The current 2019 new Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak in China and its subsequent spread to multiple countries across four continents has triggered a major global health crisis, which makes everyone around the world focus on the virus. What exactly is a virus? Why is it such a big threat? This article will briefly introduce these questions.

What is a virus in biology?

Virus is a non-cellular life form, mainly composed of nucleic acids and proteins. It does not have metabolic capacity itself and needs to rely on the host cell’s metabolic system to complete proliferation. In other words, a virus is a protein shell that encloses genetic materials. While the protein shell provides structural support and protection, it also helps the virus find host cells.

What is the current new Coronavirus?

Recently, a virus called SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2) caused an epidemic with pneumonia as the main symptom. Since the early outbreak data in Wuhan, China, it has been subsequently spread to all provinces of China and numerous countries. SARS-CoV-2 is a single positive-stranded RNA virus belonging to the Coronaviridae family, which encompasses the common cold, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).

The incubation period of SARS-CoV-2 is generally 3-14 days, and the longest even reached 24 days. Early symptoms are mostly fever, fatigue, cough, and then, dyspnea gradually appears. It has the ability to pass from person to person, and currently, no specific medicines are available to help.

Can humans conquer the virus?

Smallpox is a severe infectious disease caused by the smallpox virus. It is by far the only infectious disease that has been eliminated worldwide by humans. As one of the oldest and most infectious diseases, smallpox is highly contagious and severely threatening. Severe viremia manifests itself after infection, and high mortality of smallpox is also confirmed. The most basic and effective method of prevention is smallpox vaccination.

Are viruses all harmful?

Since the 1940s, viruses have become an important material for molecular biology research. The study of viruses is not only of great significance for the prevention and treatment of human, animal, and plant diseases, it can even be used to treat diseases.

For example, oncolytic virus (OV), a type of virus, is found to infect tumor cells and can multiply in cancer cells, eventually causing tumor cells to lyse, break, and die. The earliest report of oncolytic virus in the world was due to the fact that a cervical cancer patient was found to have tumor regression after being infected with the rabies virus.

“Currently, many different OVs are being evaluated in clinical trials, including adenovirus (AdV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), vaccinia virus, Newcastle disease virus, measles virus, and reovirus. They have shown to be non-toxic, and can induce strong anti-tumor immunity.” According to scientists from Creative Biolabs, a famous institute and experienced supplier in the biotech market to offer OV-related services.

In short, not all viruses are bad to human beings, and in-depth research on viruses has helped us better understand humans and nature. However, facing life-threatening SARS-CoV-2, everyone should be vigilant. Always wear a mask when going out, do not go to crowded places, and go to hospital in time if developing a fever. It is believed that human beings can finally defeat SARS-CoV-2 and greet the arrival of the spring of 2020.

Optic neuropathies are a class of neurodegenerative diseases caused by various reasons such as hypoxia, inflammation, poisoning, nutritional deficiencies, glaucoma, compression, trauma, hereditary and congenital diseases. Although the causes of optic neuropathy have their own characteristics, they will eventually lead to the death of optic ganglion cells (RGCs).

The axons emitted by RGCs form the optic nerve. The regeneration of RGCs is restricted by many exogenous and endogenous factors. The exogenous constraints are mainly the microenvironment that inhibits neuron regeneration after axon damage. The endogenous constraints are mainly the lack of ability of mature RGCs to grow and regenerate after injury. Therefore, damage to the optic nerve is often difficult to repair.

Leber’s hereditary optic neuropathy (LHON) is a hereditary optic neuropathy caused by point mutations in mitochondrial DNA. The most common sites for point mutations are bases 11778, 14484, and 3460, and gene therapy has a better effect on hereditary optic neuropathy caused by a single gene mutation.

Adeno-associated viruses type 2 (AAV2) is relatively safe with high efficiency in transferring to the inner layer of the retina, and low risk of tumor formation, making it a commonly used vector for gene therapy. In clinical studies, there have been studies using intravitreal injection of recombinant AAV2 vector carrying ND4 (rAAV2-ND4) in order to restore normal expression or function of genes in RGCs.

In a study involving 9 patients with severely impaired vision, the researchers treated these 9 patients with rAAV2-ND4. Before treated, the patients were observed for 12 months and no spontaneous recovery was found. After 3 to 6 months of treatment, the patients’ vision began to improve, and at 9 months after treatment, 7 of 9 patients had their best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) restored to 0.3. The visual field index of 7 patients improved after treatment (1 patient did not improve, and 1 patient refused to perform a visual field test).

Some researchers underwent unilateral eye gene therapy for 9 similar patients, and followed up within 36 months of treatment. Among them, the BCVA of 2 patients’ treated eyes improved, but the condition worsened after 6 months. The BCVA of untreated eyes improved after 36 months. One patient’s bilateral vision was improved after treatment but returned to the pre-treatment level after 12 months; the vision of the 2 patients who did not receive treatment gradually recovered to 0.2 by themselves. The visual field index of both treated and untreated eyes of 4 patients decreased in 6 months after treatment; the visual field index of 2 patients gradually recovered.

The results of these studies indicate that gene therapy has at least a short-term benefit, but the long-term effect is not significant, which may because the expression of genes transferred by gene therapy gradually decreases over time.

The biggest challenge faced by the new technology and new target of gene therapy is how to accurately regenerate neurons, and how to make them accurately link with the original neural tissue. Studies have shown that many regenerative neurons appear tortuous in the optic nerve and even regenerate in the opposite direction.

“Now, it is unclear whether these erroneously regenerated neurons can link to the optic nerve and thus produce erroneous visual functions,” said a senior scientist at Creative Biolabs, a leading service provider of gene therapy. “Non-viral vector gene therapy with low toxicity but limited efficiency may have a certain therapeutic effect, but this treatment method has not been applied to the treatment of hereditary optic nerve diseases.”

Targeted gene therapy for hereditary optic nerve diseases has shown certain therapeutic effects in animal model experiments of optic nerve damage and early human experiments. However, there are still some problems that need to be solved, and scientists worldwide are trying to unveil more secret of genomes.

Importance of Measuring Patient Satisfaction

In simple words, patient satisfaction is an indicator of how well the patient is being treated. The “how well” doesn’t refer to the quality of care but to which extent a patient is satisfied with the care they receive. Patient Satisfaction is one of the growth factors in the efficiency of hospital care. Nowadays, most of the hospitals are giving attention to the patient experience.

Enhanced Patient Satisfaction will not only lead to enhanced patient experience, but it is also associated with better treatment outcomes.

As per the research, “85% of patients expect their healthcare professionals to be the point of contact for providing services to supervise their condition.”

6 Reasons Why to Measure Patient Satisfaction

Patient Satisfaction is a vital measure of service high quality in healthcare systems. Determining Patient Satisfaction begins with paying attention to your patients and asking them their concerns. Considering that numerous health care companies do not conduct patient satisfaction surveys, however doing so with your patients will go a long way in developing trust in your services. Make sure to review and take action on the data gathered from the patient feedback tool that indicates overarching trends are in your control.

The need to boost Patient Satisfaction is an essential step; it can be a difficult job to understand what changes will result in the most effective outcomes. Health care providers make an assessment when a patient schedules an appointment with a physician. Be it small or big; modifications can enhance a patient’s overall experience. There are numerous reasons why measuring patient satisfaction is just one of the leading concerns for each physician.

Some of the essential steps of why to measure patient satisfaction are:

To know your patient feedback and eliminate the guesswork best way to know whether your customers are satisfied or dissatisfied is by collecting patient feedback. It will also help your customers get a clear picture of patient expectations. They might face issues with appointment scheduling, wait time concerns, etc. Patient Feedback Surveys are an incredible tool for enhancing your healthcare services.
“A customer is likely to spend 31% more on a business with ‘excellent’ reviews.”

To measure the performance and care provided by your staff
Patient Satisfaction Surveys don’t just improve communication with your patients, but also helps in enhancing the overall performance. Measurement is essential for improving the quality of healthcare services and how well a healthcare provider is performing. It also captures what hospitals do and compare it with the targeted goals to identify what are the primary services which require improvement. There are different parameters on which performance can be measured, like the length of stay, doctor appointment scheduling, patient wait time, cost of the treatment, etc.

Feedback surveys will help in measuring hospital performance against set explicit standards by the healthcare provider.

“65% of patients say transparency regarding the cost of healthcare services is very important for the overall satisfaction.”

To know miffed and angry patients and to reach out to them
If a healthcare provider fails to provide a positive experience, then patients would be dissatisfied with your services, and they will tend to raise their complaints. They will highlight their issues, whether the problem is with your services or treatment.

Interacting with their issues directly from them will help hospitals prevent further complaints in the near future and improve their performance.

“13% of unhappy customers will share their complaint with 15 or more people.”

To improve patient care
Improving patient care has become a top priority for all healthcare providers. Communication is one of the biggest challenges, and it can take an ample amount of time to implement the smallest challenge. Collecting feedback is one thing, and successfully implementing it will improve patient care.

Reaching out to your patients will help you improve and gather valuable insights about why your patients like or dislike your services. Both negative and positive feedback should be taken into account to improve overall patient care.

“68% of patients prefer to select medical providers which offer the option to book, modify or cancel appointments online.

To Boost Patient Engagement and Improve Patient Retention
Always remember one thing that happy patients will always come back and refer your services to others. Collecting patient feedback will help in enhanced patient engagement. Give importance to them as their positive/negative feedback can help you improve your services. We all know that the cost of patient acquisition is high; therefore, retaining the old ones will result in reduced turnover, increased loyalty, and extended lifetime value.

Failing to deliver services as per a patient’s expectations means losing them forever. Patient satisfaction is not just a bonus point, but it is a considerable investment that will play a significant role in the long-term.

“A 2% increase in patient retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10%.”

To Attract More Patients: It’s a universal truth that when it comes to health, we trust friends and family first as compared to any other social media marketing channel and third-party review websites.
Enhancing patient services will help medical practitioners to build up a positive image. It will help build trust amongst the existing patients and attract new ones. As a marketing strategy, word-of-mouth proves to be more reliable and less expensive than other marketing methods.

“If you satisfy 1 patient, then it reaches 4 more patients. If you alienate 1 patient, then it reaches 10 potential patients.”

To Reach Better Clinical Outcomes: There is another benefit of high patient satisfaction and excellent doctor-patient communication. In simple terms, the effectiveness of the treatment depends upon numerous factors; one among them is how much patients trust their doctor.
The probability is high that patients are more likely to trust their physician’s judgment, especially when they feel more content with the care they receive. Meeting your patient’s expectations not just raises their satisfaction level to a great extent but also makes your job easier.

“According to a study done in Academic Medicine, patients that trust their doctors have far better clinical outcomes.”

To Attract Patient Loyalty and Growth: By consistently providing patient satisfaction experience, medical practices or outpatient care can win patient loyalty and, therefore, can result in high demand as a provider.
With positive patient feedback, you can get new patients and is a key to the growth of your practice. A patient receiving healthcare services which no other hospital can provide is less likely to switch their preferred medical facility.

“Greater patient loyalty means more referrals and word-of-mouth business.”

Measuring patient satisfaction can help you improve the overall patient experience. It can help healthcare centers by strengthening patient loyalty, building credibility, and boosting the usage of hospital services with the help of increased referrals. If you want to collect patient feedback from numerous locations distributed across all healthcare centers, then making use of Patient Survey Software is the right choice. It will help physicians to identify gaps in healthcare, enhance the quality of care, and improve patient engagement and overall satisfaction.

Every year, countless people suffer from symptoms related to sinus and allergy problems. Sinus and allergy problems can make you feel uncomfortable, sick and even impact your overall health. If you are looking for relief from your Houston sinus and allergy problems, consider the following guide that will help you learn what to do to find relief.

Symptoms of Sinus and Allergy Problems

Symptoms of sinus and allergy problems can vary depending on the season and what is causing the reaction. The most common symptoms associated with sinus and allergies include:

Headaches with pressure near the forehead, nose, between the eyes and cheeks
Sleeping problems, such as insomnia
Itchy eyes
Itchy nose
Congestion, including a post-nasal drip that lasts for 2 weeks or more
Reduced ability to taste or smell
Sneezing and runny nose
Fatigue
Increased wheezing
Cough
If the symptoms are caused by an allergic reaction, symptoms may also include rashes and hives after exposure to an allergen. The severity and longevity of the symptoms may vary depending on the season and cause behind the reaction. In some cases, symptoms may only occur after exposure to an allergen, whereas in other cases they may occur on a seasonal basis.

How Allergy and Sinus Testing Can Help Ease Your Suffering

If you are suffering from frustrating sinus and allergy symptoms, you are experiencing a decreased quality of life. Over time, these symptoms can make it difficult to focus, sleep and take care of yourself. If you are unable to find relief from your symptoms—especially if the exact cause of your allergies or sinus problems is currently unknown—then you should consider allergy and sinus testing.

Allergy and sinus testing are designed to help you find out exactly what is causing your symptoms and from there, work on finding the best solution to your problem. Allergy testing is especially important as it can help you define a previously unknown allergen or allergens.

There are different types of allergy testing. The most common is intradermal testing; intradermal testing involves testing underneath the skin, which is typically done through what is called the “prick test.” To complete this test, a professional will inject a small sample of an allergen underneath the skin and then wait to see if the body reacts. Some of the more common allergens used in these types of tests are molds, pollens, dander, and dust. The results of these tests can be obtained fairly quickly—most tests will take about an hour in all.

In addition to intradermal testing, blood tests can help determine the source of an allergen.

Once your allergens are determined, it can be much easier to work on a proper therapy and treatment for your symptoms. If you are currently suffering from symptoms due to sinus and allergy problems, you should consider taking an allergy test. A test will help you find out what is causing your frustrating symptoms and consequently find relief from them as soon as possible.