The main purpose of the study is to predict the magnitude of the Covid-19 pandemic by using epidemiological wavelength models in Turkey and at international level. Therefore, rstly, the rst 36 days of wavelengths based on the number of daily coronavirus cases in Turkey were calculated. In addition, 114 countries were compared in terms of Covid-19 wavelengths considering the cumulative number of the pandemic cases occured at the end of the rst 36 days for evaluation on an equal plane. In the last part of the study, the wavelengths of 185 countries were examined comparatively based on the cumulative number of cases at the end of the time frame from the rst epidemic case until 2020-04-16 (including that date). According to the ndings of wavelength obtained in Turkey, it was observed that case wavelength on 2020-04-11, death and recovered case wavelength on 2020-04-16, and net wavelength on 2020-03-26 reached its peak. China was the country having the highest wavelength of case, death, and recovered case wavelengths in 114 countries at the end of the rst 36 days since the rst case occurred. In that country, wavelengths of case, death and recovered case were 33.6, 23.5 and 30.7, respectively. The rst three countries with the highest net wavelength at the end of the rst 36 days were Serbia (36.5), Netherlands (33.5) and Portugal (30.3), respectively. On the other hand, the country having the highest case and death wavelengths among 185 countries in the time interval from the rst case until the date of 2020-04-16 (including that date) was the USA, and case and death wavelengths were 39.7 and 30.7, respectively. The country with the highest recovered case wavelength was China (33.3). The rst 3 countries with the highest wavelengths are Canada (51.4), England (45.0) and Serbia (39.2), respectively.

The number of COVID-19 patients is dramatically increasing worldwide. Treatment in intensive care units (ICU) has become a major challenge; therefore, early recognition of severe forms is absolutely essential for timely triaging of patients. While the clinical status, in particular peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels, and concurrent comorbidities of COVID-19 patients largely determine the need for their admittance to ICUs, several laboratory parameters may facilitate the assessment of disease severity. Clinicians should consider low lymphocyte count as well as the serum levels of CRP, D-dimers, ferritin, cardiac troponin and IL-6, which may be used in risk stratification to predict severe and fatal COVID-19 in hospitalised patients. It is more likely that the course of the disease will be unfavourable if some or all of these parameters are altered.

Highlights Characteristics of asymptomatic and presymptomatic infection are not identical. Younger age correlates strongly with asymptomatic and mild infections. Asymptomatic infections do not provide clear guidance for public-health measures. Asymptomatic cases should be reported in official COVID-19 statistics. Asymptomatic individuals carrying SARS-CoV-2 are hidden drivers of the pandemic.

Highlights d Cities possess a consistent ''core'' set of non-human microbes d Urban microbiomes echo important features of cities and city-life d Antimicrobial resistance genes are widespread in cities d Cities contain many novel bacterial and viral species

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The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses an unprecedented challenge to humanity. SARS-CoV-2 infections range from asymptomatic to severe courses of COVID-19 with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), multiorgan involvement and death. Risk factors for disease severity include older age, male sex, increased BMI and pre-existing comorbidities. Ethnicity is also relevant to COVID-19 susceptibility and severity. Host genetic predisposition to COVID-19 is now increasingly recognized and whole genome and candidate gene association studies regarding COVID-19 susceptibility have been performed. Several common and rare variants in genes related to inflammation or immune responses have been identified. We summarize research on COVID-19 host genetics and compile genetic variants associated with susceptibility to COVID-19 and disease severity. We discuss candidate genes that should be investigated further to understand such associations and provide insights relevant to pathogenesis, risk classification, therapy response, precision medicine, and drug repurposing.

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Plasmodium falciparum histidine-rich proteins 2 (PfHRP2) based RDTs are advocated in falciparum malaria-endemic regions, particularly when quality microscopy is not available. However, diversity and any deletion in the pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 genes can affect the performance of PfHRP2-based RDTs. A total of 400 samples collected from uncomplicated malaria cases from Kenya were investigated for the amino acid repeat profiles in exon 2 of pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 genes. In addition, PfHRP2 levels were measured in 96 individuals with uncomplicated malaria. We observed a unique distribution pattern of amino acid repeats both in the PfHRP2 and PfHRP3. 228 PfHRP2 and 124 PfHRP3 different amino acid sequences were identified. Of this, 214 (94%) PfHRP2 and 81 (65%) PfHRP3 amino acid sequences occurred only once. Thirty-nine new PfHRP2 and 20 new PfHRP3 amino acid repeat types were identified. PfHRP2 levels were not correlated with parasitemia or the number of PfHRP2 repeat types. This study shows the variability of PfHRP2, PfHRP3 and PfHRP2 concentration among uncomplicated malaria cases. These findings will be useful to understand the performance of PfHRP2-based RDTs in Kenya.