Background: Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are one of the vital and persuading means of information, prevention and control, and incentive of vaccination to content a pandemic. Therefore, knowing the status of HCPs' perception about symptoms, transmission, preventive measures, and attitudes towards a vaccine against COVID-19 is crucial. Methods: This multi-center cross-sectional descriptive study was one of the first and foremost ones in Bangladesh among the HCPs -doctors, nurses, and other subordinates (MLSS) engaged at COVID-dedicated hospitals. The study was conducted from February 5, 2021, to March 7, 2021, using a convenience sampling method among 550 HCPs using structured questionnaire with twenty-five questions on a three-point scale of responses. Results: The age range of the respondents were 18 to 64 years with the mean 36.17 ±10.94 years of 524 HCPs, of which the majority of the respondents were female 323 (61.6%) and 201 (38.4%) were male with the 95.27% response rate. Almost all participants had "high" or more than sufficient perception (94.34%) about the symptoms of COVID-19. But all categories of HCPs expressed their poor or fair practice about restraining from shaking hands, and only 6.84% of nurses, 8.33% doctors, and 11.59% of MLSS avoided crowded public gatherings as a practice of prevention. A majority (95.99%) of the HCPs showed positive attitudes about the availability of vaccines free of cost, and 87.40% showed trust in the efficacy and safety of the vaccine against COVID-19. Conclusion:The majority of the HCPs from the COVID-dedicated hospitals have a good perception and positive attitude towards vaccination; nevertheless, have a poor practice of prevention toward COVID-19. This may play a vital role in motivation and wide acceptance of vaccine among the general population and contribute in comprehensive strategic planning to fight back against the pandemic in the country with the restricted resource.

Objective: With the rapid increase in the rate of infection, repurposing use of many drugs like antivirals, antibiotics, LMWH, steroid, oxygen therapy were considered as an option to find promising anti-COVID therapeutics. In this study, we aim to observe the extent and variety of drugs used in different clinical categories of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospital in Bangladesh. To observe the requirement of oxygen therapy according to severity was also a prime objective to reveal the overall trend, frequency, and pattern of pharmacotherapy in a COVID-dedicated hospital. Materials and method: A total of 1348 patients were admitted, of whom 473 were included in this single-center retrospective study. The critical group consists of 99 ICU patients, the severe group has 38, moderate was 82 and mild group 254 cases, admitted in the general ward. Hospital records of each patient were screened and information about drug and supportive therapy were collected manually by the researchers in the data collection sheet. Data express in MS excel spreadsheet and result expressed in percentage. Results: Critical group received remdesivir (85.86%), favipiravir (27.28%), meropenem (92.93%), moxifloxacin (87.88%) dexamethasone (41.48%), Low Molecular Weight Heparin (98.99%). They also received supportive O2 therapy like High Flow Nasal Cannula (67.68%), Non-Invasive Ventilation (26.67%), and mechanical ventilator (6.06%). A severe group of patients receives the same group of drugs 97.27%, 5.26%, 60.53%, 47.37%, methylprednisolone (55.26%), and 100% LMWH. A moderate group of the patient received favipiravir (97.56%), cephalosporin (64.67%), LMWH (89.02%) and low flow O2 (97.36%) in a higher percentage. All patients of the mild group received doxycycline, ivermectin. Total 33 patients transfuse convalescent plasma. Conclusion: Antiviral, broad-spectrum antibiotics, anti-protozoal, LMWH, corticosteroid, and oxygen therapy are the available treatment option against different clinical categories of admitted COVID-19 patients. Keywords: COVID-19, antiviral, antibiotic, steroid, O2 therapy

Background: Pharmacovigilance is proven as an effective monitoring mechanism for safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical products with the assistance of physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to avoid undue physical, mental and financial suffering of patients. Thus, this study was conducted to assess awareness of pharmacovigilance among the healthcare service providers to evaluate the acquaintance, approach application (3A) of judicial reporting of ADRs and pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Dhaka.Methods: A pre-tested questionnaire-based study was done among the 5th year medical students, interns, doctors and nurses of Holy Family Red Crescent Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh to assess the overall status of acquaintance (knowledge), approach (attitude) and application (practice) pharmacovigilance. Total 417 questionnaires were distributed and 389 were included as valid, compiled and analysed using SPSS version 25.0.Results: Among the respondents, almost 78% of the nurses responded the right answers and doctors responded the lowest 29% on average. The average percentage of approach and application of pharmacovigilance was low in all the respondent groups. The poorest outcome was observed about reporting an adverse drug reactions (ADR) form by all respondents as 01% to 08%.Conclusions: The overall status of pharmacovigilance in a tertiary teaching hospital was found paradoxically low, that revealed the necessity of much more initiatives at the undergraduate and postgraduate academic curriculum and intensive motivation, training, monitoring should be addressed to ensure the safety of medication, rationality of drug use and accomplish the national pharmacovigilance programs.

No abstract

Background: The first recognition of a cluster of COVID-19 patients in China in late 2019, has become a major concern due to its greater transmissibility and vulnerability of the patient to turn to fever, cough, breathlessness, pneumonia then eventually severe acute respiratory distress syndrome requiring intensive care unit (ICU) support. But most of the affected patients get cured following mild symptoms and very only a few of them get hospitalized. The objective of the study was to observe the demographic characteristics, clinical symptoms, comorbidities, and biomarkers (hematological, inflammatory, hepatic, renal, and metabolic) of mild cases of COVID-19 infected patients admitted to the hospital during the peak four months of the pandemic.Methods: Age, sex, symptoms, comorbidities, and biomarkers (Hb%, WBC, lymphocyte, neutrophil, platelet count, HCT(hematocrit), NLR(neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, d-NLR derived neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio, PLR(platelet-lymphocyte-ratio), d-Dimer, ferritin, CRP(C-reactive protein), PT(prothrombin time), INR(international normalized ratio), SGPT, S.creatinine, HbA1C of all rt-PCR positive mild cases were recorded in this retrospective observational study in a tertiary care hospital dedicated to COVID-19 at Dhaka, Bangladesh was done from 15th May to 9th September, 2020. Age, sex, symptoms, and comorbidities were compared by chi-square test and biomarkers were compared by one-way ANOVA. Results: Out of 254 cases 44 were female and 210 were male with a ratio of 1:4.77. Average age was 39.04. Largest population belongs to the 30-39 years of age range. Among the symptoms, anorexia (18.5%), fever (17.71%), and anosmia (16.9%) were most prevalent symptoms among the mild cases. However, diabetes mellitus (DM) and hypertension (HTN) were predominant comorbidities. Mostly all the biomarkers were significant among groups (Hb%, Total WBC, neutrophil count, platelet count, HCT, NLR, d-NLR, d-Dimer, ferritin, CRP, PT, SGPT, creatinine, HbA1C except lymphocyte count, PLR, and INR. The severity of disease progression depends on the co-morbidity and hyper-responsiveness inflammatory or immunological biomarkers to predict.Conclusions: In mild cases of COVID-19 male predominance was more and the most affected group was 30-39 years. They suffered more from anorexia and fever and DM and HTN were common comorbidities. Mostly all the biomarkers were significant. Moreover, further large-scale studies are needed to evaluate the number of mild cases and their prognostic features to develop and modify the treatment strategy and public health awareness time to time.