Background: Diagnosis of co-infections with multiple pathogens among hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients can be jointly challenging and essential for appropriate treatment, ...shortening hospital stays and preventing antimicrobial resistance. This study proposes to investigate the burden of bacterial and fungal co-infections outcomes on COVID-19 patients. It is a single center cross-sectional study of hospitalized COVID-19 patients at Beit-Jala hospital in Palestine.
Methods: The study included 321 hospitalized patients admitted to the ICU between June 2020 and March 2021 aged ≥20 years, with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 via reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay conducted on a nasopharyngeal swab. The patient's information was gathered using graded data forms from electronic medical reports.
Results: The diagnosis of bacterial and fungal infection was proved through the patient's clinical presentation and positive blood or sputum culture results. All cases had received empirical antimicrobial therapy before the intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and different regimens during the ICU stay. The rate of bacterial co-infection was 51.1%, mainly from gram-negative isolates (
Enterobacter species and
K.pneumoniae). The rate of fungal co-infection caused by
A.fumigatus was 48.9%, and the mortality rate was 8.1%. However, it is unclear if it had been attributed to SARS-CoV-2 or coincidental.
Conclusions: Bacterial and fungal co-infection is common among COVID-19 patients at the ICU in Palestine, but it is not obvious if these cases are attributed to SARS-CoV-2 or coincidental, because little data is available to compare it with the rates of secondary infection in local ICU departments before the pandemic. Comprehensively, those conclusions present data supporting a conservative antibiotic administration for severely unwell COVID-19 infected patients. Our examination regarding the impacts of employing antifungals to manage COVID-19 patients can work as a successful reference for future COVID-19 therapy.
This paper presents a study of the rich archaeological landscape of the Jericho Oasis, drawing on historical aerial photography and more recent satellite imagery to survey this cultural landscape and ...assess issues affecting its preservation over the past century. The timing of the paper is pertinent as non-U.S. satellite companies have recently begun to produce higher resolution satellite imagery of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), and restrictions on imagery resolution in the U.S. have been lowered as a result of research by the EAMENA project. Whilst increasingly widespread availability of high-resolution satellite imagery and orthophotos can effectively support heritage monitoring in this heavily-developed region, this paper demonstrates that it is the use of historical aerial photography that has enabled the identification of a range of previously unrecognized archaeological features. These new data offer a first tentative step in revising our current understanding of the development of human settlement across the Jericho Oasis.
This study uses a diagnostic and multidisciplinary water governance assessment framework to examine the main factors influencing water cooperation on the shared Mountain Aquifer between Israel and ...Palestine. It finds that effective cooperation between Israel and Palestine is unlikely in the foreseeable future if both parties persist with the business-as-usual approach. What constrains the two parties from achieving consensual agreement are political tensions, the constraints of current technology, the different perceptions of the value of the shared water, the mistrust between the two parties, the lack of external enforcement mechanisms, and the impacts of the domestic political environment.
This article examines the complexities of Qatar's Palestine policy, emphasising Doha's multifaceted role as a mediator, problem-solver, humanitarian aid provider, and representative of the ...Palestinian issue at the United Nations. The study employs a mixed-methods research approach. Firstly, it utilises qualitative data from official statements, key policymakers' remarks, and literature on Qatar's foreign policy and Palestinian engagement. Secondly, it introduces text analytic methods such as latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic modelling, word clouds and network analysis to identify key themes, relationships and trends in Qatar's speeches. The findings reveal that the Palestinian issue has been a prominent and consistent topic in Qatar's United Nations General Assembly General Debate addresses over the past five decades. Qatar has consistently advocated for a resolution to the conflict, emphasising the importance of peace, justice and the two-state solution. Qatar's support for Palestine remains steadfast, despite pressure from other regional actors to end its engagement with Hamas and divert its attention from the Palestinian issue. This commitment to the Palestinian cause aligns with Qatar's broader state preferences for an independent foreign policy, its opposition to external interference, and its aspiration to restore its role as a trusted international partner on global platforms.
Buried Neck Deep Khouri, Lama Z.
Psychoanalytic perspectives,
09/2018, Volume:
15, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
The author responds to commentaries by Adrienne Harris and Stephen Sheehi on her paper "Through Trump's Looking Glass into Alice's Wonderland: On Meeting the House Palestinian." She agrees with ...Harris that sociopolitical forces exert pressure on the clinical dyad and offers two case examples. In her response to Sheehi, she wonders whether the "house" Palestinian is not as detrimental to her people as she had made her out to be; perhaps the "house" Palestinian could be a bridge that brings relief to the oppressed. She highlights the difficulty in holding an either/or position, in this case a "house" or "field" Palestinian stance.
The employment of digital media and e-materials in the classroom in the time of Covid-19 in Palestine has generated much attention among scholars, researchers and teachers. One of these electronic ...resources is digital maps which have recently become enriching and transformative ways of learning in different educational and pedagogical settings in Palestinian academic institutions. The lack of physical mobility due to continued governmental enforcements of lockdown laws in the Palestinian Occupied Territories hindered many teachers, students and researchers in the field of national cartography and human geography, many of whom were faced with dire challenges in exploring local landscapes outlined in Palestinian travel writing. This article examines the vital role of using digital maps in teaching Palestinian cartographic fiction. While it notes the value of students' geographic practices in the field, it explores the benefits of using digital maps in the higher teaching of Palestinian literary cartography. The article, in particular, reflects on the development and re-construction of the meanings of students' subjectivity and nationalism in the light of their virtual performance, responses and imaginary relationship to "place" during the outbreak of Covid-19.
Forensic medicine in Palestine is a new branch of medicine compared with other medical specialties and is still at a nascent stage. Only 6 medical doctors specializing in forensic medicine are ...currently practicing in Palestine, including only one female specialist (the author). Palestine has adopted a system that combines clinical forensic medicine and forensic pathology. Forensic doctors can deal with both the living and the dead and deal with cases of physical and sexual assault, gender-based violence, and domestic violence.
In different courts, such as civil, military, and shariah, Palestinian judicial decisions depend primarily on forensic medical reports and the testimonies that forensic doctors provide for the court to explain their reports. Forensic medicine has a significant role and crucial impact on achieving justice for victims of all types of abuse, either dead or alive. However, the role of forensic medicine in achieving justice for victims, and hence fighting and eradicating violence, is underestimated and not fully understood by the general population.
This paper introduces to the reader the status of forensic medicine in Palestine, focusing on the challenges and obstacles faced by both the victims and forensic doctors. Meeting these challenges and overcoming obstacles is essential for fighting all types of violence, including violence against women in Palestinian society.
The current provision of forensic medical services in Palestine is less than satisfactory, being considerably hampered by the lack of legislation and regulations.
Palestine is in great need of continued international support for forensic medicine and forensic services. Two projects supported by the United Nations put the country on the road, but there are still many miles to go toward the aim.
•This paper highlights forensic medicine in westbank Palestine.•Aimed to clarify the role of forensic medicine in establishing justice and the faced challenges.•Forensic medicine in Palestine combines between clinical forensic medicine and forensic pathology.•Nine forensic medicine specialists in Westbank Palestine among them only one female, who became the first in Palestine.•Palestine needs continued international support for forensic medicine and forensic services.