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Background: Since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic in Iran, the control and management of the epidemic were headed by the National Headquarter for the Control of COVID-19 Epidemic through setting up different scientific committees, including the COVID-19 National Epidemiology Committee. The present study reviews the missions, structures, achievements, and challenges of the Epidemiology Committee. Study design: A rapid review Methods: All relevant reports, documents, guidelines, published literature, and surveillance data related to the establishment, visions, missions, roles, activities, and outputs of the COVID-19 Epidemiology Committee were critically reviewed in this study. Results: The efforts of the committee’s working groups may have impacted improvements in data registration/usage, provincial data quality at provincial levels, and perception of the epidemic situation in the provinces. The committees have also played role in informing the policies in different stages of the epidemic through routine or problem-based data/evidence analyses, epidemic investigations, and mathematical modeling. Conclusions: The structure and experience gained by the committee can be used in similar situations within and outside the country. To further improve the impacts of our activities, it is essential to have effective interaction, collaboration, and data flow between the committee and a broad range of organizations within and outside the Ministry of Health and Medical Education.

Background: Since maternal near miss (MNM) could act as a surrogate of maternal death, the implementation of MNM audit at hospital level can provide an opportunity to study maternal morbidity at a large scale. Objectives: The current study aimed at investigating severe maternal outcomes (SMO; i.e. MNM + maternal death [MD]) in a referral hospital. Methods: A prospective, facility-based, cross sectional study was conducted from 22 June to 22 December 2017. The current study was performed in a tertiary referral teaching hospital in Zahedan, Iran. The study population included all pregnant females with a gestational age of 22 weeks giving birth in this hospital or referred to this center for delivery, as well as females within 42 days of pregnancy termination. The World Health Organization maternal near-miss criteria were used to identify MNM and analyze the data. Logistic regression was used to predict SMO risk factors. Results: Overall, 3527 deliveries and 3480 live births were reported in the hospital under investigation. Severe maternal outcomes were observed in 68 cases. The rate of MNM was 13.79 per 1000 live births; furthermore, the ratio of MNM to mortality was 12:1. Binary analysis showed that hemoglobin level, place of residence, parity, history of cesarean section (CS), insurance coverage, and type of delivery were the significant decisive factors in SMO. Moreover, severe hemorrhage and hypertensive disorders were the common causes of SMO. Conclusions: According to the collected data, MNM indicators were high in the under study hospital. Therefore, it seems necessary to adopt context-based interventions at hospital level to find and manage mothers prone to SMO during pregnancy and childbirth.

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Background: There is extensive evidence on the healing properties of honey. Therefore, in this study the effect of nano zinc and nano-albumin combination in topical treatment of third-degree burn was evaluated. Methods: In this experimental study, 16 adult male mice were randomly divided to experimental group 1 (treated with honey and nano-zinc), experimental group 2 (treated with nano-albumin and honey), experimental group 3 (treated with honey, nano-albumin, and nano-zinc), and group 4 (no treatment). Under sterile conditions and using general anesthesia, third-degree burns on the back of each mouse was created. Topical burn treatment was performed once a day for 6 weeks, and after the end of treatment, the mice were scarified by anesthesia and then a sample of wound bed of mice was prepared and fixed in formalin. A histological process was performed on the samples. The specimens were stained with H and E staining and microscopic observations were made. Results: At the macroscopic level, after the treatment of burn wounds, shrinkage of burn wound and scar reduction was observed in honey and nano-zinc treated group compared to the control and other treated groups. Histological studies showed a significant increase in total thickness of dermal and epidermal layers of skin in this experimental group compared to other groups (P < 0.05). Discussion: The results showed that the combination of organic honey and nano-zinc could accelerate the healing of burn wounds in mice, while adding nano-albumin to the mixture had opposite effects and could delay wound healing.

In this paper, efficiency of nano-ZnO particles on catalytic ozonation of 4-nitrochlorobenzene (4NCB) using semi-batch reactor has been studied at various pHs. During the catalytic ozonation, TOC and concentration of nitrate ions was monitored. Results indicate that degradation of 4NCB was improved by combination of nano-ZnO with ozone. The effect of ZnO particle size and pH are also examined. According to the results, concentration of 4NCB decreased with increasing of particle size from nanosized to microsized and pH from 3.0 to 9.0. Based on the results, it suggests radical hydroxyl does not affect on the degradation of 4NCB in catalytic ozonation, but the surface of catalyst plays main role. Kinetic studies showed degradation of 4NCB followed pseudo-first-order kinetic and maximum degradation rate was observed at pH=3.