Public Health News and Research

RSS

USask's VIDO-Intervac receives $23 million to fast-track development of COVID-19 vaccine

The University of Saskatchewan's VIDO-InterVac (Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization-International Vaccine Centre) has been awarded $23 million to fast-track efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced today.

24 Apr 2020

Study looks into COVID‐19 preparedness in Michigan nursing homes

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit some nursing homes especially hard - including in the hotspot state of Michigan. Hundreds of deaths of residents in homes from Seattle to Boston have raised concerns about how well facilities are protecting the 1.3 million older Americans who live in them.

24 Apr 2020

Indiana State Department of Health and IU collaborate to study COVID-19 spread

The Indiana State Department of Health is collaborating with the Indiana University Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health at IUPUI to conduct a scientific study to measure the spread of COVID-19 throughout the state.

24 Apr 2020

Anti-vaccine activists latch onto coronavirus to bolster their movement

While most of the world hungers for a vaccine to put an end to the death and economic destruction wrought by COVID-19, some anti-vaccine groups are joining with anti-lockdown protesters to challenge restrictions aimed at protecting public health.

24 Apr 2020

Vaping, opioid addiction accelerate coronavirus risks, says NIDA director

In 2018, opioid overdoses claimed about 47,000 American lives. Last year, federal authorities reported that 5.4 million middle and high school students vaped. And just two months ago, about 2,800 cases of vaping-associated lung injuries resulted in hospitalizations; 68 people died.

24 Apr 2020

Seniors with COVID-19 show unusual symptoms, doctors say

Older adults with COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, have several "atypical" symptoms, complicating efforts to ensure they get timely and appropriate treatment, according to physicians.

24 Apr 2020

Born into a pandemic: Virus complicates births for moms and babies

Mallory Pease's contractions grew stronger as her husband, Mitchell, drove her to Oaklawn Hospital in Marshall, Michigan, to give birth to their second child. It had been a routine pregnancy, but she told her doctor she'd recently developed a sore throat, aches, coughing and shortness of breath — symptoms her provider knew could indicate COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

New guide released for screening and managing lung cancer during COVID-19

A new expert panel consensus statement published simultaneously today in the journals Radiology: Imaging Cancer, Chest and the Journal of the American College of Radiology provides guidance to clinicians managing lung cancer screening programs and patients with lung nodules during the COVID-19 pandemic.

24 Apr 2020

Mologic launches laboratory-based diagnostic test for COVID-19

Mologic Ltd, a leading developer of lateral flow and rapid diagnostic technologies, today announced that it will begin manufacturing its laboratory diagnostic test for COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

UM researchers awarded $2.5 million to develop COVID-19 vaccine candidate

Researchers in the Center for Translational Medicine at the University of Montana have been awarded $2.5 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health to identify and advance a COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

24 Apr 2020

Researchers develop new algorithm tool to establish risk of COVID-19 infection

Researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), belonging to the VRAIN Institute, have developed DeteCCovid, a computer tool based on an algorithm that, by anonymous contact tracing, will help to detect people who have been close to a user infected with COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

UAB to join international effort to test drugs for COVID-19

The University of Alabama at Birmingham will join an international effort coordinated by Scripps Research to test drugs for COVID-19.

24 Apr 2020

Dietary supplements are effective and low-cost means to fight COVID-19

Supplements containing vitamins C and D and other micronutrients, sometimes in amounts exceeding the federally recommended levels, are a safe, effective and low-cost means of helping your immune system fight off COVID-19 and other acute respiratory tract diseases, an Oregon State University researcher says.

24 Apr 2020

COVID-19 outbreak is no excuse for lowering standards of clinical research, say medical ethicists

Ethicists from Carnegie Mellon and McGill universities are calling on the global research community to resist treating the urgency of the current COVID-19 outbreak as grounds for making exceptions to rigorous research standards in pursuit of treatments and vaccines.

24 Apr 2020

Sweden may reach ‘herd immunity’ in weeks as the country resists total lockdown

Herd immunity is a form of indirect protection against infectious diseases where a population develops sufficient immunity to a disease that that infection cannot spread within the group. A population can reach herd immunity if a large proportion has been exposed to the virus. Now, Sweden resisted total lockdown measures, unlike its neighboring countries, while experts believe herd immunity will be achieved in Stockholm within weeks.

24 Apr 2020

New report highlights blood clot dangers in patients with COVID-19

A special report published today in the journal Radiology outlines prevention, diagnosis and treatment of complications stemming from blood clots in patients with COVID-19. The journal also published two research letters and a case study on this topic.

23 Apr 2020

Minimizing COVID-19 infection through controlled exposure

A new study published in the preprint journal medRxiv in April 2020 explores the possibilities of launching smaller waves of voluntary social exposure in a controlled way, to avoid the occurrence of a single large and probably unmanageable second wave of infection.

23 Apr 2020

3D face photos could predict the likelihood of obstructive sleep apnea

Facial features analyzed from 3D photographs could predict the likelihood of having obstructive sleep apnea, according to a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

23 Apr 2020

1.7 billion people at higher risk from COVID-19, study says

The COVID-19 pandemic affecting 185 countries and territories the world over has already claimed over 190,000 lives and sickened well over 2.7 million as of April 24, 2020. Research shows that most of these fatalities are in older people or those who have underlying medical conditions.

23 Apr 2020

U.S. may have to spend hundreds of billions treating COVID-19

A new study published in the journal Health Affairs in April 2020 quantifies the financial and resource burden which could be placed on the U.S. healthcare system at varying levels of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) community spread.

23 Apr 2020