Factors associated with psychological distress among Myanmar residents during COVID-19 pandemic crises

Background: COVID-19 pandemic reached a public health emergency status of international concern. The impacts and events associated with this were associated with adverse psychological impacts among the general public globally. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of psychological distress and to identify predictors associated with psychological distress due to the COVID-19 pandemic among the population in Myanmar. Design and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from March to April 2020 among adults, 18 years old and above, who reside in Myanmar through a structured questionnaire distributed in social media platforms. Univariate and Bivariate analyses were used to estimate the prevalence of COVID-19 Peritraumatic Distress Index (CPDI) symptoms and to test the associations between CPDI and the exposure variables. Logistic Regression Analysis was done to identify significant predictors of distress. Results: There were 530 participants in this study.37.4% of them did not have psychological distress,55.6% experienced mild to moderate psychological distress, and 7% experienced severe psychological distress due to COVID-19 pandemic. Simple and Multiple Logistic Regression Analyses were performed to determine the factors associated with psychological distress due to COVID-19. Conclusions: It was shown that the self-employed group and age group older than 45 years old had more psychological distress than others. However, Buddhists and people from the capital city had less distress than other religions and districts. This study recommends the government to develop better strategies for self-employed groups, elders, and the poor for a support, relief, and resettlement of their ruined status

Prevalence of Depression and its Associated Factors Among Adults during Third Wave of COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia, 2021

Malaysia recently entered third-wave of COVID-19 pandemic starting from October 2020 to end of January 2021. Therefore, objective of our study was to identify the prevalence of depression and its associated factors among adults during third wave of COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. A total of 1468 Malaysian adults participated in this cross-sectional web-based survey. A standardized questionnaire was generated using the Google Form, and the link was shared through social media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp. Patient Health Questionnaires (PHQ-9) was used to assess the levels of depression. Among 1468 participants, 320 (22 %) and 358 (24.6 %) indicated to have moderate to severe depression during third-wave of COVID-19 in Malaysia. Multiple predictors were identified that contributed to depression. These included female gender, family’s source income affected by the pandemic, do not perform exercise, victim of abuse and those with family and/or friends infected with COVID-19 virus. COVID-19 pandemic had caused the implementation of lockdown and physical distancing in Malaysia and nations across the globe. The pandemic had brought serious negative impacts on mental health of the adults especially depression especially during third wave of pandemic. The findings of our study suggested that new interventions or strategies are needed to be developed to address the severity of depression among Malaysian adults

Assessment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders and its Associations with Suicidal Behaviour among Adults Following Movement Control Order During COVID-19 Pandemic in Malaysia

A rapid review of previous outbreaks shows that a quarantine policy had greater effects on one’s psychological state including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), confusion and anger caused by various stressors. This study aimed to assess the levels of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and its associations with suicidal behavior among Malaysian adults following Movement Control Order (MCO) during the COVID-19 pandemic in Malaysia. This cross-sectional study was distributed using an online standardized questionnaire composed of three parts, the socio-demographic characteristics, PTSD assessment using PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 and the suicidal behavior assessment using Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire-Revised (SBQ-R). Almost half of the respondents had high PTSD symptoms (41.7 %) and low PTSD was 58.3 % among Malaysian adults. Furthermore, 69.6 % of participants had no suicidal behavior but, 30.4 % from the participants has suicidal behavior. This study found single status with highest PTSD (83.3 %) and marital status had significant correlation with PTSD which p-value was < 0.05. Malay was high percentage in high PTSD (74.6 %) and significant correlation between race and PTSD (p < 0.05). Employment status also had significant correlation with PTSD with p-value was 0.002 and students was counted highest PTSD (65.7 %). This study identified some socio-demographic factors and suicidal behavior associated with PTSD among Malaysian adults, which may lay ground for further interventions

Identification of Human Iris using Discrete Haar Wavelet Transform

Image recognition is one of the fields of Artificial Intelligence. Nowadays, Image recognition is affecting not only corporations using it within an economic interest but also the average user who uses a digital camera. This process can be done with a variety of tools but most of the time these are too complicated for the inexperienced user to handle. We applied the Haar Wavelet in order to extract the deterministic patterns in a person’s iris in the form of a feature vector for personal identification. These are three basic steps in our system such as image preprocessing, feature extraction and recognition. By comparing the quantized vectors using the Hamming Distance operator, we determine finally whether two irises are similar. Our results show that our system is quite effective.. Our system intent to help for security to identify the person based on human’s iris

Molecular Analysis of Plasmodium ovale Variants

Complete DNA sequences of the small subunit ribosomal RNA (SSUrRNA) gene and partial sequences of three other loci were obtained from three variant-type and three classic-type Plasmodium ovale isolates from Southeast Asia and compared with GenBank-available data. Three different SSUrRNA sequences (Pov 1–3) were found in each variant-type isolate, and two different SSUrRNA sequences (Poc 1–2) in each classic-type isolate. Pov 1–3 were closer to sequences previously found in the Cameroon and MAL/MAI isolates, whereas Poc 1–2 were closer to sequences previously found in two clones of the Nigerian I/CDC strain. The 3′ half of Pov 1–3 was identical to the partial sequence of the SSUrRNA gene from the London School (LS) strain. Results support grouping P. ovale into two groups, the classic type (including the Nigerian I/CDC strain) and the variant type (Cameroon, MAL/MAI, and LS isolates)

Bacterial Species and Antimicrobial Resistance of Clinical Isolates from Pediatric Patients in Yangon, Myanmar, 2020

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a concern in medical care for children who have high burden of infectious diseases. We investigated the prevalence of bacterial species and their susceptibility to antimicrobials of 1019 clinical isolates from pediatric patients in a tertiary-care hospital in Yangon, Myanmar for one-year period (2020). The most frequently recovered species was Escherichia coli, followed by Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococcus aureus, all of which accounted for 43% of clinical isolates, while 25% of isolates comprised non-fermenter, including Pseudomonas sp. and Acinetobacter sp. Phenotypically determined ESBL (extended-spectrum beta-lactamase)-positive rates in E. coli, K. pneumoniae, and Enterobacter sp. were 82%, 88%, and 65%, respectively. High rates of multiple drug resistance were noted for E. coli (84%), K. pneumoniae (81%), and Acinetobacter sp. (65%), associated with carbapenem resistance in 48%, 42%, and 59% of isolates, respectively. In contrast, S. aureus isolates exhibited low resistance rates (<30%) to most of antimicrobials, with 22% being resistant to oxacillin/cefoxitin. Fluoroquinolone resistance was found in most of bacterial species with different prevalence rates. The present study revealed the current status on prevalence of bacterial species causing infections in pediatric patients in Myanmar, highlighting the significance to monitor AMR among children

Assessment of internet addiction during COVID 19 pandemic in India, 2022

Introduction: The effect of COVID-19-related changes (such as disturbance of face-to-face human association, breakdown of propensities, vulnerability almost long-term, money related frailty, and depression) on people's mental well-being.&nbsp; The enormous utilize of the Web can be a double-edged sword: on the one hand, get to to innovation has cultivated people's well-being and has encouraged the get to to social back; on the other hand, it may have turned into tricky utilize, particularly with respect to compulsive utilize and cognitive distraction. &nbsp;Methods: A sample of 311 was calculated by using the Raosoft software. Descriptive analysis, univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were carried out. Binary logistic regression and multiple logistic regression were used for analysis to access the associated factors with internet addiction. Results: The majority of respondents 323(61.5%) belonged to the normal level of internet addiction, which was followed by Moderate level of internet addiction by 113(21.5%) respondents. 8(1.5%) respondents were severely addicted to internet. Conclusion: During COVID 19 pandemic, the prevalence of psychological problems such as Internet Addiction increased especially among young adults. Therefore, national policy should be refined to reduce the stressful lifestyle in order to reduce the impact of internet addiction especially for young adults in India

Factors associated with effects of COVID-19 vaccine among adults in Malaysia

Introduction: Globally, the needs for more focused research to understand the effects of COVID-19 vaccines among the population to verify the previous research and generate more reliable data. Therefore, this cross-sectional study was aimed to identify the factors associated with the effects of COVID-19 vaccination among adults in Malaysia. Methods: Malaysian people aged 18 and up were enrolled in a cross-sectional online survey. For data collection, a Google form was used to design an online questionnaire which was distributed through social media and in person by the author. Results: A total of 446 responses were analyzed. 58% participants received Pfizer BioNTech Covid 19 vaccine followed by Sinovac (21%) and AstraZeneca (16%). The most reported effect was local reaction pain, swelling and redness at the site of injection with 54.3% of participants. It was seen more in Pfizer BioNTech (56.8%) and AstraZeneca (57.1%) recipients in comparison to Sinovac recipients (42.9%), but this difference was not significant (x2=3.453; p-value=0.315). Tiredness/fatigue was the next most reported effect 51.3% by participants. The other more frequently reported effects were body pain (43.3%), muscle pain (41%), fever (41%) and headache (33%) respectively, which are significantly associated with the type of vaccine.&nbsp