Purpose: Disease pandemics are known to cause psychological distress. The ensuing mental health issues are not only restricted to the patients and their relatives/friends but affect the healthcare workers (HCWs) as well. Our study aims to assess these psychological trends during the COVID-19 pandemic between the two most affected population groups, that is, patients and frontline healthcare workers. Patients and Methods: A survey questionnaire, including scales to assess fear, anxiety, stress, depression – PSS 10, and DASS 21, was distributed and sent to all COVID-19 suspected/confirmed individuals and healthcare workers at a tertiary care center along with a second visit after 14 days of answering the first questionnaire and this continued as follow-up. Data were analyzed with the SPSS version 23 using various tests of significance. Results: In the community, COVID-19 patients in the age group 41– 50 with respiratory tract symptoms and those who were home isolated/quarantined experienced a greater tendency of mental health problems. Healthcare workers posted in COVID-19 designated areas of the hospital displayed higher levels of stress, anxiety, and depression. Conclusion: The high degree of uncertainty associated with novel pathogens has a profound effect on the psychological state of suspected/confirmed cases as well as healthcare workers. Within the community, individuals suspected of having COVID-19 display a significant mental health burden, while HCWs also experience an unprecedented amount of stress, anxiety, depression and fear during such enduring situations.

ISARIC (International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infections Consortium) partnerships and outbreak preparedness initiatives enabled the rapid launch of standardised clinical data collection on COVID-19 in Jan 2020. Extensive global participation has resulted in a large, standardised collection of comprehensive clinical data from hundreds of sites across dozens of countries. Data are analysed regularly and reported publicly to inform patient care and public health response. This report, our 18th and final report, is a part of a series published over 3 years. Data have been entered for 945,317 individuals from 1807 partner institutions and networks across 76 countries. The comprehensive analyses detailed in this report includes hospitalised individuals of all ages for whom data collection occurred between 30 January 2020 and up to and including 10 January 2023, AND who have laboratory-confirmed SARS-COV-2 infection or clinically diagnosed COVID-19. For the 845,291 cases who meet eligibility criteria for this report, selected findings include: Median age of 57 years, with an approximately equal (50/50) male:female sex distribution 29% of the cohort are at least 70 years of age, whereas 6% are 0-19 years of age The most common symptom combination in this hospitalised cohort is shortness of breath, cough, and history of fever, which has remained constant over time The five most common symptoms at admission were shortness of breath, cough, history of fever, fatigue/malaise, and altered consciousness/confusion, which is unchanged from the previous reports Age-associated differences in symptoms are evident, including the frequency of altered consciousness increasing with age, and fever, respiratory and constitutional symptoms being present mostly in those 40 years and above 15% of patients with relevant data available (845,291) were admitted at some point during their illness into an intensive care unit (ICU), which has decreased from 19% during the 3 years of ISARIC reporting Antibiotic agents were used in 37% of patients for whom relevant data are available (802,241), a significant reduction from our previous reports (80%) which reflects a shifting proportion of data contributed by different institutions; in ICU/HDU admitted patients with data available (64,669), 90% received antibiotics Use of corticosteroids was reported in 25% of all patients for whom data were available (809,043); in ICU/HDU admitted patients with data available (64,713), 71% received corticosteroids Outcomes are known for 762,728 patients and the overall estimated case fatality ratio (CFR) is 22% (95%CI 21.9-22), rising to 36% (95%CI 35.6-36.1) for patients who were admitted to ICU/HDU, demonstrating worse outcomes in those with the most severe disease To access previous versions of ISARIC COVID-19 Clinical Data Report please use the link below: https://isaric.org/research/covid-19-clinical-research-resources/evidence-reports/

Study of six different freshwater microalgae, collected from Odisha, eastern region of India, has been carried out to find out their potential for biodiesel production. The growth, total lipid, and fatty acid composition of six microalgal strains were determined. Chlorella sp. IMMTCC-2, which exhibited high lipid content with considerable amount of unsaturated fatty acids, was selected for culture in a self-designed photobioreactor in order to study the scale-up possibilities. The result shows significant increase in lipid accumulation from logarithmic phase to stationary phase in the photobioreactor, i.e., from 12.4 to 28.3%. Analyses of the present results suggest that Chlorella sp. IMMTCC-2 is appropriate for biodiesel production.

COVID-19 is a biphasic illness with an initial viraemia phase and later effective adaptive immune phase, except in a minority of people who develop severe disease. Immune regulation is the key target to treat COVID illness. In anticipation, an elderly man self-medicated himself with dexamethasone on the day of symptom onset of a flu-like illness, took other symptomatic measures and was tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. His condition deteriorated with each passing day resulting in hospitalisation. He demanded oxygen and declared as severe COVID. With supportive treatment, he recovered after the 20th day of illness. Immunosuppression and anti-inflammation are likely to benefit when the immune response is dysregulated and turning into a cytokine storm. A medication that has saved many could be the one predisposing to severity if taken as a preventive measure, too early in the disease course, especially the viraemia phase.

COVID-19 has caused devastating effects worldwide ever since its origin in December 2019. IL-6 is one of the chief markers used in the management of COVID-19. We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the role of IL-6 in diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of COVID-19-related cytokine storm. Patients with COVID-19 who were admitted at AIIMS Rishikesh from March to December 2020 were included in the study. Patients with no baseline IL-6 value at admission and for whom clinical data were not available were excluded. Clinical and laboratory data of these patients were collected from the e-hospital portal and entered in an excel sheet. Correlation was seen with other inflammatory markers and outcomes were assessed using MS Excel 2010 and SPSS software. A total of 131 patients were included in the study. Of these, 74.8% were males, with mean age 55.03 ± 13.57 years, and mean duration from symptom onset being 6.69 ± 6.3 days. A total of 82.4% had WHO severe category COVID-19, with 46.56% having severe hypoxia at presentation and 61.8% of them having some comorbidity. Spearman rank correlation coefficient of IL-6 with D-dimer was 0.203, with LDH was −0.005, with ferritin was 0.3, and with uric acid was 0.123. A total of 11 patients received Tocilizumab at a mean duration from symptom onset of 18.09 days, and 100% mortality was observed. Deaths were reported more in the group with IL-6 ≥ 40 pg/mL (57.1% vs. 40.2%, p = 0.06). ICU admissions and ventilator requirement were higher in the IL-6 ≥ 40 pg/mL group (95.9% vs. 91.4%, p = 0.32 and 55.1% vs. 37.8%, p = 0.05). The study showed that IL-6 can be used as a possible “thrombotic cytokine marker”. Higher values of IL-6 (≥40 pg/mL) are associated with more deaths, ICU admissions, and ventilator requirement.