Objectives To assess the prevalence of and factors associated with Post-Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) syndrome six months after the onset. Methods A bidirectional prospective study. Interviews investigated symptoms potentially associated with COVID-19 six months after the disease onset of all consecutive adult in- and out-patients with COVID-19 attending Udine Hospital (Italy) from March to May 2020. IgG antibodies against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) were also evaluated six months after the onset of symptoms, at the time of the interview. Results A total of 599 individuals were included (320 female, 53.4%; mean age 53 years, SD 15.8) and interviewed 187 days (22 SD) after the onset. The prevalence of post-COVID-19 syndrome was 40.2% (241/599). The presence of IgG antibodies was significantly associated with the occurrence of post-COVID-19 syndrome (OR 2.56, 95% CI 1.48–4.38, p = 0.001) and median SARS-CoV-2 IgG titres were significantly higher in long-haulers than in patients without symptoms (42.1, IQR 17.1-78.4 vs. 29.1, IQR 12.1-54.2 kAU/L, p = 0.004). Female gender (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.05–2.27), a proportional increase in the number of symptoms at the onset of COVID-19 (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.59–2.05) and ICU admission OR 3.10, 95% CI 1.18–8.11) were all independent risk factors for post-COVID-19 syndrome. The same predictors also emerged in a subgroup of 231 patients with the serological follow-up available at the time of the interview alongside the proportional increase in anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00–1.02, p = 0.04). Conclusions Prospective follow-up could be offered to specific subgroups of COVID-10 patients, to identify typical symptoms and persistently high anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG titers as a means of early detection of post-COVID-19 long-term sequelae.

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Weight gain has been recognized as an adverse effect of valproic acid therapy, but there are are no data about serum leptin levels in patients receiving this drug. To evaluate if valproic acid treatment in epileptic patients in whom obesity develops modifies serum levels of insulin and leptin, 40 female patients with epilepsy were evaluated before therapy and after 1 year of therapy. At the end of follow-up, 15 patients were obese and showed higher serum leptin and insulin levels than patients who did not gain weight. As in other types of obesity, elevation of serum leptin concentrations is related to the increase in body mass index.

We aimed to assess the attitude towards influenza and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccinations among coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) recovered patients. We performed a cross-sectional study consisting of a standardized telephone interview carried out between September and November 2020 targeting a cohort of adult in- and out-patients that had recovered from COVID-19 after the first wave (March–May 2020) at Udine Hospital (Italy). Overall, 599 people participated (320 female, median age 53 years) and most had experienced an acute COVID-19 with mild illness (409, 68.3%). The majority were hesitant or undecided towards influenza (327, 54.6%) and SARS-CoV-2 (353, 59.2%) vaccines. Older age, public work exposure, and previous 2019 flu shots were the main factors associated with a positive attitude toward both vaccinations (p < 0.05). Being hospitalized during the acute COVID-19 phase was associated with the willingness to get a flu shot (94/272, 34.5%) but not SARS-CoV-2 vaccine (70/244, 28.7%). Vaccine hesitancy is diffuse and multifactorial also among COVID-19 recovered.

Although neonatal suppurative parotitis is now uncommon in the newborn, it cannot be considered a "vanishing disease".

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented global crisis and led to a huge number of deaths, economic hardship and the disruption of everyday life. Measures to restrict accessibility adopted by many countries were a swift yet effective response to contain the spread of the virus. Within this topic, this paper aims to support policies and decision makers in defining the most appropriate strategies to manage the Covid-19 crisis. Precisely the correlation between positive Covid-19 cases and transport accessibility of an area was investigated through a multiple linear regression model. Estimation results show that transport accessibility was the variable that better explained the number of Covid-19 infections (about 40% in weight), meaning that the greater is the accessibility of a certain geographical area, the easier the virus reaches its population. Furthermore, other context variables were also significant, i.e. socio-economic, territorial and pollutant variables. Estimated findings show that accessibility, which is often used to measure the wealth of an area, becomes its worst enemy during a pandemic, providing to be the main vehicle of contagion among its citizens. These original results allow the definition of possible policies and/or best practices to better manage mobility restrictions. The quantitative estimates performed show that a possible and probably more sustainable policy for containing social interactions could be to apply lockdowns in proportion to the transport accessibility of the areas concerned, in the sense that the higher the accessibility, the tighter should be the mobility restriction policies adopted.

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