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.

Recommendations for reducing impact of COVID-19 on people living in urban slums

Government-enforced social isolation may help relatively affluent populations limit the spread of COVID-19, but these measures can be devasting for the nearly 1 billion people around the globe currently dwelling in urban slums, where physical space is scarce, and many rely on daily wage labor for survival.

27 Apr 2020

Researchers develop new app to track the COVID-19 pandemic

To respond to the spread of the new coronavirus, public health authorities need to know who's getting sick. Now, a new app, developed through an unusual partnership, empowers nearly anyone in the United States to share their health status.

27 Apr 2020

Gut microbiome influences pattern of activation in rat’s brain during opioid addiction

When Sierra Simpson was in college, she was sick for a year with recurring fevers and vomiting. Her doctors couldn't figure out what she had. Suspecting a bacterial infection, they tried treating her with high doses of antibiotics.

27 Apr 2020

Wits University releases first clinical data on COVID-19 in South Africa

For example, do they resuscitate patients even though the prospects of recovery are slim and the risk to the healthcare team high? How should healthcare workers respond?

27 Apr 2020

Exploring how nursing research has been paramount in dealing with coronavirus crisis

Nursing research has an important influence on evidence-based health care practice, care delivery, and policy.

27 Apr 2020

New insights into asthma aerosol treatments could aid future improvements

New research has revealed new insights into common asthma aerosol treatments to aid the drug's future improvements which could benefit hundreds of millions of global sufferers.

27 Apr 2020

Duke engineers awarded NSF grant to adapt fast, low-cost diagnostic tool for COVID-19

Biomedical engineers at Duke University are adapting a rapid testing platform originally designed to detect Ebola to see whether it could be of use in detecting antigens to SARS-Cov-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

27 Apr 2020

WVU and National Guard partner to develop data-driven model that forecasts PPE needs

When COVID-19 started depleting stockpiles of medical gear in hotspots like New York and New Jersey, the West Virginia National Guard took notice - and reached out to experts at the John Chambers College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University to help prevent that from happening in the Mountain State.

27 Apr 2020

Gut microbiota could predict severity of COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading to every corner of the world. But not everyone is falling sick at the same rate. A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in April 2020 suggests that the composition of the gut microbiome could partially explain the difference in susceptibility. This adds a new dimension to what is currently known about the disease.

27 Apr 2020

SARS-CoV-2 readily infects human intestinal cells in a laboratory model

A new Dutch study available on bioRxiv uses differentiated human small intestinal organoids in vitro to demonstrate that intestinal epithelium supports the replication of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and elicits a strong generic immune response.

27 Apr 2020

Researchers harness the power of AI to accelerate drug discovery

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to develop, researchers around the world are attempting to find the most effective treatment to combat the poorly understood virus behind this disease.

27 Apr 2020

Consumer beware: Coronavirus antibody tests are still a work in progress

After hearing for months about serious access issues involving tests that diagnose COVID-19 based on swabs from the nose or throat, Americans are being inundated with reports about promising new tests that look for signs of infection in the blood.

27 Apr 2020

Lactating mothers' nicotine exposure may put babies at risk for skull defects

Lactating mothers who use e-cigarettes or nicotine replacement therapies may be putting their breastfed babies at risk for skull defects, a new study in animals suggests.

27 Apr 2020

A new website launched to track landmark coronavirus studies

The Company of Biologists is delighted that a group of early-career researchers in the preLights community have launched a new website, covidpreprints.com, to track landmark coronavirus studies throughout the ongoing pandemic.

27 Apr 2020

Intensivists caution against the use of premature novel therapies for COVID-19

Intensivists caution against the use of premature novel therapies in lieu of traditional critical care principles in patients with COVID-19 in a recent correspondence letter in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.

27 Apr 2020

See Beyond Border – You're invited to join Mindray's ME series online global launch event

Nowadays, COVID-19 has spread around the world, threatening billions of people as healthcare services struggle to cope. World Health Organization has now officially characterized it as a pandemic, calling for immediate and wise reactions.

From Mindray 27 Apr 2020

Telehealth will be free, no copays, they said. But angry patients are getting billed.

Karen Taylor had been coughing for weeks when she decided to see a doctor in early April. COVID-19 cases had just exceeded 5,000 in Texas, where she lives.

27 Apr 2020

Study highlights the importance of malaria control in pregnant African women during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic is forcing national governments around the world to take actions they never dreamed they would take.

27 Apr 2020

A novel approach to reuse medical devices during COVID-19

Shortages of medical supplies such as ventilators, face shields and masks has been a recurring problem during the COVID-19 pandemic and production has struggled to keep up.

27 Apr 2020

Researchers re-purpose cancer-fighting artificial antibodies for COVID-19

Researcher Paula Bates, John Trent, and Don Miller developed a therapeutic drug that could potentially block the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Their research was initially aimed at helping patients suffering from multiple types of cancer.

27 Apr 2020