Background: During the long wait and the global anxiety for a vaccine against COVID-19, impressively high-safety and effective vaccines were invented by multiple pharmaceutical companies. Aim: We aimed to assess the attitudes of healthcare providers and evaluate their intention to advocate for the vaccine. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted in a tertiary private hospital where an electronic survey was distributed among healthcare providers (HCPs). The survey contained two sections: socio-demographic characteristics and Likert-scale perception, with 72% internal consistency. Results: The response rate to the email survey was 37% (n = 236). In addition, 169 (71.6%) of respondents were women, with more than half (134, 56.8%) aged ≤35 years. A total of 110 (46.6%) had over 10 years of experience, and most of them were nurses (146, 62%). Univariate analysis revealed that older participants significantly accepted and advocated for the new vaccine more than the younger ones. In the multivariate analysis, men were significantly more likely than women to accept and advocate for the new vaccine, as were those with chronic illnesses. Participants with allergy were significantly less likely to accept the vaccine than others. odds ratio (OR) and p-values were 2.5, 0.003; 2.3, 0.04; and 0.4, 0.01, respectively. Conclusion: The acceptance rate for the newly-developed COVID-19 vaccines was average among HCPs. Sex, age, presence of chronic illnesses, and allergy were significant predictors of accepting the vaccine.

Background:Skin tags are common benign skin tumors usually occurring on the neck and major flexors of elder people.Aims:The aim of this study is to perform quantitation of mast cells and collagen fibers in skin tags and normal skin in diabetics and nondiabetics, to find a possible correlation between mast cells and collagen fibers in the pathogenesis of skin tags.Methods:Thirty participants with skin tags were divided into two groups (15 diabetic and 15 nondiabetic). Three biopsies were obtained from one anatomical site: A large skin tag, a small skin tag, and adjacent normal skin. Mast cells stained with Bismarck brown were counted manually in ten different fields of each section with magnification ×1000 and the average count was correlated with the percentage of mean collagen area in five fields done by the image analyzer.Results:A statistically significant correlation between mast cell count and percentage of collagen mean area was detected in both studied groups (except in large skin tags of the nondiabetic group).Conclusion:The positive correlation between mast cell count and percentage of collagen mean area suggests the critical role of mast cells in the etiogenesis of skin tags through its interaction with fibroblasts.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly become a major worldwide health problem. Understanding the negative psychological sequalae on working physicians either front liners or not, can reserve psychological resilience for future disease outbreaks. Aim of the study: to explore the degree of anxiety and perceived stress in junior and mid senior physicians working at Cairo University Hospitals amid the COVID 19 pandemic. Methodology: This was an online based cross-sectional study done from April to May 2021. A total of 208 physicians working at Cairo University hospitals were asked to fill in Google forms including sociodemographic and clinical data beside two reliable tools to assess anxiety using the generalized anxiety disorder questionnaire (GAD) and perceived stress using the perceived stress scale (PSS). The individual domains and the total scores were calculated then compared with the different sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Results: Most of the participants were females (66.3%), single (66.8%), not previously infected with COVID-19 (63.5%) and not included in the care of COVID 19 patients (64.9%). The mean GAD total score was 8.99±5.58 with 57.7% of the participants suffering mild to moderate anxiety. The mean PSS score was 20.76±5.3 with 80.3% found to have moderate stress. Except for the relation between gender and perceived stress (p value= 0.003), and the relation between psychiatric illness and perceived stress (p value=0.026), there was no statistical significance between anxiety and perceived stress from one side and sociodemographic and clinical data from the other side. Conclusion: Anxiety and perceived stress among physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic is considered high regardless of the different sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Key words: COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety, perceived stress, physicians

Management of invasive fungal infections (IFI) and subsequent treatment choices remain challenging for physicians in the ICU. Documented evidence shows increased practice of the inappropriate use of antifungal agents in the ICU. Continuous education of healthcare providers (HCPs) represents the cornerstone requirement for starting an antifungal stewardship program (AFS). This study aimed at evaluating knowledge gaps in systemic antifungal prescribing among physicians and clinical pharmacists in a critical care setting. A cross-sectional, multi-center, survey-based study was conducted in five tertiary hospitals located in Al-Ahsaa, Saudi Arabia between January and May 2021. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among the targeted clinicians. A total of 63 clinicians were involved (65.5% ICU physicians and 34.5% clinical pharmacists). It was noted that a minority of the participating HCPs (3.2%) had overall good knowledge about antifungal prescribing, but the majority had either moderate (46%) or poor (50.8%) knowledge. The difference in overall knowledge scores between the ICU physicians and the clinical pharmacists (p = 0.925) was not significant. However, pharmacists showed better scores for the pharmacokinetics of antifungal therapy (p = 0.05). This study has revealed a significant gap in the knowledge and practice of clinicians as regards prescribing antifungal therapy in our area. Although the results cannot be generalized, the outcome of this study has exposed the need for a tailored training program essential for carrying out an AFS program.