Speakers at a webinar have said there is a complex relationship between sleep and mental state; and in many cases, insomnia is responsible for various types of mental illness.

They, however, said people also suffer from insomnia due to some mental problems.

The 12th episode of Dialogue for Action was organized on Sunday night by ACTIONISTS on the necessity for sleep and sleep hygiene to protect mental health titled "The role of Sleep Hygiene in promoting positive mental health" The Role of Parents".

Mehnaz Haque, Lecturer, Department of Mass Communication and Journalism, Jagannath University, Naima Nigar, Assistant Professor at Department of Psychology University of Dhaka; Umme Kawser, Assistant Professor and Educational Psychologist at Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, University of Dhaka and Shamsin Ahmed Founder, CEO and Lead Consultant Inclusion attended it, said a media release on Monday.

During the discussion, Naima Nigar said the most common practice of sleeping disorder is insomnia.

She said people often feel this problem even if they are not affected by it.

"However, any type of sleep problem is very important in our daily life, because regular sleep affects our mental health, personal behavior due to which we face various problems such as rude behavior, depression, depression, anxiety and many more mental problems."

She said sleeping disorders affect people's learning processes. Without regular sleep, the human brain can have a devastating effect on daily life, including taking in new information, making quick and complex decisions.

Samsin Ahmed, in the context of solving various problems related to sleep, said it is not possible to solve this problem in one day.

"In this regard children need to be made aware of proper sleep practice including sleep hygiene."

Umme Kawsar said that the reason for insomnia is that it is possible to say a specific reason.

She said there are many reasons for insomnia, such as disturbing the brain through mobile or electronics screen use, increasing body temperature, reducing caffeine, taking various shortcuts.

"Such as alcohol consumption, sleeping pills etc. To solve this problem, she said, follow a nice sleep routine, read books before going to bed, listen to music, meditate, take hot milk, etc. Above all, everyone presented various research reports about this problem and suggested 7-9 hours of sleep daily."

She also advised to seek the help of a psychiatrist or doctor without taking this problem lightly.

The webinar was moderated by A.N.M Fakhrul Amin, Founder and Executive Director, ACTIONISTS.

Read Also: Coronavirus and Insomnia: How to Sleep Well during COVID19 Pandemic

The head of India's top health research body Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Balram Bhargava has said health protocols to tackle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic will stay for a long time and people will have to keep wearing masks even after a vaccine is available.

"Even after the vaccine is brought, the use of mask will stay to prevent COVID-19. It works like a vaccine. So it may have to be used for a long time," Bhargava was quoted as having said while speaking at a webinar titled Changing paradigms in COVID-19 management at Lucknow's King George Medical University on Saturday.

He said masks play an important role in keeping people safe especially those who have recovered from the infection.

"Mask is like a fabric vaccine. We can not ignore the contribution made by masks in stopping the spread of COVID-19. We are working on vaccines, five candidates are undergoing trial in India. Out of these, two are being developed by India while three are from abroad. But vaccines won't be enough to end COVID-19. We will have to keep following health and safety protocols," he said.

India is still in the grip of COVID-19 pandemic. On Sunday morning the federal health ministry said the number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 9,392,919 and the death toll has risen to 136,696.

Read Also: Global Covid-19 cases top 62.6 million

Approximately once every minute and 40 seconds, a child or young person under the age of 20 was infected with HIV last year, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has reported, calling on governments to “protect, sustain and accelerate” efforts to combat childhood HIV.

Prevention efforts and treatment for children remain some of the lowest amongst key affected populations, and in 2019, a little less than half of children worldwide did not have access to life-saving treatment, UNICEF said in a new report on Wednesday.

Nearly 320,000 children and adolescents were newly infected with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and 110,000 children died of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) last year, reports UN news.

“Children are still getting infected at alarming rates, and they are still dying from AIDS. This was even before COVID-19 interrupted vital HIV treatment and prevention services putting countless more lives at risk”, said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. 

Life-saving HIV services hit by COVID-19 

According to UNICEF, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened inequalities in access to life-saving HIV) services for children, adolescents and pregnant mothers everywhere, and there are serious concerns that one-third of high HIV burden countries could face coronavirus-related disruptions.

“Even as the world struggles in the midst of an ongoing global pandemic, hundreds of thousands of children continue to suffer the ravages of the HIV epidemic”, said Fore.

Data from the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), cited in the report, shows the impact of control measures, supply chain disruptions, lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), and the redeployment of healthcare workers on HIV services. 

Challenges remain

Paediatric HIV treatment and viral load testing in children in some countries fell by 50 to 70 percent, and new treatment initiation by 25 to 50 percent in April and May, coinciding with partial and full lockdowns to control the novel coronavirus.

Health facility deliveries and maternal treatment were also reported to have reduced by 20 to 60 per cent, maternal HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation by 25 to 50 per cent, and infant testing services by approximately 10 per cent. 

Though the easing of control measures and the strategic targeting of children and pregnant mothers have successfully led to a rebound of services in recent months, challenges remain, and the world is still far from achieving the global 2020 paediatric HIV targets, said UNICEF.

Regional disparities

Despite some progress in the decades-long fight against HIV and AIDS, deep regional disparities persist among all populations, especially for children.

While the Middle East and North Africa region recorded 81 per cent paediatric ART coverage, only 46 per cent and 32 per cent were covered in Latin America and the Caribbean, West and Central Africa, respectively.

The South Asia region recorded 76 percent coverage, Eastern and Southern Africa 58 percent, and East Asia and the Pacific 50 percent.

Also read: 193 tested HIV positive in 8 southern districts: Report

A Chinese inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate has been proved safe and tolerable and can induce a quick immune response, according to the findings from early and mid-stage clinical trials published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The level of antibodies induced by the vaccine was lower than those in people who had recovered from COVID-19, whereas it was capable of protecting the human body from infections caused by the virus, the findings said.

The vaccine, CoronaVac, was developed by a Chinese biopharmaceutical producer Sinovac Biotech.

It was tested in randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled phase-1 and phase-2 clinical trials involving more than 700 healthy adults aged 18 to 59.

Vaccination is done with two doses taken 14 days apart, and the vaccine candidate is effective, which makes it suitable for emergency use amid the pandemic, said Zhu Fengcai, one of the authors of the findings.

Zhu added that further research is needed to verify the duration of the immune response induced by the vaccination.

At present, the vaccine candidate is undergoing phase-3 clinical trials to confirm its effectiveness.

Read Also: What does COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness mean?

It refers to the likelihood that a coronavirus shot will work in people.

Two vaccine makers have said that preliminary results from their late-stage studies suggest their experimental vaccines are strongly protective. Moderna this week said its vaccine appears nearly 95% effective. This comes on the heels of Pfizer’s announcement that its shot appeared similarly effective.

Those numbers raised hopes around the world that vaccines could help put an end to the pandemic sometime next year if they continue to show that they prevent disease and are safe.

Effectiveness numbers will change as the vaccine studies continue since the early calculations were based on fewer than 100 COVID-19 cases in each study. But early results provide strong signals that the vaccine could prevent a majority of disease when large groups of people are vaccinated.

U.S. health officials said a coronavirus vaccine would need to be at least 50% effective before they would consider approving it for use. There was concern that coronavirus vaccines might be only as effective as flu vaccines, which have ranged from 20% to 60% effective in recent years.

The broad, early effectiveness figures don’t tell the whole story. Scientists also need to understand how well the vaccine protects people in different age groups and demographic categories.

For both vaccines, the interim results were based on people who had COVID-19 symptoms that prompted a virus test. That means we don’t know yet whether someone who’s vaccinated might still get infected -- even if they show no symptoms -- and spread the virus.

Also unknown is whether the shots will give lasting protection, or whether boosters will be required.

Also read: Who will be the first to get COVID-19 vaccines?