COVID-19 and Possible Pharmacological Preventive Options

Internet addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic among adolescents in southeast Nigeria and implications for adolescent care in the post-pandemic era: A cross-sectional study

Objectives

This study aimed to determine the prevalence and associated factors of internet addiction amongst adolescents in Southeast Nigeria during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was carried out in 10 randomly selected secondary schools, 2 (one urban and one rural) each from Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi Enugu and Imo states of southeastern Nigeria between July and August 2021. Data on demographic variables were collected using a structured self-administered questionnaire. Young's Internet Addiction Test was used to assess the extent of internet use. Analysis was done using the IBM SPSS Statistics version 23. The level of significance was set at a p-value of <0.05.

Results

The mean age of the respondents was 16.2 ± 1.8 years and the male: female ratio was 1:1.6. Most of the adolescents (61.1%) used the internet for academic purposes, while 32.8% used it for social interactions and the majority (51.5%) used their phones. The prevalence of internet addiction was 88.1% (24.9% had mild, 59.6% had moderate, while 3.6% had severe addiction) and a good proportion of the respondents (81.1%) perceived addiction as bad. Internet addiction was significantly associated with the respondent's age (p = 0.043), mother's level of education (p = 0.023), family size (p = 0.021), place of residence (p = 0.035), alcohol intake (p = 0.017), smoking (p = 0.015), substance use (p = 0.001) as well as the duration of internet use (p < 0.001). Internet addiction was predicted by the male gender (adjusted odds ratio (AOR): 2.054; confidence interval (CI): 1.200-3.518), early adolescent age group (10-13 years) (AOR: 0.115; C1: 0.015-0.895) as well as the duration of internet use (AOR: 0.301; CI: 0.189-0.479).

Conclusions

The prevalence of internet addiction among adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic era was high. The predictors of addiction were the male gender, early adolescent age group and duration of internet use.

Deferiprone: A Forty-Year-Old Multi-Targeting Drug with Possible Activity against COVID-19 and Diseases of Similar Symptomatology

The need for preparing new strategies for the design of emergency drug therapies against COVID-19 and similar diseases in the future is rather urgent, considering the high rate of morbidity and especially mortality associated with COVID-19, which so far has exceeded 18 million lives. Such strategies could be conceived by targeting the causes and also the serious toxic side effects of the diseases, as well as associated biochemical and physiological pathways. Deferiprone (L1) is an EMA- and FDA-approved drug used worldwide for the treatment of iron overload and also other conditions where there are no effective treatments. The multi-potent effects and high safety record of L1 in iron loaded and non-iron loaded categories of patients suggests that L1 could be developed as a “magic bullet” drug against COVID-19 and diseases of similar symptomatology. The mode of action of L1 includes antiviral, antimicrobial, antioxidant, anti-hypoxic and anti-ferroptotic effects, iron buffering interactions with transferrin, iron mobilizing effects from ferritin, macrophages and other cells involved in the immune response and hyperinflammation, as well as many other therapeutic interventions. Similarly, several pharmacological and other characteristics of L1, including extensive tissue distribution and low cost of production, increase the prospect of worldwide availability, as well as many other therapeutic approach strategies involving drug combinations, adjuvant therapies and disease prevention.

Hemagglutinin-esterase cannot be considered as a candidate for designing drug against COVID-19

We read with interest the article by Patel et al. on the identification of potential inhibitors of coronavirus hemagglutinin-esterase. The authors considered hemagglutinin-esterase as a glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 and selected hemagglutinin-esterase as a target to identify potential inhibitors using a combination of various computational approaches, and however, SARS-CoV-2 genome lacks hemagglutinin-esterase gene; thus, hemagglutinin-esterase does not exist in SARS-CoV-2 particle.