Allergies News and Research

Latest Allergies News and Research

Anti-vaccine activists latch onto coronavirus to bolster their movement

While most of the world hungers for a vaccine to put an end to the death and economic destruction wrought by COVID-19, some anti-vaccine groups are joining with anti-lockdown protesters to challenge restrictions aimed at protecting public health.

24 Apr 2020

UAB to join international effort to test drugs for COVID-19

The University of Alabama at Birmingham will join an international effort coordinated by Scripps Research to test drugs for COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

Majority of women prefer LAI HIV therapy over daily pills

A new qualitative study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health found that the majority of women living with HIV would endorse a monthly long acting injectable (LAI) antiretroviral therapy over current daily pills.

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

ATS publishes first official clinical practice guidelines for sarcoidosis

New guidance is available for physicians who must go through a number of steps to provide a probable diagnosis of sarcoidosis - an inflammatory disease that affects the lungs, lymph glands, and other organs.

20 Apr 2020

COVID-19 lung injury is not like high altitude pulmonary edema

A group of researchers with experience in treating high altitude pulmonary edema have written to correct the misconception in medical social media forums and elsewhere that the lung injury seen in COVID-19 is not like typical acute respiratory distress syndrome and is instead like HAPE.

20 Apr 2020

How climate change is putting doctors in the hot seat

A 4-year-old girl was rushed to the emergency room three times in one week for asthma attacks.

20 Apr 2020

Remdesivir prevents COVID-19 progression to severe pneumonia, animal study shows

A team of scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, has tested the efficacy of remdesivir, a nucleotide analog prodrug with a broad antiviral activity, as a COVID-19 treatment.

20 Apr 2020

Smoking doubles risk of severe COVID-19 disease

The fatality rate among infected people increases among the elderly and those with underlying medical conditions. Now, a new study published as a pre-print on medXriv, links smoking to the progression of COVID-19 disease, suggesting that the odds of disease progression is more than double in smokers.

20 Apr 2020

Nasal smear as screening test for allergic rhinitis

Stuffy noses, itching and fits of sneezing - 130 million people in Europe suffer from hay fever and other forms of allergic rhinitis. Until now, these conditions have typically been diagnosed using blood samples or skin prick tests.

17 Apr 2020

URMC launches new coronavirus study to examine immune response

The University of Rochester Medical Center is launching a new study to understand how the body's immune system responds to COVID-19, including if and when a person could be re-infected with the virus and whether some people have pre-existing immunity.

17 Apr 2020

Experts explain how to decontaminate N95 masks from SARS-CoV-2

Amid the coronavirus global pandemic, the world is facing a shortage of medical supplies, especially those intended to protect health workers. With the high demand for personal protective equipment (PPE), including surgical masks and N95 masks, many people are left with no choice but to try and decontaminate this equipment for extended use. Now, a new study by experts shows how N95 masks can be adequately decontaminated for further use.

16 Apr 2020

Potential universal Ebola vaccine may neutralize all four harmful virus species

Infectious disease scientists report early development of a potential universal vaccine for Ebola viruses that preclinical tests show might neutralize all four species of these deadly viruses infecting people in recent outbreaks, mainly in Africa.

16 Apr 2020

Big brother wants to track your location and health data. And that’s not all bad.

A growing mix of health and technology experts are convinced that if the United States is to ever effectively track the coronavirus and slow its spread, then both self-reported and more surreptitiously gathered personal data — a mix of information about location, travel, symptoms and health conditions - must be gathered from millions of Americans.

16 Apr 2020

Anosmia (loss of smell) confirmed as a clinical feature of COVID-19

Earlier last month, the association of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialists in the UK issued a public statement advising patients with a sudden loss of smell or taste to get tested for COVID-19. They cited not only their own observations but those from numerous other ENT consultants the world around. A review of multiple papers on the sinus and nasal symptoms and signs related to the diagnosis of COVID-19, published in April 2020, in the journal Laryngoscope Investigative Otolaryngology, reiterates this finding.

15 Apr 2020

'Chaperone protein' protects against autoimmune diseases, mice study shows

Like a parent of teenagers at a party, Mother Nature depends on chaperones to keep one of her charges, the immune system, in line so that it doesn't mistakenly attack normal cells, tissues and organs in our bodies.

15 Apr 2020

New vaccine for Chikungunya reported safe and well-tolerated

A virus-like particle vaccine was shown to be safe and well-tolerated among a healthy adult population living in chikungunya endemic areas, the researchers report in a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

14 Apr 2020

Temple researchers receive NIAID grant to study immunological synapse formation

Switching immune cells on is a critical step in combating infection. In the case of T cells, which are key players in immunity, this happens when dormant T cells circulating in the blood encounter a suspicious agent on the surface of specialized antigen-presenting cells.

14 Apr 2020

Sensory loss strongly associated with COVID-19 infection

Loss of smell and taste has been anecdotally linked to COVID-19 infections. In a study published April 12, 2020 in the journal International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, researchers at UC San Diego Health report the first empirical findings that strongly associate sensory loss with COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

13 Apr 2020

Milk allergy - is it overdiagnosed?

A new review published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics in April 2020 raises the concern that there may be a significant overdiagnosis of cow's milk allergy in babies and young children, stemming from the use of current medical recommendations.

13 Apr 2020