Scientific reports
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In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, with limited or no supplies of vaccines and treatments, people and policymakers seek easy to implement and cost-effective alternatives to combat the spread of infection during the pandemic. The practice of wearing a mask, which requires change in people's usual behavior, may reduce disease transmission by preventing the virus spread from infectious to susceptible individuals. Wearing a mask may result in a public good game structure, where an individual does not want to wear a mask but desires that others wear it. ⋯ At each time-step, a suspected susceptible individual decides whether to wear a facemask, or not, due to a social learning process that accounts for the risk of infection and mask cost. Numerical results reveal a diverse and rich social dilemma structure that is hidden behind this mask-wearing dilemma. Our results highlight the sociological dimension of mask-wearing policy.
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Older adults are the main victims of the novel COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak and elderly in Long Term Care Facilities (LTCFs) are severely hit in terms of mortality. This paper presents a quantitative study of the impact of COVID-19 outbreak in Italy during first stages of the epidemic, focusing on the effects on mortality increase among older adults over 80 and its correlation with LTCFs. The study of growth patterns shows a power-law scaling regime for the first stage of the pandemic with an uneven behaviour among different regions as well as for the overall mortality increase according to the different impact of COVID-19. ⋯ In addition a correlation between LTCFs and undiagnosed cases as well as effects of health system dysfunction is also observed. Our results confirm that LTCFs did not play a protective role on older adults during the pandemic, but the higher the number of elderly people living in LTCFs the greater the increase of both general and COVID-19 related mortality. We also observed that the handling of the crises in LTCFs hampered an efficient tracing of COVID-19 spread and promoted the increase of deaths not directly attributed to SARS-CoV-2.
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To investigate whether the effects of sodium bicarbonate (SB) during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) would be influenced by blood pH and administration timing. Adult patients experiencing in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) from 2006 to 2015 were retrospectively screened. Early intra-arrest blood gas data were obtained within 10 min of CPR. ⋯ In the interaction analysis for favourable neurological outcome, significant interactions were noted between SB use and time to SB (SB use × time to SB ≥ 20 min; OR 6.16; 95% CI 1.42-26.75; p value = 0.02). In the interaction analysis for survival to hospital discharge, significant interactions were noted between SB use and blood pH (Non-SB use × blood pH > 7.18; OR 1.56; 95% CI 1.01-2.41; p value = 0.05). SB should not be empirically administered for patients with IHCA since its effects may be influenced by blood pH and administration timing.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is currently the world's largest public health concern. This study evaluated COVID-19 transmission risks in people in group living environments. A total of 4550 individuals with a history of recent contact with patients at different places (dormitory/home/outside the residences) and levels (close/lower-risk) were tested for SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA using a nasopharyngeal swab test between July 2020 and May 2021. ⋯ Household transmission rates synchronized to local epidemics with changed local capacity of quarantining infectious patients. In conclusion, a group living environment is a significant risk factor of secondary transmission. Appropriate infection control measures and quarantine of infectious residents will decrease the risk of secondary transmission in group living environments.
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Hereditary transthyretin-mediated (hATTR) amyloidosis is an underdiagnosed, progressively debilitating disease caused by mutations in the transthyretin (TTR) gene. V122I, a common pathogenic TTR mutation, is found in 3-4% of individuals of African ancestry in the United States and has been associated with cardiomyopathy and heart failure. To better understand the phenotypic consequences of carrying V122I, we conducted a phenome-wide association study scanning 427 ICD diagnosis codes in UK Biobank participants of African ancestry (n = 6062). ⋯ Our findings show that V122I carriers are at increased risk of polyneuropathy. These results also emphasize the underdiagnosis of disease in V122I carriers with a significant proportion of subjects showing phenotypic changes consistent with hATTR amyloidosis. Greater understanding of the manifestations associated with V122I is critical for earlier diagnosis and treatment.