Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Latest Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

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

Researchers discover human protein that potently inhibits coronavirus

A protein produced by the human immune system can potently inhibit several coronaviruses, including the one behind the current COVID-19 outbreak, an international team of investigators reports today. The research reveals that the LY6E protein impairs the coronavirus' ability to initiate infection, which could lead to treatments for the illness.

10 Mar 2020

Study confirms coronavirus median incubation period at 5.1 days

Since the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak in late December 2019, doctors and health officials have imposed a quarantine period of 14 days since the estimated incubation period of the virus was expected to be between three and 14 days. A new study affirms that it may take about five days after exposure before patients manifest the symptoms of the disease.

10 Mar 2020

CDC urges older people to stay at home amid coronavirus spread

The novel coronavirus is continuing to spread worldwide, with more than 113,000 cases and now more than 4,000 deaths. In the United States, health officials urge residents not to panic due to the viral infection’s low mortality rate. Still, they advise that older people are at the highest risk of coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

10 Mar 2020

Coronavirus spreads even without symptoms and how Hangzhou province contained virus spread

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading across the globe, and containment measures have been implemented at many of the hotspots for the disease. Though isolation and quarantine measures are considered the best way to contain the virus, one new study suggests it might not be as effective as hoped.

9 Mar 2020

Scientists may have found a way to prevent coronavirus spread

Just like any other virus, the coronavirus needs a host to survive. Viruses enter the cells of the human body to cause disease by attaching to a specific receptor site on the host cell membrane. To do this, they attach to proteins in the capsid through glycoproteins found in the envelope of the virus.

8 Mar 2020

Two genome sequences of coronavirus (COVID-19) show possible internal transmission

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is rapidly spreading around the globe. With the high infection rate and spread of the virus to more than 80 countries, scientists are racing to study the nature of the virus, in the hopes of finding new vaccines and therapeutics.

4 Mar 2020

Indonesia reports first coronavirus cases, World Bank pledges $12 billion

Now, Indonesia has reported its first cases of the coronavirus on Mar. 2, a 31-year-old woman and a 64-year-old woman from Depok, a city in West Java province in Jakarta. The mother and daughter had been in contact with an infected Japanese National who lived in Malaysia and had tested positive after returning from a trip to Indonesia.

4 Mar 2020

Adding travel history to routine medical assessments could help stem pandemics' spread

Integrating travel history information into routine medical assessments could help stem the rapidly widening COVID-19 epidemic, as well as future pandemics, infectious disease specialists recommend in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

4 Mar 2020

The changing face of the COVID-19 epidemic

The SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) virus, which hit China with the disease now named COVID-19 in December 2019 and has since spread to over 70 countries, has caused over 90,000 cases, and 3,117 fatalities, with 95% or more of both being in China.

2 Mar 2020

New compounds may help stop the spread of the coronavirus

Amid the global health crisis of the coronavirus (COVID-19), scientists from around the world are racing to find a treatment to stop the deadly virus. The sudden acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread across 46 countries, infecting more than 82,000 and killing more than 2,800 people.

26 Feb 2020

Mount Sinai physicians first in the U.S. to analyze chest CT scans of patients with COVID-19

Mount Sinai Health System physicians--the first experts in the country to analyze chest computed tomography (CT) scans of patients from China with coronavirus disease (COVID-19)--have identified specific patterns in the lungs as markers of the disease as it develops over the course of a week and a half.

26 Feb 2020

HKUST scientists provide leads for guiding research towards COVID-19 vaccine development

A team of scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has recently made an important discovery in identifying a set of potential vaccine targets for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, providing crucial leads for guiding experimental efforts towards the vaccine development against the novel pneumonia (COVID-19) caused by the virus.

26 Feb 2020

Clinical trial to evaluate safety, efficacy of remdesivir in adults with COVID-19 begins

A randomized, controlled clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the investigational antiviral remdesivir in hospitalized adults diagnosed with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has begun at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

25 Feb 2020

Scientists join forces to combat coronavirus outbreak

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, scientists from around the globe race to fight the deadly virus. Now, a team of Harvard scientists has joined forces with Chinese experts to develop new therapies and prevent the further spread of the virus.

25 Feb 2020

Harvard scientists will join forces with Chinese colleagues on coronavirus research

Since its identification in December, the novel coronavirus has quickly evolved into a global threat, taking a toll on human health, overwhelming vulnerable health care systems and destabilizing economies worldwide.

24 Feb 2020

Coronavirus incubation period could be 27 days, longer than previously thought

Over the past weeks, health officials around the globe traced and advised suspected contacts of people with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to isolate themselves for 14 days, the incubation period of the disease.

24 Feb 2020

Is COVID-19 the dreaded ‘Disease X' scientists warned us about?

Back in February 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) talked about a new virus that will emerge and wreak havoc across the globe. Disease X was the term used for this new unknown pathogen that might cause a future epidemic.

23 Feb 2020

Coronavirus is deadlier than flu with seniors at highest risk

The novel coronavirus (CoV) is a new strain of coronavirus that has not been previously identified in humans. The new, or “novel” coronavirus, now called 2019-nCoV, had not previously detected before the outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019.

19 Feb 2020

Study identifies new CoV responsible for the Wuhan outbreak

The 2019 novel coronavirus causes fatal pneumonia that has claimed over 1300 lives, with more than 52000 confirmed cases of infection by February 13, 2020, all in the span of just over a month.

18 Feb 2020