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To determine the mortality of patients with severe COVID-19 in the intensive care unit (ICU) in relation to age, gender, co-morbidities, ventilatory status, and length of stay (LOS). Methods This was a cross-sectional study based on data retrieved for 204 patients admitted to the ICU of Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Pakistan, from April to August 2020. Study variables were age, gender, comorbid conditions, ventilatory status, and length of stay (LOS). The data were analyzed using SPSS version 21 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). The independent t-test and the chi-square test were used to compare the means and frequencies of variables. Multivariate regression analysis was used to predict the likelihood of mortality. Results The overall mortality was 77%. Non-invasive ventilation (NIV) was administered to 61.8% of patients. Mortality was higher for invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) (93.6% vs 66.7%, p<0.001) and for over 60 years (87.3% vs 72.3%, p=0.019). Mortality without co-morbidities was 75.2%. Comparative mortality rates for at least one co-morbidity (79.7%), diabetes mellitus (80.0%), hypertension (100%), diabetes mellitus and hypertension both (87.1%), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (75%) were insignificant. The LOS for survivors was longer (8.9±8.9 versus 5.4±5.2 days, p=0.017). The LOS < 24h was associated with higher mortality (85.9% vs 72.9%, p=0.040). On multivariable regression, the likelihood of mortality was high for IMV (7.330, 95% CI 2.667-20.143, p<0.001) and elderly (>60 years) patients (2.607, 95%CI 1.063-6.394, p=0.036). Mortality decreased with LOS longer than 24h (0.412, 95%CI 0.173-0.982, p=0.045). Comorbidities did not have any effect on mortality. Conclusions Age more than 60 years and IMV were independent risk factors for higher mortality. Longer ICU stay, specifically more than 24 hours, was associated with lower mortality but LOS less than 24 hours might not have a causal relationship with mortality. The odds of survival were not affected by co-morbidities.

Objectives: To determine the association between ABO/Rh-D blood types and susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection in Pakistan. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1935 confirmed cases of COVID-19 were included using consecutive sampling. Age and gender-matched sample of 1935 blood donors was used as a comparison group. Chi-square test and binary logistic regression were used for inferential statistics. Results: Significantly higher proportion of blood type-B was observed in COVID-19 group (35.9% vs 31.9%, p=0.009). Blood type-AB was found more frequently (14.2% vs 11.8%, p=0.03) in the comparison group. The Rh-D Positive blood types were 93.3% in COVID-19 group and 94.9% in comparison group (p=0.03). The odds of blood type-B, AB and Rh-D positive to test positive for SARS-CoV-2 were 1.195 (95% CI 1.04 – 1.36, p=0.009), 0.80 (95% CI 0.66 – 0.97, p=0.03) and 0.75 (95% CI 0.57- 0.98, p = 0.03), respectively. Blood types A and O did not have significant association with SARS-CoV-2 PCR result (p = 0.22 and 0.88, respectively). Conclusions: There is significant association between blood types B & AB and susceptibility to COVID-19. There is no association between blood types A and O with COVID-19. Rh- D positive blood types are less susceptible to COVID-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.3655 How to cite this:Rahim F, Amin S, Bahadur S, Noor M, Mahmood A, Gul H. ABO / Rh-D Blood types and susceptibility to Corona Virus Disease-19 in Peshawar, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(1):4-8. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.3655 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A severe earthquake occurred in Kashmir in 2005. The epicentre was close to Muzzafarabad. We collected data on over 1,100 children 18 months after the earthquake to look at symptoms of PTSD and behavioural and emotional problems using well established questionnaires. We found that 64.8% of children had significant symptoms of PTSD. Girls were more likely to suffer from these symptoms. The proportion of children suffering from emotional and behaviour difficulties was 34.6%. This percentage was not different from other studies of children from Pakistan within areas which were not affected by the earthquake. The rate of emotional symptoms was higher in girls while hyperactivity was more frequent in boys. This pattern is similar to other studies from across the world.