cord-005129-2e6b5tm2	2016	
cord-017731-xzfo5jjq	2016	Food safety is a concern worldwide and according to the World Health Organization, developing countries are probably more at risk of foodborne illness because many of these, including those in the Middle East, have limited disease surveillance and prevention and control strategies. Like many other parts of the developing world, foodborne disease surveillance is limited and outbreaks are most often reported through the Press but with insufficient detail to determine the etiological agents and the factors contributing to the outbreaks, leading to speculation to the cause by those interested or responsible for food prevention and control. Thus, the main foodborne disease issues are with homemade, restaurant and street food, where isolated claims of illness are followed up by inspections and possible punitive action by public health agencies responsible for food safety.
cord-025667-ta7n2u31	2020	Over the years the number of submissions from China, Iran has drastically reduced simply because we are more careful, selected only good quality manuscripts besides encouraging the authors to publish their manuscripts in their local journals. A further analysis of submission from Pakistan revealed that maximum number of manuscripts was submitted from Karachi followed by Lahore, Peshawar and Rawalpindi despite the fact that a large number of medical journals are also published from these cities but it is also a fact that more research work is also undertaken in these cities for various reasons. Since the objective of the Journal and its Editorial team is not just to accept, reject and publish papers but also teach and train the authors, Editorial team of Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences has been actively participating in organizing as well as facilitating workshop on Scientific Writing, Peer Review and training courses on Journal publishing not only in Pakistan but in the EMRO region as well.
cord-030959-olcz7g19	2020	
cord-034495-gvtv8o96	2020	
cord-117800-jzokod4q	2020	
cord-221652-rsxw0q0e	2020	
cord-255376-nqq5ieyg	2020	
cord-256676-b7p92sb1	2020	
cord-258126-8ityzjjh	2020	
cord-258879-dueab356	2020	
cord-260583-n20y2zep	2020	
cord-265575-gcaj3p0f	2020	
cord-265996-97xxpe8m	2020	
cord-267791-v10eh408	2019	
cord-268149-narre5e7	2018	title: Traditional uses of medicinal plants used by Indigenous communities for veterinary practices at Bajaur Agency, Pakistan Most widely used medicinal plants with maximum use reports (URs) were Visnaga daucoides Gaertn., Foeniculum vulgare Mill., Solanum virginianum L., Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal, Glycyrrhiza glabra L., and Curcuma longa L. It has been recognized that plants have the capacity to combat several types of diseases ethnoveterinary medicines, a term generally used for folk skills, beliefs, knowledge, practices, methods related to animals'' health, and cure of various ailments in the rural areas [1] . Indigenous people of the study area are rich in traditional knowledge on veterinary medicines, which may be due to their close observation on domestic animals being considered as an important part of traditional lifestyle. Medicinal plants with high URs strengthen the concept that such species are more significant to the local population and useful in sharing the traditional knowledge with one another in the area.
cord-270898-7ap8lcxm	2020	
cord-275445-d3i12m3l	2020	
cord-275897-j9cwlzxu	2020	
cord-278145-3tfcxbfz	2020	title: Challenges amid COVID-19 times Review of the changing practices in a clinical chemistry laboratory from a developing country To ensure such continuity of services, the aim of this review is to highlight the challenges faced by a Clinical https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2020.06.004 Received 6 May 2020; Received in revised form 1 June 2020; Accepted 1 June 2020 Chemistry laboratory in a developing country amid the COVID-19 crisis, the challenges, implementing changes and the lessons learnt. � Post pandemic world with the anticipated overwhelming financial crisis, will require major resource allocation decisions for inventory management and prioritizing needs for new developments and projects. With the current state of local spread in the country and amid the high chances of contracting COVID-19, it is inevitable that the clinical laboratories take drastic measures and succumb to acceptable alternate plans for ensuring the safety and interests of its valuable employs alongside continuousness of provision of diagnostic services for better health outcomes, in times of the pandemic.
cord-279395-qfb06csa	2020	
cord-279405-1d6gznls	2020	geographical spread of COVID-19 and more involvement of adults, there have been increasing reports of co-infections with various other infectious diseases. During the on-going pandemic where health authorities are primarily engaged to contain the infection, any other infectious disease outbreak will hinder the manoeuvres combating COVID-19 and will create the diagnostic challenges for healthcare professionals. Recently, National Institute of Health (NIH) in Pakistan issued ''High Alert'' for dengue viral infection (DVI) as monsoon season (July -December) is considered a vulnerable period for dengue spread [2] . Keeping in view the fragile healthcare system and economic turmoil in Pakistan, dengue outbreak will pose serious challenges for which country is not This article is protected by copyright. In Thailand, a patient who presented with petechial rashes was treated as dengue case but declared as co-infected with COVID-19 following advanced clinical diagnosis [6] . Patients presenting to healthcare professionals with fever, rash, headache and respiratory problems must be subjected to DVI and COVID-19 diagnosis.
cord-280050-fktc778q	2020	
cord-285223-07o9irev	2020	title: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices of Healthcare Professionals on COVID-19 and Risk Assessment to Prevent the Epidemic Spread: A Multicenter Cross-Sectional Study from Punjab, Pakistan A 39-itemed questionnaire based on the World Health Organization (WHO)COVID-19 risk assessment tool was shared with healthcare professionals in three purposively selected key divisions of Punjab province. Avoiding cross-infection from patients along with effective care delivery can be achieved if the healthcare professionals, including physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and other medical staff, have sufficient knowledge, a positive attitude, and better practices about COVID-19. A recent study reported the deficiencies in the awareness and preparedness of medical professionals regarding COVID-19 in Pakistan and demonstrated that frontline health workers were not well-prepared to prevent and control the infection [14] . A cross-sectional study to examine the knowledge, attitude, practices, and risk assessment of HCPs regarding coronavirus and its associated disease (COVID-19) was conducted.
cord-290952-tbsccwgx	2020	In this paper, we develop a mathematical model to explore the transmission dynamics and possible control of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan, one of the Asian countries with a high burden of disease with more than 100,000 confirmed infected cases so far. In this paper, we develop a mathematical model to explore the transmission dynamics and possible control of the COVID-19 pandemic in Pakistan, one of the Asian countries with a high burden of disease with more than 100,000 confirmed infected cases so far. The effect of low (or mild), moderate, and comparatively strict control interventions like social-distancing, quarantine rate, (or contact-tracing of suspected people) and hospitalization (or self-isolation) of testing positive COVID-19 cases are shown graphically. The effect of low (or mild), moderate, and comparatively strict control interventions like social-distancing, quarantine rate, (or contact-tracing of suspected people) and hospitalization (or self-isolation) of testing positive COVID-19 cases are shown graphically.
cord-291615-5440k4ax	2020	
cord-292293-tko186lh	2020	These findings have been extrapolated to the rest of the urban, adult, working population of Pakistan, and as of 6th July, 2020, 4.11 million people in Pakistan have been infected with COVID-19, which is 17.7 times higher than the current number of 231,818 symptom-based PCR cases reported by the government which exclude asymptomatic cases. 2 Although literature indicates that asymptomatic infections within a population may be many folds higher than the number of PCR reported cases, 3, 4 large-scale, sero-prevalence studies within low-risk populations have not yet been conducted in Pakistan. Getz Pharma conducted a 100% census sero-prevalence study on a sample of 24,210 individuals using the IgG/IgM Test Kit (Colloidal gold) with follow-up and sequential testing after every 15-20 days. This is the first of its kind, large scale census conducted on the general, urban population of Pakistan, which indicates the total number of COVID-19 positive cases is 17.7 times higher than symptom-based PCR reported figures.
cord-296363-qgoxlqoq	2020	
cord-302497-5tydrrz1	2020	
cord-302842-idbmh1uo	2020	This study was designed to investigate the impact of meteorological indicators (temperature, rainfall, and humidity) on total COVID-19 cases in Pakistan, its provinces, and administrative units from March 10, 2020, to August 25, 2020. The contribution of this study is (a) it first time examined the relationship between meteorological indicators and COVID-19 in Pakistan, (b) it first time examined the relationship between meteorological indicators and COVID-19 in four provinces and three administrative units in Pakistan, and (c) it used the generalized models to investigate the impact of average temperature, rainfall, and humidity on COVID-19 cases. A higher correlation coefficient was observed between temperature (minimum, maximum, and Fig. 11 Humidity in provinces and administrative areas Environ Sci Pollut Res average) and COVID-19 cases for all provinces and administrative units (Punjab, Sindh, Baluchistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Islamabad Capital Territory, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir).
cord-303102-ap1dzbp9	2020	While, due to COVID-19 outbreak, several health issues have been raised and such issues are becoming serious days by day, more specifically in frugal economies like Pakistan, this impact is very critical, and now, an economic shock is being perceived; lockdown is being extended continuously; and by the effect of lockdown fuel consumption, CO 2 emission, energy demand and supply declined and market mechanism is altered very speedily. By the fact, the COVID-19 outbreak affected the energy sector of the world as a whole, and eventually, the demand graph of oil supplies have become bearish; oil market prices faced a decline; and big economies like the USA are bidding the oil-free of cost (Malamud and Núñez 2020) . We contributed in literature by presenting a novel study on the COVID-19 effect on carbon emission and energy consumption in modern time when the world is finding the solution for each and every sector and each and every aspect to make it sustainable.
cord-305146-iprzeigk	2020	We conducted a systematic review of studies on PPE use for respiratory infections in healthcare settings in Pakistan. Face masks (or medical masks) and respirators are the most commonly used PPE to protect from influenza and other respiratory infection in healthcare settings. The aim of this study was to examine the use of PPE for respiratory infections in healthcare settings in Pakistan. Studies where PPE was examined for general infection control were also included, given respiratory protective equipment (face masks and/or respirators) was mentioned. Two studies examined the guidelines and current practices on the use of face masks/respirators for influenza, tuberculosis and SARS in Pakistan [21, 22] . Medical masks were generally used to protect from influenza, tuberculosis and other respiratory infections, while the use of respirators was limited to high-risk situations [21, 22] .
cord-307697-ds4uw7y1	2020	Whereas, doctors in Pakistan reported to have poor availability of PPE with only 37.4% having access to masks/N95 respirator, 34.5% to gloves, 13.8% to face-shields or goggles, and 12.9% to full-suit/gown. Whereas, doctors in Pakistan reported to have poor availability of PPE with only 37.4% having access to masks/N95 respirator, 34.5% to gloves, 13.8% to face-shields or goggles, and 12.9% to full-suit/gown. In contrast, doctors in Pakistan reported to have poor availability of PPE with only 37.4% (n = 130) having access to masks/N95 respirator, 34.5% (n = 120) to gloves, 13.8% (n = 48) to face-shields or goggles, and 12.9% (n = 44) to full-suit/gown. In our study, 73% of doctors from Pakistan and 58.4% from the US reported that HCWs in their hospitals had been infected with COVID-19. To conclude, there is a shortage of PPE in hospitals of the US and Pakistan due to COVID-19 and doctors are feeling scared working without adequate protection in the pandemic situation.
cord-308556-xi2un0kc	2020	
cord-310293-0s7l0l4k	2020	
cord-311085-jmuyi53x	2020	
cord-315059-l6guql8q	2020	title: Corona and Clergy: The missing link for an effective social distancing in Pakistan. To begin with, more than half of the COVID-19 cases in Malaysia received virus 11 in a congregation of 16000 believers from 30 countries. Pakistan''s case is of concern due to a fragile healthcare system, poor hygiene practices, 20 limited access to healthcare, and steep rise in the number of local cases in a population bigger 21 than Italy and Iran combined. Evidence supports the substantial impact of social distancing as 22 a viable practice to contain the spread of the virus. In Pakistan, the practice of social distancing 24 Email: naeem.mubarak@lmdc.edu.pk Tel: 00-92-42-37392215 Muslim world, and cancelled Umrah (pilgrimage). for Pakistan to implement social distancing in the holy month of Ramadan (26 th April) when 46 influx in mosques increases many-fold for daily prayers and Tarawih (an additional prayer in 47 Email: naeem.mubarak@lmdc.edu.pk Tel: 00-92-42-37392215 79 80 COVID-19: Pakistan to allow mosques prayers in 70
cord-318240-wxtktbfa	2020	
cord-318390-uuz37610	2020	The current pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that led to an unprecedented crisis with significant health, social, and economic repercussions presented more serious concerns for those living with some chronic conditions such as epilepsy. The current study, which holds 77% of the respondents from rural areas and 23% from urban settings, showed that partial measures of lockdown taken to stop or slow the spread of COVID-19 resulted in adverse economic and health outcomes in the said population including cancelation of follow-up visits, worsening of seizures, job loss, burden of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) costs, and discontinuation of medicines. The present study was aimed to find out the impact of COVID-19 containment measures on the management strategy of low literate caregivers of patients living in resource-limited areas of Pakistan, one of the active hotspots of the pandemic.
cord-337155-e4gn4fo1	2020	The study aimed to analyse the role of the capital structure in the financial performance of 90 textile firms listed in Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) during the period 2008–2017. The results indicate that the capital structure debt to equity variable has a negative and significant relationship with financial performance while the asset turnover ratio and firm performance showed a negative and statistically insignificant relationship. The current study thus contributes to the existing literature by highlighting the firm-specific factors that affect the performance of the textile sector firms that are listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) concerning capital structure choices. The relationship of firms'' financing choice based on the capital structure, export growth, taxation, and financial performance (ROE) is a new variable in this particular study based on the textile sector. The current study aimed to highlight the relationship between the determinants of the capital structure and its impact on firm financial performance in the textile sector of Pakistan.
cord-348521-ai7d634u	2020