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Johns Hopkins offers a free online course to become a contact tracer

Aside from mass testing, one of the most important methods to curb the transmission of the novel coronavirus is through extensive contact tracing. Now there's an opportunity to become a contact tracer as the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has launched a six-hour online course.

12 May 2020

Organ transplantations plummet amid coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus disease has spread rapidly across nearly all countries across the globe, with more than 4.25 million people infected. The pandemic has taken a toll on the lives of people, especially those in locked down nations. Aside from the negative impact on economic and social aspects, patients who are sick with other diseases may also suffer from the effects of the pandemic.

12 May 2020

Could JAK blockers help treat COVID-19?

A new study published in the journal Science Immunology in May 2020 reports that compounds that safely inhibit the JAK protein could be useful in treating COVID-19.

12 May 2020

A 'multi-omics' approach to the development of drugs against COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 reports a multi-omics approach that could make it easier to develop drugs that are effective against COVID-19.

12 May 2020

UCF researchers win $200,000 to develop cough drops for controlling COVID-19 spread

A team of University of Central Florida researchers is looking at changing people's saliva to help manage the spread of COVID-19 as the nation gets ready to go back to work and school.

12 May 2020

Study provides further insights into the relationship between smoking and COVID-19

A Canadian study available on the preprint server medRxiv* shows that current smokers are slightly more likely than never smokers to test positive for coronavirus disease (COVID-19), but cautions about the possibility of reverse causality where smokers actually quit to avoid the disease.

12 May 2020

Using a smartphone to perform non-invasive at-home testing for COVID-19

In Pennsylvania and other U.S. states, one of the keys to safely reopening society amid the COVID-19 pandemic is providing sufficient testing so that new cases of the disease do not overwhelm the public healthcare system.

12 May 2020

COVID-19 has magnified health disparities among vulnerable population

The impact of COVID-19 on underserved and vulnerable populations, including persons of color, is addressed in a new roundtable discussion in Health Equity, a peer-reviewed open access journal.

12 May 2020

SARS-CoV-2 cell entry affinity varies across different host species

A new study from India, currently available on the preprint server bioRxiv*, estimated the probability and readiness of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) to infect cells of different animal species – and revealed many of them that could act as disease carriers.

12 May 2020

Clinical trial to test the efficacy of defibrotide medicine for reducing COVID-19 death rate

The Neurosciences Institute, mixed centre of the Spanish National Research Council and the Miguel Hernández University of Elche, have collaborated on the first clinical trial conducted in the world to test whether the defibrotide medicine, which has already been authorized to treat a severe obstruction of the hepatic sinusoidal veins of people who have undergone a bone marrow transplant, can be used as therapy against COVID-19.

12 May 2020

Neovii and Tel Aviv University partner to develop novel COVID-19 vaccine

Ramot, Tel Aviv University's technology transfer company, and Neovii, a Swiss-based biopharmaceutical company and a member of Israel-based Neopharm Group, announced today that they have signed a research and license agreement to develop a novel and potentially life-saving COVID-19 vaccine.

12 May 2020

As deaths mount, coronavirus testing remains wildly inconsistent in long-term care

Mary Lanham's assisted living complex in Florida tested all residents for COVID-19 — once in March and again in April — even though no one showed symptoms.

12 May 2020

Study illuminates the impact of COVID-19 on hospitals and health systems

In the third week of March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic escalated, large hospitals in the Northeast experienced a 26 percent decline in average per-facility revenues based on estimated in-network amounts as compared to the same period in 2019.

12 May 2020

A comprehensive analysis of evidence-based information to help manage myopia

A new literature analysis published in Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics, the peer-reviewed journal of The College of Optometrists, gives eye care practitioners (ECPs) a comprehensive analysis of evidence-based information needed to help manage myopia.

12 May 2020

Sanford director receives major grant to advance broad-spectrum antivirals for respiratory diseases

Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute is pleased to announce that Sumit Chanda, Ph.D., has received a $10.2 million, four-year grant from the Department of Defense to develop and advance broad-spectrum antivirals for respiratory diseases.

12 May 2020

New molecular analysis system warns the presence of SARS-CoV-2

Researchers from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and Valencia University (UV) have developed a molecular analysis system that can warn of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 (which causes the Covid-19 disease) in a community based on the study of its waste water.

12 May 2020

Researchers propose COVID-19 app that protects the privacy of users

Researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and of the FZI Research Center for Information Technology, an innovation partner of KIT, have now proposed an app that combines the advantages of a central and a decentralized approach and, thus, enhances privacy.

12 May 2020

Incineration is not needed to dispose COVID-19 biowaste, says environmental scientist

An environmental scientist, who led medical waste treatment during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, says that COVID-19 is one of the "easiest pathogens to destroy" and hospitals need not resort to environmentally unfriendly incineration to dispose of biomedical waste piling up from treating those infected with the virus.

12 May 2020

Celebrities support poetry anthology for NHS Covid-19 Emergency Fund

Actor Simon Callow and author Stephen Fry are backing a poetry anthology for the NHS Covid-19 Emergency Fund which includes a poem by Dr Emma Halliday of Lancaster University.

12 May 2020

Novel telemedicine platform protects health professionals caring for patients with infectious diseases

Physician-scientists have developed a communication management system built on a telemedicine platform that can help minimize the exposure of health care professionals to highly infectious diseases while still providing personalized patient care, according to a new report published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.

12 May 2020