Long COVID or post-COVID problems are long-term effects of COVID-19 infection that certain people who have contracted the virus can experience. This may result in having persistent symptoms for 3 months or more, such as those who had tiredness, malaise, changed smell and taste, dyspnea, and cognitive deficits three or more months after their initial COVID-19 diagnosis. However, some people may still have inferior work performance and a lower quality of life due to the long COVID episodes. From October 2021 to April 2022, cross-sectional research was conducted in Karachi, utilizing an electronic questionnaire to record sociodemographic data, current comorbidities, and previous episodes of acute COVID-19, post-COVID symptoms, and job performance among COVID survivors. The study's findings revealed that more than 35% of individuals surveyed claimed to have had COVID symptoms for six weeks or more, with approximately 20% to 30% of those reporting frequent coughing and appetite loss. Planning prevention, rehabilitation, and clinical treatment need an awareness of long-term COVID and its related components in order to maximize recovery and long-term COVID-19 outcomes. DOI: https: //doi. Org/10.59564/amrj/01.01/007
Food safety is a major public concern worldwide. During the past few decades, the increasing environmental pollution has stimulated research regarding the risk associated with contamination of food commodities by pesticides, heavy metals and toxins. Heavy metals enter into the food supply chain by direct contact or by irrigation of soil with contaminated water. The presence of heavy metals such as Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni in dietary components is a matter of concern that indicated the need for continuous monitoring. In the present study the levels of concentration of toxic heavy metals in water (drinking and sewage contaminated water), soil and milk, meat, and vegetables collected from market as well as those grown in farmers’ fields that are irrigated with sewage contaminated water in the urban and rural Peshawar, NWFP, Pakistan were studied. The mean concentration of lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and nickel (Ni) in sewage contaminated water in sector A were 18.1, 104.8, 1.3, 4.9, 1.5 and 5.9 times higher and in sector B were 12.9, 133.9, 1.8, 7.2, 2.7 and 5.6 folds higher than handpump water respectively. The concentration of these toxic heavy metals in sewage contaminated water of sector A were 31.6, 261.9, 2.5, 11.6, 3.6 and 29.9 times higher than tube well water and in sector B were 16.9, 288.4, 2.7, 12.3, 6.1 and 30.7 folds higher respectively. The concentrations of heavy metals in handpump water of the two sectors were significantly higher than in deep tube water. Pb concentration in handpump water of the two sectors was significantly different at p < 0.01.The levels of concentration of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni in tube well water of sector A were 0.028, 0.040, 0.006, 0.035, 0.045 and 0.015 mg kg -1 and in sector B were 0.062,0.052, 0.009, 0.055, 0.054 and 0.020 mg kg –1 respectively. The concentration of Pb and Cu in the tube well water of the two sectors were significantly different at p < 0.05. The mean concentration of ammonium bi-carbonate diethylenetramine penta acetic acid(AB- DTPA) extractable Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni in soil of sector A were 3.4, 8.7, 2.3, 7.8, 4.8 and 9.7 times higher than in soil irrigated with tube well water in sector C and in sector B were 4.5, 15.0, 3.5, 14.2, 7.3 and 15.9 fold higher than in sector C. Total concentration of these heavy metals in the soil ofsector A were 2.0, 3.2, 2.6, 3.7, 5.9 and 3.0 times higher and in sector B were 2.1, 4.2, 3.3, 4.4, 4.6 and 3.5 fold higher than in soil of sector C. The extractable concentrations of Pb, Cr, Cu, Zn and Ni were significantly different at p < 0.05 and Cd was non significantly different in soil of the two sectors A and B. Total concentration of Cr, Cd and Ni were significantly different and Pb, Cu and Zn were non significantly different in the two sectors. The concentrations of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni in the edible parts of spinach, cabbages and tomatoes were regressed against the total concentrations of toxic heavy metals. Statistically significant correlations of total concentration of heavy metals in soils and those of AB- DTPA extractable concentration were found. The average levels of concentration of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni in the vegetables (spinach, cabbages and tomatoes) grown in the soil irrigated with sewage contaminated water of sector A were 1.9, 2.6, 2.4, 1.3, 2.1 and 1.4 times higher and in sector B were 2.8, 4.8, 2.7, 1.2, 2.5 and 1.6 folds higher than their concentration in sector C. The mean concentrations of Pb in spinach and cabbages of sectors A versus B differ significantly at P < 0.05, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni were non significantly different. The concentrations of Cr, Cu in tomatoes of sector A differ significantly from sector B and Pb, Cd, Zn and Ni differ non significantly. The results of linear regression analysis indicated that concentration of Pb and Cr in spinach of the three sectors A, B, C were significantly negatively correlatedwith total concentration of Pb and Cr in soil and Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni were significantly positively correlated (R2 = 0.620 - 0.994) with total concentration in the soil. The transfer factor (TF) of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni was high in spinach of sector C compared to the other two sectors although the AB-DTPA extractable concentration was lower in soil. In cabbages, TF of Cd was high in sectors A and B and in tomatoes, TF of these heavy metals in sector A and B were higher than in sector C. To measure the levels of toxic heavy metals contamination of vegetables, meat and milk in Peshawar markets, twelve types of vegetables frequently consumed in the region were analyzed for Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni. The data reflect the potential of some vegetables to accumulate heavy metals which is apparent in vegetables with large surfaces area e.g spinach which contain higher amount of lead. The concentration of Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu, Zn and Ni were 0.19- 2.01, 0.19- 0.86, 0.01- 0.94, 1.43- 24.60, 5.9- 40.6 and 2.14- 4.51 mg kg-1 respectively. In meat, the concentration of these toxic heavy metals ranged from 0.038- 0.097, 0.011- 0.049, 0.012- 0.053, 1.63- 3.55 and 22.96- 67.81 mg Kg-1 for Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu and Zn. The mean concentration of these heavy metals in milk was 0.55, 0.04, 0.2, 1.01 and 6.59 units for Pb, Cr, Cd, Cu and Zn respectively. Pb concentration was above the permissible level in milk.