The COVID-19 pandemic has stalled and rolled back progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Ecosystem services (ESs), defined as the contributions of ecosystems to human well-being, underpin the achievement of SDGs. To promote SDG achievement in post-pandemic era, we teased out the links between ESs and SDGs while examining the impact of COVID-19. We found that ESs benefited all SDGs, yet man-made pressures led to degradation of ecosystems and their services. There is broad consensus that the virus lurks in degraded ecosystems and generates spillover due to human interference.
In the β-thalassemias, oxidative stress, resulting from chronic hemolysis, globin chain imbalance, iron overload and depleted antioxidant defences, likely contributes to cell death, organ damage, anemia, hypoxia and inflammation. We assessed variations in these parameters in β-thalassemia syndromes in Sri Lanka.