The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on a global scale. Understanding the innate and lifestyle-related factors influencing the rate and severity of COVID-19 is important for making evidence-based recommendations. This cross-sectional study aims at establishing a potential relationship between human characteristics and vulnerability/resistance to SARS-CoV-2. We hypothesize that the impact of the virus is not the same due to cultural and ethnic differences. A cross-sectional study was performed using an online questionnaire. The methodology included the development of a multi-language survey, expert evaluation, and data analysis. Data were collected using a 13-item pre-tested questionnaire based on a literature review between 9 December 2020 and 21 July 2021. Data were statistically analyzed using logistic regression. For a total of 1125 respondents, 332 (29.5%) were COVID-19 positive; among them, 130 (11.5%) required home-based treatment, and 14 (1.2%) intensive care. The significant and most influential factors on infection included age, physical activity, and health status (p < 0.05), i.e., better physical activity and better health status significantly reduced the possibility of infection, while older age significantly increased it. The severity of infection was negatively associated with the acceptance (adherence and respect) of preventive measures and positively associated with tobacco (p < 0.05), i.e., smoking regularly significantly increases the severity of COVID-19 infection. This suggests the importance of behavioral factors compared to innate ones. Apparently, individual behavior is mainly responsible for the spread of the virus. Therefore, adopting a healthy lifestyle and scrupulously observing preventive measures, including vaccination, would greatly limit the probability of infection and prevent the development of severe COVID-19.

Solid waste management is one of the most important environmental issues worldwide, particularly in MENA countries. The present study was carried out in the city of Algiers, the capital city of Algeria. This urban area is marked by an increase in waste flow combined with a demographic surge. In order to investigate waste production and its drivers, we used both multiple regression and correlation analyses to test this dependence. Geospatial analysis was performed using principal component analysis integrated with GIS in order to look at the spatial distribution of waste management and potential drivers of waste production. The results indicate that household waste management is influenced by drivers related to the size of the settlement and the characteristics of waste management companies (p ≤ 0.05). The findings also show that none of the sociodemographic variables were found to significantly influence waste production. However, the spatial distribution is influenced by the geographic and sociodemographic characteristics of Algeria at all territorial levels. Algiers is still a landfill-based city in the MENA region, where mixed waste collection prevails in all districts. This study reinforces the importance of expanding source-separated waste collection schemes in order to increase the household waste diversion from landfills and, more importantly, shows how modern tools such as GIS, principal component analysis, and spatial analysis urban planning are useful for monitoring household waste, in line with circular economy principles.

COVID-19 causes acute respiratory illness in humans. The direct consequence of the spread of the virus is the need to find appropriate and effective solutions to reduce its spread. Similar to other countries, the pandemic has spread in Algeria, with noticeable variation in mortality and infection rates between regions. We aimed to estimate the proportion of people who died or became infected with SARS-CoV-2 in each provinces using a Bayesian approach. The estimation parameters were determined using a binomial distribution along with an a priori distribution, and the results had a high degree of accuracy. The Bayesian model was applied during the third wave (1 January–15 August 2021), in all Algerian’s provinces. For spatial analysis of duration, geographical maps were used. Our findings show that Tissemsilt, Ain Defla, Illizi, El Taref, and Ghardaia (Mean = 0.001) are the least affected provinces in terms of COVID-19 mortality. The results also indicate that Tizi Ouzou (Mean = 0.0694), Boumerdes (Mean = 0.0520), Annaba (Mean = 0.0483), Tipaza (Mean = 0.0524), and Tebessa (Mean = 0.0264) are more susceptible to infection, as they were ranked in terms of the level of corona infections among the 48 provinces of the country. Their susceptibility seems mainly due to the population density in these provinces. Additionally, it was observed that northeast Algeria, where the population is concentrated, has the highest infection rate. Factors affecting mortality due to COVID-19 do not necessarily depend on the spread of the pandemic. The proposed Bayesian model resulted in being useful for monitoring the pandemic to estimate and compare the risks between provinces. This statistical inference can provide a reasonable basis for describing future pandemics in other world geographical areas.

Background: Ecological functions and processes in urban ecosystems are governed by various human activities. City-adapted and city-exploiting animal species are expected to present certain specific behavioral and physiological traits in comparison to city-avoiders or conspecific individual frequenting less urbanized or rural environments. A trait of high importance, the plumage color polymorphism has been selected as the main study model and was correlated with different morphological and physiological parameters to highlight its importance in determining the possible health status of urban Feral Pigeons (Columba livia) in North African urban habitats.Methods: Different body morphometrics, hematological and hemoparasitic parameters were quantified on free-living Feral Pigeons in urban environments of northern Algeria. Moreover, plumage melanin-based coloration (MBC) was measured and the data collected at the individual scale was correlated with the previous parameters using linear and non-linear modeling approaches.Results: Plumage MBC scores of the sampled Feral Pigeons ranged between 0.3% and 74.8%. Among the 12 morphological traits measured, body weight, tail length and total length were deemed to be positively correlated with MBC. Darker morphs appeared to have more hemoparasites compared to lighter pigeons. Quite the same observation goes with the immunity but with non-linear trends. The number of monocytes and granulocytes increased with the increase in MBC levels in lighter morphs, while pigeons with high MBC scores exhibited negative relationships between MBC levels and the number of white blood cells.Conclusions: Despite the existence of a number of studies demonstrating phenotypic directional selection, further studies are undoubtedly necessary to understand in detail the underlying mechanisms in species life-history strategies between differently colored individuals. Findings of this correlative study open exciting perspectives revealing that MBC can be considered a good indicator of and health status and adaptation strategies to changes in urban environments.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to afflict many countries around the world. The resurgence of COVID-19 cases and deaths in many countries shows a complacency in adhering to preventive guidelines. Consequently, vaccination continues to be a crucial intervention to reduce the effects of this pandemic. This study investigated the impact of preventive measures and COVID-19 vaccination on the infection, medication, and hospitalization. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between 23 December 2021 and 12 March 2022 in Algeria. To evaluate the effectiveness of strategies aimed at avoiding and minimizing SARS-CoV-2 infection and severity, a questionnaire was created and validated. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analyses were computed to identify associations between dependent and independent variables. Variables with a p-value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. Our results indicated that out of 2294 answers received, only 16% of our sample was vaccinated, and more than 60% did not apply preventive guidelines. As a result, 45% were infected with SARS-CoV-2, 75% took treatment (even preventive), and 9% were hospitalized. The logistic regression showed that the impact of preventive measures on the unvaccinated is statistically not significant (OR: 0.764, 95% CI = 0. 555–1.052; p = 0.09). However, this relationship changes significantly for people who are vaccinated (OR: 0.108, 95% CI = 0.047–0.248; p < 0.0001). Our results also demonstrated that the impact of protective measures on non-vaccinated individuals is statistically significant in reducing the need to receive anti-COVID-19 treatments (OR: 0.447, 95% CI = 0.321–0.623; p < 0.0001). Furthermore, the results showed that the impact of preventive measures on the non-vaccinated population is also statistically significant in reducing the risk of hospitalization (OR: 0.211, 95% CI = 0.081–0.548; p < 0.0001). Moreover, vaccinated individuals who neglect preventive measures must take the COVID-19 medication at a rate of 3.77 times (OR: 3.77) higher than those who follow preventive measures and are vaccinated. In short, our findings demonstrate the importance of combining preventive measures and vaccination in order to fight against the pandemic. Therefore, we advise the Ministry of Health and relevant authorities to put more effort into enhancing public knowledge about the COVID-19 infection and vaccination through education and awareness initiatives. Parallel to implementing vaccination as additional preventive strategy, behavioral change initiatives must be improved to encourage adherence to COVID-19 prevention recommendations.

Background: As of April 23, 2021, more than 145 million cases and almost 3.07 million related deaths were noted because of the coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic. Considering the low rate vaccination, the alternative that divided opinions for a long time is an old medicine called hydroxychloroquine. Main body: The aim of this review was to synthesize the different highlights of the most important studies published since the beginning of the epidemic crisis. After a precise study of the available bibliography dealing with this subject and the addition of an adapted example, which is the current situation of Algeria, the results showed the effectiveness of the Algerian method as well as the impact that this treatment had. Conclusion: We concluded that in brief, given the inexistence of a better solution, we ultimately recommend that patients with severe COVID-19 to be treated for the moment with Hydroxychloroquine combined with Azithromycin in view of its effectiveness, while waiting for another solution.