Infectious Diseases News and Research

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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

Health care workers have a higher prevalence of COVID-19 than non-health care workers

Health care workers -- particularly nurses -- have a higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection than non-health care workers, according to researchers at Rutgers, which released baseline results from a large prospective study of participants at Rutgers and affiliated hospitals recruited during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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

Affinity-Bead Assisted Mass Spectrometry for Proteomics

In this interview, Ghaith Hamza from AstraZeneca talks to News-Medical Life Sciences about the basic principles of Affinity-Bead Assisted Mass Spectrometry (Affi-BAMS) and how Affi-BAMS can help target specific proteins for proteomic applications.

From Bruker Daltonics 16 Nov 2020

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine nearly 95% effective

US company Moderna have just released their early phase 3 clinical trial results for their COVID-19 vaccine which is nearly 95% effective.

16 Nov 2020

Antiviral immune response is suppressed in COVID-19 patients compared to flu patients

Rather than life-threatening hyperinflammation, most adults with moderate-to-severe COVID-19 have a suppressed viral immune response when compared to adults with another viral respiratory infection, influenza. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis led research that suggests most COVID-19 patients are not candidates for treatment with steroids such as dexamethasone.

16 Nov 2020

Difference in antibody evolution could predict COVID-19 outcomes

For COVID-19, the difference between surviving and not surviving severe disease may be due to the quality, not the quantity, of the patients' antibody development and response, suggests a new Cell paper published by Galit Alter, PhD, a member of the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.

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

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

Promising new compounds to potentially treat novel coronaviruses identified

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy have discovered new drug compounds to potentially treat the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

15 Nov 2020

Multi-faceted COVID-19 strategy can prevent infections, save lives in resource-challenged countries

A public health strategy that combines contact tracing and community-based screening with isolation and quarantine centers can substantially reduce infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 while being cost-effective in low-and-middle-income countries like South Africa, a study by Massachusetts General Hospital has found.

15 Nov 2020

New saliva-based test found to accurately detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

A new saliva-based test developed by a team at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been found to accurately detect the presence of antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, from small samples of saliva, according to a study led by Bloomberg School researchers.

15 Nov 2020

High prevalence of cross-reactive anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in sub-Saharan Africa

A recent study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases has explained the lower prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in sub-Saharan Africa compared to that in the US, Europe, and Asia.

15 Nov 2020

Hantavirus can also be transmitted by wild or domesticated rats

A group of researchers from Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin have confirmed Germany's first-ever case of animal-to-human transmission involving a specific species of virus known as the 'Seoul virus'.

12 Nov 2020

Convalescent plasma in COVID-19 can be effective, especially early in disease

A team of researchers in the United States have conducted an extensive literature review looking at the usage of convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to treat those with an impaired immune system. Their study, titled “Therapeutic use of convalescent plasma in COVID-19 patients with immunodeficiency: A systematic review,” has been released on medRxiv*, the preprint server.

12 Nov 2020

Peptide-conjugated morpholino oligomers effectively inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vero cells

The hunt for antivirals has reached an unprecedented pace in light of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The causal agent for this disease – severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – has already infected over 52 million people worldwide, and has subsequently claimed over 1.3 million lives. However, among the innumerable promising drug candidates that help battle the virus and mitigate its damage, none have yet made it to the clinic.

12 Nov 2020

Antidepressant drug fluvoxamine may prevent some serious complications of COVID-19

In a preliminary study of COVID-19 patients with mild-to-moderate disease who were attempting to recover in their homes, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that the drug fluvoxamine seems to prevent some of the most serious complications of the illness and make hospitalization and the need for supplemental oxygen less likely.

12 Nov 2020

Infectious Diseases News and Research

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

Health care workers have a higher prevalence of COVID-19 than non-health care workers

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

Affinity-Bead Assisted Mass Spectrometry for Proteomics

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine nearly 95% effective

Antiviral immune response is suppressed in COVID-19 patients compared to flu patients

Difference in antibody evolution could predict COVID-19 outcomes

Primate model helps detect features of COVID-19 virus

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

Promising new compounds to potentially treat novel coronaviruses identified

Multi-faceted COVID-19 strategy can prevent infections, save lives in resource-challenged countries

New saliva-based test found to accurately detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies

High prevalence of cross-reactive anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in sub-Saharan Africa

Hantavirus can also be transmitted by wild or domesticated rats

Convalescent plasma in COVID-19 can be effective, especially early in disease

Peptide-conjugated morpholino oligomers effectively inhibit SARS-CoV-2 in vero cells

Antidepressant drug fluvoxamine may prevent some serious complications of COVID-19

Researchers discover a mechanism that cells use to degrade microRNAs

Routine testing for COVID-19 before major surgery could reduce risk of respiratory complications

COVID-19 treatments for people with early infection should be prioritized

Industry Focus eBook - Infectious Diseases (3rd Edition) eBook

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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