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.

Study offers insights into factors affecting longitudinal continuity of care in English general practices

Longitudinal continuity of care is the repeated contact between an individual and the same general practitioner (GP).

22 Jul 2024

Efficacy and safety of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir in treating COVID-19: A systematic review

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, remains in circulation.

22 Jul 2024

Long-term immune changes persist in unvaccinated COVID-19 patients

Study reveals that unvaccinated individuals experience significant long-term changes in immune parameters up to ten months post-COVID-19 infection, with a shift towards a Th2 cytokine profile.

21 Jul 2024

COVID pandemic boosted food diversity and diet quality in U.S. households, study finds

The COVID-19 pandemic led to temporary increases in food diversity and diet quality in U.S. households, with notable improvements in household food purchasing behavior.

21 Jul 2024

Life expectancy in India suffered large and unequal declines during COVID-19 pandemic

The international study, co-authored by the Department of Sociology and the Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science's Dr Aashish Gupta and Professor Ridhi Kashyap, reveals that life expectancy in India suffered large and unequal declines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

19 Jul 2024

Unexpected T-cell reactions to adenoviral COVID-19 vaccines discovered

Researchers from the University of Liverpool's Centre for Drug Safety Science have identified unpredicted T-cell immune responses to the adenoviral (Oxford/AstraZeneca and Janssen) COVID-19 vaccines, but not to the mRNA vaccines.

19 Jul 2024

Study reveals a promising approach to developing universal influenza vaccine

New research led by Oregon Health & Science University reveals a promising approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine - a so-called "one and done" vaccine that confers lifetime immunity against an evolving virus.

19 Jul 2024

At Trump’s GOP convention, there’s little to be heard on health care

No talk of Obamacare. Or abortion.

19 Jul 2024

Extreme weather associated with higher rates of missed primary care appointments

Temperature extremes, becoming increasingly frequent due to growing global climate change, are associated with higher rates of missed primary care appointments, according to a recently published study from Drexel University researchers in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

18 Jul 2024

Vaccines and virus changes cut long COVID risk by 50%, but Omicron still poses a threat

Research shows that vaccination and temporal changes have significantly reduced the incidence of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection, but a substantial risk remains during the Omicron era.

18 Jul 2024

Flu viruses can use a second entry pathway to infect cells

Most influenza viruses enter human or animal cells through specific pathways on the cells' surface. Researchers at the University of Zurich have now discovered that certain human flu viruses and avian flu viruses can also use a second entry pathway, a protein complex of the immune system, to infect cells.

18 Jul 2024

Cystic fibrosis drug reduces hyper-inflammation in COVID-19 pneumonia patients

A drug commonly used to treat cystic fibrosis improved outcomes for patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia and could be used to treat other respiratory infections, according to clinical trial results from researchers at UCL, UCLH and the Francis Crick Institute.

18 Jul 2024

Intensive livestock farming may contribute to emerging infectious disease risk

Intensive livestock farming could raise the risk of new pandemics, researchers have warned.

17 Jul 2024

Research finds UK adolescents consume two-thirds of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods

Adolescents consume around two-thirds of their daily calories from ultra-processed foods (UPFs) new research from the Universities of Cambridge and Bristol has found.

17 Jul 2024

Americans' ability to afford healthcare hits new low in 2024

The percentage of Americans who can afford and access prescription drugs and quality healthcare stands at a new low of 55%, a six-point decline since 2022, according to the West Health-Gallup Healthcare Affordability Index.

17 Jul 2024

Researchers identify ORF6 protein as key to SARS-CoV-2 immune evasion

An article published in the journal Cell describes a study that enabled a group of researchers to discover how SARS-CoV-2 evades the cytotoxic immune response by identifying a protein called ORF6 that is a key factor in this mechanism.

16 Jul 2024

AI tool can accurately draft responses to patients' EHR queries

As part of a nationwide trend that occurred during the pandemic, many more of NYU Langone Health's patients started using electronic health record (EHR) tools to ask their doctors questions, refill prescriptions, and review test results. Many of these digital inquiries arrived via a communications tool called In Basket, which is built into NYU Langone's EHR system, EPIC.

16 Jul 2024

Americans ate healthier and more diverse foods during COVID-19 lockdowns

American diets may have gotten healthier and more diverse in the months following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers.

15 Jul 2024

ARPA-H funding boosts Wyss Institute's RNA therapeutic project

With the award for up to $27 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a collaborative research project at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University will advance a disease-agnostic novel RNA therapeutic with the potential to treat diverse diseases, and to be effectively and rapidly deployable.

15 Jul 2024

5 cases of bird flu reported in Colorado poultry workers, doubling this year’s US tally

Five people who work at a poultry farm in northeastern Colorado have tested positive for the bird flu, the Colorado public health department reported July 14. This brings the known number of U.S. cases to nine.

15 Jul 2024