Research in the Mediterranean and Neighboring Regions for COVID-19: Facts Scenarios and Growing Awareness

Dear Colleagues,

The COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, affecting equally the Mediterranean basin and its surrounding countries. The Mediterranean region presents diversity in its economy, culture, civilization, and societal issues. It has historically been the center of world civilization and has been known for its flourishing wealth, empires, wars, and population displacements across the centuries. The Mediterranean Sea is the crossroad of the European, Asian, and African continents and is surrounded by various countries. This region shares a similar climate but diverse cultural and social characteristics and was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020. Considering the diversity across this region, the impact of COVID-19 presented similarities and differences among its countries and peoples that represent a challenge in unravelling a series of mysteries related to Sars COV 2. Reputed institutes still invest in Sars COV 2 basic and applied research. Currently, knowledge of the impact of the pandemic in this region remains fragmentary, and research in all fields of COVID-19 study is still ongoing, and, in some instances, left unpublished.

This Special Issue aims to provide an opportunity for researchers to demonstrate their research and shed light on different aspects of the disease in the Mediterranean and its neighboring regions.

We invite researchers to submit their latest research work and share their experience with other fellow researchers. The topics in this Special Issue include, but not limited to, the following:

• Basic research and disease pathophysiology;
• Detection methods, vaccination, and immunity;
• Pharmaceutical treatment and clinical trials;
• Long COVID-19 disease, incidence, prevalence, and clinical features;
• Predictive-modeling healthcare data analytics and big data analysis (all fields);
• Epidemiological modelling, prevention and control, and outbreak emergency management;
• Risk forecasting, communication, assessment, community impact, awareness, and readiness studies;
• Public health, environmental policy, and surveillance systems;
• The impact of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs);
• Cross-border impacts and pan-Mediterranean action prevention models.

Prof. Dr. Ekatherina Charvalos
Prof. Dr. Eugenia Bezirtzoglou
Prof. Dr. Anastasia Barbouni
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Acta Microbiologica Hellenica is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1200 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• COVID-19
• detection
• vaccination
• immunity
• prevalence
• public health