Pandemic News and Research

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A pandemic is a global disease outbreak. During a pandemic, transmission can be anticipated in the workplace, not only from patient to workers in health care settings, but also among co-workers in general work settings. A pandemic would cause high levels of illness, death, social disruption, and economic loss. Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places become seriously ill at the same time. Impacts could range from school and business closings to the interruption of basic services such as public transportation and food delivery.

Long COVID has low prevalence in school-age children, UK study suggests

A new study, released as a preprint on the medRxiv* server, offers some insights into what may be expected in this field, how common it is, how it presents, and how it compares with chronic sequelae of other respiratory viruses.

24 Jun 2021

Survey of health professionals seeks to understand the experience of telehealth services during COVID-19

Whether telehealth will continue to be used by doctors following the COVID-19 pandemic will depend heavily on resourcing and policy, a Flinders University-led review has found.

24 Jun 2021

New insights can pave the way for targeted therapies to fight blood clots in COVID-19 patients

Driven by the mystery of the blood clots reported in both living and deceased COVID-19 patients, researchers from Shoolini University, India, dig deeper into the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and other similar viral diseases, looking for ways in which these clots could be formed.

24 Jun 2021

Long covid has reignited polarisation in approaches to treat chronic fatigue syndrome

Many long covid patients are experiencing extreme fatigue, a situation which has reignited the polarization in approaches to treatment and rehabilitation of chronic fatigue syndrome, according to a special report today.

24 Jun 2021

Study finds larger decline in life expectancy during 2020 in the US than peer countries

Decreases in life expectancy during 2020 were much larger in the United States than in other high income countries, particularly among Hispanic and Black Americans, finds a study published by The BMJ today.

24 Jun 2021

Bivalent DNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccine induces strong humoral and cellular immunity in mice

A team of UK-based scientists has developed and validated a DNA vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that encodes both spike receptor-binding domain (RBD) and nucleocapsid of the virus as vaccine immunogens.

24 Jun 2021

Researchers identify the best masks for blocking respiratory droplets

During the COVID-19 pandemic, cloth face masks became a way to help protect yourself and others from the virus. And for some people, they became a fashion statement, with many fabric choices available.

24 Jun 2021

Resurgent SARS-CoV-2 infections in England linked to Delta variant

A major factor contributing to the ongoing pandemic of severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been the emergence of new variants. Because the mutations of the original virus make variants more transmissible, there is more potential for the contagion to spread through social mixing due to the easing of lockdown.

24 Jun 2021

COVID-19 prevalence in the U.S. has far exceeded the known number of cases

In a new study, National Institutes of Health researchers report that the prevalence of COVID-19 in the United States during spring and summer of 2020 far exceeded the known number of cases and that infection affected the country unevenly.

24 Jun 2021

New class of compounds can stop the reproduction of coronavirus

A human genetic mechanism hijacked by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, to help it spread also makes it vulnerable to a new class of drug candidates, a new study finds.

24 Jun 2021

A study of circulating biomarkers in hospitalized patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 alpha variant

Now, a new study published on the medRxiv* preprint server proposes a rapid method to identify the mutations in B.1.1.7 (N501Y mutation and H69/V70 deletion) and the impact of this variant on various biomarkers in hospitalized patients. This is the first study that correlates the biomarker levels to SARS-CoV-2 variants.

23 Jun 2021

SARS-CoV-2 detection with a simple, inexpensive, and sensitive molecular test

Researchers from the US recently described a rapid molecular test named WHotLAMP for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva. WHotLAMP is easy to use, very sensitive at 3.6 viral RNA copies per microliter of saliva, specific, and inexpensive. This study is published on the medRxiv*preprint serve.

23 Jun 2021

Study finds no evidence for remdesivir's benefit in severe COVID-19 patients

A new analysis of current data indicates that remdesivir does not show efficacy in regulating the severity of the illness.

23 Jun 2021

SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant likely to become dominant in the United States

Researchers have conducted a study showing that the B.1.1.7 lineage of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that emerged in the UK is now rapidly being displaced as the dominant strain in the United States by the variants of concern B.1.617.2 (Delta) and P.1 (Gamma) that emerged in India and Brazil, respectively.

23 Jun 2021

Research suggests people living with HIV/AIDS may be less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in India have conducted a study showing that the seroprevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – was lower among people living with HIV and AIDS than among the general population.

23 Jun 2021

More older adults may have undiagnosed dementia than previously estimated

Only 1 in 10 older adults in a large national survey who were found to have cognitive impairment consistent with dementia reported a formal medical diagnosis of the condition.

23 Jun 2021

CD39+ monocyte count higher in pregnant than non-pregnant COVID-19 patients

A new study published on the bioRxiv* server describes the changes in the representation of a subset of activated monocytes in this group of patients.

23 Jun 2021

New report details the current landscape of Minnesota youth's sexual health

A new report from the University of Minnesota Medical School's Healthy Youth Development - Prevention Research Center (HYD-PRC) highlights that Minnesota youth continue to contract sexually transmitted infections (STIs) at alarmingly high rates, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

23 Jun 2021

Increased severity of COVID-19 in pregnancy

A new preprint on the medRxiv* server provides more evidence that COVID-19 likely causes a more serious phenotype to arise in pregnant women.

23 Jun 2021

New method uses swabs from smartphone screens to accurately detect COVID-19

An accurate, non-invasive, and low-cost method of testing for COVID-19 using samples taken from the screens of mobile phones has been developed by a team led by UCL researchers at Diagnosis Biotech.

23 Jun 2021