Introduction: COVID-19 pandemic affects human health and the global economy. Its evolution is unpredictable, making it hard for governments to provide response actions suited for all populations. Meanwhile, informal street workers carry on with their labor despite contingency measures to sustain their lives. The objective was to conduct a case-control study to become aware of how street vendors' economy is affected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: During phase 2 of the COVID-19 pandemic in a Mexican suburban city. We interviewed informal street vendors (cases) and formal employees (controls). Results: Before mobility restrictions were in place, population income came 1.5% from formal employment and 23.5% from informal employment (street vendors). Informal employees lived on less than the equivalent of 1.5 Big Macs per day (p <0.001). After the contingency measures, formal employment kept the same, while the informal employment ratio increased to 57.4% (p < 0.001). The street vendors were almost 100-times less likely to be concerned about the coronavirus outbreak (p < 0.001) and were 38-times less likely to stop working compared with the formal workers (p < 0.001). Conclusions: We have proven that street vendors are a sector of the population that is highly vulnerable to significant economic loss due to contingency measures. Informal workers cannot stop working despite the “Stay at Home” initiative because the government has not implemented strategies that guarantee their survival and their families. Therefore, street vendors continue to be a source of the virus's spread throughout cities.

Background: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is currently the main public health problem worldwide. The administration of neutral electrolyzed saline, a solution that contains reactive species of chlorine and oxygen (ROS), may be an effective therapeutic alternative due to its immunomodulating characteristics, in systemic inflammation control, as well as in immune response improvement, promoting control of the viral infection. The present study evaluated the efficacy of treatment with intravenous and/or nebulized neutral electrolyzed saline combined with usual medical care versus usual medical care alone, in ambulatory patients with COVID-19.Methods: A prospective, 2-arm, parallel group, randomized, open-label, phase I-II clinical trial included 39 patients in the control group (usual medical care alone) and 45 patients in the experimental group (usual medical care + intravenous and/or nebulized electrolyzed saline, with dose escalation). Two aspects were evaluated during the twenty-day follow-up: i) the number of patients with disease progression (hospitalization or death); and ii) the Patient Acceptable Symptom State (PASS), a single-question outcome that determines patient well-being thresholds for pain and function. Biochemical and hematologic parameters, as well as adverse effects, were evaluated in the experimental group. Results: The experimental treatment decreased the risk for hospitalization by 92% (adjusted RR=0.08, 95% CI: 0.01-0.50, P=0.007), with a 43-fold increase in the probability of achieving an acceptable symptom state on day 5 (adjusted RR= 42.96, 95% CI: 9.22-200.0, P<0.001). Intravenous + nebulized administration was better than nebulized administration alone, but nebulized administration was better than usual medical care alone. Clinical improvement correlated with a decrease in C-reactive protein, and aberrant monocytes and an increase of lymphocytes, and platelets. Cortisol and testosterone levels were also evaluated, observing a decrease in cortisol levels and an increment of testosterone-cortisol ratio, on days 2 and 4. Conclusions: The experimental treatment produced no serious adverse effects. In conclusion, intravenous and/or nebulized neutral electrolyzed saline importantly reduced the symptomatology and risk of progression (hospitalization and death), in ambulatory patients with COVID-19.Trial registration: Cuban Public Registry of Clinical Trials (RPCEC) Database RPCEC00000309. Registered: 05. May 2020. https://rpcec.sld.cu/en/trials/RPCEC00000309-En

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is currently the major public health problem worldwide. Neutral electrolyzed saline solution that contains reactive chlorine and oxygen species may be an effective therapeutic. In the present study, the treatment efficacy of intravenous and/or nebulized neutral electrolyzed saline combined with usual medical care vs. usual medical care alone was evaluated in ambulatory patients with COVID-19. A prospective, 2-arm, parallel-group, randomized, open-label, multi-center, phase I-II clinical trial including 214 patients was performed. The following two outcomes were evaluated during the 20-day follow-up: i) The number of patients with disease progression; and ii) the patient acceptable symptom state. Serial severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 naso/oro-pharyngeal detection by reverse transcription-quantitative (RT-q) PCR was performed in certain patients of the experimental group. Biochemical and hematologic parameters, as well as adverse effects, were also evaluated in the experimental group.

Introduction: Due to the coronavirus pandemic, identifying the infected individuals has become key to limiting its spread. Virus nucleic acid real-time RT-PCR testing has become the current standard diagnostic method but high demand could lead to shortages. Therefore, we propose a detection strategy using a one-step nested RT-PCR. Methodology: The nucleotide region in the ORF1ab gene that has the greatest differences between the human coronavirus and the bat coronavirus was selected. Primers were designed after that sequence. All diagnostic primers are species-specific since the 3´ end of the sequence differs from that of other species. A primer set also creates a synthetic positive control. Amplified products were seen in a 2.5% agarose gel, as well as in an SYBR Green-Based Real-Time RT-PCR. Results: Amplification was achieved for the positive control and specific regions in both techniques. Conclusions: This new technique is flexible and easy to implement. It does not require a real-time thermocycler and can be interpreted in agarose gels, as well as adapted to quantify the viral genome. It has the advantage that if the coronavirus mutates in one of the key amplification nucleotides, at least one pair can still amplify, thanks to the four diagnostic primers.

Mefenamic acid is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug exhibiting a wide range of anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, analgesic and probable antiviral activities. The present study evaluated the efficacy of treatment with mefenamic acid combined with standard medical care vs. standard medical care plus a placebo in ambulatory patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19; nasal/oropharyngeal swabs reverse transcription-PCR test results positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2). The present study is a phase II prospective, two-arm, parallel-group, randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial which analyzed 36 patients. Two aspects were evaluated during the 14-day follow-up period: i) The time for reaching a patient acceptable symptom state (PASS), and ii) the last day of each COVID-19 symptom presentation. Adverse effects were evaluated. The clinical severity for all the patients in the study was mild (88.9%) and moderate (11.1%). The control (placebo) group achieved PASS on day 8.0±1.3, compared with day 4.4±0.8 in the mefenamic acid group (P= 0.020, Kaplan-Meier analyses using log-rank tests). Patients that received mefenamic acid plus standard medical care had a ~16-fold higher probability of achieving PASS on day 8 (adjusted RR, 15.57; 95% CI,; P= 0.035), compared with the placebo plus standard medical care group. All symptoms lasted for fewer days in the mefenamic acid group, compared with the placebo group; however, only the symptoms of headache (P= 0.008), retro-orbital eye pain (P= 0.049), and sore throat (P= 0.029) exhibited statistically significant differences. The experimental treatment produced no severe adverse effects. On the whole, the present study demonstrates that the administration of mefenamic acid markedly reduced the symptomatology and time to reach PASS in ambulatory patients with COVID-19. Due to its probable antiviral effects and potent anti-inflammatory mechanisms, mefenamic acid may prove to be useful in the treatment of cOVId-19, in combination with other drugs, including the new antivirals (remdesivir, molnupiravir, or favipiravir). However, future studies are also required to confirm these findings.