The emergence of pandemic influenza viruses

Pandemic influenza has posed an increasing threat to public health worldwide in the last decade. In the 20th century, three human pandemic influenza outbreaks occurred in 1918, 1957 and 1968, causing significant mortality. A number of hypotheses have been proposed for the emergence and development of pandemic viruses, including direct introduction into humans from an avian origin and reassortment between avian and previously circulating human viruses, either directly in humans or via an intermediate mammalian host. However, the evolutionary history of the pandemic viruses has been controversial, largely due to the lack of background genetic information and rigorous phylogenetic analyses. The pandemic that emerged in early April 2009 in North America provides a unique opportunity to investigate its emergence and development both in human and animal aspects. Recent genetic analyses of data accumulated through long-term influenza surveillance provided insights into the emergence of this novel pandemic virus. In this review, we summarise the recent literature that describes the evolutionary pathway of the pandemic viruses. We also discuss the implications of these findings on the early detection and control of future pandemics.     

Biodiversity hotspots, centres of endemicity, and the conservation of coral reefs

On land, biodiversity hotspots typically arise from concentrations of small‐range endemics. For Indo‐Pacific corals and reef fishes, however, centres of high species richness and centres of high endemicity are not concordant. Moreover ranges are not, on average, smaller inside the Central Indo‐Pacific (CI‐P) biodiversity hotspot. The disparity between richness and endemicity arises because corals and reef fishes have strongly skewed range distributions, with many species being very widespread. Consequently, the largest ranges overlap to generate peaks in species richness near the equator and the CI‐P biodiversity hotspot, with only minor contributions from endemics. Furthermore, we find no relationship between the number of coral vs. fish endemics at locations throughout the Indo‐Pacific, even though total richness of the two groups is strongly correlated. The spatial separation of centres of endemicity and biodiversity hotspots in these taxa calls for a two‐pronged management strategy to address conservation needs.     

Infectious disease in the Pleistocene: Old friends or old foes?

The impact of endemic and epidemic disease on humans has traditionally been seen as a comparatively recent historical phenomenon associated with the Neolithisation of human groups, an increase in population size led by sedentarism, and increasing contact with domesticated animals as well as species occupying opportunistic symbiotic and ectosymbiotic relationships with humans. The orthodox approach is that Neolithisation created the conditions for increasing population size able to support a reservoir of infectious disease sufficient to act as selective pressure. This orthodoxy is the result of an overly simplistic reliance on skeletal data assuming that no skeletal lesions equated to a healthy individual, underpinned by the assumption that hunter-gatherer groups were inherently healthy while agricultural groups acted as infectious disease reservoirs. The work of van Blerkom, Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., vol. suppl 37 (2003), Wolfe et al., Nature, vol. 447 (2007) and Houldcroft and Underdown, Am. J. Phys. Anthropol., vol. 160, (2016) has changed this landscape by arguing that humans and pathogens have long been fellow travelers. The package of infectious diseases experienced by our ancient ancestors may not be as dissimilar to modern infectious diseases as was once believed. The importance of DNA, from ancient and modern sources, to the study of the antiquity of infectious disease, and its role as a selective pressure cannot be overstated. Here we consider evidence of ancient epidemic and endemic infectious diseases with inferences from modern and ancient human and hominin DNA, and from circulating and extinct pathogen genomes. We argue that the pandemics of the past are a vital tool to unlock the weapons needed to fight pandemics of the future.     

Deploying aptameric sensing technology for rapid pandemic monitoring

The genome of virulent strains may possess the ability to mutate by means of antigenic shift and/or antigenic drift as well as being resistant to antibiotics with time. The outbreak and spread of these virulent diseases including avian influenza (H1N1), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-Corona virus), cholera (Vibrio cholera), tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola Virus) and AIDS (HIV-1) necessitate urgent attention to develop diagnostic protocols and assays for rapid detection and screening. Rapid and accurate detection of first cases with certainty will contribute significantly in preventing disease transmission and escalation to pandemic levels. As a result, there is a need to develop technologies that can meet the heavy demand of an all-embedded, inexpensive, specific and fast biosensing for the detection and screening of pathogens in active or latent forms to offer quick diagnosis and early treatments in order to avoid disease aggravation and unnecessary late treatment costs. Nucleic acid aptamers are short, single-stranded RNA or DNA sequences that can selectively bind to specific cellular and biomolecular targets. Aptamers, as new-age bioaffinity probes, have the necessary biophysical characteristics for improved pathogen detection. This article seeks to review global pandemic situations in relation to advances in pathogen detection systems. It particularly discusses aptameric biosensing and establishes application opportunities for effective pandemic monitoring. Insights into the application of continuous polymeric supports as the synthetic base for aptamer coupling to provide the needed convective mass transport for rapid screening is also presented.     

The Primacy of Moringa (<i>Moringa oleifera</i> Lam.) in Boosting Nutrition Status and Immunity Defence Amidst the COVID-19 Catastrophe: A Perspective

A severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) led novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak spread through China has become the biggest global public health challenge today. The virus upon several mutations has led to the resurgence of more infectious and lethal variants infecting over 298 million people with more than 5.46 million deaths worldwide by the end of December, 2021. Though vaccines are available, various preventive measures particularly a high body immunity is still extremely important which determines the likelihood of disease severity and subsequent recovery in the current and future pandemics. This review acknowledges the potentiality of miraculous Moringa oleifera Lam. against recently evolved novel coronavirus and accompanying health complications. Moringa a well-proven super-food, densely packed with an abundant quantity of 92 minerals, several vitamins, 46 antioxidants, and numerous bioactive compounds, thus own a massive therapeutic potential for healing all levels of nutritional deficiencies and poor immunities and cure above 300 diseases. Moringa acts as anti-asthmatic, anti-cancerous, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, hypotensive, hepatic, renal and cardio-protective, and anti-viral in nature. Thus it may reduce the severity of COVID-19 infections and associated serious medical emergencies. In addition, self-isolation at home or the workplace has put people at increased risk of physical and mental sicknesses, which could be simply addressed by integrating this wonderful plant into everyday diet. Furthermore, the immune-modulatory properties and viral inhibiting nature of moringa contribute to reduced risk of COVID-19 infection and quicker recovery from its symptoms. As per the existing pieces of literature, it is a great time to harness the esteemed moringa for safeguarding people from the terrible ongoing COVID-19 situation and other future pandemics.     

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Diagnostic Tools: A Focus on Detection Technologies and Limitations

The ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses a severe threat to human health and the global economy and has resulted in overwhelming stress on health care systems worldwide. Despite the global health catastrophe, especially in the number of infections and fatalities, the COVID-19 pandemic has also revolutionized research and discovery with remarkable success in diagnostics, treatments, and vaccine development. The use of many diagnostic methods has helped establish public health guidelines to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. However, limited information has been shared about these methods, and there is a need for the scientific community to learn about these technologies, in addition to their sensitivity, specificity, and limitations. This review article is focused on providing insights into the major methods used for SARS-CoV-2 detection. We describe in detail the core principle of each method, including molecular and serological approaches, along with reported claims about the rates of false negatives and false positives, the types of specimens needed, and the level of technology and the time required to perform each test. Although this study will not rank or prioritize these methods, the information will help in the development of guidelines and diagnostic protocols in clinical settings and reference laboratories.     

Focus: Preventive Medicine: The Impact of the Social Distancing Policy on COVID-19 Incidence Cases and Deaths in Iran from February 2020 to January 2021: Insights from an Interrupted Time Series Analysis

Background: In December 2019, a viral outbreak occurred in China, and rapidly spread out worldwide. Due to the lack of immediately available vaccines and effective drugs, many policy- and decision-makers have focused on non-pharmacological methods, including social distancing. This study was aimed at assessing the effects of the implementation of this policy in Iran, one of the countries most affected by COVID-19. We conducted a quasi-experimental study, utilizing the interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) approach. Methods: We collected daily data between February 20, 2020 and January 29, 2021, through governmental websites from 954 public hospitals and healthcare settings. The Iranian government launched the social distancing policy on March 27, 2020. Statistical analyses, including ITSA, were carried out with R software Version 3.6.1 (London, UK). Results: During the study period, 1,398,835 confirmed incidence cases and 57,734 deaths occurred. We found a decrease of -179.93 (95% CI: -380.11 to -20.25, P-value=0.078) confirmed incidence cases following the implementation of the social distancing policy, corresponding to a daily decrease in the trend of -31.17 (95% CI: -46.95 to -15.40, P-value=0.08). Moreover, we found a decrease of -28.28 (95% CI: -43.55 to -13.01, P-value=0.05) deaths, corresponding to a daily decrease in the trend of -4.52 (95% CI: -5.25 to -3.78, P-value=0.003). Conclusion: The growth rate of confirmed incidence cases and deaths from COVID-19 in Iran has decreased from March 27, 2020 to January 29, 2021, after the implementation of social distancing. By implementing this policy in all countries, the burden of COVID-19 may be mitigated.     

COVID-19 y salas de análisis del riesgo en salud pública en cuatro departamentos fronterizos de Colombia

Introduction:

Public health risk management in Colombia is led by the Instituto Nacional de Salud. In the face of the COVID-19 emergency, response actions centered on the implementation of risk analysis rooms and the strengthening of surveillance at points of entry into the country.

Objective:

To analyze the implementation and maintenance phases of the COVID-19 risk analysis rooms in four border departments of Colombia.

Materials and methods:

We conducted a qualitative study of public health risk analysis rooms for COVID-19. We reviewed the documentation and data generated from March to June, 2020, in the departments of Amazonas, Vichada, Guainía, and Putumayo. We did semi-structured interviews with key actors and analyzed the answers using the NVivo plus version 11 application in three cycles: open coding, identification of emerging categories, and modeling by analyzing the identified strengths and weaknesses.

Results:

We identified the components of the incident command structure and the relationships between the public health areas. Strengths were evidenced in the integration of the areas: the management of information in real time, the border surveillance and the capabilities of rapid response teams, while weaknesses appeared in planning, community surveillance, and risk communication processes.

Conclusions:

Risk analysis rooms constitute a joint effort at the national and local levels which has promoted the articulated participation of all actors in the analysis of information and the optimization of an organized response during the COVID-19 pandemic.