Pandemic News and Research

RSS

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.

Ski resorts work to stay open as COVID cases snowball

The day after Thanksgiving, Dr. Jana Eller and Dr. Shiraz Naqvi were seated beside an outdoor fire pit at the base of Telluride Ski Resort, taking a short break from skiing.

18 Dec 2020

Can online health forums track the effect of COVID-19 on mental health?

A team of researchers at King's College London, UK, and other institutions used publicly accessible sources of real-world data, such as online health forums. They found that authors of COVID-19 related posts most frequently mentioned mental health symptom keywords during the first wave, followed by physical symptoms and intensive care keywords.

18 Dec 2020

Rapid no-frills detection of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva with LAMP-Cas13

A new paper that appeared as a preprint on the medRxiv* server in December 2020 describes a nucleic acid test validated on saliva samples.

18 Dec 2020

Study recommends blinded crossover and continued follow-ups to evaluate SARS-CoV-2 vaccine durability

A new multicenter study has shown that blinded crossover and continued follow-up of trial participants can help assess vaccine durability and potential delayed enhancement of disease.

18 Dec 2020

Could neurological complications be common even in mild COVID-19?

News-Medical talks to Dr. Pria Anand about her research into COVID-19 that suggests neurologic complications are common even in mild infections.

18 Dec 2020

AAHMS report spells out the necessary steps to maintain control over COVID-19 in 2021

High levels of testing, efficient vaccine distribution and addressing pandemic mental health impacts are critical if Australia is to maintain control over COVID-19 in 2021, the country’s learned body for health and medical sciences has concluded.

18 Dec 2020

CN Bio and University of Melbourne announce partnership focused on respiratory therapies for recovering COVID-19 patients

CN Bio, a leading cell culture company, that has developed single and multi-organ microphysiological systems (MPS) to improve the accuracy and efficiency of drug discovery, today announced a collaboration with the University of Melbourne, focused on respiratory therapies for recovering COVID-19 patients.

18 Dec 2020

UEA study offers recommendations to reduce Covid-19 transmission in universities

Universities should keep their windows fully open and students shouldn’t share personal items – according to new University of East Anglia research into reducing the spread of Covid-19.

18 Dec 2020

Experts to share the lessons learnt from COVID-19 first wave

The Physiological Society and the Intensive Care Society have come together to host an exciting three-day virtual conference this week, which will review the challenges of understanding the pathophysiological changes occurring throughout the body following COVID-19 infection.

18 Dec 2020

Abbott gets CE Mark for new quantitative SARS-CoV-2 IgG lab-based serology test

Abbott announced today it received CE Mark for its new quantitative SARS-CoV-2 IgG (Immunoglobulin G) lab-based serology test.

18 Dec 2020

New framework could help people with serious illnesses to follow their appointments during COVID-19

The current surge in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases poses challenges for providers and institutions in delivering care to infected patients while also placing demands on them to keep up with timely and sometimes critical care for patients with cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses who might experience advanced complications and/or earlier death if they have lapses in their care.

18 Dec 2020

Healthcare workers can develop severe mental health problems after COVID-19

Researchers at the University of Ottawa have found the mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have particularly impacted healthcare professionals and their sleep, putting these frontline workers at risk of severe future mental health problems.

17 Dec 2020

COVID-19 pandemic highlights the risk of using systemic corticosteroids

Healthcare workers in tropical and sub-tropical settings where strongyloidiasis is prevalent or caring for patients who have travelled to such areas, need to maintain a high level of awareness about the use of corticosteroids, including when this class of anti-inflammatories is given to patients suspected of infection with SARS-CoV-2.

17 Dec 2020

Supercomputer simulations lead to an important viral inhibitor discovery

University of New Hampshire researchers recently used Comet at the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UC San Diego and Stampede2 at the Texas Advanced Computing Center to identify new inhibitor binding/unbinding pathways in an RNA-based virus.

17 Dec 2020

Temple researchers receive new grant to address racial disparities in lung cancer care

The path to cancer care is rarely straight-forward. But for Black men and women in particular, it is cluttered with obstacles, some of which are systemic - arising from policies, procedures, or practices that contribute to inequalities in care or that completely block access to critical services.

17 Dec 2020

Continued vigilance is required in England following exit from second lockdown

Researchers in the UK have presented data from the latest in a series of community surveys assessing the prevalence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in England.

17 Dec 2020

New prognostic tool predicts the need for ICU among COVID-19 patients

Researchers in the UK have developed a prognostic tool that accurately predicts whether patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – will require admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), die, or survive without escalation to ICU.

17 Dec 2020