Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Latest Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Hydrogen therapy may help severely ill COVID-19 patients

Researchers from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu in China, have explored the possibility of using hydrogen therapy on severely ill COVID-19 patients. The team published their study's findings, titled "Hydrogen: A Potential New Adjuvant Therapy for COVID-19 Patients," in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.

17 Nov 2020

Males may have higher but more transient SARS-CoV-2 immunity than females post-infection

Adding another piece to the puzzle that is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) serology, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in November 2020 suggests that males have stronger but more transient anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) protective immunity than females.

17 Nov 2020

Universal mask-wearing can reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmissibility by almost two-thirds, study finds

A new study presents more empirical evidence that universal masking can reduce transmissibility by almost two-thirds, even with inadequate social distancing. The study was published on the preprint server medRxiv* in November 2020.

17 Nov 2020

Compliance in UK with pandemic control measures has decreased, study finds

Scientists at University College London (UCL) surveyed 21,000 adults living in the United Kingdom to gauge the national population’s compliance level. They found that compliance in the UK with pandemic control measures had decreased as the stringency of lockdown measures eased over the course of this year (2020).

17 Nov 2020

Widespread COVID-19 testing may be possible with new dried blood tests

Researchers have developed dried blood spot sample testing that could be instrumental in preventing the spread of SARS- CoV-2.

17 Nov 2020

Study shows limited influence of BMI on shaping SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses

A new study by researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard showed that obesity is not tied to the increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the team demonstrated that obesity is associated with increased manifestations of symptoms in mild COVID-19 infections, suggesting that obesity impacts the pathophysiology of COVID-19.

16 Nov 2020

Significant SARS-CoV-2 vaccine hesitancy in the U.S.

A new study has found that an alarming amount of parents in the United States say they are unlikely to vaccinate their children or themselves against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2).

16 Nov 2020

Asymptomatic individuals mount polyfunctional antibody response to SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in France have conducted a study showing that people who are asymptomatic following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – elicit a polyfunctional antibody response to the virus.

16 Nov 2020

Study compares deaths in Sweden and Norway before and after COVID pandemic

A recent epidemiological study, currently available on the medRxiv preprint server, demonstrates that all-cause mortality was mostly unchanged during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic compared to the previous four years in Norway and Sweden – two countries which took very different routes in their battle against this disease.

16 Nov 2020

COVID-19 outbreak on an American aircraft carrier: A case study in transmission

A new study showing the dynamics of infectious spread within close quarters of an aircraft carrier. The study presents a rich case study that may help us better understand the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2’s transmission and thereby fine-tune present policies that aim to prevent its spread.

16 Nov 2020

Corticosteroids can help in survival of elderly patients with severe COVID-19

A new study group based in France have looked at the rates of survival among elderly patients with COVID-19 who were administered with corticosteroids.

16 Nov 2020

Antifungal agent Itraconazole inhibits SARS CoV-2 in vitro

Itraconazole is a broad-spectrum antifungal agent that has been shown to have some in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 by a team of Belgian and German researchers.

16 Nov 2020

Nanobodies: unharnessed potential in COVID-19 treatment

A new study published in the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics in October 2020 discusses the use of nanobodies in diagnosing and treating this deadly disease.

16 Nov 2020

Metabolic biomarkers could predict COVID-19 severity

A new study suggests that metabolic biomarkers could possibly predict the severity of COVID-19 in patients.

16 Nov 2020

Care pathways for pregnant women with COVID‐19

A recent review published in the journal Global Challenges in October 2020, sums up what is currently known about the treatment of COVID-19 during pregnancy and offers recommendations for how healthcare professions might better manage pregnant COVID-19 patients in the future.

16 Nov 2020

Goblet cells are prime target for SARS-CoV-2, study finds

A recent study reports that in the airway of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a type of airway epithelial cell – called a goblet cell – presents a prime target for the virus and plays a vital role in promoting viral replication in this tissue.

16 Nov 2020

Xylitol and grapefruit seed extract nasal spray could help COVID-19 patients

United States based researchers have published a report exploring the potential role of Xylitol and Grapefruit seed extract (in the form of a nasal spray) in treating COVID-19.

16 Nov 2020

Primate model helps detect features of COVID-19 virus

Features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, which could be useful for developing vaccines and treatment strategies, were identified using a nonhuman primate model developed at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB).

16 Nov 2020

PARP inhibitor, stenoparib inhibits pre- and post-entry processes of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

A team of researchers from the Northern Arizona University evaluated a new PARP inhibitor, stenoparib, which has recently advanced to Stage II of clinical trials to treat ovarian cancer. Their study, an initial report on in vitro stenoparib activity against human coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2, has been published on the preprint server bioRxiv*.

15 Nov 2020

Strategizing pediatric healthcare preparedness for the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

The paper, put together by a team of scientists based in the United Kingdom and Italy, also underscored the need for healthcare policies to account for the very real possibility of inadequate protective personal equipment (PPE), staff and hospital capacity, aggravated by the increased number of pediatric infections.

15 Nov 2020