Black fungus or mucormycosis: a cross-sectional knowledge assessment among the Bangladeshi health care workers during COVID-19 pandemic

‘Black fungus’ or ‘Mucormycosis’ is an emerging public health concern during the COVID-19 pandemic. The rise of black fungus cases here in Bangladesh among the COVID-19 infected persons has been raised reasonable alarming conditions among health care workers along with the general people. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate black fungus knowledge of Bangladeshi health care workers aiming the issue could be managed readily by the health care systems. A cross-sectional study was carried out among the Bangladeshi health care workers from May 25, 2021, to June 5, 2021. As COVID-19 restriction existed countrywide, data were collected via a semi-structured online questionnaire by following convenient and snowball sampling methods. The main outcome variable of this study was the black fungus knowledge score; was measured by a six items’ questionnaire. The other studied variables included socio-demographic, workplace, COVID-19, and health-related information of the respondents. The t-test and one-way ANOVA test were performed to investigate the association between the black fungus knowledge score and the studied variables. This study found 422 responses from the health care workers of Bangladesh. Among the respondents, nearly half of them (45.26%) were doctors (n= 191); where the nurses (n=161) were 38.15%, and other health care workers (n=70) were 16.59%. This study found that the black fungus knowledge mean scores of health care workers were significantly associated with seniority (p=0.001), gender (p-value = 0.012), profession (p <0.001), death of friends and family members due to COVID-19 (p=0.049), and, etc. Moreover, the gender, income, job type, and marital status of the respondents were also found to be significantly associated with the mean scores of several items of the black fungus knowledge questionnaire. Proper knowledge of health care workers regarding any emerging public health issues is considered as a sine qua non-indicator of implementing the health care system readily. This study emphasized the black fungus knowledge of the health care workers along with other associated factors. The study's findings could help the policymakers to mitigate the mucormycosis and other infectious diseases emergencies in the post-COVID-19 situation, where the wave of the pandemic was surging continuously

BDMediLeaves: A leaf images dataset for Bangladeshi medicinal plants identification

This paper introduces a newly curated dataset named “BDMediLeaves” that includes a diverse collection of leaf images of ten distinct medicinal plants from various regions in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ten distinct categories are Phyllanthus emblica, Terminalia arjuna, Kalanchoe pinnata, Centella asiatica, Justicia adhatoda, Mikania micrantha, Azadirachta indica, Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, Ocimum tenuiflorum, and Calotropis gigantea. The dataset contains a total of 2,029 original leaf images, along with an additional 38,606 augmented images. Each original image was meticulously captured under natural lighting conditions with an appropriate background. Experts provided accurate labeling for each image, ensuring its seamless integration into various machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) models. This comprehensive dataset holds immense potential for researchers in utilizing various ML and DL methods to make significant advancements in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. It serves as a valuable resource for future investigations, laying the foundation for crucial developments in these domains

Workplace violence and turnover intention among the Bangladeshi female nurses after a year of pandemic: An exploratory cross-sectional study.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, workplace violence was widespread against healthcare personnel. Workplace violence (WPV) against nurses exhilarates their turnover intention (TI). The objective of this study was to investigate the association between workplace violence and turnover intention and also identify other factors associated with TI among Bangladeshi female nurses. An exploratory cross-sectional study was carried out among 881 female nurses between April 26 and July 10, 2021. The TI of the female nurses was the outcome variable of this study. The primary exposure variable was WPV faced by the nurses. Workplace Violence Scale (WPVS) was used to measure the WPV, and Turnover Intention Scale-6 (TIS-6) was used to measure the TI of the nurses. Multiple linear regression model was fitted to find the adjusted association of TI with WPV and other study variables. A stratified analysis by type of job (government vs. private) was also performed. The majority of the nurses (74.46%) faced low to high levels of WPV. The overall mean score of TIS was found 16.33 (± 4.72). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that compared to government jobholders, the mean score of TIS (15.81 vs. 17.20) was found significantly higher among the private jobholders (p < 0.001). Nurses exposed to the intermediate and high level of WPV had a significantly higher TI score (β = 4.35, 95% CI: 3.36, 5.34) than the non-exposures. The TI of private jobholders was found significantly higher (β = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.09, 3.00) than the government jobholders. Compared to diploma degree holders, significantly higher TI was observed among the B.Sc. degree holders (β = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.22, 1.55) and M.Sc. degree holders (β = 1.46, 95% CI: 0.58, 2.34). Besides, the nurses who did not get timely salaries scored higher TI (β = 1.17, 95% CI: 0.12, 2.22). Moreover, the nurses who did not receive any training against WPV scored significantly higher TI (β = 1.89, 95% CI: 1.03, 2.74). The stratified analysis by type of job also revealed significant factors of TI in government and private settings. This study found a high prevalence of WPV and a high rate of TI among Bangladeshi female nurses. Moreover, this study explored an association between WPV and TI. The study findings could help policymakers facilitate a comfortable working environment by preventing WPV and addressing the factors to reduce nurses' frequent TI