OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to evaluate the level of anxiety and fear among Pakistani dentists due to COVID-19. METHODOLOGY: Data of 386 dentists evaluated who responded to the questionnaire sent via social media. Fear of coronavirus scale (FCV-19S) was used for evaluation of fear among Pakistani dentists. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS version 21. One way ANOVA, chi-square and independent t-test were used for statistical analysis. P-value <0.05 was considered as significant. RESULTS: The overall mean FCV-19S score was 26.22 ± 4.907, which is on the higher end. Females showed higher fear scores as compared to males (p<0.001). A statistically significant difference between the scores of General Dental Practitioners (GDP) and specialists was also observed (p<0.001), Statistically, a significant difference was observed between all 4 age groups of dentists, young and elderly dentists demonstrating higher scores (F (3,382) = 8.618, p< 0.001). CONCLUSION: We conclude that due to the current COVID-19 crisis, majority of the dentists of Pakistan are afraid and among them, females, GDPs, young and elderly dentists are found to be more anxious and have a greater fear of getting infected by coronavirus during COVID 19 Pandemic. KEYWORDS: Anxiety, Fear, Pakistani, Dentist, COVID-19 HOW TO CITE: Majeed MM, Saleem Z, Sarwar H, Ramzan Z, Iqbal SN, Naeem MM. The psychology of coronavirus fear: Are dentists of pakistan suffering from corona-phobia?. J Pak Dent Assoc 2021;30(1):1-6.

Pakistan is a developing country with an estimated population of 220 million, and among them 34% are children. Due to the lack of a proper health care system, particularly in rural areas, children are prone to many environmental hazards. This paper reports about the different environmental health issues faced by children in Pakistan and was presented at the Regional Meeting on Children’s Environmental Health at the Chulabhorn Research Institute, Bangkok, Thailand in May 2019. Pakistan is among those countries where polio is still present due to misconceptions, hard-to-reach areas, war zones, political uncertainty, etc. Extensively drug-resistant typhoid is broadly spreading in Pakistan, and this is a very serious concern over antibiotic failure around the world. Pakistan was long considered a region with a low prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus, but now the disease is spreading at an alarming rate. Globally, Pakistan has the third highest burden of maternal, fetal and child mortality. In the last 10 years or so, around 10,000 cases of dengue have been reported with around 800 deaths, including children. Other issues related to children’s environmental health in Pakistan include cholera because of poor sanitation and hygiene, respiratory disease due to pollution, exposure to pesticides, diarrhea, occupational hazards as a result of child labor, etc.

Since the emergence of the novel corona virus, the front line soldiers during this pandemic are the healthcare professionals because of their direct association with COVID19 patients. In the management of such patients, nurses play a significant role through proper care and preventive measures. Due to its contagious nature, fatality and no proper medicine, it is a risk to the health and life of nurses and has an impact on their psychological health. In the current study we assessed the knowledge, attitude, practices and anxiety levels of nurses who are directly involved in the management of COVID-19 patients. It was an online questionnaire based cross sectional survey targeting only those nurses involved in the management of COVID-19 patients from different hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan. SPSS 21 was used for data analysis. Descriptive analysis, Chi Square and t-tests were applied. P value < 0.05 was considered significant. Data of 78 nurses was analyzed. We observed that nurses possess good knowledge about COVID-19, its sources, symptoms and routes of transmission of the Virus etc. The knowledge mean score was calculated 14.67 ± 3.36. Health department /Hospital and social media are the main sources of information regarding COVID-19. We investigated that 92.3% of the nurses had mild to very severe anxiety and anxiety levels are significantly higher among females (P< 0.05). We concluded that the nurses performing their duties with COVID-19 positive patients have good knowledge and attitude. But their anxiety levels are high. Psychological interventions along with training should be given.

Periodontitis (P) is a highly prevalent inflammatory disease of the oral cavity. The objective of the study was to evaluate the stages of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1β in initial, moderate and severe periodontitis. One hundred and twenty two patients were included in the study. Periodontitis subjects had at least 20 natural teeth and ≥8 sites with pocket depths of >4 mm and clinical attachment loss (CAL). A questionnaire was used with respect to the socio demographic parameters which included age, gender, ethnicity, education, marital, residence and occupation. To categorize the severity of the disease, teeth were assessed for, Plaque index (PI), Bleeding on probing (BOP), CAL, missing tooth, tooth mobility and bone loss. Unstimulated whole saliva (UWS) was collected and Interleukin-1β (IL-1β) cytokine levels were analyzed using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay with microplate reader at 450 nm. Clinical parameters and salivary cytokine concentrations were assessed using one-way analysis of variance, whereas a correlation of cases with gender and severity of periodontitis was evaluated using chi-square test. Fifty-nine patients were healthy controls and 63 were periodontitis patients Thirty two percent (n = 20) had initial periodontitis, 40% (n = 25) suffered from moderate and 29% (n = 18) had severe periodontitis. Periodontitis subgroups were significantly different with regards to age and gender (p < 0.001). The mean PPD and CAL among the periodontitis patients (PPD, 3.52 ± 1.25 mm; CAL, 4.04 ± 1.64 mm) were significantly compromised (p < 0.05) compared to healthy controls (PPD, 1.52 ± 0.73 mm; CAL, 0.08 ± 0.28 mm). Increased levels of IL-1β were associated with high CAL and PPD findings. UWS IL-1β levels were higher in periodontitis patients compared to healthy individuals. In addition, cases of severe periodontitis showed significantly higher UWS IL-1β levels compared to initial and moderate periodontitis patients. Comparative levels of salivary IL-1β can be potentially used as a diagnostic tool for periodontitis identification and disease progression along with clinical parameters.

During the current pandemic, Pakistan is badly affected. It has exerted great pressure on vigor as well as the psychology of the healthcare professionals. Limited resources, illiteracy, myths, and not following the proper protocol by the general population may have increased the risk for everyone, and anxiety and fear among the frontline healthcare professionals. Anxiety is a common response to any stressful situation and its the fear of the unknown and it may have multiple consequences.In the current study, we attempted to analyze the fear and anxiety among the healthcare professionals of Pakistan. An online questionnaire-based survey was performed using a non-probability snowball sampling technique. The questionnaire was validated and comprised of demographics and 10 questions regarding fear and anxiety as per fear of coronavirus-19 scale (FCV-19S). SPSS 21 was used for data analysis. Data of 404 participants analyzed. A significant difference between gender, age group, and the profession was found (p<0.05). Out of 404 participants, 322 (79.70%) were considered to have high and severe anxiety (p=0.020). Based on the results anxiety was reported higher among the nurses and in females. A significant relationship was observed between fear and anxiety score and the different healthcare professionals with p value< 0.001 (Multilinear regression).Concerning the high occurrence of anxiety and fear among healthcare professionals appropriate psychological/psychiatric intervention necessitates and emphasizes the need to implement urgent measures.

Objectives Periodontitis is a pathological condition of the oral cavity, originating from multiple factors, including microbial, environmental and genetic factors. The vulnerability to several pathologies has been studied with the relationship to genetic polymorphisms, and one of the most prominent is the single nucleotide polymorphisms throughout the genome. The study aimed to find out the association of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) of interleukin-1β +3954 gene with chronic periodontitis (CP) in PakistanMaterials and Methods This case–control study was conducted at Dow University of Health Sciences. DNA was extracted from the blood and amplified by using conventional polymerase chain reaction of respective genes followed by sequencing. Mann–Whitney test accessed the difference of clinical parameters between cases and controls, and Fisher’s exact test was applied to access the association of alleles between subjects. Data entered and analyzed using SPSS 21.Results Significant differences were observed in clinical parameters in cases and controls (p < 0.001). In the IL-1β +3954 gene, T alleles were significantly higher in cases as compared with controls (p < 0.001). Genotype CC was significantly dominant in the controls and genotype CT and TT in patients (Chi-square = 19.83, p < 0.001).Conclusion Within the study’s limits, IL-1β +3954 gene polymorphism is associated with periodontitis and is expected to be among the several causes of respective pathology in Pakistan’s population.