Introduction: This study aims to compare the characteristics and outcomes of the first and second waves of coronavirus disease 2019 in hemodialysis (HD) patients.Method: We compared the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiological characteristics and outcomes of a cohort of HD patients who contracted COVID-19 in our HD center during the first wave from May 2020 to September 2020 and the second wave from November 2020 to February 2021.Results: A total of 50 (11.8%) of 423 patients during the first wave and 46 (10.5%) of 437 patients during the second wave contracted COVID-19. The median age was 59.5 ± 9.99 years (first wave) and 60.3 ± 13.02 years (second wave). Most patients developed the mild disease. Patients requiring hospitalization (22% vs. 32.6%) and mechanical ventilation (10% vs. 17.4%) were more in the second wave. The most common symptom was fever (82% and 63%) in both waves. Patchy bilateral opacity was the most common radiological finding. Major complications including lymphocytopenia (36% and 63%), pneumonia (28% and 32.6%), thrombocytopenia (30% and 17.4%), and septic shock (6% and 10.9%) were shared. Ten (20%) patients died in the first wave and 13 (28.3%) in the second wave. Patients aged > 60 years had more severe disease and died more than patients aged < 60 years in both waves.Conclusion: There is a high susceptibility and mortality of HD patients in both the first and second waves of COVID-19 as compared to the general population. Disease symptoms, radiological findings, and laboratory tests were similar in both waves. Patients developing critical disease and requiring hospitalization and mechanical ventilation were more in the second wave.

Background: Neck pain is characterized by pain in the posterior-inferior part of the occiput and neck pain is become increasingly common in individuals. Objective: To find out the intensity and level of disability of neck pain among undergraduate physical therapy students of Agile Institute of Rehabilitation Sciences because medical students are at high-risk group of developing neck pain. Methodology: It was a cross-sectional study. We included 145 students with neck pain, from 1st year to final year, both male and female in age 18-30 years. The data was collected by using convenient sampling technique. The pain was measured using Numeric Pain Rating Scale (NPRS) and Neck Disability Index (NDI) was used to classify the severity of disability of their neck. The data was entered in SPSS version 25 for analysis. The frequency tables and graphs were used to represent the results. Results: In this study 145 participants were included, out of all 108(74.5%) were females and 37(25.5%) were males, with mean age 24.75+5.25 years. This study shows that 74(51.0%) participants had mild pain, 61(42.1%) had moderate pain and 10(6.9%) participants had worse pain. The categories of NDI were mild among 85.5%, 8.3 % were in moderate and 6.2% were in sever disability category. Conclusion: According to the findings, undergraduate students have mild pain and mild disability according to NPRS and NDI respectively.