Reflections of an earliest established screening and testing facility for COVID-19 in the largest Metropolis, Pakistan

As the world struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, this article talks about the experience and findings of the first COVID-19 screening facility in a tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Department of Family Medicine at Aga Khan University (AKU) took initiative where COVID-19 screening of stable patients first began in a dedicated area. Since testing kits were limited and community spread had not started, nurses would screen every walk-in patient based on the presence of fever, cough, travel history and exposure to COVID-19 positive patient in the last 14 days, and advise swab testing if indicated. Out of 742-screened patients, approximately 66% were males and 34% were females. 38% of patients reported fever and 54% of patients reported cough. 8% (65) patients checked all three screening criteria of cough, fever and international travel exposure whereas 35% were asymptomatic. The majority had clinical exposure (38.3%) followed by public exposure (33.4%) and international travel exposure (19.8%)

Non-compliance to social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic: A comparative cross-sectional study between the developed and developing countries

Background: Despite mass vaccination campaigns, the world has seen a steady rise in the number of SARS-CoV-2 cases, with 178,765,626 cases and 3,869,994 COVID-19 related deaths by June 19th, 2021. Therefore, it is important to enforce social distancing to control its spread. With the variation observed in the severity of the pandemic in different countries, it is also imperative to study the social distancing behaviors amongst the population in developed and developing countries. Design and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 384 participants from 14 different countries were surveyed via an online REDCap form. Results: In this study, it was highlighted that despite adequate knowledge, the overall compliance to COVID-19 related preventive measures remains poor, the lowest being in the senior age group (≥ 65 years), and the highest being in adults aged between 25-64 years (p-value =0.003). Population from the developing countries were more compliant to all preventative measures against COVID-19 spread, except for handwashing, where the difference between the two populations remained insignificant (p-value = 0.038, \u3c0.001, 0.016). Socioeconomic status, prior history of COVID-19 infection, or presence of comorbidities did not significantly affect compliance rates, however, participants with no prior history of this infection were found to be more compliant to donning a mask in public as compared to those with a positive history (p-value = 0.044). Conclusions: Since compliance remains subpar in both the developing and the developed countries, mass campaigns about COVID-19 related preventive measures remain essential in controlling the disease spread

Association of vaspin levels and its SNP rs2236242 with sestational diabetes at a tertiary care setting

Objectives: To evaluate and correlate vaspin levels and genotype frequency in gestational diabetes mellitus.Methods: The case-control study was conducted at Aga Khan University, Karachi, from November 2015 to December 2016, and comprised pregnant women in their second trimester with gestational diabetes mellitus. Healthy pregnant women with similar characteristics were enrolled as the control group. Tetra arms amplification system for vaspin gene was performed. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis.Results: Of the 112 pregnant women, 67(60%) were normo-glycaemic and 45(40%) had gestational diabetes. Those with gestational diabetes had a higher body mass index (p=0.047) and fasting blood glucose levels (p\u3c0.01). Serum vaspin concentrations were significantly lower in the healthy group compared to the diabetics (p=0.041). Genotype and allele frequencies followed Hardy Weinberg\\\\u27s Equilibrium but no significant differences were observed in genotype distribution between the groups (p\u3e0.05).Conclusion: Higher serum vaspin levels were seen in gestational diabetic females, but genotype and allele frequencies showed no association of vaspin with gestational diabetes mellitus