Global Health News and Research

RSS

Study finds higher mortality rates among African children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19

African children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 experience much higher mortality rates than Europeans or North Americans of the same age, according to a recently published study conducted by researchers from the Institute of Human Virology (IHV) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN).

16 Feb 2022

Lifting mask mandates in elementary schools in the U.S. may be too early, study finds

Before lifting mask mandates in elementary schools in the U.S., local COVID-19 case rates should be far below current rates to avoid the risk of increased transmission among students, staff, and families, according to a study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Massachusetts General Hospital.

15 Feb 2022

Antihistamines may offer hope for long COVID patients

Researchers offer hope that an inexpensive over-the-counter medication could improve long COVID symptoms for a large proportion of these patients.

14 Feb 2022

CDC study first to show waning immunity after third dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine

A nationwide study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the first to show that immunity against severe COVID-19 disease begins to wane 4 months after receipt of the third dose of an mRNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna).

12 Feb 2022

Researchers find unprecedented rise in HIV incidence rate among people who inject drugs in Tijuana

At the February 11, 2022 opening of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine presented data that suggests a new HIV outbreak in Tijuana, Mexico, driven in part by "drug tourism" unabated by the closure of the international border due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

12 Feb 2022

Challenges in safely deprescribing common anticholinergic drugs

Medications with anticholinergic properties have been consistently associated with a wide range of adverse outcomes for older adults including cognitive impairment, yet these drugs continue to be commonly prescribed for depression, urinary incontinence, irritable bowel syndrome and Parkinson's disease.

11 Feb 2022

The effect of Omicron mutations at the fundamental atomic scale level

The present study provided interesting insights into the interactions of AAs at the interface between SARS-CoV-2 spike and human ACE2 receptors.

10 Feb 2022

U.S. workers experience clusters of socioeconomic vulnerabilities to COVID-19

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on people's physical and mental health and has caused economic hardship. However, this adversity has disproportionately hurt certain populations-;including essential workers and women-;deepening existing disparities.

10 Feb 2022

Novel immune-profiling method offers a powerful alternative to conventional flow cytometry

Flow cytometry is a powerful and complex technology used to count, sort or measure characteristics of cells and to detect biomarkers.

9 Feb 2022

Study suggests people with COVID-19 exhibit increased risks and 12-month burdens of incident cardiovascular diseases

Researchers estimated the risk and one-year burden of a set of pre-specified cardiovascular outcomes in a cohort of COVID-19-infected patients who survived the acute phase of illness.

9 Feb 2022

Study uncovers a series of natural products that can inhibit the main protease of SARS-CoV-2

The fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is an international scientific challenge regarding the search for strategies to fight the viral infection and prevent its damaging consequences.

7 Feb 2022

Discovery shows promise for development of a new non-hormonal contraceptive

A discovery that blocks the normal transition of semen from a thick gel to a liquid shows promise for development of a new form of non-hormonal, over-the-counter contraception.

7 Feb 2022

Northwestern researchers study COVID-19 mechanisms, infection patterns and impact on gender minorities

Northwestern Medicine investigators continue to study the COVID-19 pandemic, from the biological mechanisms of disease and infection patterns to the pandemic's impact on women and sexual and gender minorities.

6 Feb 2022

Older people at highest risk of death are least likely to receive effective COVID-19 treatment

People over age 65 at the highest risk for severe COVID-19 have often been the least likely to receive monoclonal antibodies (mAbs)—a highly effective treatment for the disease—both across and within U.S. states, according to new research co-authored by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

4 Feb 2022

Global efforts to track COVID-19 variants grossly underreported a probable variant of concern in Nigeria

If the United States ignores COVID-19 in Nigeria, we forgo global genomic surveillance at our own peril, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications.

3 Feb 2022

Evaluating vaccine effectiveness and determining differences across demographic and clinical risk factors of COVID-19

Researchers assessed the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the manifestations of SARS-CoV-2 symptoms across different cohorts.

3 Feb 2022

Omicron variant's 'milder' outcomes may be due to more population immunity

The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant's "milder" outcomes are likely due to more population immunity compared to earlier waves of the pandemic rather than the virus's properties, according to a paper by William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology and co-director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Roby Bhattacharyya, assistant professor at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School and associate member at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

2 Feb 2022