Effects of COVID-19 Lockdown on Physical Activity and Health-Related Quality of Life in Older Adults Who Regularly Exercise

The aim of the study was to analyze the effect of social distancing on physical activity (PA) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) in active Spanish older adults according to their physical functionality. The study included 58 older adults aged 76.24 ± 6.00 years who were enrolled in a supervised physical exercise program before the COVID-19 outbreak. Anthropometric, physical function, physical activity and HRQoL were measured at baseline (October 2019). After the two-month lockdown due to the COVID-19, questionnaires were collected again during de-escalation (May 2020). Participants were divided into high- (n = 29) and low-functionality (n = 29) groups. Total PA, walking and cleaning significantly decreased (p < 0.001) whilst exercising or dancing increased (p < 0.001). General health, social and emotional role functioning dimensions and overall mental component scores worsened (p < 0.01–p < 0.05). Low-functionality participants had significantly lower physical functioning scores at baseline (p < 0.01) and lower bodily pain scores at de-escalation (p < 0.01). Emotional role functioning dimension and overall mental component significantly decreased only in low-functionality participants (p < 0.05). Although PA levels decreased significantly, older adults continued being active regardless of their functionality. While mental HRQoL in participants with higher physical functionality remained unchanged, participants with lower functional capacity had a higher risk of mental health concerns. Therefore, attention should focus on strategies to mitigate the negative effects of distancing measures on older people’s mental health, especially in those with lower functionality.This work was supported by the Basque Government (IT1288-19)

La imagen y la narrativa como herramientas para el abordaje psicosocial en escenarios de violencia. Departamentos de Bolívar y Cesar

En el siguiente escrito se evidencia el último trabajo propuesto del diplomado de Profundización en Acompañamiento Psicosocial en Escenario de Violencia, en el cual se deja en evidencia los flagelos que ha sufrido nuestro país (Colombia) al transcurrir el tiempo, donde se refleja las diferentes violencias vividas en diferentes escenarios, y las secuelas que hasta el día de hoy siguen afectando su desarrollo individual, familiar y comunitario dentro de la sociedad. En el transcurrir de este escrito podemos examinar testimonios de víctimas y casos de comunidades que reflejan el sufrimiento, la injusticia, el abandono del estado, el desarraigo que han tenido que vivir en carne propia debido a un confrontamiento absurdo de diferentes actores armados como la guerrilla y paramilitares, además de la violación de los derechos humanos por parte de las fuerzas armadas. Las experiencias de estos individuos han sido desgarradoras, esto ha causado que ellos se desplacen desde sus lugares de orígenes hacia otras comunidades en la búsqueda de tener una vida mejor, tratando de alejarse de todo aquello que conlleva la guerra. Por otro lado a partir del abordaje de los casos propuestos en los relatos de víctimas del conflicto armado en diferentes escenarios, se llega a un consenso de elegir colaborativamente el caso de Alfredo Campo llevando así un análisis detallado del mismo, lo cual nos permitió conocer las afecciones que sufren las víctimas del conflicto armado a manos de grupos al margen de la ley, las voces que transmiten las mismas, esto nos permite el abordaje psicosocial a través de estrategias a favor de las víctimas. Por último y no menos importante se realizaron estrategias psicosociales frente al caso Peñas Coloradas, por lo tanto se realizaron análisis de los emergentes psicosociales que están presentes en las víctimas; todo esto se llevó a cabo a través de la solución de preguntas orientadoras, que sirvieron para la contextualización de la situación presentada en esta población en específico, lo cual generó una serie de consideraciones sobre el abordaje y estrategias de acompañamiento psicosocial, los cuales permiten la potencialización de las posiciones resilientes y metamórfico de la población.The following writing shows the latest work proposed by the Diploma in Deepening in Psychosocial Accompaniment in the Scene of Violence, in which the scourges that our country (Colombia) has suffered over time are revealed, where the different types of violence are reflected lived in different settings, and the consequences that to this day continue to affect their individual, family and community development within society. In the course of this writing we can examine testimonies of victims and cases of communities that reflect the suffering, injustice, the abandonment of the state, the uprooting that they have had to live in their own flesh due to an absurd confrontation of different armed actors such as the guerrillas and paramilitaries, in addition to the violation of human rights by the armed forces. The experiences of these individuals have been heartbreaking, this has caused them to move from their places of origin to other communities in search of a better life, trying to get away from everything that war entails. On the other hand, from the approach of the cases proposed in the stories of victims of the armed conflict in different settings, a consensus is reached to collaboratively choose the case of Alfredo Campo, thus leading to a detailed analysis of it, which we will get to know the affections suffered by the victims of the armed conflict at the hands of groups outside the law, the voices that transmit them, this allows us to approach psychosocially through strategies in favor of the victims. Last but not least, psychosocial strategies were carried out in the case of the Peñas Coloradas case, therefore analyzes were carried out of the psychosocial emergencies that are present in the victims; All this was carried out through the solution of guiding questions, which served to contextualize the situation presented in this specific population, which generated a series of considerations on the approach and strategies of psychosocial support, which allow the potentialization of the resilient and metamorphic positions of the population

Efficacy and safety of the CVnCoV SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine candidate in ten countries in Europe and Latin America (HERALD): a randomised, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase 2b/3 trial

Background: Additional safe and efficacious vaccines are needed to control the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to analyse the efficacy and safety of the CVnCoV SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine candidate. Methods: HERALD is a randomised, observer-blinded, placebo-controlled, phase 2b/3 clinical trial conducted in 47 centres in ten countries in Europe and Latin America. By use of an interactive web response system and stratification by country and age group (18–60 years and ≥61 years), adults with no history of virologically confirmed COVID-19 were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive intramuscularly either two 0·6 mL doses of CVnCoV containing 12 μg of mRNA or two 0·6 mL doses of 0·9% NaCl (placebo) on days 1 and 29. The primary efficacy endpoint was the occurrence of a first episode of virologically confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 of any severity and caused by any strain from 15 days after the second dose. For the primary endpoint, the trial was considered successful if the lower limit of the CI was greater than 30%. Key secondary endpoints were the occurrence of a first episode of virologically confirmed moderate-to-severe COVID-19, severe COVID-19, and COVID-19 of any severity by age group. Primary safety outcomes were solicited local and systemic adverse events within 7 days after each dose and unsolicited adverse events within 28 days after each dose in phase 2b participants, and serious adverse events and adverse events of special interest up to 1 year after the second dose in phase 2b and phase 3 participants. Here, we report data up to June 18, 2021. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04652102, and EudraCT, 2020–003998–22, and is ongoing. Findings: Between Dec 11, 2020, and April 12, 2021, 39 680 participants were enrolled and randomly assigned to receive either CVnCoV (n=19 846) or placebo (n=19 834), of whom 19 783 received at least one dose of CVnCoV and 19 746 received at least one dose of placebo. After a mean observation period of 48·2 days (SE 0·2), 83 cases of COVID-19 occurred in the CVnCoV group (n=12 851) in 1735·29 person-years and 145 cases occurred in the placebo group (n=12 211) in 1569·87 person-years, resulting in an overall vaccine efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 of 48·2% (95·826% CI 31·0–61·4; p=0·016). Vaccine efficacy against moderate-to-severe COVID-19 was 70·7% (95% CI 42·5–86·1; CVnCoV 12 cases in 1735·29 person-years, placebo 37 cases in 1569·87 person-years). In participants aged 18–60 years, vaccine efficacy against symptomatic disease was 52·5% (95% CI 36·2–64·8; CVnCoV 71 cases in 1591·47 person-years, placebo, 136 cases in 1449·23 person-years). Too few cases occurred in participants aged 61 years or older (CVnCoV 12, placebo nine) to allow meaningful assessment of vaccine efficacy. Solicited adverse events, which were mostly systemic, were more common in CVnCoV recipients (1933 [96·5%] of 2003) than in placebo recipients (1344 [67·9%] of 1978), with 542 (27·1%) CVnCoV recipients and 61 (3·1%) placebo recipients reporting grade 3 solicited adverse events. The most frequently reported local reaction after any dose in the CVnCoV group was injection-site pain (1678 [83·6%] of 2007), with 22 grade 3 reactions, and the most frequently reported systematic reactions were fatigue (1603 [80·0%] of 2003) and headache (1541 [76·9%] of 2003). 82 (0·4%) of 19 783 CVnCoV recipients reported 100 serious adverse events and 66 (0·3%) of 19 746 placebo recipients reported 76 serious adverse events. Eight serious adverse events in five CVnCoV recipients and two serious adverse events in two placebo recipients were considered vaccination-related. None of the fatal serious adverse events reported (eight in the CVnCoV group and six in the placebo group) were considered to be related to study vaccination. Adverse events of special interest were reported for 38 (0·2%) participants in the CVnCoV group and 31 (0·2%) participants in the placebo group. These events were considered to be related to the trial vaccine for 14 (<0·1%) participants in the CVnCoV group and for five (<0·1%) participants in the placebo group. Interpretation: CVnCoV was efficacious in the prevention of COVID-19 of any severity and had an acceptable safety profile. Taking into account the changing environment, including the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants, and timelines for further development, the decision has been made to cease activities on the CVnCoV candidate and to focus efforts on the development of next-generation vaccine candidates. Funding: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and CureVac

International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortiu (INICC) report, data summary of 43 countries for 2007-2012. Device-associated module

We report the results of an International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium (INICC) surveillance study from January 2007-December 2012 in 503 intensive care units (ICUs) in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. During the 6-year study using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) U.S. National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions for device-associated health care–associated infection (DA-HAI), we collected prospective data from 605,310 patients hospitalized in the INICC's ICUs for an aggregate of 3,338,396 days. Although device utilization in the INICC's ICUs was similar to that reported from ICUs in the U.S. in the CDC's NHSN, rates of device-associated nosocomial infection were higher in the ICUs of the INICC hospitals: the pooled rate of central line–associated bloodstream infection in the INICC's ICUs, 4.9 per 1,000 central line days, is nearly 5-fold higher than the 0.9 per 1,000 central line days reported from comparable U.S. ICUs. The overall rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia was also higher (16.8 vs 1.1 per 1,000 ventilator days) as was the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infection (5.5 vs 1.3 per 1,000 catheter days). Frequencies of resistance of Pseudomonas isolates to amikacin (42.8% vs 10%) and imipenem (42.4% vs 26.1%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates to ceftazidime (71.2% vs 28.8%) and imipenem (19.6% vs 12.8%) were also higher in the INICC's ICUs compared with the ICUs of the CDC's NHSN

Erratum to: Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition) (Autophagy, 12, 1, 1-222, 10.1080/15548627.2015.1100356

non present