Emerging Infectious Diseases Post COVID-19 Pandemic

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Epidemiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 10496

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Department of Microbiology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania
Interests: antimicrobials; antibiotic resistance; microbiology; healthcare associated infections; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 epidemic has impacted the lives of everyone throughout the world, unquestionably indicating the chaos that emerging pathogens have caused mainly due to lack of effective countermeasures. Several outbreaks have been reported since then. For example, in May 2022 several cases of Monkeypox emerged in different continents and on July 23, 2022 it was declared a public health emergency of international concern by World Health Organization (WHO). 35 countries in five WHO regions have reported several cases of severe acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in children. In addition to these worldwide infections, several infections such as yellow fever, wild poliovirus type 1, cholera, dengue, etc. have been reported either in multiple countries in a continent or in a country. The purpose of this special issue is to bring together a series of articles including, not limited to, original articles, review articles, commentaries, etc. related to history, evolution, epidemiology, characterization, available and candidate vaccines and therapeutic agents associated with these diseases. We invite clinicians and researchers to submit their work to this special issue to help improve our understanding of these diseases, current available treatment modalities, and new approaches and strategies to help mitigate their deadly effects.

Dr. Ashim Gupta
Dr. Manu Gupta
Dr. Florin George Horhat
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • infectious diseases
  • viruses
  • pathogens
  • COVID-19
  • Monkeypox
  • tomato flu
  • yellow fever
  • poliovirus
  • Ebola virus

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 10841 KiB  
Article
Multiclass Mask Classification with a New Convolutional Neural Model and Its Real-Time Implementation
by Alexis Campos, Patricia Melin and Daniela Sánchez
Life 2023, 13(2), 368; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13020368 - 29 Jan 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2699
Abstract
The world has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing people to remain isolated and decreasing the interaction between people. Accordingly, various measures have been taken to continue with a new normal way of life, which is why there is a need [...] Read more.
The world has been greatly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, causing people to remain isolated and decreasing the interaction between people. Accordingly, various measures have been taken to continue with a new normal way of life, which is why there is a need to implement the use of technologies and systems to decrease the spread of the virus. This research proposes a real-time system to identify the region of the face using preprocessing techniques and then classify the people who are using the mask, through a new convolutional neural network (CNN) model. The approach considers three different classes, assigning a different color to identify the corresponding class: green for persons using the mask correctly, yellow when used incorrectly, and red when people do not have a mask. This study validates that CNN models can be very effective in carrying out these types of tasks, identifying faces, and classifying them according to the class. The real-time system is developed using a Raspberry Pi 4, which can be used for the monitoring and alarm of humans who do not use the mask. This study mainly benefits society by decreasing the spread of the virus between people. The proposed model achieves 99.69% accuracy with the MaskedFace-Net dataset, which is very good when compared to other works in the current literature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Infectious Diseases Post COVID-19 Pandemic)
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Review

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12 pages, 989 KiB  
Review
Monkeypox: A New Challenge for Global Health System?
by Francesca Spirito, Agostino Guida, Vito Carlo Alberto Caponio and Lorenzo Lo Muzio
Life 2023, 13(6), 1250; https://doi.org/10.3390/life13061250 - 25 May 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3390
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, has presented a major challenge in terms of early diagnosis and the subsequent containment and management of severe cases. The spread of viruses such as monkeypox in non-endemic countries is now creating new difficulties for healthcare professionals. [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, has presented a major challenge in terms of early diagnosis and the subsequent containment and management of severe cases. The spread of viruses such as monkeypox in non-endemic countries is now creating new difficulties for healthcare professionals. Proper case definition and clinical examination are crucial for the early identification of suspected cases. For this reason, we performed a review of the literature in order to report the first signs, which are useful for healthcare providers for early case identification. Since 2022 to date, 86,930 laboratory-confirmed cases and 1051 probable cases have been reported worldwide, and of these, 116 were fatal cases and, for the first time, most of the cases were registered in countries that have not historically reported monkeypox and that lack direct or immediate epidemiological links to areas of West or Central Africa where the disease is endemic. Patients with Monkeypox experience prodromal symptoms, such as fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches, and a rash after an incubation period of 5–21 days. The disease is usually self-limiting within 2–4 weeks but can lead to complications, such as pneumonia, encephalitis, kidney injury, and myocarditis in children, pregnant individuals, and those with weakened immune systems. The case–fatality ratio is between 1 and 10%. Today, prevention campaigns and the control of human monkeypox are the best weapons to prevent infection and stop transmission. Prevention strategies, such as avoiding contact with sick or dead animals, and the proper preparation of all foods containing animal meat or parts, should be adopted. Furthermore, close contact with infected people or contaminated materials should be avoided to prevent human-to-human transmission. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Infectious Diseases Post COVID-19 Pandemic)
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15 pages, 528 KiB  
Review
Monkeypox: An Emerging Global Public Health Emergency
by Madhan Jeyaraman, Preethi Selvaraj, Manjunatha Budihal Halesh, Naveen Jeyaraman, Arulkumar Nallakumarasamy, Manu Gupta, Nicola Maffulli and Ashim Gupta
Life 2022, 12(10), 1590; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12101590 - 12 Oct 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 3491
Abstract
The virus causing monkeypox, a rare zoonotic viral disease, belongs to the Poxviridae family and the Orthopoxvirus genus. On 23 July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the monkeypox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). From May to [...] Read more.
The virus causing monkeypox, a rare zoonotic viral disease, belongs to the Poxviridae family and the Orthopoxvirus genus. On 23 July 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the monkeypox outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). From May to July 2022, a multi-country outbreak of monkeypox was reported in both endemic and non-endemic regions. Major goals of managing monkeypox are to identify the suspected cases, detect generic orthopoxvirus DNA at a state or commercial laboratory, and establish the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention real-time polymerase chain reaction testing. Currently, there are no approved treatments for monkeypox virus infection. However, a variety of antiviral medications originally designed for the treatment of smallpox and other viral infections could be considered. Pre-exposure prophylaxis for laboratory and health care employees and post-exposure prophylaxis for individuals with high-risk or intermediate-risk exposures are to be considered. The CDC Emergency Operations Center is available for advice on the appropriate use of medical countermeasures, and can help in obtaining antiviral drugs and vaccines from the National Strategic Stockpile. This review gives an overview of the global scenario, clinical presentation, and management of monkeypox in the light of a global public health emergency. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Emerging Infectious Diseases Post COVID-19 Pandemic)
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