Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Testing in Croatia: Risk Perception Plays an Important Role in the Epidemic Control

Primorac, Dragan; Perić, Vitorio; Matišić, Vid; Molnar, Vilim; Zadro, Renata; Vince, Adriana; Lauc, Gordan; Polašek, Ozren

doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.708907

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Furthermore, no monitoring system could estimate the current adherence to the protective measures in real-time. Interestingly, one study showed that behavioral factors and risk perception play a role in individual risk estimation (16), suggesting that epidemiological history remains an essential tool in the epidemic monitoring and control. The overall epidemic data may strongly depend on the testing approach and capacity (17), which can generate further modeling difficulties.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia: a comparison of three analytic approaches

et al. 2022

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AimTo facilitate the development of a COVID-19 predictive model in Croatia by analyzing three different methodological approaches.Method We used the historical data to explore the fit of the extended SEIRD compartmental model, the Heidler function, an exponential approximation in analyzing electromagnetic phenomena related to lightning strikes, and the Holt-Winters smoothing (HWS) for short-term epidemic predictions. We also compared various methods for the estimation of R0. ResultsThe R0 estimates for Croatia varied from 2.09 (95% CI 1.77-2.40) obtained by using an empirical post-hoc method to 2.28 (95% CI 2.27-2.28) when we assumed an exponential outbreak at the very beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia. Although the SEIRD model provided a good fit for the early epidemic stages, it was outperformed by the Heidler function fit. HWS achieved accurate short-term predictions and depended the least on model entry parameters. Neither model performed well across the entire observed period, which was characterized by multiple wave-form events, influenced by the re-opening for the tourist season during the summer, mandatory masks use in closed spaces, and numerous measures introduced in retail stores and public places. However, an extension of the Heidler function achieved the best overall fit.Conclusions Predicting future epidemic events remains difficult because modeling relies on the accuracy of the information on population structure and micro-environmental exposures, constant changes of the input parameters, varying societal adherence to anti-epidemic measures, and changes in the biological interactions of the virus and hosts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia: a comparison of three analytic approaches

et al. 2022

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Diplopia, COVID-19 and Vaccination: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study in Croatia

Herman

Marić²,

Ravlić³

et al. 2022

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The aim of this study was to explore diplopia as a symptom of undetected COVID-19 infection or as a possible side effect of COVID-19 vaccination. We examined 380 patients with diplopia admitted to the Department of Ophthalmology of the University Hospital Centre Sestre milosrdnice in Zagreb, Croatia, from July 2020 to June 2022. After excluding patients with confirmed organic underlying diplopia causes or monocular diplopia, we linked the patient information with the national COVID-19 and vaccination registries. Among the 91 patients included in this study, previously undetected COVID-19 infection as the possible cause of diplopia was confirmed in five of them (5.5%). An additional nine patients (9.9%) were vaccinated within one month from the onset of their symptoms, while the remaining 77 had neither and were therefore considered as controls. The breakdown according to the mechanism of diplopia showed no substantial difference between the vaccinated patients and the controls. We detected marginally insignificant excess abducens nerve affection in the COVID-positive group compared with that in the controls (p = 0.051). Post-vaccination diplopia was equally common in patients who received vector-based or RNA-based vaccines (21.4 vs. 16.7%; p = 0.694). COVID-19 testing should be performed for all cases of otherwise unexplained diplopia. The risk of post-vaccination diplopia was similar in both types of vaccines administered, suggesting a lack of evidence linking specific vaccine types to diplopia.

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Rapid COVID-19 Antigen Testing in Croatia: Risk Perception Plays an Important Role in the Epidemic Control

Cited by 2 publications

References 19 publications

Modeling the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia: a comparison of three analytic approaches

Modeling the COVID-19 epidemic in Croatia: a comparison of three analytic approaches

Diplopia, COVID-19 and Vaccination: Results from a Cross-Sectional Study in Croatia

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