1.Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on routine immunization services in a tertiary care hospital of Rajasthan, India
Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research 2023;12(4):313-318
Purpose:
Globally, 25 million children were either unvaccinated or under-vaccinated in year 2021. Among them, India had the highest number of children unvaccinated. Studies have shown impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on routine health-care services. Present study aimed to estimate the impact of COVID-19 on utilization of routine immunization services during years 2020 and 2021 in tertiary-care facility.
Materials and Methods:
Record based descriptive analytic study was conducted at pediatric tertiary-care hospital, Jaipur. Data of children vaccinated as per the National Immunization Schedule for the period January 2019 to December 2021 were retrieved from the immunization records. Doses administered were assessed as a proxy measure of vaccine coverage. The vaccination trends of 2020 and 2021 were compared assuming base year 2019. Unpaired t-test of significance and Pearson correlation was used for correlation analysis.
Results:
There was significant drop in the vaccine counts after emergence of COVID-19 pandemic. In year 2020 and 2021, mean monthly vaccine count was 2,190±715.1 and 2,305±393.2, respectively, in which maximum drop was in April 2020 (-79.12%) and May 2021 (-57.16%) when it was compared with matched month of base year. There was negative correlation between percent change in vaccine count and COVID-19 cases in 2020 (r=-0.057, p=0.861) and 2021 (r=-0.827, p=0.001) as compared to year 2019.
Conclusion
Study concludes that there was a significant gap in utilization of routine immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic. This necessitates planning and management of routine immunization services in-case of future pandemics to avoid resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in the Rajasthan.
2.Global Awareness of Myocardial Infarction Symptoms in General Population: a Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
Akash SHARMA ; Karavadi VIDUSHA ; Harshini SURESH ; Ajan M. J. ; Kavinkumar SARAVANAN ; Madhvi DHAMANIA ; Nisha B ; Rabbanie Tariq WANI
Korean Circulation Journal 2021;51(12):983-996
Background and Objectives:
Knowledge about myocardial Infarction (MI) symptoms is crucial because inadequate awareness ensures direct association with patient delay and adverse health events subsequently.
Methods:
PRISMA guidelines were followed while conducting the systematic review with PROSPERO number CRD42020219802. An electronic search was conducted comprehensively through 5 databases to find those relevant articles systematically. Prevalence was calculated for each typical symptom of MI separately and subgroup analysis according to continent, country, gender and ethnicity was done. Meta-Analysis was conducted by using statistical software R version 3.4.3. A random-effects model was used.
Results:
Studies from 35 different countries with 120,988,548 individuals were included in the final analysis. The prevalence of chest pain awareness was highest, while it was lowest for jaw, back, and neck pain. There was no difference in terms of awareness in males and females. Prevalence of awareness of typical MI symptoms was higher in the Caucasian white, white, and non-Hispanic white groups than in other groups. The prevalence varies from less than 5% in African countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Asian countries such as Nepal to as high as 90% in Germany.
Conclusions
People are well aware of chest pain as a symptom of MI. However, there is limited knowledge regarding other typical symptoms of MI.