Risk Of Infection Spread Research Articles

Study of the Antibacterial Activity of Superhydrophilic and Superhydrophobic Copper Substrates against Multi-Drug-Resistant Hospital-Acquired Pseudomonas aeruginosa Isolates.

The global spread of multidrug-resistant (MDR) hospital-acquired pathogens is a serious problem for healthcare units. The challenge of the spreading of nosocomial infections, also known as hospital-acquired pathogens, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, must be addressed not only by developing effective drugs, but also by improving preventive measures in hospitals, such as passive bactericidal coatings deposited onto the touch surfaces. In this paper, we studied the antibacterial activity of superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic copper surfaces against the P. aeruginosa strain PA103 and its four different polyresistant clinical isolates with MDR. To fabricate superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic coatings, we subjected the copper surfaces to laser processing with further chemosorption of fluorooxysilane to get a superhydrophobic substrate. The antibacterial activity of superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic copper surfaces was shown, with respect to both the collection strain PA103 and polyresistant clinical isolates of P. aeruginosa, and the evolution of the decontamination of a bacterial suspension is presented and discussed. The presented results indicate the promising potential of the exploitation of superhydrophilic coatings in the manufacture of contact surfaces for healthcare units, where the risk of infection spread and contamination by hospital-acquired pathogens is extremely high.

Consumer behavior of mobile food ordering app users during COVID-19: dining attitudes, e-satisfaction, perceived risk, and continuance intention

研究目的由于 Covid-19 爆发期间的社交距离规定, 移动订餐应用程序 (MFOA) 变得更受欢迎。 人们开始比平时更多地使用这些应用程序点餐。由于客户似乎很乐意使用这些应用程序, 因此始终存在传播感染的风险。这些事实不可避免地会影响客户的使用意愿。因此, 本研究旨在实证评估 MFOA 用户在 Turkiye Covid-19 大流行期间对感知风险的用餐态度、电子满意度和持续意图。研究设计/方法/途径该研究在预期确认理论和技术接受模型中使用了 SEM。 数据收集工具来自现有文献, 通过在线调查收集了 625 份问卷。 数据收集工具由 8 个部分组成, 旨在收集有关参与者的人口统计信息、期望确认、感知易用性、感知有用性、电子满意度、感知风险和持续意图的信息。研究发现结果显示电子满意度、用餐态度、感知风险和持续意愿之间存在显着关系。 最显着的发现是, 虽然电子满意度会影响客户重复使用 MFOA, 但感知到的风险会导致持续意愿下降。研究原创性/价值该研究模型通过添加风险因素拓宽了现有的 MFOA 研究模型。 此外, 它还为土耳其和世界新兴的 MFOA 文献做出了宝贵贡献。

Hospital Waste Management During COVID-19

Any solid, liquid, or gas substance used will be immediately discarded. The substance waste dumped is conducted in every place, including hospitals. The hospital management system covers hospital waste management. This management allows the hospital to monitor the amount and variants of waste produced, which minimizes the harmful effects of waste. However, in this topic, systematic analytical mapping studies still have a lot of research limitations. This study aims to analyze Hospital Waste Management during the peak of COVID-19 which is presented as a systematic review. This research applied the qualitative method with a literature study approach. The hospital waste management articles identified from 2011-2021 amounted to 686 publication articles that Scopus indexed, indicating that hospital waste management studies have increased in recent years. The expansion in the study mainly was research on hospital waste management from the inner side of hospital management. Many studies on hospital waste management from processing, environmental impact, and the risk of spreading infections have been studied from the COVID-19 side since 2019. This finding has implications for further research by analyzing the problems related to the rapidly growing field of hospital waste management in detail or using a different perspective. Keywords: Hospital Waste, Waste Management, Hospital Waste Management, COVID-19, Systematic Review.

Motivating factors of compliance to government's COVID-19 preventive guidelines: An investigation using discrete choice model

The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has resulted in a worldwide pandemic. We aimed to identify the factors that motivate public compliance with the government's COVID-19 preventive recommendations. Focus group interviews were conducted to identify influencing factors. The relative importance of each factor was investigated through a survey, based on a discrete choice model, from February to June, 2021 in South Korea. "Severity of COVID-19 symptoms" (relative importance [magnitude of attribute coefficients]: 28.40%) and "risk of infection" (27.50%) were the most influential health-related factors, followed by social consequences of infection, including "cessation of social activities due to self-quarantine" (19.77%), "risk of personal information being disclosed when infected and social criticism on the infected person" (15.78%), and "risk of spreading infection" (8.55%). Respondents behaved differently based on their socioeconomic characteristics and COVID-19 experience. The perceived severity of symptoms was a strong motivator among fragile individuals, such as women and older adults. "Cessation of social activities" was the most influential factor for those infected with COVID-19, while "risk of infection" was for those whose acquaintances were infected. The provision of information regarding COVID-19 to the public must be tailored based on an understanding of behavioral differences.

Moving Direction Entropy as Index for Inter-community Activity

Since we presented the Stay with Your Community principle for suppressing the infection spread at the social level, policies on SWYC have been considered in the context of the tradeoff between the risk of infection spreading and the benefit of inter-community interaction on productive and innovative social activities. In this paper, Moving Direction Entropy is defined as a value representing the diversity of humans’ moving direction in each region. This value had been found to be positively correlated with the number of COVID-19 positive cases, and here it is shown to be in positive correlation with the regional population of inbound flow and its increase during the analyzed period from 2019 through 2022. The results have double implications (1) the dynamics of regional populations, regarded as the enhancement of inter-community interaction, diversify the movements and (2) such dynamics are likely to foster infection spreading.

Spectrum of Echocardiographic Findings in Patients with Severe and Critical COVID-19: A Single Center Experience

Introduction: Information on the cardiac manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is scarce. In this study we assessed the echocardiogram of consecutive patients with COVID-19 infection to assess the frequency of cardiac abnormalities. Materials and Methods: This retrospective descriptive study examined the echocardiographic study of 43 patients with severe and critical COVID-19 infection admitted at the ICU of Chitwan Medical College from May 16, 2021 to June 05, 2021. The study focused on left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV) function. The results were then compared between severe and critical infections to examine if any differences exist between them. Results: The mean age of the study population was 54 years and predominately males. One-third were classified as critical COVID-19 while the remaining were severe COVID-19. Majority(83.7%) had a normal echocardiogram. Among the patients with abnormal reports, the distribution of echocardiographic pattern were biventricular dilation with biventricular dysfunction in two patients (4.6%), LV dialtion with LV dysfunction in two patients (4.6%) and isolated LV dysfunction (diastolic and systolic) in three patients (6.9%). None of the echocardiographic parameters were significantly different between the severe and the critical infection. Conclusion: COVID-19 in primarily a respiratory disease and the cardiac complications is largely attributed to the critical nature of the illness than the specific infection. Considering the risk of infection spread, routine echocardiography for all patients with COVID-19 infection is not advisable.

Assessment of the risk of disease transmission during fine-needle aspiration cytology under ultrasound guidance by visualization of droplet and aerosol formation.

Fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) under ultrasound guidance is clinically useful, but there is a risk of spreading infection by generating droplets of contaminated fluids during the procedure. Risk assessment to better control infection remains to be established. The aim of this study was to estimate infection risks during FNAC by visualization of droplet production and deposition using a simulation model. The simulation comprised a puncture needle, a device for holding the needle, and a fluid specimen containing fluorescent particles as a model. Simulating each step of FNAC (removal of the inner and outer cylinder and transferring the specimen onto a glass slide), the generation and deposition of droplets were visualized using a laser. After removal of the inner cylinder, an aerosol of droplets in the air surrounding the needle was observed. After removal of the outer cylinder, several large droplets precipitating onto the circumjacent surface were observed. From the beginning of transferring the specimen, a large amount of sizeable droplets first moving away and then precipitating was observed, followed by the production of a cluster of fine droplets drifting and spreading through the air. Here, the generation of droplets at each step of FNAC, precipitation of large droplets onto the circumjacent surface, and drifting and spreading through the air of fine droplets was visualized. These results emphasize the need for precautions to prevent the transmission of infectious agents during FNAC.

Role of Dentist: COVID19 and Mucormycosis.

Dental practice has evolved over time and has adapted to the challenges that it has faced. The risk of infection spread via droplet and airborne routes poses a significant risk to the dentist who works close to patients. The risk of cross-infection between dental health-care personnel and patients can be very high due to the peculiar arrangements of dental settings. Dental clinics should have air purification systems with high volume excavators and negative pressure rooms for COVID-19 screening. Mucormycosis is a fungal disease that mostly occurs in immunocompromised individuals and those with uncontrolled diabetes. Dental extraction can trigger the occurrence. Increased occurrence of mucormycosis is seen in COVID-affected patients. This article gives a review on the dentistry-related transmission of COVID 19, the relation of COVID and mucormycosis.

E-contact tracing of hospital infections – validation of SIRSZ automatic risk assessment

Aim. Contact networks play a crucial role in infectious disease propagation and position in the network mediate risk of acquiring or sending infections. We studied the spread of hospital-associated infections through computer simulations and validated our ‘computer assisted’ risk assessment with ‘human’ risk assessment in a prospective study.Concept. We collected time-varying structure of contacts and covariates reconstructed from Polish Hospitals:1. The organisational structure is mapped by a set of questionnaires, CAD maps integration, functional paths annotation and local vision. It is done mostly by surveys within medical staff through an interactive web application.2. The Cohabitation layer processes data from the registry of patient admissions and discharges from each hospital unit (wards, clinics, etc.) and medical shift register. With simulated infection paths, we were able to compute network centrality measures for patients. We obtained the risk of getting infected, based on the patient’s incoming connections, and the risk of spreading infections resulting from outgoing connections. We compare various standard centrality measures – position of patients and staff in contact networks (‘computer assisted’ risk assessment) of both contacts and paths networks, with a predictor of ‘human’ risk perception (based on 190 patients).Results. We showed that the best predictor of HAI risk is Adjusted Rage Rank on paths (r= 0.42, p < 0.01). However, surprisingly good predictive power in risk assessment was found in the betweenness centrality of the underlying network of contacts (r = 0.30, p < 0.01).Conclusion: We conclude that epidemiology of a given pathogen in a given place and time could be explained only with the contact network only to a large extent. However, further possibility of the collection, processing and storage of the data on individual persons, translated to mathematical modelling could lead in future to satisfactory improvement in risk assessment.

Paradigm shift in the management of patients with <i>H. pylori</i> infection

pylori infection is widespread throughout the world. It causes chronic progressive stomach disease and is associated with conditions such as chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, atrophic gastritis, intestinal metaplasia, and gastric cancer. H. pylori-associated gastritis is an infectious disease. The main route of transmission is intra-familial. The new strategy of “screening and treating all family members” in regions with a high prevalence of H. pylori, including Russia, is cost-effective and aimed at reducing the risk of infection spreading in the population, progression of changes in the gastric mucosa and the occurrence of gastric cancer.

Clinical Characteristics and degree of severity of COVID-19 in Hemodialysis Patients in Armed Forces Institute of Urology.

Introduction This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical characteristics and severity of COVID -19 in hemodialysis patients at from 1st March 2020 to 15th August 2020. Methodology It was a prospective and Cross Sectional Observational Study. We collected data prospectively that includes all patients on maintenance hemodialysis and reviewed clinical characteristics of those with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 between March 1and August 15, 2020. Results 39 out of 268 dialysis dependent patients had COVID-19. Mean age of patients was 55.9yrs. Only 35.8% patients were symptomatic. 15 out of 39 were having mild disease,12 had moderate and 12 had severe disease. Females (54.5%) were found to be more affected than males(45.5%). Dry cough was the commonest symptom (53.8%) followed by fever (46.1%) and abdominal pain(18.1%). Patients with multiple comorbidities were found to have severe disease. Conclusion We concluded that patients receiving maintenance hemodialysis are susceptible to COVID-19 and that hemodialysis centers are high risk for spread of infection. Isolating patients with COVID-19 can help in preventing the spread of COVID-19.

The impact of the undetected COVID-19 cases on its transmission dynamics

ObjectiveThe COVID-19 pandemic is currently ongoing. Presently, due to the unavailability of a definitive vaccine to decrease its acquiring, it’s essential to understand its transmissibility in the community by undetected cases to control its transmission. This study aims to study this context using mathematical modelling.MethodsA COVID-19 transmission model was framed that estimated the basic reproduction number R_{0} (a measurement of disease risk) using the next-generation method. It explored the contribution of exposed and infected (detected and undetected) individuals, and environmental pathogen to the overall risk of infection spreading, utilizing the publicly reported data of this infection in Maharashtra between March 22, 2020, and May 4, 2020. A sensitivity analysis was performed to study the effect of a rising number of undetected cases to R_{0}.ResultsThe estimated basic reproduction number is {varvec{R}}_{0} = 4.63, which increases rapidly with the rise in the undetected COVID-19 cases. Although the exposed individuals made the largest contribution to infection transmission ({varvec{R}}_{1} = 2.42), the contaminated environment also played a significant role.ConclusionsIt is crucial to identify the individuals exposed and infected to COVID-19 disease and isolate them to control its transmission. The awareness of the role of fomites in infection transmission is also important in this regard.

Modern aspects of epidemiology and prevention of typhoid infection (review)

Typhoid fever is still an urgent infection, especially in countries where the majority of the population lives below the poverty line, with limited resources, and without the ability to comply with basic hygiene rules. About 11 million cases of typhoid fever are registered worldwide every year, and about 400 people die from this infection every day. The global development of international relations activates migration processes, tourism, and provides rapid movement of significant masses of people around the world, which makes the risk of widespread typhoid infection quite real. In recent years, due to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of S. typhi, treatment of typhoid fever has become less effective. Natural disasters in the form of earthquakes and floods, man-made disasters, as well as military conflicts that occur in different parts of the world, are fertile «soil» for the emergence and spread of typhoid infection, which actualizes the implementation of appropriate prevention measures, including immunoprophylaxis of the disease. Despite the obvious success in the fight against typhoid fever, which consists in a significant reduction in cases of typhoid infection in the world, this dangerous infectious disease still remains an urgent problem, both for health authorities and the population of many countries. Children and young people are still ill, and there is a real risk of infection spreading to any country. Natural disasters pose a real threat of typhoid outbreaks and epidemics. Mass appearance of antibiotic-resistant strains of S. typhi significantly complicates the treatment of patients, dictates the need for constant monitoring of the pathogen’s resistance to antibiotics and the introduction of typhoid immunoprophylaxis for epidemic indications among professional risk groups, labor migrants, and tourists traveling to countries with typhoid-affected countries. There is also a need for reliable epidemiological surveillance of this infection, carried out on an ongoing basis.

Multiplex and on-site PCR detection of swine diseases based on the microfluidic chip system

BackgroundAt present, the process of inspection and quarantine starts with sampling at the customs port, continues with transporting the samples to the central laboratory for inspection experiments, and ends with the inspected results being fed back to the port. This process had the risks of degradation of biological samples and generation of pathogenic microorganisms and did not meet the rapid on-site detection demand because it took a rather long time. Therefore, it is urgently needed to develop a rapid and high-throughput detection assay of pathogenic microorganisms at the customs port. The aim of this study was to develop a microfluidic chip to rapidly detect swine pathogenic microorganisms with high-throughput and higher accuracy. Moreover, this chip will decrease the risk of spreading infection during transportation.ResultsA series of experiments were performed to establish a microfluidic chip. The resulting data showed that the positive nucleic acid of four swine viruses were detected by using a portable and rapid microfluidic PCR system, which could achieve a on-site real-time quantitative PCR detection. Furthermore, the detection results of eight clinical samples were obtained within an hour. The lowest concentration that amplified of this microfluidic PCR detection system was as low as 1 copies/μL. The results showed that the high specificity of this chip system in disease detection played an important role in customs inspection and quarantine during customs clearance.ConclusionThe microfluidic PCR detection system established in this study could meet the requirement for rapid detection of samples at the customs port. This chip could avoid the risky process of transporting the samples from the sampling site to the testing lab, and drastically reduce the inspection cycle. Moreover, it would enable parallel inspections on one chip, which greatly raised the efficiency of inspection.

Should male doctors in Sri Lanka wear a necktie to be recognized and respected?

European cultural norms have influenced physicians' attire in Sri Lanka. The necktie is one such item of clothing which is worn to be recognized and respected as professionals. This study was carried out to assess the perceptions of doctors and patients towards male doctors wearing neckties while providing patient care. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at the National Hospital of Sri Lanka. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from doctors and patients. The study included 105 doctors (57% males) and 333 patients (54% males). Mean ages of the doctors and patients were 37 years (95% C.I. 36-39) and 47 years (95% C.I. 45-49) respectively. Sixty-nine percent of the patients had completed secondary education or above. None of the patients were aware of the risk of spreading infections by wearing a necktie. Of the 41% of doctors who thought it was unnecessary to wear a necktie, 95% believed the necktie can spread infections. Ninety-five percent of patients believed doctors should wear neckties to be identified and respected and to maintain trustworthiness. None of the patients were aware of the possible risk of spreading infections by wearing a necktie, while most of the doctors who thought neckties were unnecessary also believed neckties can spread infections. Almost all patients thought that doctors should wear a necktie to be recognized and respected. Therefore, implementing a change in dress policy for doctors is a challenging task in Sri Lanka.

Chemical Study of Antibiotics in Treatment of Non-secfic Perimaxial Suppurations in Pregnancy

Physiological changes caused by pregnancy favor the onset or aggravation of preexisting buccal dental lesions, which, untreated, may evolve into infectious complications. Perimaxilation should be treated immediately due to the risk of infection spread or disseminated at a distance. Pain relief is an important reason for immediate treatment, as the particular state of nervousness can trigger a neuro-hormonal reflex followed by a break in pregnancy. The treatment of perimaxial suppositions involves two main aspects: surgical management and medical management. Surgical management will apply as well as outside the pregnancy, recommending local or loco-regional anesthesia with 2% xylin and vasoconstrictor at very low doses. In medical management, it should be noted that the upcoming mother�s ingestion of various drug substances is a matter of maximum responsibility. Drug administration during pregnancy should be an exceptional attitude, but strict application of this principle could deprive pregnant women of the use of useful drugs resulting in maternal complications and embryo-fetal suffering. The study is a retrospective and was performed on a batch of 70 pregnant women who presented themselves in the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic during 2014-2017, presenting perimaxial suppurations.Surgical treatment (opening and evacuation of the purulent collection), performed in all patients, was preceded by anesthesia, local or loco-regional. Preventive dental care should prevail over curative care in the case of dental treatments of women pregnant women, because all physiological changes caused by pregnancy aggravate the pre-existing oro-dental lesions. Prophylactic attitude will not allow the emergence of infectious complications of dental origin.

Solution of environmental problems in human settlements caused by negative effect of SDW landfills

Environmental protection in the modern world is becoming one of the top priorities of state. Dynamic development of metropolises causes increase of trash volume in landfills, which in turn leads to pollution of air, soil, ground and surface waters, increases the risk of infection spreading to environment and harms public health. This is why it is needed to design new landfill facilities beforehand, which comply with requirements in place; timely reclamate landfills, when they are filled to design level; perform complex recovery of economic value land used as solid domestic waste landfills, and hand over the plots for further intended use.

Caprine lentivirus in sheep milk and semen

ABSTRACT With the objective of detecting the presence of caprine lentivirus (CLV) in ewe milk and in ram semen, ten matrixes and four reproducers experimentally infected with CLV were used. Samples of ewe milk were collected during the four months of lactation, five collections per animal, totaling 50 samples. Regarding the rams, eight semen collections were made per animal, during one year of experimentation, totaling 32 samples. The milk and semen samples were submitted to DNA extraction and the nested polymerase chain reaction test (nPCR) to detect CLV proviral DNA. Eight (16%) of the milk samples were positive in nPCR originating from two ewes. Only one (3.12%) semen sample was positive. The amplification products were sequenced, and were confirmed to be a CLV genomic sequence. Thus, the presence of CLV proviral DNA in sheep milk and semen was demonstrated, confirming the feasibility of infection between species, and alerting to the risk of spreading infections.

Modeling Importations and Exportations of Infectious Diseases via Travelers.

This paper is an attempt to estimate the risk of infection importation and exportation by travelers. Two countries are considered: one disease-free country and one visited or source country with a running endemic or epidemic infectious disease. Two models are considered. In the first model (disease importation), susceptible individuals travel from their disease-free home country to the endemic country and come back after some weeks. The risk of infection spreading in their home country is then estimated supposing the visitors are submitted to the same force of infection as the local population but do not contribute to it. In the second model (disease exportation), it is calculated the probability that an individual from the endemic (or epidemic) country travels to a disease-free country in the condition of latent infected and eventually introduces the infection there. The input of both models is the force of infection at the visited/source country, assumed known. The models are deterministic, but a preliminary stochastic formulation is presented as an appendix. The models are exemplified with two distinct real situations: the risk of dengue importation from Thailand to Europe and the risk of Ebola exportation from Liberia to the USA.

Toward a Safer and Cleaner Way: Dealing With Human Waste in Healthcare.

Organizations must evaluate their infection control plans in a holistic and inclusive manner to continue reducing healthcare-associated infection (HAI) rates, including giving consideration to the manner of collecting and disposing of patient waste. Manual washing of bedpans and other containers poses a risk of spreading infection via caregivers, the environment, and the still-contaminated bedpan. Several alternative disposal methods are available and have been tested in some countries for decades, including options such as bedpan washer-disinfector machines, macerator machines, and disposable bedpans. This article reviews methods and issues related to human waste disposal in healthcare settings. Healthcare organizations must evaluate the options thoroughly and then consistently implement the option most in line with its goals and culture.