Modern Pandemic Research Articles

Frequency of chronic kidney disease among the population of Dalgopol municipality, Varna district – results from screening – campaing of the Clinic of Nephrology

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is part of the modern pandemic of chronic, non-communicable diseases, which is one of the leading causes and causes of death among the world's population. CKD affects nearly 850 million people worldwide and is the 6th leading cause of death. In Bulgaria, the incidence is 12.8%, and 90% of the patients have advanced kidney disease. According to the summarized data of the National Statistical Institute (NSI) and the National Center for Public Health and Analysis at the Ministry of Health for 2018, urogenital diseases accounted for 1.4% of mortality in the country, and this percentage increased in 2019 by 1.7%. The reasons for this probably lie in the increasing frequency of risk factors among the population. In order to early detect the risk factors for CKD and the timely diagnosis of patients with hidden kidney disease and their further follow-up, in July 2020, the Clinic of Nephrology at the St. Marina University Hospital in Varna, supported by a project of the Medical University of Varna, conducted a free screening campaign for 147 people among the population of Dalgopol municipality. In addition, the campaign aimed to raise public awareness of CKD and renal replacement therapy methods (hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and kidney transplantation). During the campaign, 58 participants (39%) were newly diagnosed with kidney disease. This indicates the lack of routine physical, imaging and laboratory tests and failure to diagnose kidney disease in its early stages. The financial burden that undiagnosed kidney problems, and subsequently end-stage renal disease, entail, puts even highly developed economies to a severe test. Screening and prevention can prevent chronic kidney disease, and where management strategies are in place, the incidence of end-stage renal disease is reduced.

Per una Digital History delle pandemie. Prospettive d’interconnessione e multidisciplinarità

In an increasingly interconnected reality, the areas of research look - necessarily - at a remodelling of the IT architectures of archival portals, with the aim of an interdisciplinary vision capable of connecting the Present with the Past, in order to identify historical narratives and patterns able to enrich the epidemiological pictures, explain the modern pandemics, to be able to modify and record policies suitable to contain and face those of contemporaneity. A reformulation that is based on the application, in historical research, of tools that can reformulate the concept of digitized source, in order to derive, from it, all the information that scholars refer to. Today, information technologies, such as Data mining and the application of HTR (Handwriting Text Recognition) systems - such as the Transkribus platform - would allow us to increase and implement the information available, pushing historians towards research areas and sectors that are still unexplored.

FEATURES OF THE CLINICAL COURSE OF PREGNANCY, CHILDBIRTH IN WOMEN WITH COVID-19 AT DIFFERENT PERIODS OF GESTATION

The study of the features of the clinical course of pregnancy, childbirth in women who have had COVID-19 at different periods of gestation is relevant, especially in the context of a modern pandemic. Purpose of work. To determine the features of the clinical course of pregnancy, childbirth in women with COVID-19 at different periods of gestation. Materials and methods. 57 women who were ill with Covid-19 at different stages of pregnancy were examined. Results and discussion. The peculiarities of the clinical course of pregnancy, childbirth in women who have undergone Covid-19 diseases in the 1st trimesterinclude the syndrome of threatened abortion (73.6 %), placental dysfunction (100%), fetal growth retardation syndrome (42.9 %); in the second trimester - syndrome of threatened premature birth (55.6 %), placental dysfunction (100 %), amniotic fluid pathology (63.2 %); in the third trimester - anemia - in 100 %, antenatal fetal distress - in 42.1 %, pareclampsia - in 47.4 %, pathological blood loss - in 26.3 %. Conclusions. The course of pregnancy and childbirth in women who have undergone COVID-19 diseases in different trimesters of gestation have certain clinical features. Gestational complications in women who were ill in the early stages of the first trimester include the syndrome of threatened abortion, spontaneous abortion, missed abortion, premature birth in the second trimester, fetal growth retardation syndrome in the second and third trimesters. The gestational complications in women who were ill in the second trimester include the syndrome of threatened abortion, premature birth, pathology of amniotic fluid (amniotic fluid of «black» color), the phenomenon of angiitis in the abdominal cavity, placental dysfunction, fetal growth retardation syndrome, distress fetus, antenatal fetal death. The gestational complications in women who were ill in the third trimester include the syndrome of threatened premature birth, placental dysfunction, and fetal distress.

Efficacy of phytochemicals as immunomodulators in managing COVID-19: a comprehensive view.

Throughout history, disease outbreaks have worked havoc upon humanity, sometimes reorienting the history and at times, signaling the end of entire civilizations and the modern pandemic that the world is dealing with, is COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2. A healthy immunity could be an ideal gear for resisting COVID-19 for neither medicines nor vaccines have been ascertained till date. In view of the present scenario, there is a demanding necessity to analyze innovative and valid techniques for forestalling and cure of COVID-19 by re-evaluating the structure of the natural compounds for drug designing. The Ayurveda has come forward by prescribing a lot of medicinal herbs for combating this dreaded disease. We have searched from sources in Pubmed and Google Scholar and found 1509 items. The search criteria were limited to the effect of phytochemicals in certain immunomodulatory aspects of viral infection. The original research papers related to the works on phytochemicals in the down regulation of NF-kB, activation of NK and CD8+ cells, inhibition of inflammatory cytokine release and ROS scavenging were included in our study. Here, we try to focus on the immunoregulatory cells which have a vital aspect in COVID-19 and highlight the potential effects of the restorative use of phytochemicals as drugs or dietary supplements.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13337-021-00706-2.

Человек в условиях мировых пандемий: историко-психологический обзор

The article attempts to analyze the historical and psychological aspects of the world pandemics of the past and present. The authors provide a detailed overview of the world's pandemics and their impact on society and the individual. Historical and psychological reviews allow us to draw a parallel between the large-scale pandemics of the past and the present, which is especially relevant in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic that has engulfed humanity. A logical and reasonable periodization of global pandemics is suggested, and the authors give a detailed description of each stage. The first stage includes the pandemics of traditional and early industrial society that raged in the ancient world, the middle ages, and early modern times. The authors highlight such features as a high mortality rate, localization in certain regions and continents, the connection of the spread of diseases with the processes of population migration, crusades, and great geographical discoveries. The second stage includes the pandemics of the industrial era, which occur in the context of globalization, urbanization and increasing crowding of the population, but become less destructive. The authors associate the third stage with modern pandemics generated by the transition to a post-industrial (information) society. The authors note the reduction in mortality from pandemics, and at the same time mutations of viruses, which forces scientists around the world to constantly search for and develop new vaccines. Historical, cultural and psychological analysis of past pandemics allows us to understand better the psychological features of human life in the context of a new coronavirus infection. The authors reveal the role of technological progress in the fight against global pandemics, the role of virus mutations in the development of medical knowledge.

Impact and Inescapable Effects of Coronavirus: History to Modern Pandemic Episode

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is an acute respiratory tract infection causing a pandemic that emerged in 2019 initially in China involving 13.8% cases with severe, and 6.1% with critical course and later throughout the globe. Vaccines or antiviral medications are yet to be used to prevent or treat infections of Human Coronavirus (HCoV). The much-discovered HCoV found in 2003, SARSCOVID- 19, which caused respiratory syndrome, has special pathogenesis as it causes respiratory tract infection. The coronavirus spike protein's association with its host cell receptor complement is crucial in deciding the virus infectivity, tissue tropism and species variety. SARS, COVID-19, infects human cells by binding to angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor and uses the TMPRSS2 cell protease to activate it. Lungs are most affected by COVID-19 as host cells are accessed by the virus through ACE2, which is most abundant in alveolar cells of the lungs. Special attention and efforts should be given in reducing transmission in vulnerable populations, including infants, health care providers and the elderly. COVID 19, is the main causative agent of potentially lethal disease and is of significant concern for global public health and in pandemics which was highlighted in this review.

The 2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19) Global Pandemic, a Call to Arms to Pharmacognosy Researchers – Plant-Based Antiviral Approaches

Background: The unprecedented modern pandemic that is COVID-19 has awakened a global fear of viral disease and an activation of viral targeted drug discovery not seen before in modern times. Whilst the vaccines about to enter the market, are an important component of the strategy to combat COVID-19, vaccination should be considered a part of a wider strategy to address this and future zoonotic viral outbreaks. Plant-based approaches may provide valuable avenues for viral disease management. Methods: This commentary combines an appraisal of the existing literature with the authors thoughts on key challenges that pharmacognosy may be able to assist with, in the management of zoonotic viral disease. Results: There are many avenues for plant-based antiviral research in the context of the present COVID-19 pandemic. This narrative review discusses the use of plant-based approaches; as viral drug leads, as agents for managing the cytokine storm associated with acute respiratory distress syndrome, as agents for elimination of viral reservoirs and as agents in hand sanitisation. Conclusion: Whilst the arrival of vaccines is an important step in the response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. Pharmacognosy still has a role to play in the management of this and future viral pandemics. The support of researchers in this domain is needed to combat viral pandemics via arming clinicians with a broader range of options for prevention and treatment of viral illness on a global scale.

The crisis of modernity and the pandemic as the forerunner of a new project of civilization

The modern pandemic is interpreted by the author as a symptom of the crisis of civilization and nature's response to the peculiarities of its development. The pandemic can be put on a par with major man-made disasters. But it is unlikely that the world will begin to change after the pandemic; humanity has not yet realized the reasons for what is happening. There are two assessments of the current situation — optimistic and pessimistic. The latter deals with the civilization crisis and the completion of the modern project. The basic ideas of this project are considered: mastering nature, building natural science and engineering, forming the state, law and society. In general, the modern project was implemented, as a result, a modern life and sociality with all known problems have developed. To understand the peculiarities of the implementation of a modern project, the author analyzes the cardinal changes that have occurred with the concepts of nature, technology, personality, economy, state and society, discusses trends in social development (the invasion of new technologies, the crisis of fundamental ideas of modernity, the formation of network communities and metacultures, the convergence of capitalism systems and socialism, the formation of a new morality and vision of reality), indicates the characteristics of a new semantic project of civilization.

Embedded Contact Tracing using Mobile Devices, Cloud, and iBeacons

Covid-19 is a modern pandemic that has ripped through the fabric of our daily lives. We are required to limit our exposure to other people to help safeguard each other’s health. Contact-tracing/early detection serves as an effective solution for the management of Covid-19 and other similar pandemic diseases. The current popular IoT contact tracing implementations rely on a mobile-centric approach where cellular phones broadcast as beacons and nearby embedded devices log beacon interaction data locally. The proposed approach is a hybrid method that utilizes decentralized iBeacons to track individuals and a centralized cloud infrastructure to communicate/store user exposure data with BLE and Cloud access. The solution addresses potential privacy concerns and offers a simple low-cost contact tracing infrastructure set-up for offices, s chools, a nd o ther s imilar p ublic spaces.

Qualitative Research in the Time of a Disaster Like COVID-19

The year 2020 will go down in history as the year when the whole world was challenged with one invisible enemy that changed everything in human society in the 21st Century. It is the worst modern pandemic that has shaken all aspects of human life. It is clear that no one in any field was well prepared, if prepared at all, for COVID-19. The newness of this pandemic has given room for several qualitative research opportunities to help understand and address the social implications. In this paper, we discuss the social trends of COVID-19, the role qualitative research should play during a disaster such as this pandemic, and how to conduct qualitative research about and during such a disaster. This paper also introduces the Crisis Recovery Stages model that can help researchers move effectively in the production mode despite the disaster. The paper also generates ideas for current issues that can be addressed through and about qualitative research.

Disease, downturns, and wellbeing: Economic history and the long-run impacts of COVID-19

How might COVID-19 affect human capital and wellbeing in the long run? The COVID-19 pandemic has already imposed a heavy human cost—taken together, this public health crisis and its attendant economic downturn appear poised to dwarf the scope, scale, and disruptiveness of most modern pandemics. What evidence we do have about other modern pandemics is largely limited to short-run impacts. Consequently, recent experience can do little to help us anticipate and respond to COVID-19’s potential long-run impact on individuals over decades and even generations. History, however, offers a solution. Historical crises offer closer analogues to COVID-19 in each of its key dimensions—as a global pandemic, as a global recession—and offer the runway necessary to study the life-course and intergenerational outcomes. In this paper, we review the evidence on the long-run effects on health, labor, and human capital of both historical pandemics (with a focus on the 1918 Influenza Pandemic) and historical recessions (with a focus on the Great Depression). We conclude by discussing how past crises can inform our approach to COVID-19—helping tell us what to look for, what to prepare for, and what data we ought to collect now.

COVID-19 как вызов политической системе и демократии в России и мире

The COVID-19 pandemic is unfolding at a time when the political system inherent in the last quarter of the 20th – the first decades of the 21st century, with democracy as the key component, is in decline. According to data compiled by Freedom House, democracy has been in a recession for more than a decade, and more and more citizens in different countries, including recognized leaders of democracy, lose and not get civil and political rights every year. The key problem is that COVID-19 could turn a democratic recession into a depression, which threatens to turn political systems toward authoritarianism, the spread of which around the world can be compared to a modern pandemic. The question arises if autocratic regimes generally are able to take tougher political measures to curb the spread of the virus. If so, are they more effective or China is an exception? This article is written as part of the state task on the topic of the NIR for 2019–2021 «Russian Society before New Challenges: Dynamics of Social and Economic Situation, Value Orientations and Social Participation of Various Population Groups».

Social rights and social policy: the relationship and interdependence

In the general system of rights and freedoms of modern man a special place is occupied by social rights, which are designed to provide each person with a fair and dignified life, to create conditions for his proper physical and social existence, social and professional activities and more. Everyone daily realizes or at least seeks to realize at least one social right guaranteed to him by a democratic state governed by the rule of law. These include such important social rights as the right to education, the right to work, the right to health care, the right to rest, the right to housing, the right to a decent and timely wage, and so on. Only a state with a high level of economic development can be social, and the social orientation of the state must be taken into account in the structure of the economy. According to some scholars, the moment of the real emergence of welfare states should be attributed to the sixties of the twentieth century. When identifying as a priority function of socio-economic development the direction of ensuring the country's competitiveness in the world market, which today is almost the main principle of economic development of any state, we can not simultaneously neglect the function of social integration and consolidation of society, according to a number of studies, significantly increases the vulnerability of the population to the challenges of social risks, especially in a modern pandemic. Key words: law, social rights, social policy, human rights, legislation.

Modern Pandemics: Recession and Recovery

We examine the immediate effects and bounce-back from six modern health crises: 1968 Flu, SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009), MERS (2012), Ebola (2014), and Zika (2016). Time-series models for a large cross-section of countries indicate that real GDP growth falls by around three percentage points in affected countries relative to unaffected countries in the year of the outbreak. Bounce-back in GDP growth is rapid, but output is still below pre-shock level five years later. Unemployment for less educated workers is higher and exhibits more persistence, and there is significantly greater persistence in female unemployment than male. The negative effects on GDP and unemployment are felt less in countries with larger first-year responses in government spending, especially on health care. Affected countries' consumption declines, investment drops sharply, and international trade plummets. Bounce-back in these expenditure categories is also rapid but not by enough to restore pre-shock trends. Furthermore, indirect effects on own-country GDP from affected trading partners are significant for both the initial GDP decline and the positive bounce back. We discuss why our estimates are a lower bound for the global economic effects of COVID-19 and compare contours of the current pandemic to the historical episodes.

Manufacturing Consent: The Modern Pandemic of Technosolutionism

As our first issue of the Transactions went to publication, the COVID19 crisis fully gripped the globe. While this was not the first time that such a disease had threatened to keep the world at gridlock, very few of us could have imagined the full extent of the socio-economic impacts of a dynamic global pandemic zoonoses. In recent history, we can point to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) novel coronavirus epidemic first identified in 2003, as having infected humans in the Guangdong province of China in 2002. We then had the Asian highly pathogenic AVIAN Influenza (H5N1) virus making a strong resurgence in 2006, that was first detected in geese in China in 1996, with some sporadic infections in humans occurring in 1997 during a poultry outbreak in Hong Kong. Finally, the swine flu (H1N1) outbreak in 2009 which had an estimated 700 million to 1.4 billion confirmed cases (between 11%–21% of the global population), and concluded with a vaccine [item 1) in the Appendix]. Each of these diseases have had catastrophic impacts on people, supply chains, infrastructure, and the economy but none more than COVID19, also known as SARS-CoV-2. According to a situational report by the World Health Organization on May 5, 2020, there were 3 517 345 confirmed COVID19 cases and 243 401 of these eventuated in death (approximately 6.92% of confirmed cases) [item 2) in the Appendix]. When considering these statistics, we should also note such numbers as a proportion of the total global population.

International Trafficking in Persons and the Global Spread of Diseases: Cross-country Evidence from Two Modern Pandemics

This paper exploits cross-country differences in coastline distances (and drug trafficking inflows) to estimate the relative risk of trafficking in persons (TIP) inflows, finding smoking gun evidence that countries with a higher risk of TIP inflows have higher local confirmed cases during the H1N1 and COVID-19 pandemic. Institutional and health factors mainly influence confirmed numbers through the TIP channel, with their effects largely muted in the second stage. In addition, once the instrumented risk of TIP inflow is controlled for, migration flows, including flows originating from the pandemic source country, is no longer positively associated with local confirmed numbers. Controlling for COVID-19 testing numbers also produces the most precise estimates, indicating that the accuracy of reported numbers is indeed increasing in testing efforts.

ИЗМЕНЕНИЯ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОГО СОЗНАНИЯ ПОД ВЛИЯНИЕМ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПАНДЕМИИ

ИЗМЕНЕНИЯ ОБЩЕСТВЕННОГО СОЗНАНИЯ ПОД ВЛИЯНИЕМ СОВРЕМЕННОЙ ПАНДЕМИИ

The Other Early Modern Pandemic: Slavery, Colonialism, and Novel Coronavirus

The Other Early Modern Pandemic: Slavery, Colonialism, and Novel Coronavirus

COVID-19, Modern Pandemic: A Systematic Review From Front-Line Health Care Providers' Perspective.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused infection in 168,000 cases worldwide in about 148 countries and killed more than 6,610 people around the world as of March 16, 2020, as per the World Health Organization (WHO). Compared to severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East respiratory syndrome, there is the rapid transmission, long incubation period, and disease containment is becoming extremely difficult. The main aim of this systematic review is to provide a comprehensive clinical summary of all the available data from high-quality research articles relevant to the epidemiology, demographics, trends in hospitalization and outcomes, clinical signs and symptoms, diagnostic methods and treatment methods of COVID-19, thus increasing awareness in health care providers. We also discussed various preventive measures to combat COVID-19 effectively. A systematic and protocol-driven approach is needed to contain this disease, which was declared as a global pandemic on March 11, 2020, by the WHO.

Modern Pandemics: Recession and Recovery

We examine the immediate effects and bounce-back from six modern health crises: 1968 Flu, SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009), MERS (2012), Ebola (2014), and Zika (2016). Time-series models for a large cross-section of countries indicate that real GDP growth falls by around three percentage points in affected countries relative to unaffected countries in the year of the outbreak. Bounce-back in GDP growth is rapid, but output is still below pre-shock level five years later. Unemployment for less educated workers is higher and exhibits more persistence, and there is significantly greater persistence in female unemployment than male. The negative effects on GDP and unemployment are felt less in countries with larger first-year responses in government spending, especially on health care. Affected countries’ consumption declines, investment drops sharply, and international trade plummets. Bounce-back in these expenditure categories is also rapid but not by enough to restore pre-shock trends. Furthermore, indirect effects on own-country GDP from affected trading partners are significant for both the initial GDP decline and the positive bounce back. We discuss why our estimates are a lower bound for the global economic effects of COVID-19 and compare contours of the current pandemic to the historical episodes.