Research Articles

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A research article reports the results of original research, assesses its contribution to the body of knowledge in a given area, and is published in a peer-reviewed scholarly journal. The faculty publications through published and on-going articles/researches are captured in this community

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Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    The importance of getting the ethics right in a pandemic treaty
    (Lancet Infect Dis, 2023) Schaefer, G.O.; Atuire, C.A.; Kaur, S.; etc.
    The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous weaknesses in pandemic preparedness and response, including underfunding, inadequate surveillance, and inequitable distribution of countermeasures. To overcome these weaknesses for future pandemics, WHO released a zero draft of a pandemic treaty in February, 2023, and subsequently a revised bureau’s text in May, 2023. COVID-19 made clear that pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reflect choices and value judgements. These decisions are therefore not a purely scientific or technical exercise, but are fundamentally grounded in ethics. The latest treaty draft reflects these ethical considerations by including a section entitled Guiding Principles and Approaches. Most of these principles are ethical—they establish core values that undergird the treaty. Unfortunately, the treaty draft’s set of principles are numerous, overlapping, and show inadequate coherence and consistency. We propose two improvements to this section of the draft pandemic treaty. First, key guiding ethical principles should be clearer and more precise than they currently are. Second, the link between ethical principles and policy implementation should be clearly established and define boundaries on acceptable interpretation, ensuring that signatories abide by these principles.
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    The importance of getting the ethics right in a pandemic treaty
    (Personal View, 2023) Schaefer, G.O.; Atuire, C.A.; Kaur, S.; etc.
    The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous weaknesses in pandemic preparedness and response, including underfunding,COVID-19, and inequitable distribution of countermeasures. To overcome these weaknesses for future pandemics, WHO released a zero draft of a pandemic treaty in February, 2023, and subsequently a revised bureau’s text in May, 2023. COVID-19 made clear that pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reflect choices and value judgements. These decisions are therefore not a purely scientific or technical exercise, but are fundamentally grounded in ethics. The latest treaty draft reflects these ethical considerations by including a section entitled Guiding Principles and Approaches. Most of these principles are ethical—they establish core values that undergird the treaty. Unfortunately, the treaty draft’s set of principles are numerous, overlapping, and show inadequate coherence and consistency. We propose two improvements to this section of the draft pandemic treaty. First, key guiding ethical principles should be clearer and more precise than they currently are. Second, the link between ethical principles and policy implementation should be clearly established and define boundaries on acceptable interpretation, ensuring that signatories abide by these principles.
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    The importance of getting the ethics right in a pandemic treaty
    (Personal View, 2023) Schaefe, G.O.; Atuire, C.A.; Kaur, S.; et al.
    The COVID-19 pandemic revealed numerous weaknesses in pandemic preparedness and response, including underfunding, inadequate surveillance, and inequitable distribution of countermeasures. To overcome these weaknesses for future pandemics, WHO released a zero draft of a pandemic treaty in February, 2023, and subsequently a revised bureau’s text in May, 2023. COVID-19 made clear that pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response reflect choices and value judgements. These decisions are therefore not a purely scientific or technical exercise, but are fundamentally grounded in ethics. The latest treaty draft reflects these ethical considerations by including a section entitled Guiding Principles and Approaches. Most of these principles are ethical—they establish core values that undergird the treaty. Unfortunately, the treaty draft’s set of principles are numerous, overlapping, and show inadequate coherence and consistency. We propose two improvements to this section of the draft pandemic treaty. First, key guiding ethical principles should be clearer and more precise than they currently are. Second, the link between ethical principles and policy implementation should be clearly established and define boundaries on acceptable interpretation, ensuring that signatories abide by these principles.
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    Online health information-seeking experiences during the COVID-19 lockdown among social media users in four countries
    (Psychology of Language and Communication, 2023) Sarfo, J.O.; Amoah, S.K.; Donyeh, P.S.; et al.
    Most countries imposed lockdown restrictions on high-risk cities due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease. Although individuals adopted social media use during the lockdown, it is unclear how online information-seeking experiences affected their health and quality of life. We conducted an online survey among people living in cities in Ghana, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan that were affected by lockdown restrictions. Using Colaizzi's method, we thematically analyzed 166 participants’ (males = 93, females = 73) online text responses. We observed that uncertainties about COVID-19 and the feeling of boredom predisposed participants to become victims of misinformation. Once they were misinformed, they felt anxious about COVID-19. Consequently, some overused social media to obtain additional information while others decreased or avoided its usage entirely. Our study provides insight into a recent global phenomenon. There is a need for adequate psychological support services through social media to lessen the use of unhealthy coping mechanisms.
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    Travel behaviour prediction amid covid-19 underlaying situational awareness theory and health belief model
    (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021) Naseer, K.; Qazi, J.; Qazi, A.; Avuglah, B.K.; Tahir, R.; Rasheed, R.A.; Khan, S.K.; Khan, B.A.; Zeeshan, M.; Humayun, M.A.; Naseem, U.
    Travel and tourism have been hard-hit by COVID-19, and people have been forced to cancel travel plans due to governments being forced to implement travel bans to curb infection dissemination. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of situational awareness for adopting health protective behaviours such as postponed travel plans. We used the theory of situational awareness (SAT) coupled with the health belief model (HBM) to analyze health-related behaviors. Data from a cross-sectional survey of 705 Pakistani and international adults were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling, during the peak of the COVID-19. The results confirmed that perceived understanding of COVID-19 cause influences perceived severity, understanding of contracting COVID-19 influences perceived susceptibility, and perceived understanding of COVID-19 prevention influences both perceived barriers and perceived benefits. The results further showed that perceived understanding of COVID-19 prevention is a strong predictor of self-efficacy, which ultimately influences health-protective behaviour. In addition, the sentiment analysis revealed that as COVID-19 continues to rise, people are becoming more sentimental and avoiding travel, even during festivals. The outcome of this study demonstrates that situational awareness has an effect on the postulates of health protective measures and plays a key role in the implementation of protective measures such as canceling travel plans to ensure protection
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    Integration of multiple geospatial applications and intelligence for responding to COVID-19 in Ghana
    (Ghana Med j, 2021) Owusu, A.B.; Afagbedzi, S.K.; Bandoh, D.A.; Frimpong, J.A.; Kissiedu, I.N.; Aikins, B.E.; Hinneh, R.; Kenu, E.
    Objective: We describe the use of integrated geospatial applications for the provision of access to timely and accurate data on samples, visualisation of Spatio-temporal patterns of cases and effective communication between field sample collectors, testing laboratories, Regional Health directors and Government Decision Makers. Design: This study describes how an integrated geospatial platform based on case location and intelligence was de veloped and used for effective COVID-19 response during the initial stages of COVID-19 in Ghana. Data Source: Collector for ArcGIS, ArcGIS Survey123 Main outcome measure: successful development and deployment of integrated geospatial applications and analytics. Results: The Collector for ArcGIS app was customised to collect COVID-19 positive cases location information. Survey 123 was introduced as a COVID-19 contact tracing application to digitise the case-based forms and provide real-time results from the laboratories to GHS and other stakeholders. The laboratory backend allowed the testing laboratories access to specific information about each patient (sample) collected by the fieldworkers. The regional supervisors’ backend web application provided accessing test results for confidentiality and timely communication of results. Conclusion: Geospatial platforms were successfully established in Ghana to provide timely results to Regional Health Directors and Government decision-makers. This helped to improve the timeliness of response and contact tracing at the district level.
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    Data management during COVID-19 outbreak response in Ghana: a reference labor atory perspective on key issues and measures
    (Ghana Med J, 2021) Obodai, E.; Kyei, G.B.; Aboagye, J.; Bonney, E.Y.; Asante, I.A.; Bonney, J.K.H.; Adusei-Poku, M.; Lamptey, H.; Adu, B.; Kenu, E.; Koram, K.A.; Ampofo, W.K.; Odoom, J.K.
    The COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is an important subject for global health. Ghana experienced low moderate transmission of the disease when the first case was detected in March 12, 2020 until the middle of July when the number of cases begun to drop. By August 24, 2020, the country's total number of confirmed cases stood at 43,622, with 263 deaths. By the same time, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) of the University of Ghana, the primary testing centre for COVID-19, had tested 285,501 with 28,878 confirmed cases. Due to database gaps, there were initial challenges with timely reporting and feedback to stakeholders during the peak surveillance period. The gaps resulted from mismatches between samples and their accompanying case investigation forms, sam ples without case investigation forms and vice versa, huge data entry requirements, and delayed test results. However, a revamp in data management procedures, and systems helped to improve the turnaround time for reporting results to all interested parties and partners. Additionally, inconsistencies such as multiple entries and discrepant patient-sample information were resolved by introducing a barcoding electronic capture system. Here, we describe the main chal lenges with COVID-19 data management and analysis in the laboratory and recommend measures for improvement.
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    Point of View: Mitigating the impact of conference and travel cancellations on researchers’ futures
    (eLife, 2020-03-27) Bediako, Y.; Weissgerber, T.; de Winde, C.M.; Ebrahimi, H.; Fernández-Chiappe, F.; Ilangovan, V.; Mehta, D.; Quezada, C.P.; Riley, J.L.; Saladi, S.M.; Sarabipour, S.; Tay, A.
    The need to protect public health during the current COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated conference cancellations on an unprecedented scale. As the scientific community adapts to new working conditions, it is important to recognize that some of our actions may disproportionately affect early-career researchers and scientists from countries with limited research funding. We encourage all conference organizers, funders and institutions who are able to do so to consider how they can mitigate the unintended consequences of conference and travel cancellations and we provide seven recommendations for how this could be achieved. The proposed solutions may also offer long-term benefits for those who normally cannot attend conferences, and thus lead to a more equitable future for generations of researchers.
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    COVID-19: Time for precision epidemiology
    (Experimental Biology and Medicine, 2020-04-17) Awandare, G.; Koks, S.; Williams, R.W.; Quinn, J.; Farzaneh, F.; Conran, N.; Tsai, S-J.; Goodman, S.R.
    The global COVID-19 (SARS-CoV2, COVID-19) tsunami caused by SARSCoV2 is inundating and often-overwhelming health care systems in most countries and regions. Numbers of infected people and the death toll are increasing, with the fortunate exception of the first hit or the best prepared regions of East Asia. While some governments have had success in containing the spread of the virus, the global situation is constantly changing, usually for the worse, and the measures applied by different countries have often been ineffective.