on regardless the pandemic. A negative evaluation to the government support during the pandemic is clear from participant's replies. In Conclusion, this study looks forward to disclosing the current activities undertaken across various community pharmacy settings concerning safety of the workplace environment for both staff and patients. A clear and relatively realistic picture of the extent of commitment and knowledge of pharmacists of the necessary aspects needed to deal with this pandemic within community pharmacies is suggested. The extent of community pharmacist's knowledge, readiness and speed of their response to such a pandemic have been identified.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

The most successful and cost effective method for control the COVID-19 pandemic is the vaccination. Currently, there are different COVID-19 vaccine introduced into Libyan market. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine among general population and students in Benghazi city. A cross sectional survey was conducted during March 2021 among 440 respondents (240 general populations and 200 students) using a self-administered questionnaire. The results were considerably similar among the two groups of participants. Only 10.9% said that they infected with COVID-19 during the pandemic period. About two thirds of the respondents agreed to be vaccinated against COVID-19 when available whereas the majority said they would wait some time before taking the vaccine (71.4%). Approximately, one third of the participants preferred the Sputnik vaccine, 24% preferred the Pfizer and BioNTech and 19.2% preferred Oxford (AstraZeneca) vaccine. More than a half (55.9%) of the participants are refused to pay for the vaccine. The majority of the respondents do not think the vaccine alone will be enough in protection against the COVID-19 (79.8%). There was no significant association between general population, students and the COVID-19 vaccine acceptance (p = 0.776). Additionally, there was no significant correlations between socio-demographic data and attitudes of the respondents with the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccine (p > 0.05), except for using hand sanitizers daily was significantly associated among the general population (p = 0.008). In conclusion, although, the general population and students have a good acceptability to the COVID-19 vaccine, more education health programs and promotion are wanted to reduce the vaccine hesitancy by declaring the importance of the vaccine, showing sufficient data stabilize the vaccine safety.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

India is in the midst of a severe second wave of Covid-19. As per the Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy by mid-April of 2021, India had manufactured nearly 17 percent of all Covid-19 vaccine doses globally. It was the world’s fourth-largest producer, after China (about 36 percent), the United States (about 22 percent) and the European Union (more than 17 percent). Even so, following a shortage of vaccines and with insufficient local production, Government of India decided to import more foreign vaccines with quicker approval process for vaccines accepted in US/EU markets. India is currently using made-in-India vaccines, namely, Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute India and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech in its COVID-19 immunisation programme. The shortcoming in the production of vaccines and its dissemination within the country urges one to understand who the local producers are and how the market is playing out. This paper looks at the evolving market structure of vaccine production in India in the textbook framework of an oligopoly market. We use secondary data sources and daily newspaper briefs.

Nandini

COVID-19 pandemic has spread all over the world and has caused psychological impacts. Medical students are known to be vulnerable population, experiencing higher levels of anxiety, depression and other psychological disorders compared to non-medical students. The nature of life changes like what happened and still happening during the pandemic have its impact on mental health of the students. The aim of this study was to identify the psychological impacts of COVID-19 on medical students among different universities to develop profiles to characterize students' anticipated levels of psychological impacts during the pandemic. Also, to search for potential risk factors that could make students more likely to experience these impacts. An online survey was filled by medical students (n = 100) at faculties of medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and medical sciences of different universities: University of Benghazi, Libyan International Medical University, Omar Almokhtar University, Cairo University and Alexandria University. The students were taken to the further analysis. Thus, 55% of the participants had psychological impacts due to the pandemic and 17% had severe effect. Some of these impacts were actually positive as a large number (58%) of the participants felt relaxed during the pandemic. Multiple stressors were identified that contributed to the increased levels of stress, anxiety and depression. These included concern about academic performance (80%), concern about self/dear-one’s health (90%), difficulty with concentration (46%), disruption to sleeping patterns (78%), increased social isolation (26%), disruption to eating patterns (48%), changing in the living environment (26%), financial difficulties (34%) increased class workload (20%) depressive thoughts (37%) and suicidal thoughts (07%). In conclusion, the study indicates that COVID-19 pandemic have positive and negative impacts on medical students. Thus, it is suggested that measures need to alleviate students’ stress, which might have harmful effects in different aspects.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Although severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection caused more than five million deaths throughout the world and more than five thousand deaths in Libya, a little is known about the mortality rate and the risk factors for death from this serious infectious disease in Libya. Thus, it is aimed in this study to identify the potential risk factors for mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infections among 176 Libyan COVID-19 patients in Zawia city. This research is a retrospective cohort study that was conducted on 176 randomly selected volunteers who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 during a period of December 2020 to February 2021 in Zawia city, Libya. Following filling the prepared validated questionnaire by COVID-19 patients, the data was analyzed to determine the previously mentioned risk factors. The mean age (SD) of the total 176 participated COVID-19 patients was 45.06 (± 17.7) and the mortality rate among these total involved cases (mild to severe cases) was 10.8%. It is found that the mortality among the severe COVID-19 cases was 41.3% and the mean age (SD) of COVID-19 deaths was 69.1 years (13.8) and 73.7% of them were 60 years old or older. In addition, it is found that 63.2% of the SARS-CoV-2 deaths were females and 78.9% of them had a positive history of chronic diseases. Moreover, it was found that the most common chronic diseases among COVID-19 deaths are diabetes mellitus and hypertension (73.3% and 53.3%, respectively). Collectively, it is concluded that COVID-19 elderly female patients aging 60 years or older with a positive history of chronic disease are more likely at high risk for death from SARS-CoV-2 infection among the participated COVID cases.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Before the start of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, the whole environment around us had been deemed very toxic to breathe in due to the amount of greenhouse gases that had been emitted over the centuries. The Earth faced rising temperatures, which in turn led to the melting of glaciers and rising of sea levels. Environmental degradation was happening fast due to the depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. But after the coronavirus lockdown (Talabandi) commenced, there have been changes in the environment. The lockdown still has a huge impact on people in India too. The halt of industrial production and traffic resulted in cleaner air and rivers. In India the first phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on March 24 followed by enforcement of a series of regulations had some evidences that the COVID-19 curve is flattening in the country's COVID-19 affected regions. There was a good chance Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown (Talabandi) four times that ended on (Phase 1 (24 March-14 April)., Phase 2 (15 April-3 May)., Phase 3 (4 May-17 May) & Phase 4 (18 May-31 May). The paper focuses on different aspects of environmental impact due to SARS-CoV-2 in India.

Rina Kumari

Before the start of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, the whole environment around us had been deemed very toxic to breathe in due to the amount of greenhouse gases that had been emitted over the centuries. The Earth faced rising temperatures, which in turn led to the melting of glaciers and rising of sea levels. Environmental degradation was happening fast due to the depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. But after the coronavirus lockdown (Talabandi) commenced, there have been changes in the environment. The lockdown still has a huge impact on people in India too. The halt of industrial production and traffic resulted in cleaner air and rivers. In India the first phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on March 24 followed by enforcement of a series of regulations had some evidences that the COVID-19 curve is flattening in the country's COVID-19 affected regions. There was a good chance Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown (Talabandi) four times that ended on (Phase 1 (24 March-14 April)., Phase 2 (15 April-3 May)., Phase 3 (4 May-17 May) & Phase 4 (18 May-31 May). The paper focuses on different aspects of environmental impact due to SARS-CoV-2 in India.

Rina Kumari

Before the start of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, the whole environment around us had been deemed very toxic to breathe in due to the amount of greenhouse gases that had been emitted over the centuries. The Earth faced rising temperatures, which in turn led to the melting of glaciers and rising of sea levels. Environmental degradation was happening fast due to the depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. But after the coronavirus lockdown (Talabandi) commenced, there have been changes in the environment. The lockdown still has a huge impact on people in India too. The halt of industrial production and traffic resulted in cleaner air and rivers. In India the first phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on March 24 followed by enforcement of a series of regulations had some evidences that the COVID-19 curve is flattening in the country's COVID-19 affected regions. There was a good chance Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown (Talabandi) four times that ended on (Phase 1 (24 March-14 April)., Phase 2 (15 April-3 May)., Phase 3 (4 May-17 May) & Phase 4 (18 May-31 May). The paper focuses on different aspects of environmental impact due to SARS-CoV-2 in India.

Rina Kumari

Before the start of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic, the whole environment around us had been deemed very toxic to breathe in due to the amount of greenhouse gases that had been emitted over the centuries. The Earth faced rising temperatures, which in turn led to the melting of glaciers and rising of sea levels. Environmental degradation was happening fast due to the depletion of resources such as air, water and soil. But after the coronavirus lockdown (Talabandi) commenced, there have been changes in the environment. The lockdown still has a huge impact on people in India too. The halt of industrial production and traffic resulted in cleaner air and rivers. In India the first phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on March 24 followed by enforcement of a series of regulations had some evidences that the COVID-19 curve is flattening in the country's COVID-19 affected regions. There was a good chance Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the lockdown (Talabandi) four times that ended on (Phase 1 (24 March-14 April)., Phase 2 (15 April-3 May)., Phase 3 (4 May-17 May) & Phase 4 (18 May-31 May). The paper focuses on different aspects of environmental impact due to SARS-CoV-2 in India.

Rina Kumari

On January 2021, cases affected by coronavirus epidemic are constantly increasing, Libyan Ministry of Health provides the vaccine to the people those who are most at risk. The purpose of this study was to assess and verify the adverse effects of the first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. The study conducted at the Aljmail city, west region of Libya. The study was cross-sectional study during the period of August 31st and November 5th, 2021. The method involved 133 adult Libyan participants of both gender ageing more than 18 years old. The preliminary data were 54.0% who developed post-vaccination symptoms. The participant's aged 60 years and more with chronic diseases were more likely to have adverse effects after receiving the first dose of vaccine. In conclusion, AstraZeneca vaccine was good and effective but this study indicates a need for a large and long period study to confirm the safety of the vaccine use in the adult people.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

A zoonotic disease is an infectious disease caused by pathogens such as bacteria, virus, rickettsia, fungi, parasite or prion that has been transmitted from an animal, especially a vertebrate to human beings. Usually, the first infected human transmits the infectious agent to other humans very rapidly; it is one of the important concerns of zoonoses. The World Health Organization (WHO) currently list the Emerging infectious diseases (EID) of epidemic issues in their research and development blueprint as COVID-19 (Corona viruses), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Ebola and Marburg viruses (Filovirus), Crimean Congo haemorrhagic fever (Nairo virus), Lassa Fever (Lassa virus), Nipah (Henipa virus ), Rift Valley fever (Phlebo virus) and Zika (Flavi virus). Due to the deadly pandemics facing by the globe, it is essential to understand the way of transmission of emerging viruses, its mode of infection and important measures to eliminate or control them from the world is essential. However, mankind overcomes so many deadly viruses with the help of scientific knowledge, through vaccination, new therapies, drugs etc. Nowadays, viral zoonoses like rabies (Lyssa virus) are 100% preventable through vaccination and medication even though, humans face lots of new threats especially emerging zoonosis diseases like Covid19. This review summarized the major zoonotic viruses affecting human beings, their source, pathogenicity and its important ways to overcome the transmission of microbes from animal to humankind.

Dr. SARANYA DEVI K

Reverse transcription–quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is used worldwide to test and trace the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARSCoV-2). “Extraction-less” or “direct” real time–reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is a transparent and accessible qualitative method for SARS-CoV-2 detection from nasopharyngeal or oral pharyngeal samples with the potential to generate actionable data more quickly, at a lower cost, and with fewer experimental resources than full RT-qPCR. This study engaged 10 global testing sites, including laboratories currently experiencing testing limitations due to reagent or equipment shortages, in an international interlaboratory ring trial. Participating laboratories were provided a common protocol, common reagents, aliquots of identical pooled clinical samples, and purified nucleic acids and used their existing in-house equipment. We observed 100% concordance across laboratories in the correct identification of all positive and negative samples, with highly similar cycle threshold values. The test also performed well when applied to locally collected patient nasopharyngeal samples, provided the viral transport media did not contain charcoal or guanidine, both of which appeared to potently inhibit the RT-PCR reaction. Our results suggest that direct RT-PCR assay methods can be clearly translated across sites utilizing readily available equipment and expertise and are thus a feasible option for more efficient COVID-19 coronavirus disease testing as demanded by the continuing pandemic.

Bitrus Inuwa

Infectious bronchitis (IB) is one of the most common highly infectious viral respiratory diseases of poultry having wide geographical distribution. Yet, little is known about the infection in the northwestern states of Nigeria. In this study, a total of 263 pooled cloacal and tracheal swab samples were collected from apparently healthy avian species (duck, dove, geese, guinea fowl, local chicken, ostrich, parrot, pigeon, peacock, and turkey). The samples were from nine live bird markets in three states (Kaduna, Kano and Jigawa) of northwestern, Nigeria collected from September through November 2017. Total RNAs were extracted directly from the swab samples and screened for infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) using real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. An overall prevalence of 38.0% (100/263) was recorded. IB was detected in 70 % (7/10) of the avian species with prevalence of 100 % in dove, local chicken 45.9 %, duck 42.3 %, geese 26.6 %, pigeon 23.5 %, turkey 20.0 % and guinea fowl 6.2 %. Conversely, no detection was made from ostrich, parrot, and peacock. Widespread distribution of IBV was observed and evidence of subclinical infection in seven out of ten (70 %) of the avian species sampled. These avian species harbouring IBV may act as reservoirs with an influence on the ecology and epidemiology of the disease. Continuous surveillance and characterization of the different serotypes in avian species are recommended to inform the adoption of suitable vaccination strategy and control measures for the disease in Nigeria.

Bitrus Inuwa