Wet Markets Research Articles

The immunology of COVID-19: is immune modulation an option for treatment?

SummaryIn December, 2019, an outbreak of COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China and quickly spread globally. As of May 7, 2020, there were 3 672 238 confirmed infections and 254 045 deaths attributed to COVID-19. Evidence has shown that there are asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19 who can transmit the disease to others. The virus incubation time shows a wide range (0–24 days) and the virus displays a high infectivity. It is therefore urgent to develop an effective therapy to treat patients with COVID-19 and to control the spread of the causative agent, severe respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Repurposing of approved drugs is widely adopted to fight newly emerged diseases such as COVID-19, as these drugs have known pharmacokinetic and safety profiles. As pathological examination has confirmed the involvement of immune hyperactivation and acute respiratory distress syndrome in fatal cases of COVID-19, several disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDS), such as hydroxychloroquine and tocilizumab, have been proposed as potential therapies for the treatment of COVID-19. In this Review, we discuss the immunological aspects of COVID-19 and the potential implication of DMARDs in treating this disease.

Cross-sectional associations of neighborhood third places with social health among community-dwelling older adults.

Social health is a key aspect of active ageing. The objectives of this study are to investigate whether and what type of neighborhood third places are associated with positive social health among community dwelling older adults, and explore whether the associations vary by gender. Neighborhood third places are those spaces that have a social function and are located within a neighborhood, but outside the home (first place) and work (second place). Cross-sectional data were from 981 adults aged 55 years and older who responded to a survey conducted in 2018 in three Singapore neighborhoods. The neighborhoods were selected because they have a high percentage of older residents, different housing typologies, and heterogeneity of built environment qualities. Social health was measured using the six-item Lubben Social Network Scale. Attributes of participants' physical environment included residential density, pedestrian-friendly street design, access to public transport, and were objectively assessed using geographic information systems data. Covariates included age, sex, ethnic group, highest educational qualification, marital status, number of people living in dwelling, years living at current address, dwelling unit type, and number of diagnosed medical conditions and IADLs. Regression analysis was performed using Stata version 15 and indicated that female respondents who live in closer proximity to a wet market were more likely to have higher levels of social health independently of individual demographic and physical health characteristics, physical environment qualities, and other destination types. In a time of heightened concern about social isolation and loneliness among older age groups, this study contributes evidence that older people, particularly females, who live in closer proximity to a wet market self-reported better social health. Wet markets are spaces where people can mingle while purchasing or bargaining for fresh produce and household necessities. The mechanisms via which neighborhood third places may contribute to social health requires examination.

From wet markets to Wal-Marts: tracing alimentary xenophobia in the time of COVID-19.

From wet markets to Wal-Marts: tracing alimentary xenophobia in the time of COVID-19.

Some Anthropological Consequences of the Pandemic: Easter Release, Wet Markets, Invisible Victims and Violence Issues

Experience in cross-cultural monitoring of pandemic and infodemic images. The new look of “Witches of the 21st Century”: virus vs religion. “We are in the same boat”: the rhetoric of mutual assistance, and not the opposition “friends or foes”. Visible and invisible victims. Deferred Risk Strategy: Help Only the “Visible Victim”. The dangers of temptation are simple solutions. A pandemic situation — a situation of destruction of public rules? The value of human life as a factor in preventing violence.

Six weeks into the 2019 coronavirus disease outbreak: it is time to consider strategies to impede the emergence of new zoonotic infections.

Six weeks into the 2019 coronavirus disease outbreak: it is time to consider strategies to impede the emergence of new zoonotic infections.

COVID-19: A revelation – A reply to Ian Mitroff

This is a rejoinder of Dr. Ian Mitroff's perspective titled "Corona Virus: A Prime Example of A Wicked Mess". While I agree with Dr. Mitroff on the complexity of the COVID-19 outbreak and the urgency to address it, I disagree with him on points related to the role of wet market in this specific outbreak and whether China had acknowledged the existence of the outbreak. I also consider key highlights of the outbreak are the importance of collaboration across national and state borders and a balance between privacy and public health under such situations.

One month of the novel coronavirus 2019 outbreak: Is it still a threat?

The novel coronavirus 2019 disease (COVID-19) is now in an outbreak not only in China but also around the world, suspected to be originated from a wet market in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. The flare-up of COVID-19, it has already been infected 78,811 people with 2462 fatalities in 1 month window. The most alarming issue is the virus can transmit from host to host and still asymptomatic. Currently, 24 counties with 505 confirmed cases have been reported. Presently, there is no specific treatment or vaccine but physicians are battling with the use of antibiotics, steroid, anti-viral and anti-HIV drugs and some of the infected cases are testified improved. WHO and China National health Commission are cooperatively striving to come up with elucidation but it will take a minimum of 3 to 4 months at least to undergo a phase-1 trial. However, the soaring rates of spreading each day has become much stable which might even improve within the next few weeks in China but not for some other countries. Healthy peoples are instructed to avoid public gathering, always wearing the mask and frequently wash hands. Currently, China has able to hold up more than 97.7% infection within China but a scientific breakthrough is crucial before it’s too late.

Insights into the Microbiological Safety of Wooden Cutting Boards Used for Meat Processing in Hong Kong's Wet Markets: A Focus on Food-Contact Surfaces, Cross-Contamination and the Efficacy of Traditional Hygiene Practices.

Hong Kong’s wet markets play a crucial role in the country’s supply of safe, fresh meat to satisfy the dietary needs of its population. Whilst food safety regulations have been introduced over the past few years to maintain the microbial safety of foods sold from these wet markets, it remains unclear whether the hygiene maintenance that is performed on the wooden cutting boards used for meat-processing is effective. In fact, hygiene maintenance may often be overlooked, and hygiene standards may be insufficient. If so, this may lead to the spread of harmful pathogens through cross-contamination, thereby causing severe risks to public health. The aim of this study was to determine the level of microbial transfer between wooden cutting boards and swine meat of various qualities, using 16S metagenomic sequencing, strain identification and biofilm screening of isolated strains. The results established that: (a) the traditional hygiene practices used for cleaning wooden cutting boards in Hong Kong’s wet markets expose the surfaces to potentially harmful microorganisms; (b) the processing of microbially contaminated meat on cutting boards cleaned using traditional practices leads to cross-contamination; and (c) several potentially pathogenic microorganisms found on the cutting boards have good biofilm-forming abilities. These results reinforce the need to review the traditional methods used to clean wooden cutting boards after the processing of raw meat in Hong Kong’ wet markets so as to prevent cross-contamination events. The establishment of proper hygiene protocols may reduce the spread of disease-causing microorganisms (including antibiotic-resistant microorganisms) in food-processing environments.

Pandemic and Food Security: A View from the Global South

First paragraphs: “The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.” —Antonio Gramsci Like many modern day viral epidemics (e.g., MERS, SARS), SARS-CoV-2 emerged from the folds of the food system. The dominant narrative puts its earliest appearance in the wet market of the Chinese city of Wuhan, where wild animals are also traded. However, there are indications that SARS-CoV-2, which is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, may have developed in intensive livestock farming systems, possibly pig farming (GRAIN, 2020). Not only did the virus originate from the food system, but it also penetrated it and exposed its sys­temic weaknesses. The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are now threatening the food security of billions of people. Indeed, after initial reassurances that COVID-19 posed no concerns to global food security, as the world’s silos were well stocked (Vos, Martin, & Laborde, 2020), the tone has now changed radically. We are now being warned that global hunger could double due to food supply disruptions caused by the pandemic, especially in poor nations and in Africa (De Sousa, 2020). . . . See the press release for this article.

Economic Shocks From the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic for Anesthesiologists and Their Practices.

Economic Shocks From the Novel COVID-19 Pandemic for Anesthesiologists and Their Practices.

Novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a pandemic (epidemiology, pathogenesis and potential therapeutics).

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is highly pathogenic viral infection caused by SARS-CoV-2. Currently, COVID-19 has caused global health concern. It is assumed that COVID-19 has zoonotic origin based on the large number of infected people who were exposed to the wet market in Wuhan City, China. The phylogenetic analysis has revealed that SARS-CoV-2 has significant sequence similarity with severe acute respiratory syndrome-like (SARS-like) bat viruses, thus bats could be primary possible reservoir. The intermediate host and there subsequent transfer is not known yet, although human to human transfer is widely confirmed. The transmission of COVID-19 infection from one person to another resulted in the isolation of patients who were subsequently given a variety of treatments. To monitor the current outbreak, robust steps have been taken around the globe to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 infection particularly banning international and domestic flights, inducting lockdowns in vulnerable areas, social distancing etc. No clinically approved antiviral drug or vaccine against COVID-19 is reported yet. However, in clinical trials, few broad-spectrum antiviral drugs were evaluated against COVID-19 infection which resulted in clinical recovery. In this article emergence and pathogenicity of COVID-19 infection along with potential therapeutic strategies are analyzed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Don't Overlook Digestive Symptoms in Patients With 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

In late December 2019, a cluster of patients with pneumonia of unknown cause was linked epidemiologically to a seafood and wet animal wholesale market in Wuhan City, China. The causative pathogen subsequently was identified as the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).1 Over the course of the current pandemic, it became apparent that some patients can present with abdominal symptoms without fever or respiratory manifestations, and could be overlooked by health care providers.

Social and Academic Responsibility Given COVID-19 Pandemic

There is every sign the world is about to be gripped by a pandemic coronavirus. COVID-19 emerges as a pandemic disease with a high rate of mortality and morbidity. The outbreak was thought to be originated from the "wet market". This is not the first virus spreading from the "wet market" and might not be the last. Consequently, health officials need to be accountable to the scientific community for what happens in this market, what preventive measures have been taken in the previous epidemic in "wet market" management, and why it cannot have sufficient oversight. Furthermore, those countries who received or will receive the protocol to control the disease wish to share their experiences with the scientific community with the up to date protocols. This is an international public health issue. Any secrecy in introducing innovative protocols in management and treatment of disease must be accompanied by compensation.

Lost in Translation: COVID-19 and China’s ‘Wet Markets

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, there’s been an avalanche of misunderstanding in the West about China’s ‘wet markets’ and their links to the pandemic and the illegal wildlife trade, leading to racially and politically motivated moral judgements of the Chinese.

Mitigation Strategies for Wet Market Food Safety Hazards to Prevent Coronavirus or Other Pathogen Outbreaks

3D point cloud is a simple data structure representing both static and dynamic 3D objects. Though providing close-to-reality visualization, point clouds with high density raise massive demand for storage while sparse point clouds used for navigation require high precision. The emergency of compression technologies is mandatory in the form of standardization. A walkthrough for the technical approaches exploited in the two frameworks (V-PCC and G-PCC) under the MPEG standardization process is presented. Though with certain limitations, the achieved promising compression performances indicate a foreseeable evolution of the standard and a bright future for point cloud compression technologies.

Role of GS-5734 (Remdesivir) in inhibiting SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV: The expected role of GS-5734 (Remdesivir) in COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) - VYTR hypothesis.

Coronaviruses (CoVs) are enveloped RNA viruses related to the family Coronaviridae, the order Nirdovales, and observed in humans and other mammals. In December 2019, many pneumonia cases reported by patients with unknown causes, mainly associated with seafood and wet animal market in Wuhan, China, and where clinically resembled viral pneumonia. At present, there is no existence of antiviral drugs for the treatment of CoV infections. The results of our study are GS-5734 strongly inhibits SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV in HAE cells, GS-5734 inhibits CoVs at early stages in replication by inhibiting viral RNA synthesis, the absence of ExoN-mediated proofreading in viruses sensitive to treatment with GS-5734. Protease inhibitors can show improved outcomes in some coronaviruses, but mostly 99% of protease inhibitors bind to proteins present in the human body, and only 1% attacks on existed viruses. The expected role of GS-5734 (Remdesivir) in the 2019-nCoV - VYTR hypothesis explained. As broad-spectrum drugs are capable of inhibiting CoV infections, GS-5734 is a broad-spectrum drug and may show inhibition on CoV infections and 2019-nCoV. GS-5734 will show desired results regarding antiviral activity against 2019-nCoV as it showed potent antiviral activity in other CoVs. More clinical trials and experiments needed to prove that GS-5734 (Remdesivir) is a potential and effective drug to treat 2019-nCoV.

Three-Year Longitudinal Study: Prevalence of Salmonella Enterica in Chicken Meat is Higher in Supermarkets Than Wet Markets from Mexico.

Worldwide, chicken meat is considered one of the main sources of Salmonella enterica in humans. To protect consumers from this foodborne pathogen, international health authorities recommend the establishment of continuous Salmonella surveillance programs in meat. However, these programs are scarce in many world regions; thus, the goal of the present study was to perform a longitudinal surveillance of S. enterica in chicken meat in Mexico. A total of 1160 samples were collected and analyzed monthly from 2016 to 2018 in ten chicken meat retailers (supermarkets and wet markets) located in central Mexico. The isolation and identification of S. enterica was carried out using conventional and molecular methods. Overall, S. enterica was recovered from 18.1% (210/1160) of the chicken meat samples. Remarkably, during the three years of evaluation, S. enterica was more prevalent (p < 0.0001) in supermarkets (27.2%, 158/580) than in wet markets (9.0%, 52/580). The study was 3.8 times more likely (odds ratio = 3.8, p < 0.0001) to recover S. enterica from supermarkets than wet markets. Additionally, a higher prevalence (p < 0.05) of this pathogen was observed during the spring, summer, autumn, and winter in supermarkets compared with wet markets. Moreover, the recovery rate of S. enterica from supermarkets showed a gradual increase from 20.78% to 42% (p < 0.0001) from 2016 to 2018. Interestingly, no correlation (p > 0.05) was observed between the S. enterica recovery rate in chicken meat and reported cases of Salmonella infections in humans. Higher levels of S. enterica in chicken meat retailed in supermarkets are not unusual; this phenomenon has also been reported in some European and Asian countries. Together, these results uncover an important health threat that needs to be urgently addressed by poultry meat producers and retailers.

PASAR TERPADU H. M. YUSI DI KANDANGAN

M. Yusi Market is a regional market development plan from the government to improve the trade sector in the South Hulu Sungai regency. Kandangan Market as the main market has been unable to be developed to accommodate the large number of traders and the market location provided is not maximally utilized by traders because of the uncomfortable atmosphere because the application of market prototypes is not in accordance with local community buying and selling behavior. The architectural problem solving that is right for the Integrated Market H. M. Yusi in Kandangan is a comfortable market design and in accordance with the buying and selling behavior of market users in Kandangan. Behavioral Architecture method is an approach used to solve architectural problems in the integrated market of H. M. Yusi in Kandangan, namely by approaching the relationship of human behavior to the architectural environment as a consideration of the application of designs that will lead to improvements in the architectural environment. The study method includes the analysis of merchant behavior, buyer behavior and the relationship of behavior of traders and buyers to be able to adjust the needs and behavior of market users. Hygienic and cultural is a concept used to solve the problems of the application of integrated market area buildings that are comfortable and in accordance with market user behavior and Paiwakan Market concept is focus on wet market. The concept is applied to the design of circulation arrangement, achievement, building mass, material, facade ornaments and building utility systems.

PASAR TERPADU H. M. YUSI DI KANDANGAN

M. Yusi Market is a regional market development plan from the government to improve the trade sector in the South Hulu Sungai regency. Kandangan Market as the main market has been unable to be developed to accommodate the large number of traders and the market location provided is not maximally utilized by traders because of the uncomfortable atmosphere because the application of market prototypes is not in accordance with local community buying and selling behavior. The architectural problem solving that is right for the Integrated Market H. M. Yusi in Kandangan is a comfortable market design and in accordance with the buying and selling behavior of market users in Kandangan. Behavioral Architecture method is an approach used to solve architectural problems in the integrated market of H. M. Yusi in Kandangan, namely by approaching the relationship of human behavior to the architectural environment as a consideration of the application of designs that will lead to improvements in the architectural environment. The study method includes the analysis of merchant behavior, buyer behavior and the relationship of behavior of traders and buyers to be able to adjust the needs and behavior of market users. Hygienic and cultural is a concept used to solve the problems of the application of integrated market area buildings that are comfortable and in accordance with market user behavior and Paiwakan Market concept is focus on wet market. The concept is applied to the design of circulation arrangement, achievement, building mass, material, facade ornaments and building utility systems.

COVID-19 in the Shadows of MERS-CoV in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) has plagued the Middle East since it was first reported in 2012. Recently, at the end of December 2019, a cluster of pneumonia cases were reported from Wuhan city, Hubei Province, China, linked to a wet seafood market with a new coronavirus identified as the etiologic agent currently named SARS-CoV-2. Most cases are in Mainland China with international spread to 25 countries. The novelty of the virus, the rapid national and international spread, and the lack of therapeutic and preventative strategies have led the WHO International Health Regulation emergency committee to declare the disease as Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on January 30, 2020. As it relates to countries with the ongoing MERS-CoV community cases and hospital acquired infections, there will be a huge challenge for HCWs to deal with both coronaviruses, especially with the lack of standardized and approved point of care testing. This challenge will now be faced by the whole global health community dealing with COVID-19 since both coronaviruses have similar presentation. Those patients should now be tested for both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 simultaneously, and with the continuing wide international spread of SARS-CoV-2, the travel history to China in the last 14 days will be of less significance