Background Since the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) epidemic in China in December 2019, information and discussions about COVID-19 have spread rapidly on the internet and have quickly become the focus of worldwide attention, especially on social media. Objective This study aims to investigate and analyze the public’s attention to events related to COVID-19 in China at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic (December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020) through the Sina Microblog hot search list. Methods We collected topics related to the COVID-19 epidemic on the Sina Microblog hot search list from December 31, 2019, to February 20, 2020, and described the trend of public attention on COVID-19 epidemic-related topics. ROST Content Mining System version 6.0 was used to analyze the collected text for word segmentation, word frequency, and sentiment analysis. We further described the hot topic keywords and sentiment trends of public attention. We used VOSviewer to implement a visual cluster analysis of hot keywords and build a social network of public opinion content. Results The study has four main findings. First, we analyzed the changing trend of the public’s attention to the COVID-19 epidemic, which can be divided into three stages. Second, the hot topic keywords of public attention at each stage were slightly different. Third, the emotional tendency of the public toward the COVID-19 epidemic-related hot topics changed from negative to neutral, with negative emotions weakening and positive emotions increasing as a whole. Fourth, we divided the COVID-19 topics with the most public concern into five categories: the situation of the new cases of COVID-19 and its impact, frontline reporting of the epidemic and the measures of prevention and control, expert interpretation and discussion on the source of infection, medical services on the frontline of the epidemic, and focus on the worldwide epidemic and the search for suspected cases. Conclusions Our study found that social media (eg, Sina Microblog) can be used to measure public attention toward public health emergencies. During the epidemic of the novel coronavirus, a large amount of information about the COVID-19 epidemic was disseminated on Sina Microblog and received widespread public attention. We have learned about the hotspots of public concern regarding the COVID-19 epidemic. These findings can help the government and health departments better communicate with the public on health and translate public health needs into practice to create targeted measures to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19.

Background In addition to SARS associated coronaviruses, 4 non-SARS related human coronaviruses (HCoVs) are recognized as common respiratory pathogens. The etiology and clinical impact of HCoVs in Chinese adults with acute upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) needs to be characterized systematically by molecular detection with excellent sensitivity. Methodology/Principal Findings In this study, we detected 4 non-SARS related HCoV species by real-time RT-PCR in 981 nasopharyngeal swabs collected from March 2009 to February 2011. All specimens were also tested for the presence of other common respiratory viruses and newly identified viruses, human metapneumovirus (hMPV) and human bocavirus (HBoV). 157 of the 981 (16.0%) nasopharyngeal swabs were positive for HCoVs. The species detected were 229E (96 cases, 9.8%), OC43 (42 cases, 4.3%), HKU1 (16 cases, 1.6%) and NL63 (11 cases, 1.1%). HCoV-229E was circulated in 21 of the 24 months of surveillance. The detection rates for both OC43 and NL63 were showed significantly year-to-year variation between 2009/10 and 2010/11, respectively (P<0.001 and P = 0.003), and there was a higher detection frequency of HKU1 in patients aged over 60 years (P = 0.03). 48 of 157(30.57%) HCoV positive patients were co-infected. Undifferentiated human rhinoviruses and influenza (Flu) A were the most common viruses detected (more than 35%) in HCoV co-infections. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), human parainfluenza virus (PIV) and HBoV were detected in very low rate (less than 1%) among adult patients with URTI. Conclusions/Significance All 4 non-SARS-associated HCoVs were more frequently detected by real-time RT-PCR assay in adults with URTI in Beijing and HCoV-229E led to the most prevalent infection. Our study also suggested that all non-SARS-associated HCoVs contribute significantly to URTI in adult patients in China.

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BackgroundAcute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) represent a serious global health burden. To date, few reports have addressed the prevalence of respiratory viruses (RVs) in adults with ARTIs attending an emergency department (ED). Therefore, the potential impact of respiratory virus infections on such patients remains unknown.Methodology/Principal FindingsTo determine the epidemiological and clinical profiles of common and recently discovered respiratory viruses in adults with ARTIs attending an ED in Beijing, a 1-year consecutive study was conducted from May, 2010, to April, 2011. Nose and throat swab samples from 416 ARTI patients were checked for 13 respiratory viruses using multiple reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR) assays for common respiratory viruses, including influenza viruses (Flu) A, B, and adenoviruses (ADVs), picornaviruses (PICs), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainfluenza viruses (PIVs) 1–3, combined with real-time RT-PCR for human metapneumovirus (HMPV) and human coronaviruses (HCoVs, -OC43, -229E, -NL63, and -HKU1). Viral pathogens were detected in 52.88% (220/416) of patient samples, and 7.21% (30/416) of patients tested positive for more than one virus. PICs (17.79%) were the dominant agents detected, followed by FluA (16.11%), HCoVs (11.78%), and ADV (11.30%). HMPV, PIVs, and FluB were also detected (<3%), but not RSV. The total prevalence and the dominant virus infections detected differed significantly between ours and a previous report. Co-infection rates were high for HCoV-229E (12/39, 30.76%), PIC (22/74, 29.73%), ADV (12/47, 25.53%) and FluA (15/67, 22.39%). Different patterns of clinical symptoms were associated with different respiratory viruses.ConclusionsThe pattern of RV involvement in adults with ARTIs attending an ED in China differs from that previously reported. The high prevalence of viruses (PIC, FluA, HCoVs and ADV) reported here strongly highlight the need for the development of safe and effective therapeutic approaches for these viruses.

The current research on frontline medical staff in China fighting against COVID-19 has not yet addressed job satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to investigate the job satisfaction of those who were sent to support Hubei province, China, or worked in local designated hospitals, and then analyze the associated influencing factors. Materials and Methods: A total of 455 medical staff who worked at the frontline of the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Hubei province was selected using simple random sampling. They were asked to fill out a self-developed general information questionnaire as well as the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), from 10 January to 10 March 2020. Results: The average job satisfaction score of the participants was 82.58 ± 11.11. The influencing factors include education (P = 0.002), years of work experience (P = 0.006), anti-epidemic work duration (P = 0.048), daily sleep duration (P < 0.001), and the form of participation (P < 0.001). Conclusions: This study, for the first time, measures the job satisfaction of frontline medical staff in fighting against COVID-19 in China. The job satisfaction of frontline medical staff was at a "relatively decent" level, higher than the previous similar measures among medical staff. Related management departments should further improve the job satisfaction of frontline medical staff by meeting their reasonable demands, strengthening the emergency response and practical operation training of junior staff, and ensuring their ample time for sleep and rest. This study is of great reference value for improving the job satisfaction level of frontline medical staff during public health emergencies, developing medical staff security policies, and promoting the establishment of emergency response teams.

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Immune dysregulation is a cardinal feature of autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections. In particular, regulatory T cells are downregulated in autoimmune diseases while upregulated in chronic microbial infections. FOXP3 is the master regulator of Treg development. Treg-specific demethylated region (TSDR) is a highly conserved locus on the FOXP3 gene that is fully demethylated in natural Tregs but methylated in effector T cells. In our study, we used high resolution melt-polymerase chain reaction (HRM-PCR) to determine the FOXP3 TSDR methylation status in autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections. We found that FOXP3 TSDR to have the highest mean melting temperature (highly methylated) in active SLE patients compared to all the other groups (p < 0.001). The psoriasis group also had a significantly high mean melting temperature (78.62 ± 0.20) when compared with the inactive SLE group (78.49 ± 0.29, p < 0.05) and control group (78.44 ± 0.25, p < 0.01). There was no significant difference in melting temperature between inactive SLE and healthy controls. Disease activity in SLE was directly associated with methylation of the FOXP3 TSDR. On the other hand, patients with chronic microbial infections had significantly lower FOXP3 TSDR mean melting temperature (demethylated) when compared with healthy controls (78.28 ± 0.21 vs 78.44 ± 0.25, p < 0.05). Our results suggest that the use of HRM-PCR to detect FOXP3 TSDR methylation status is a reliable and easy method to predict natural regulatory T cell levels in peripheral blood in different disease conditions. Determining FOXP3 TSDR methylation status can be a useful tool in diagnosis, and monitoring the severity of autoimmune diseases and chronic microbial infections.

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