Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Does COVID-19 infect peripheral blood cells?

The emergence of the novel coronavirus outbreak in December 2019 was followed by its spread on a global scale unparalleled in the last 100 years. At present, it has claimed over 322,000 lives the world over, with over 4.88 million cases having tested positive.

19 May 2020

Did SARS-CoV-2 adapt to humans long before the index case?

A new study from Canada and the U.S. suggests that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may have already been pre-adapted to human transmission when it emerged in late 2019, which means there may be lingering populations of progenitor SARS-CoV-2 adept for human transmission and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) re-emergence. The research is published on the preprint server bioRxiv in May 2020.

19 May 2020

No SARS-COV-2 among young children in Belgium attending daycare, report researchers

A study conducted by researchers in Belgium has found no evidence to support concerns that asymptomatic young children may be a source of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus disease 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission.

19 May 2020

To stem COVID, this small Indiana city decided to test all public-facing employees

Behind a nondescript strip mall in Carmel, Indiana, a short line of cars gathers mid-afternoon next to a large tent. Medical professionals stand out front, dressed head to toe in blue medical coveralls. People in the cars — many of them first responders — drive up to be tested for COVID-19.

19 May 2020

X-ray experiments demonstrate a new way to block the entry of SARS-CoV-2

As scientists across the globe race to develop a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, an international team led by Davide Corti at Vir Biotechnology and David Veesler at the University of Washington has been working around the clock on a complementary approach - identifying neutralizing antibodies that could be used as a preventative treatment or as a post-exposure therapy.

19 May 2020

Study highlights need to focus on medications that address clot formation

Earlier this week, the BBC reported that one-third of COVID-19 patients developed dangerous blood clots.

19 May 2020

New capsules are critical for addressing the rapidly changing bacteria, says expert

Vaccines that protect people from infection by Streptococcus pneumonia, which kills up to 1 million children every year worldwide, train the immune system to recognize the pathogen's thick sugar capsule.

19 May 2020

‘Last responders’ seek to expand postmortem COVID testing in unexplained deaths

Examining dead bodies and probing for a cause of death is rarely seen as a heroic or glamorous job. Rather, as the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded, all eyes have been on the medical workers and public health disease detectives fighting on the front lines - and sometimes giving their lives — to bring the novel coronavirus under control.

19 May 2020

Fewer traffic collisions during shutdown means longer waits for organ donations

On Day Two of the San Francisco Bay Area's stay-at-home orders in March, Nohemi Jimenez got into her car in San Pablo, California, waved goodbye to her 3-year-old son and drove to her regular Wednesday dialysis appointment.

19 May 2020

Mount Sinai researchers are first to use AI model to analyze COVID-19 patients

Mount Sinai researchers are the first in the country to use artificial intelligence (AI) combined with imaging, and clinical data to analyze patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

19 May 2020

New study may help understand the likely trajectory of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

In influencing the trajectory of the pandemic stage of an emerging pathogen, a population's susceptibility to a novel disease is more influential than climate factors like humidity.

19 May 2020

COVID-19 is more deadly than flu, concludes new study

Is COVID-19 more deadly than the flu? It's a lot more deadly, concludes a new study by the University of Washington published May 7 in the journal Health Affairs.

19 May 2020

Common cytokine profile in ARDS, severe COVID-19 and sepsis

Many lives have been lost to the severe pneumonic disease COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during the ongoing pandemic. The reason for the critical lung injury that results in a fatal outcome in a significant minority of patients has been supposed to be the dramatic oversecretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines triggered by the virus.

19 May 2020

New animal model for COVID-19

As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to ravage the world, scientists are frantically searching for a vaccine or new drug that will effectively counter the lethal effects of the virus that leads to COVID-19 disease.

19 May 2020

New UV disinfection technology is effective for deactivating SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces

Surfaces contaminated with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, pose a grave threat to the safety of healthcare workers, patients, frontline responders, military service members, cruise line passengers, hotel guests and people everywhere.

19 May 2020

Study shows how RNA editing affects the replication of COVID-19 virus

Two human deaminase enzymes edit the RNA of the SARS-CoV-2 virus when it enters a patient's body, with implications for the evolution of the virus and the spread of the infection, according to a new study.

19 May 2020

Three FDA-approved drugs can block the replication of COVID-19 virus

Three drugs that are already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or other international agencies can block the production of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 in human cells, according to computational and pharmaceutical studies performed by UT Southwestern scientists.

19 May 2020