If the risk of visiting a health care centre outweighs the potential benefits patients may prefer not to seek treatment. The control and prevention of COVID-19 in informal urban settlements starts with organizing community infrastructure for diagnosis and treatment and assuring that basic needs (food, water, sanitation, health care and public transport) are met during quarantine. Next, community members at highest risk need to be identified and protected. Low-income, informal settlements need to be recognized as a reservoir and source for persistent transmission. Solutions to overcrowding must be developed for this and future pandemics. In view of the constant risk that slums present to the entire population decisive steps need to be taken to rehabilitate and improve informal settlements, while avoiding stigmatization.The COVID-19 reported initially in December 2019 led to thousands and millions of people infections, deaths at a rapid scale, and a global scale. Metropolitans suffered serious pandemic problems as the built environments of metropolitans contain a large number of people in a relatively small area and allow frequent contacts to let virus spread through people's contacting with each other. The spread inside a metropolitan is heterogeneous, and we propose that the spatial variation of built environments has a measurable association with the spread of COVID-19. This paper is the pioneering work to investigate the missing link between the built environment and the spread of the COVID-19. In particular, we intend to examine two research questions (1) What are the association of the built environment with the risk of being infected by the COVID-19? (2) What are the association of the built environment with the duration of suffering from COVID-19? Using the Hong Kong census data, confirmed cases of COVID-19 between Jof COVID-19 reported cases. It is suggested that governments should not be too optimistic to relax the necessary measures. https://www.selleckchem.com/products/ar-c155858.html In other words, the social distancing measure should remain in force until the signals of the COVID-19 dies out.There has been increasing interest in modeling the UV inactivation on airborne microorganisms via the Lagrangian approach as a result of its outstanding features in calculating UV dose with particle trajectory. In this study, we applied the Lagrangian method to model the disinfection performance of in-duct UV lamps on three bacteria Pseudomonas alcaligenes, Salmonella enterica and Escherichia coli, respectively. For modeling, the airborne bacteria's inactivation was determined by critical survival fraction probability (CSFP) and maximal bearable UV dose (MBUD) methods, respectively. The results indicated that Lagrangian modeling utilizing the MBUD method needs to appropriately evaluate the maximal UV dose (D mb ), which is bearable for airborne microorganisms. The disinfection efficacy obtained by using the CSFP method agreed well with experimental measurements. Within the Lagrangian framework, the recommended empirical value for critical survival fraction (F sc ) was 0.4 for modeling the disinfection efficacy of in-duct UV lamps. Besides, the disinfection efficacies of in-duct UV lamps with full luminous length on P. alcaligenes and E. coli were 100% with Re within the range of 4.11 × 104 to 8.22 × 104. Moreover, the present numerical model was also applied for further validation with inactivation measurements of in-duct UV lamps performed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Based on the results, the UV disinfection efficacies obtained by the present modeling method had a closed agreement with EPA experimental results. It deserved to pay more investigations on the optimal value of F sc in further for accurately applying Lagrangian modeling on air UV disinfection.The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing socioeconomic impact on already marginalised refugee communities demonstrate both the need for, and lack of, localisation in humanitarian and development responses. Our research with organisations founded and led by refugees, termed here refugee-led organisations (RLOs), in camps and cities in Kenya and Uganda shows their potential to be an asset in the response to COVID-19 and in contributing to more effective and participatory forms of humanitarian assistance. In this research note we draw on pre-pandemic research with around 80 RLOs and follow-up research with 15 in Uganda and Kenya who are actively responding to the pandemic and its effects. We identify five key areas in which refugees are or could be involved as responders to COVID-19 and other pandemics providing public information, supplementing capacity gaps, healthcare delivery, shaping social norms, and virus tracking and contact tracing. Our research during COVID-19 shows how RLOs have pivoted their existing service provision to fill assistance gaps, including in areas directly related to public health. As the humanitarian system searches for ways to implement remote and participatory approaches to refugee assistance, RLOs offer great potential, if mechanisms can be found to identify those that are effective, provide them with funding, and build their capacities.HIV/AIDS represents the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age globally, and gender inequalities in the burden of HIV/AIDS are most pronounced in poorer countries. Drawing on ideas from feminist political ecology, we explore linkages between suffering from drought, food insecurity, and women's vulnerability to HIV. Using data from 91 less-developed countries, we construct a structural equation model to analyze the direct and indirect influence of these factors, alongside other socio-economic indicators, on the percentage of the adult population living with HIV that are women. We find that droughts are significant in shaping gender inequalities in the HIV burden indirectly through increased food insecurity. We draw on prior research to argue that due to gendered inequalities, food insecurity increases women's vulnerability to HIV by intensifying biological susceptibilities to the disease, reducing access to social and health resources, and motivating women to engage in risky sexual behaviors, such as transactional sex.