Disease Spectrum in COVID-19 Cohort with Travel History from Iran

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), declared as a pandemic in March 2020, is an acute respiratory tract illness caused by coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) with clinical manifestations ranging from mild upper respiratory tract symptoms to severe pneumonia. Objectives: To determine the disease spectrum of Covid-19 in a cohort with a travel history from Iran. Materials & Methods: This cross-sectional study with a retrospective collection of data was conducted at Agha Khan University, Karachi from 15th March to 19th April 2020. One hundred and fifty-five laboratory-confirmed cases of Covid-19 were recruited from a government quarantine facility. Data were obtained from the Punjab Emergency Services (Rescue 1122) database where a record of SARS-CoV-2 positive cases and quarantined persons is maintained. Study subjects with a travel history to Iran were contacted by telephone to obtain information about demographics, symptoms, and co-morbid conditions.  SPSS version 24 was used to analyze the data. Frequencies and percentages were calculated. Results: Among the returning travelers, 213 had laboratory-confirmed Covid-19, out of which 155 were included in this study. 56.1% were males with a mean age of 40 years. Among the study participants, 91.6% remained asymptomatic throughout the stay, while 8.4 % became symptomatic. 77.5% of the participants had received BCG vaccination in childhood. Among symptomatic cases 15.4% had asthma and 7.7% had hypertension. The most common clinical manifestation was cough which was present in 38.5% of the study participants. None died among the study participants. Conclusion: A mild presentation of COVID-19 was seen in our study participants with 91.6% among them being asymptomatic, while 8.4% were symptomatic. There was a high positivity rate in males as compared to females.  

Genetic Screening and Molecular Characterization of Hbv and Hcv in Rural and Urban Population of District Muzaffarabad Azad Kashmir by Using Nested Pcr

The infection of liver is known as hepatitis. It is observed that more than 2 billion people got life-threatening sickness due to HBV and more than 230-300 million people suffered from HCV around the globe. The present study dealt with 200 samples that were collected from rural and urban population of Muzaffarabad AJ&K. Both male and female genders of 15-70 years of age were included in the sample collection process. For detection of the presence of virus, initially ICT method was used for 200 samples. Among them only 11 sample from rural and 29 samples from urban population showed positive results of hepatitis virus B and C. Those samples were further confirmed for viral DNA and cDNA by using nested PCR. After performing nested PCR 1 (1%) individual of HBV and 4(4%) individuals of HCV were found PCR positive from rural and urban population. During gel electrophoresis the band size 230bp of HBV and 215bp of HCV were obtained on gel. Furthermore, the phylogenetic analysis was done after gene sequencing of PCR positive HBV and HCV samples. There were 99% resemblance of both HBV and HCV DNA sequence to the sequences present in Genbank by using NCBI Blast. By using MEGA7 program, phylogenetic tree was constructed and average pair wise mean distance obtained of HBV was 0.0037 and 0.23 of HCV. Moreover, the statistical analysis of the study showed risk factors assessment results from different carriers e.g., haircut from barber shops and local clinics. They gave significant values p=<0.0001 and p=<0.0001 respectively for spread of HBV and HCV in the studied population. The final results of study showed that the risk factor of hepatitis virus B and C was higher in urban population rather than in rural population.