Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Serious heart complications are common in adults hospitalized with flu

The link between influenza and serious heart conditions just grew stronger. A CDC study looking at more than 80,000 adult patients hospitalized with flu over eight seasons found that sudden, serious heart complications were common, occurring in 12% of patients, or 1 in 8.

28 Aug 2020

Republican Convention, Day 4: Fireworks … and shining a light on Trump’s claims

President Donald Trump accepted the Republican Party's nomination for president in a 70-minute speech from the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday night.

28 Aug 2020

COVID + influenza: This is a good year to get a flu shot, experts advise

Flu season will look different this year, as the country grapples with a coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 172,000 people. Many Americans are reluctant to visit a doctor's office and public health officials worry people will shy away from being immunized.

28 Aug 2020

Engineers develop better understanding of skin damage caused by rubbing

Understanding the skin damage caused by rubbing could lead to better topical skin treatments and help prevent the formation of new routes for viral and bacterial infection.

28 Aug 2020

Researchers develop advanced imaging technique to visualize effects of valencies on B cell responses

Designing a vaccine starts with finding the right ingredients. Every infectious agent has molecules, called antigens, that the immune system could potentially recognize and attack. So scientists must carefully consider which antigens should go into a vaccine.

28 Aug 2020

WHO and partner organizations call for massive scale-up in investment in mental health

Mental health is one of the most neglected areas of public health. Close to 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder, 3 million people die every year from the harmful use of alcohol and one person dies every 40 seconds by suicide.

28 Aug 2020

New cellular pathway protects cells from infection by Ebola virus, coronaviruses

Discoveries from the Benaroya Research Institute at Virginia Mason (BRI) have identified a new cellular protection pathway that targets a common vulnerability in several different pandemic viruses, and collaborators at Case Western Reserve University, Boston University School of Medicine and MRIGlobal have shown that this pathway can protect cells from infection by Ebola virus and coronaviruses, like SARS-CoV-2.

28 Aug 2020

Environmental surface testing at radiation oncology clinic showed no detectable SARS-CoV2

A Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey study shows environmental surface testing at the center's Radiation Oncology Department located within Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state showed no detectable SARS-CoV2 – the virus that causes COVID-19

28 Aug 2020

FDA continues to take action in the ongoing response to COVID-19 pandemic

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today continued to take action in the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic

28 Aug 2020

COVID-19 can serve as catalyst for digital innovation in healthcare

COVID-19 has upended essentially every sector of the economy, and none more so than healthcare. Healthcare leaders from across the United States share their experiences with disruption and innovation in responding to the COVID-19 crisis in the Fall 2020 issue of Frontiers of Health Services Management, a publication of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).

28 Aug 2020

FDA grants Abbott's COVID-19 rapid antigen test emergency-use authorization

Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency-use authorization to Abbott Laboratories for a $5 rapid-response COVID-19 antigen test, called BinaxNOW COVID-19 Ag Card, which is roughly the size of a credit card.

27 Aug 2020

New low-cost COVID-19 test quickly delivers accurate results

A new low-cost diagnostic test for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) quickly delivers accurate results without the need for sophisticated equipment, according to a study published August 27 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens by Teng Xu of the Vision Medicals Center for Infectious Diseases, Tieying Hou of the Guangdong Academy of Medical Sciences, Bing Gu of the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University, Jianwei Wang of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, and colleagues.

27 Aug 2020

SARS discovery boots search for COVID-19 drugs

An extensive search and testing of current drugs and drug-like compounds has revealed compounds previously developed to fight SARS might also work against COVID-19.

27 Aug 2020

Mouse-adapted SARS-CoV-2 model helps advance the development of COVID-19 vaccines

A new COVID-19 mouse model developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill captures many of the features of human disease and has helped advance a COVID-19 vaccine candidate to clinical trial.

27 Aug 2020

Study shows furin cleavage site is crucial for SARS-CoV-2 replication

In a recent bioRxiv* preprint paper, researchers from the United States demonstrate the pivotal role the furin cleavage site insertion in the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike glycoprotein plays in viral replication and pathogenesis – highlighting, in turn, the need for mutation monitoring when developing therapeutics and vaccines.

27 Aug 2020

Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus particles in heart tissue

Researchers in Milan, Italy, have identified the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in the heart tissue of deceased coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients who had died from respiratory failure, without showing any signs of cardiac involvement.

27 Aug 2020

N95 respirators designed for single use can be decontaminated effectively

N95 respirators, which are widely worn by health care workers treating patients with COVID-19 and are designed to be used only once, can be decontaminated effectively and used up to three times, according to research by UCLA scientists and colleagues.

27 Aug 2020

Study: Estrogen may reduce severity of COVID-19 symptoms in women

Why are men at greater risk than women for more severe symptoms and worse outcomes from COVID-19 regardless of age?

27 Aug 2020

5 things to know about convalescent blood plasma

President Donald Trump told the American people this week that convalescent plasma is a potential new treatment for COVID-19.

27 Aug 2020

Two viral gene targets needed in SARS-CoV-2 detection by PCR, say researchers

Researchers at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, San Francisco, and collaborators have warned against only targeting one viral gene when carrying out reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

27 Aug 2020