COVID-19 and Face Mask Use: A St. Kitts Case Study

BACKGROUND: Mask wearing in the COVID-19 pandemic was previously hypothesized as a protective symbol that decreases compliance with other measures such as face touching and social distancing. However, the face mask is now central to the prevention of viral spread. AIM: In this paper, we looked at the shift of guidelines regarding mask use and the mask-wearing adherence habits of the Kittitian population at the onset of the pandemic. METHODS: In this study, we observed 468 individuals, each for 5 min, for the different types of face masks used and their adherence to the Center for Disease Control guidelines for the use of this personal protective equipment. We did the observation at three different locations at Basseterre, St. Kitts, from the 21st to April 30, 2020. RESULTS: We noted that 49.31% had medical-grade masks (N95 and surgical), 36.11% had improvised masks, and 14.74% had no facial covering. About 34% of persons with masks were not correctly covering their nose or mouth and 16.45% were touching their face with their hands. Wearing any face-covering appears to lead to more face touching than no covering at 18.25% versus 5.8%. The highest proportion of errors was seen in wearers of surgical masks, leaving the mouth/ nose uncovered at 12.08% of all errors. CONCLUSION: We recommend for public education and political efforts to increase adherence to mask use in conjunction with other protective measures such as social distancing and hand washing for curbing the COVID-19 transmission in St. Kitts and Nevis

A strategy to reveal high-frequency RFLPs along the human X chromosome.

Fifteen human X-chromosome-specific DNA fragments, localized to particular regions of that chromosome, were used to search for restriction fragment length polymorphisms. A screening panel prepared by digesting DNA from only two females and one male with 24 restriction enzymes was sufficient to reveal two-allele polymorphisms among one-third of the probes tested. These polymorphisms, as theoretically anticipated, showed minor allele frequencies above 20%, as a rule. Such high-frequency polymorphism allowed identifying females, from pedigrees segregating three X-linked diseases, who were multiply heterozygous for polymorphic loci spread throughout the X chromosome. In addition, two of the 24 enzymes tested with these X-specific probes, Msp I and Taq I, generate fragment sizes in DNA-blotting experiments that, on average, are significantly larger than expected from nearest neighbor predicted recognition site frequencies

Common variants at 19p13 are associated with susceptibility to ovarian cancer.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of death from gynecological malignancy in the developed world, accounting for 4% of the deaths from cancer in women. We performed a three-phase genome-wide association study of EOC survival in 8,951 individuals with EOC (cases) with available survival time data and a parallel association analysis of EOC susceptibility. Two SNPs at 19p13.11, rs8170 and rs2363956, showed evidence of association with survival (overall P = 5 × 10⁻⁴ and P = 6 × 10⁻⁴, respectively), but they did not replicate in phase 3. However, the same two SNPs demonstrated genome-wide significance for risk of serous EOC (P = 3 × 10⁻⁹ and P = 4 × 10⁻¹¹, respectively). Expression analysis of candidate genes at this locus in ovarian tumors supported a role for the BRCA1-interacting gene C19orf62, also known as MERIT40, which contains rs8170, in EOC development