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The importance of social distancing for COVID-19 recovery in the US

News-Medical spoke to researchers from Reykjavík University about their research that looked at the importance of social distancing in COVID-19 recovery.

21 Jun 2021

Convalescent plasma associated with better survival in blood cancer patients with COVID-19

Convalescent plasma therapy was associated with better survival in blood cancer patients hospitalized with COVID-19, especially in sicker patients. The findings by the COVID-19 and Cancer Consortium (CCC19) are newly published in the peer-reviewed journal JAMA Oncology.

18 Jun 2021

Convalescent plasma can improve chances of survival among blood cancer patients with COVID-19

A large, retrospective, multicenter study involving Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients can dramatically improve likelihood of survival among blood cancer patients hospitalized with the virus.

18 Jun 2021

Burden of asymptomatic pertussis in infants is greater than previously thought

New study challenges long-standing assumptions about disease severity in infants, and suggests that standard qPCR interpretations underestimate the true burden of other highly contagious diseases, such as COVID-19 and influenza.

17 Jun 2021

Novel altruistic stem cell defense mechanism may be targeted to develop new COVID-19 vaccines

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 may have the ability to reactivate dormant tuberculosis (TB). In a novel study scientists report in The American Journal of Pathology that infection with a specific coronavirus strain reactivated dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in mice.

16 Jun 2021

Novavax COVID vaccine co-administered with flu vaccine appears safe and effective

Researchers from the UK recently reported the results of a sub-study that evaluates the safety, efficacy, and immunogenicity of the NVX-CoV2373 vaccine when co-administered with an approved seasonal influenza vaccine.

16 Jun 2021

Exposure to common cold virus can protect against COVID-19 infection

Exposure to the rhinovirus, the most frequent cause of the common cold, can protect against infection by the virus which causes COVID-19, Yale researchers have found.

15 Jun 2021

Does SARS-CoV-2 show seasonal variation in transmission in temperate countries?

The need to understand how and why such spread occurs is vital to containing it. A new medRxiv* preprint describes a significant reduction in transmission during the summer (by 42%), which is comparable to the impact of the most effective non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI).

15 Jun 2021

Benefits and Challenges for XpressAmp™ Direct Amplification Reagents

News-Medical interviews Curtis Knox, Sr Strategic Portfolio Manager at Promega, about using the XpressAmp™ for the direct amplification of reagents.

From Promega Corporation 15 Jun 2021

COVID-19 public health efforts linked to dramatic decline in COPD hospitalizations

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine analyzed data at the 13-hospital University of Maryland Medical System and found public health measures designed to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus may have fostered a substantial side benefit: Hospital admissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were reduced by 53 percent, according to a new study accepted for publication by a peer-reviewed medical journal and currently available at the online journal medRxiv.

14 Jun 2021

Study suggests COVID-19 in children is milder than the flu

Researchers retrospectively analyzed the medical records of children in Turkey hospitalized because of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or influenza and found COVID-19 to be milder than influenza in this group.

14 Jun 2021

AI identifies gene signatures to reveal patients’ immune responses to viral infection

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine used an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to sift through terabytes of gene expression data -- which genes are "on" or "off" during infection -- to look for shared patterns in patients with past pandemic viral infections, including SARS, MERS and swine flu.

11 Jun 2021

Local anesthetic procaine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

Research has shown that procaine and procaine-hydrochloride can reduce replication of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A viruses in infected cells and reduce the production of cytokines by the viruses, making them potentially useful for treating COVID-19.

10 Jun 2021

New article explains the pros and cons of nasal vaccines

Vaccines are mostly synonymous with needles, an efficient and effective way to provide immunity to myriad infections. As COVID-19 vaccination efforts roll out across the U.S. and the world, some experts believe that a vaccine administered through the nose could be just as effective and easier to administer.

10 Jun 2021

Warmer conditions are not enough to prevent COVID-19 transmission, research shows

New research shows transmission of the virus behind COVID-19 varies seasonally, but warmer conditions are not enough to prevent transmission.

9 Jun 2021

Research suggests low platelet counts may be associated with Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

A condition that affects the blood, known as idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP), may be associated the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in rare cases, research suggests.

9 Jun 2021

Study: COVID-19 produced more symptoms and complications than seasonal influenza in youths

A new global study of 30-day outcomes in children and adolescents with COVID-19 found that while death was uncommon, the illness produced more symptoms and complications than seasonal influenza.

8 Jun 2021

Georgia State professor receives federal grant to study seasonal and universal vaccination in elderly populations

Dr. Sang-Moo Kang, professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University, has received a five-year, $2.7 million federal grant to study seasonal and universal vaccination in elderly populations with pre-existing immunity to influenza viruses.

5 Jun 2021

First human case of H10N3 influenza reported in Jiangsu, China

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues to spread and wreak havoc globally, another health threat emerged in China. The country has reported its first confirmed case of the rare H10N3 bird flu in a patient admitted to the hospital in April 2021 in Zhenjiang, China.

4 Jun 2021

Novel insights can open doors to combating clotting-related problems in COVID-19

Researchers scour what is known to come up with a hypothesis of why blood clots can be a major problem in COVID-19