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Background There is an increasing evidence of an association between low vitamin-D levels and depression. Consequently, the present study aimed to investigate the serum levels of vitamin D in cases with major depressive disorder in Sohag Governorate in Upper Egypt. Also, we studied the correlation between serum vitamin-D level and different demographic and clinical variables in these patients. This study included 60 patients who attended our outpatient psychiatric clinic at Sohag University Hospital, who were diagnosed as major depressive disorder (group I) and a similar number (60) of age-matched and sex-matched controls (group II). The diagnosis was based on Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th ed. criteria and verified by application of Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology. A blood sample was taken from all participants for assessment of the levels of serum vitamin D. Results Patients with major depressive disorder have significantly lower serum vitamin-D levels than controls (mean±SD was 17.2±12.3 for patients and 33.4±24.2 for controls, P=0.001). About 58.33% of patients had deficient vitamin D, while 45% of controls had deficient vitamin D (P=0.022). There is a statistically significant negative correlation between the severity of depression and serum vitamin D. Conclusions Serum vitamin D was significantly lower in major depression patients than controls. In addition, it is evident to have a direct correlation with severity of symptom depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Recent application of unrivaled public health measures for COVID-19 pandemic could have significant implications on other infectious diseases. Objectives We aim to detect the influence of the recently applied health measures on acute bronchiolitis-associated hospitalizations. Methods We analyzed patients’ electronic records at our tertiary hospital to obtain data of hospitalized patients with acute bronchiolitis for the period between November 1, 2017, to February 28, 2021. We compared the frequencies of hospitalizations in the peak respiratory syncytial virus epidemic months (November–February) in 2020 with those in 2017–19. Results There were 16,466 all-cause hospitalizations during the period (November-February) from 2017 to 2021. We observed significant lower frequencies of acute bronchiolitis associated hospitalizations in 2020/2021 compared with 2019/2020, 2018/2019, and 2017/2018 (0.6% vs. 8.2%, 7.4%, and 9.9%, respectively) (P <0.05). Conclusion The social isolation measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic have significant unexpected effects on the seasonality of acute bronchiolitis in our population, which could be due to inhibition of diseases transmission practiced by adults and older children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]