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Study shows health anxieties have increased as a result of ongoing pandemic

New research into people's coping strategies faced with COVID-19 highlights the mental health toll for those shielding

4 Aug 2020

Estrogen modestly protective against COVID-19?

Almost from the beginning, scientists have been struck by the disproportionately higher numbers of men and older adults who have developed severe COVID-19 disease compared to younger individuals and women. Prior research has shown that in 37 of the 38 countries from which sex-stratified data was available, males were at a higher risk of death. Also, post-menopausal women are at increased risk of severe COVID-19. However, the biological underpinnings of this have been less visible.

4 Aug 2020

New peptide molecule offers hope for emphysema

Emphysema is a progressive, debilitating lung disease in which the lung's breathing sacs, or alveoli, enlarge, get thinner, and eventually are destroyed as the cells die off. It can be fatal, and there is currently no cure.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers initiate multiple studies to identify coronavirus-related heart problems

COVID-19 is shown to impact the heart and, in some cases, have long-lasting cardiac effects. To discover the extent to which COVID-19 affects the heart, cardiologists and researchers with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have begun multiple studies.

4 Aug 2020

Penis microbiome is reservoir for bacterial vaginosis-associated bacteria

Previous studies have pointed out that the reproductive microbiomes of partners might be exchanged in bacterial vaginosis (BV). Now, a team of researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago compared the microbiota of couples before and after the development of BV.

4 Aug 2020

Researchers outline areas of opportunity in COVID-19-related bioethics studies

The diverse situations experienced by health-care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic often present serious ethical challenges.

4 Aug 2020

How COVID-19 lockdown affected the heart

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in August 2020 shows that heart rate variability assessments, used to evaluate the health of the heart and blood vessels, are useful in identifying changes in health and well being throughout lockdown related to COVID-19.

4 Aug 2020

Five alternative methods of SARS-CoV-2 suppression

The current pandemic has proved to be challenging to control without stringent and comprehensive non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs), relying mostly on isolation and contact tracing of cases, along with social distancing. However, strategies like these have a huge human cost in terms of restriction of social interactions, resulting in depressive tendencies, disruption of economic activity, and loss of educational resources.

3 Aug 2020

Zika virus mutation responsible for quick spread, birth defects uncovered

A multidisciplinary team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has uncovered a Zika virus mutation that may be responsible for the explosive viral transmission in 2015/2016 and for the cause of microcephaly (babies with small heads) born to infected pregnant women.

3 Aug 2020

Low-income communities lack access to ICU beds

A new Penn Medicine study sheds light on yet another reason why the coronavirus pandemic is disproportionately killing the poor: Residents in low-income neighborhoods lack access to intensive care unit (ICU) beds.

3 Aug 2020

Study identifies possible therapeutic treatment for COVID-19

Yunjeong Kim and Kyeong-Ok "KC" Chang, virologists in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, have published a study showing a possible therapeutic treatment for COVID-19.

3 Aug 2020

A new platform to provide information on SARS-CoV-2 immunity or seroprevalence

Who has overcome an infection with the virus without noticing, and how many people have already produced protective antibodies against the new coronavirus? Various antibody studies are now under way that will provide information on immunity or seroprevalence in the population.

3 Aug 2020

Research explains recognized sex differences in COVID-19 outcomes

The COVID-19 pandemic has notably taken a more significant toll on men compared to women, in terms of both disease severity and death. Now, a new study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published on the preprint server medRxiv in August 2020 confirms the increased risk that males have for death following COVID-19 while also highlighting worse outcomes in women with coronary artery disease, obesity, and hypoxia compared to men.

3 Aug 2020

Study uncovers how schistosome worms trick the host's immune system

Researchers uncovered in a new study how schistosomes, parasitic flatworms that infect more than 200 million people in the tropics, trick the host's immune system and continue producing eggs for decades.

3 Aug 2020

Extensive study of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing reveals six strains of the virus

The virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2, presents at least six strains. Despite its mutations, the virus shows little variability, and this is good news for the researchers working on a viable vaccine.

3 Aug 2020

Study shows high SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence, but low death rate in Malawi's health care workers

A study by researchers from Malawi and United Kingdom reveals a significant discrepancy between predicted coronavirus disease (COVID-19) mortality in the observed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) seroprevalence rates in health care workers and reported deaths in urban Malawi in southeastern Africa, indicating early exposure, but a slow progression of the outbreak. Their findings are currently available on the medRxiv preprint server.

3 Aug 2020