title: Delays in polio vaccination programs due to COVID-19 in Pakistan: a major threat to Pakistan''s long war against polio virus Letter to the Editor Delays in polio vaccination programs due to COVID-19 in Pakistan: a major threat to Pakistan''s long war against polio virus The disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have devastating impact over vaccination programs around the globe especially in underdeveloped countries. 2 The immunization campaigns have been paused or delayed in various countries as the local health-care authorities are putting all their efforts to control coronavirus. The WHO is ready to resume the vaccination plans but as Pakistan is witnessing an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, with the next few weeks crucial, the resumption of polio vaccination campaigns might be delayed. The health-care experts in Pakistan, agree to resume the polio vaccination campaigns, otherwise the COVID-19 would destroy all the progress being carried out in the last thirty years against the polio virus.
Around 1997, and amid the talks of Hong Kong''s upcoming return to China and later the Asian financial crisis, a recurring topic in the Chinese media was the so-called ''''gene war of the century'''': the lopsided condemnation of foreign scientists coming purportedly to pilfer China''s vast genetic resources for a profit. Despite his repeated proclamation as a staunch and unwavering patriot loyal to his beloved motherland and dedicated to the advancement of China''s science and technology, he nonetheless later became embroiled in an avalanche of controversies surrounding the ''''gene war.'''' He effectively became a lightning rod for all the controversy on genetic resources, intellectual rights, informed consent, and the protection of human research subjects. (2) Chinese scientists should immediately grasp the opportunity to find disease genes and patent them; (3) We should educate the people, and raise the awareness and importance of protection of our genetic resources; (4) We welcome all international collaborations based on fairness and mutual benefits; (5) Through various avenues, the Chinese scientists should be vocal about certain views deemed to be harmful to China''s genetic research (Xiao et al.
Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease requires that all authors sign a declaration of conflicting interests. For example, Lebanon, a country that hosts an estimated 1.5 million Syrian refugees (distributed in makeshift camps and other dwellings) is currently facing a very severe economic crisis, civil unrest (decreased after the pandemic), and a COVID-19 outbreak. In that regard, the UNCHR has appealed for urgent funding to combat COVID-19 in refugee camps, but the results of this initiative remain to be seen [5] . The health of refugees is intimately linked to that of their hosting communities and beyond, which is more reason to protect the camps from COVID-19. First report of the plasmid-borne colistin resistance gene (mcr-1) in Proteus mirabilis isolated from domestic and sewer waters in Syrian refugee camps coli isolated from domestic and sewer waters in Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon
title: Letter: Neurosurgery at war with the COVID-19 pandemic: patient''s management from an African neurosurgical center Altogether, the number of neurosurgical departments in the whole country was reduced and their activity was restricted to emergencies and critically ill patients. Academic neurosurgery departments have to manage, in addition to urgent and emergent neurosurgical cases, public health concerns regarding disease transmission, and the safety of department staff. For emergent and urgent cases, a COVID-19 swab was routinely carried out, and surgical operations were performed under strict precautions to minimize exposure to the virus. Letter to the editor by Dobran Mauro, Paracino Riccardo, and Iacoangeli Maurizio regarding Neurosurgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: update from Lombardy, northern Italy The impact of COVID-19 on neurosurgeons and the strategy for triaging non-emergent operations: a global neurosurgery study Neurosurgery during the COVID-19 pandemic: update from Lombardy, northern Italy
Milberry concludes her response with a remarkably idealist critique of my proposal for a pharmacological (re)appropriation and redesign of our digital milieu, arguing that this should be preceded by a change in our ''social values and mores'' towards more ''love'', thereby apparently disregarding the ruining effects on self-love and the affective capacities of individuals in general of the omnipresent apparatuses of libidinal capture and exploitation that hegemonically constitute the current ''sociotechnical foundation of contemporary life'' under capitalist conditions (Stiegler 2009; Berardi 2009 ).
From substance abuse, combat, infections, sexual abuse, and mental illness, troops about to be deployed to or returning from the Persian Gulf, as well as their families, face potentially significant medical, psychological and financial challenges. The following monograph describes and discusses many of the challenges our Persian Gulf troops will face in the hope it will better prepare civilian health care professionals provide appropriate services, address gaps in resources, promote collaboration between biomedical and psychosocial professional disciplines, and ultimately assist our patients to successfully reenter society. In the following sections we will discuss the changing nature of battlefield injuries and the impact on survivors and their families, the endemic illnesses of the Persian Gulf, approaches to PTSD and other threats to health, psychosocial issues, as well as emerging resources under development and yet to be realized for the care of our returning troops.
In June 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) surveyed members of the Infectious Disease Society of America Emerging Infections Network (EIN) about SARS preparedness in their hospitals. Of the 456 EIN members responding to the survey in this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases [2] , 381 (83%) reported that patients with respiratory symptoms in their emergency department (ED) would be screened for a travel history. A careful assessment of exposures in SARS outbreaks, particularly those due to superspreading events and transmission despite compliance with isolation precautions, is needed to determine whether airborne spread occurs [10, [13] [14] [15] . At least 2 analyses of risks associated with health care worker infection despite the use of precautions now identify that 12 h of infection-control training and confidence that precautions would be protective are associated with substantial reductions in the risk of infection (Toronto SARS hospital investigation, unpublished data; Lau et al. Hospital preparedness for severe acute respiratory syndrome in the United States: views from a national survey of infectious diseases consultants
title: A newly found handbook for developing vaccines during World War II in China: the legacy of global responses to crises Almost completely unknown to the world scientific community, microbiologists in China had very formidable efforts in the development of vaccine and bioproducts in the early 1940s during the WWII. A recent discovery of a completely handwritten and high quality 105-page handbook of vaccine manual from two former researchers, late Professors Bin Ni and Bingqing Xu, brought back the direct evidence and the scope of vaccine work exactly 80 years ago in China during the WWII (Figure 1 ). The vaccine manual is now donated to the NMU history museum, Nanjing, China, by Profs Ni and Xu''s surviving children including the corresponding author of this paper. We can only hope the COVID-19 pandemic, no less damaging than a world war to some degree, will also stimulate the development of better vaccines to control the current and future emerging infections, just like what were accomplished after the WWII.
To date, I have seen residents choosing to stay longer after finishing a 24-h duty to try and save one more critically ill patient; auxiliary nurses improvising aprons and boots with trash bags, who, on finally receiving their space suits, posed for posterity like a football team, always with a ready smile (Fig. 1) ; residents in Neurology, Immunology or Pathology becoming Chest Medicine residents; medical students volunteering to learn the practicalities of lung mechanics and gas exchange; a Department Head creating a blog aimed at praising individuals for outstanding bravery and commitment; or I have been privileged to lead a small Think Tank including nurses, doctors, physicists, engineers and other friends who from Saturday March 14 have met on a daily basis to brainstorm initiatives by videoconference at 7 am, just before seeing patients or awakening their families.
PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to identify solution strategies from a non-governmental (NGO) hospital in a war region for violence-related injuries and to show how high-income countries (HIC) might benefit from this expertise. Apart from surgical wound care and debridements, which were performed on every wound in the operation theatre, laparotomy was the most common surgical procedure, followed by installation of a chest drainage and amputation. The lack of surgical experience might not be relevant as long as a hospital provides a specialist for every probable pathology, but in cases of a sudden high volume of causalities like in a terror attack or train accident, adequate treatment of the injured could get difficult [7, 8] . As much as medical standards in LIC and war zones lag behind, there might be a potential knowledge of primary injury treatment and basic surgical techniques, expectable injury patterns, and experience in dealing with mass causalities by fast decision-making.
Third and finally, it was to be attempted to influence the outbreak of disease by environmental stimuli (poisons, chemicals, feeding), not least in order to be able to differentiate between a "general" and a "genetically increased" susceptibility, which, according to Fischer, was "of particular importance in view of the most modern methods of treating diseased humans." At the close of his application Fischer stated his conviction "that these theoretical and experimental studies will be of benefit to suffering humanity and serve the preservation of the genetic health of our Volk." Mentioning discreetly that the Reichsgesundheitsführer shared his views, Fischer guaranteed that he could "carry the full responsibility" for the importance of Nachtsheim''s research "even now at a time of war." When Nachtsheim started in Dahlem, he had at his disposition, as Fischer informed the DFG, a series of rabbit strains that exhibited genetic diseases or disabilities: These were "genetic epilepsy […], shaking palsies and other nervous diseases; glaucoma and other eye diseases; deformation of the limbs, the external sex organs (similar to those of humans), harelip and cleft palate and many others." 239 From Nachtsheim''s report to the German Research Association of January 14, 1941 -the first he submitted from his new position in Dahlem -proceed the work emphases of the group of scientists around Nachtsheim in 1940, that is, still at the Institute for Genetics and Breeding Research.