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.

A minimally invasive approach to managing pain without opioids

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin (UW) are adopting a minimally invasive, safer approach to electrically treating pain directly at the source as part of the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative.

19 May 2020

‘Last responders’ seek to expand postmortem COVID testing in unexplained deaths

Examining dead bodies and probing for a cause of death is rarely seen as a heroic or glamorous job. Rather, as the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded, all eyes have been on the medical workers and public health disease detectives fighting on the front lines - and sometimes giving their lives — to bring the novel coronavirus under control.

19 May 2020

Fewer traffic collisions during shutdown means longer waits for organ donations

On Day Two of the San Francisco Bay Area's stay-at-home orders in March, Nohemi Jimenez got into her car in San Pablo, California, waved goodbye to her 3-year-old son and drove to her regular Wednesday dialysis appointment.

19 May 2020

Mount Sinai researchers are first to use AI model to analyze COVID-19 patients

Mount Sinai researchers are the first in the country to use artificial intelligence (AI) combined with imaging, and clinical data to analyze patients with coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

19 May 2020

Oxford Immunotec releases the T-SPOT® Discovery™ SARS-CoV-2 kit

Oxford Immunotec Global PLC, a global, high-growth diagnostics company, today announces the release of the T-SPOT Discovery SARS-CoV-2 test kit.

19 May 2020

New study may help understand the likely trajectory of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic

In influencing the trajectory of the pandemic stage of an emerging pathogen, a population's susceptibility to a novel disease is more influential than climate factors like humidity.

19 May 2020

COVID-19 is more deadly than flu, concludes new study

Is COVID-19 more deadly than the flu? It's a lot more deadly, concludes a new study by the University of Washington published May 7 in the journal Health Affairs.

19 May 2020

Common cytokine profile in ARDS, severe COVID-19 and sepsis

Many lives have been lost to the severe pneumonic disease COVID-19 caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), during the ongoing pandemic. The reason for the critical lung injury that results in a fatal outcome in a significant minority of patients has been supposed to be the dramatic oversecretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines triggered by the virus.

19 May 2020

Study shows how RNA editing affects the replication of COVID-19 virus

Two human deaminase enzymes edit the RNA of the SARS-CoV-2 virus when it enters a patient's body, with implications for the evolution of the virus and the spread of the infection, according to a new study.

19 May 2020

Researchers investigate the effect of Covid-19 on pregnant women and babies

Huddersfield researchers have co-published a report on the current knowledge of the effect of Covid-19 on pregnant women and babies.

19 May 2020

Study: Health impacts of COVID-19 may go far beyond the official death counts

According to a study by Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, the northern Italian city of Nembro recorded more deaths during March 2020 than between January and December 2019.

19 May 2020

Spraying disinfectants on streets can be harmful, WHO warns

The interim guidance released by the WHO aims to help health authorities formulate and implement policies on the disinfection of environmental surfaces during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

18 May 2020

Countries back Australia's plan to investigate the coronavirus pandemic

Amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a coalition of 116 countries backs up a joint Australian and European Union plan to launch an independent inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak.

18 May 2020

Most Australians do not understand difference between bacterial and viral infection

Public awareness matters amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic; however, a new study shows that more than 92 percent of the Australian population cannot differentiate between a bacterial and viral infection.

18 May 2020

Coronavirus pandemic may spark mental health crisis, U.N. warns

A mental health crisis is looming as millions of people are affected by deaths, disease, poverty, and isolation. All of these factors could cause severe psychological distress. The U.N. warns that due to the stress faced by people in physical isolation, a mental health crisis is approaching.

18 May 2020

New vaccine appears to be highly protective against Ebola infection in mice

As the world focuses on finding a COVID-19 vaccine, research continues on other potentially catastrophic pandemic diseases, including Ebola and Marburg viruses.

18 May 2020

Tocilizumab improves survival in COVID-19 patients with ARDS

The current COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2), has already nearly 4.8 million confirmed cases and more than 318,000 deaths.

18 May 2020

Testing is lifesaving, concludes US study

One of the most critical steps in controlling a pandemic disease, which has a significant mortality rate, is testing for the disease. Though this may appear relevant and obvious, its ability to forecast mortality in the current COVID-19 pandemic has not been tested.

18 May 2020

Global study to test whether antimalaria drug can prevent COVID-19 in health-care workers

With $9 million in philanthropic support, an international group of physicians and scientists is establishing a research network to evaluate promising therapies for COVID-19.

18 May 2020

Common mutations in SARS-CoV-2 related to non-variable segments of structural proteins

The ongoing severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic is thought to have originated from an animal species, most likely bats, which succeeded in crossing over to humans. However, the exact species of origin has not yet been confirmed.

18 May 2020