Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Reusing masks may increase your risk of coronavirus infection, expert says

Panic buying and the hoarding of face masks to protect from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may not be a good idea, says a health expert. It puts you at an increased risk of contracting the virus.

15 Mar 2020

Testing shortages force extreme shift in strategy by local health officials

Public health officials in California's state capital region announced this week they have stopped tracing the contacts of patients diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. They've also ceased recommending quarantines for residents exposed to people confirmed to have the virus.

13 Mar 2020

Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal review: COVID-19 appears less severe in children

As outbreaks of COVID-19 disease caused by the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continue worldwide, there's reassuring evidence that children have fewer symptoms and less severe disease.

13 Mar 2020

Estimated 10,000 people in UK may have COVID-19

Around the globe, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has sparked a major health crisis as many countries grapple with increasing confirmed infections and deaths. Italy, Iran, and South Korea struggle as they are the countries with the highest number of cases outside mainland China. But, health expert fears that there may be about 10,000 people infected with the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

13 Mar 2020

'Flattening the curve' - why is it important for coronavirus?

With the emergence of the novel coronavirus and the propagation of the infectious disease COVID-19 around the world, everyone is talking about 'flattening the curve'. But what does this mean, and why is it so important?

12 Mar 2020

UK lab looks for volunteers to be infected with coronavirus

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, scientists are asking for healthy volunteers to help in the development of the vaccine. Volunteers will be infected with the two strains of the common coronavirus.

12 Mar 2020

Weather modeling data helps predict potential spread and seasonality for COVID-19

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine's Institute of Human Virology (IHV), which is part of the Global Virus Network, predict that COVID-19 will follow a seasonal pattern similar to other respiratory viruses like seasonal flu.

12 Mar 2020

Language used on Facebook changes before emergency department visit

A new study published in Scientific Reports reveals that the language people use on Facebook subtly changes before they make a visit to the emergency department.

12 Mar 2020

ZSL scientists call for investment in wildlife health research to prevent future pandemics

The UK should invest in better understanding of diseases in wildlife populations, and the routes to these becoming human diseases to drastically reduce the risk of future - possibly even worse - global pandemics like COVID-19.

12 Mar 2020

Robots and AI deployed to fight against coronavirus

Robots and artificial intelligence are being deployed across the globe in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

12 Mar 2020

Could rushing a coronavirus vaccine cause more harm?

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic that is rapidly spreading worldwide, scientists are becoming more concerned that rushing vaccine production to prevent the infection may do more harm than good to patients.

12 Mar 2020

COVID-19 epidemic is now an official pandemic

The spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has reached pandemic status, spanning 114 countries and territories, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared. The novel coronavirus that emerged three months ago has rapidly infected more than 126,000 people, taking the lives of more than 4,600.

12 Mar 2020

Now over 1,200 coronavirus cases in the U.S.

The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) started in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, in China in the last month of 2019 and had so far spread to more than 100 countries, including the United States. The country has seen a sharp spike in confirmed cases, which now totals 1,220, trailing behind hotspot countries that have thousands of confirmed cases of the contagious disease.

11 Mar 2020

The second person cured from HIV goes public

In the 1980s and early 1990s, the outbreak of HIV and AIDS swept across the globe. Today, more than 70 million people have been infected with HIV, and about 35 million have died from AIDS since the start of the pandemic. However, scientific advances, such as the development of antiretroviral drugs, have enabled people with access to treatment to live long and healthy lives with HIV. But, there is still no vaccine and cure for it. In history, only two persons have been cleared of the infection, one in Berlin and now the second one in London.

10 Mar 2020

Routine childhood vaccination linked to long-term schooling attainment among adults in India

Vaccines have reduced the global burden of disease by preventing an estimated 2 to 3 million deaths worldwide each year. In India, the reduction in annual under-five deaths, from 3.4 to 1.2 million between 1990 and 2015, was largely due to expansions in coverage of routine childhood vaccination.

10 Mar 2020

How does COVID-19 coronavirus compare to the 1918 Spanish flu?

The world has seen outbreaks, with some worst than others, but one thing is common, all these outbreaks result in loss of life and a global health crisis. One of the worst epidemics in the world was the 1918 Spanish flu. Now, the current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak is being compared to the Spanish flu that ravaged the world more than a century ago.

9 Mar 2020

Surging health care worker quarantines raise concerns as coronavirus spreads

As the U.S. battles to limit the spread of the highly contagious new coronavirus, the number of health care workers ordered to self-quarantine because of potential exposure to an infected patient is rising at an exponential pace.

9 Mar 2020

Study to explore COVID-19-related discrimination against Chinese-Americans

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has sparked various reactions from different populations across the globe. With the sudden surge of cases worldwide and the spread of the virus to other countries, racism, and discrimination against Chinese American people has increased.

5 Mar 2020

Coronavirus is mutating with a second strain identified by scientists

The coronavirus is mutating as scientists identified a second strain, which is more aggressive and contagious.

5 Mar 2020

During a pandemic, states’ patchwork of crisis plans could mean uneven care

A possible coronavirus pandemic could overwhelm the nation's hospitals and force doctors into difficult decisions about how to allocate limited resources. Yet, experts say, only a handful of states have done the work necessary to prepare for such worst-case scenarios.

5 Mar 2020