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Preliminary findings on obesity and COVID-19 severity

In a Nature Reviews Endocrinology "Comment" authors from the German Center for Diabetes Research, the Boston Children's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health call for more research about the relationships of obesity, disproportionate fat distribution and impaired metabolic health with the severity of COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

Study: JNK and BNP activity can reverse cardiovascular damage, reduce risk of death from sepsis

Overreaction is rarely useful, and in the case of the human immune system, it can be outright deadly. When the body overreacts to an infection, the result is sepsis - a life-threatening condition that frequently leads to acute organ dysfunction, including deterioration of the heart and blood vessels, which make up the cardiovascular system.

24 Apr 2020

AEM and Wiley offer full access to facilitate rapid dissemination of COVID-19 findings

To facilitate the rapid dissemination of COVID-19 findings, Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM) journal, in collaboration with Wiley Publishing, is fast-tracking submissions related to COVID-19 and making the latest, most relevant research available in an easy-to-navigate, freely accessible online collection of accepted and citable articles.

24 Apr 2020

Sweden may reach ‘herd immunity’ in weeks as the country resists total lockdown

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection against infectious diseases where a population develops sufficient immunity to a disease that that infection cannot spread within the group. A population can reach herd immunity if a large proportion has been exposed to the virus. Now, Sweden resisted total lockdown measures, unlike its neighboring countries, while experts believe herd immunity will be achieved in Stockholm within weeks.

24 Apr 2020

Minimizing COVID-19 infection through controlled exposure

A new study published in the preprint journal medRxiv in April 2020 explores the possibilities of launching smaller waves of voluntary social exposure in a controlled way, to avoid the occurrence of a single large and probably unmanageable second wave of infection.

23 Apr 2020

RAS inhibitors and COVID-19 severity in hypertensive patients

A new study published in the journal JAMA Cardiology in April 2020 reports that patients with hypertension who are taking medications called ACE inhibitors (ACEI) or ARBs are not at higher risk for death or more severe illness with COVID-19. This conclusion supports current guidelines for the treatment of hypertension during this pandemic.

23 Apr 2020

Link between BCG and lower COVID-19 mortality disproved by new analysis

The association between BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) vaccination and its purported beneficial effect on COVID-19 transmission/mortality rates was challenged in an expert appraisal of Diamond Princess cruise ship data. At the same time, cross-national differences previously reported were shown to be flawed, reports a new medRxiv study.

23 Apr 2020

Researchers discover physiological mechanisms underlying pediatric B-ALL

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is characterized by the accumulation of abnormal immature B-cell precursors in the bone marrow and is the most common pediatric cancer.

23 Apr 2020

Using 'own' immune cells to fight infectious diseases including COVID-19

A provocative paper from Duke-NUS Medical School, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in March 2020, discusses the possibilities of creating new receptors on a sick person's own immune cells as a means of controlling the infection. This therapy is already being used to treat certain cancers with marked success.

22 Apr 2020

Emergex partners with George Mason University for highly pathogenic RNA virus studies

Emergex Vaccines Holding Limited, a biotechnology company developing CD8+ priming set-point vaccines to prevent serious infectious diseases, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with the George Mason University, based in Virginia, in the United States.

22 Apr 2020

The other COVID risks: How race, income, zip code influence who lives or dies

It started with a headache in late March. Then came the body aches.

22 Apr 2020

A first-in-human trial with promising MERS coronavirus vaccine

Over the past 20 years, coronaviruses have been responsible for large outbreaks, resulting in severe respiratory illness and a number of deaths.

22 Apr 2020

Fast and simple testing may determine the uptake of lung cancer screening

Value in Health, the official journal of ISPOR-;the professional society for health economics and outcomes research, announced today the publication of new research showing that uptake of lung cancer screening may depend on making testing fast and convenient.

22 Apr 2020

Antibody testing in L.A. county reveals the magnitude of coronavirus spread

After weeks of physical and social distancing measures in place, many in the U.S. are worrying about how soon they can return to normal life. However, to lift restrictions, it is critical to ascertain accurate numbers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) carriers. Doing so will decrease the chance or even avoid the second wave of infections.

22 Apr 2020

Experts share contingency plans to address increased COVID-19 cases in urban areas

In "Mobilization and Preparation of a Large Urban Academic Center During the COVID-19 Pandemic,"- published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society - experts from Philadelphia's Temple University Hospital share their contingency plans for meeting an increased demand for hospitalization, as well as their protocols and training plans to minimize health care staff exposure to COVID-19 and ensure proper active and reserve staffing.

22 Apr 2020

Is hydroxychloroquine effective against COVID-19?

Following the emergence of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, in the last month of 2019, it has spread globally to produce the first pandemic of the 21st century. The virus, called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has already affected over 2.5 million and killed more than 177,000 people as of April 22, 2020.

22 Apr 2020

Researchers are exploring potential therapy for controlling infectious diseases

The engineering of specific virus-targeting receptors onto a patient's own immune cells is now being explored by scientists from Duke-NUS Medical School (Duke-NUS), as a potential therapy for controlling infectious diseases, including the COVID-19-causing virus, SARS-CoV-2.

22 Apr 2020

Online searches predict daily incidence, deaths due to COVID-19 in US

The pandemic COVID-19 has affected more than 825,000 people in the US, but the daily number of new cases and deaths is not precise. A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in April 2020 reports that Internet search interest could be used as a means to predict the daily incidence of cases in the US, as was proved in China.

21 Apr 2020

Malaysian researchers discover new Leptospira strain capable of infecting humans

Malaysian researchers have identified the two species of the Leptospira genus of bacteria responsible for most cases of leptospirosis in the country and discovered a new strain capable of infecting humans.

21 Apr 2020

Difference between flu and novel coronavirus disease

Both influenza and COVID-19 disease are caused by infectious respiratory agents and cause symptoms that can look quite similar. Coronaviruses cause both. So, what’s the difference?

21 Apr 2020