Disease/Infection News

RSS

News coverage contributes to drug shortages in COVID-19

Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital in the U.S. have reported that the recent shortage of medicines used to treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) could be due to extensive news media coverage that results in individual hoarding or institutional stockpiling of medicines.

15 Oct 2020

Previous infections with seasonal coronaviruses might protect against SARS-CoV-2

Seasonal coronaviruses, which generally cause mild respiratory illness and symptoms of the common cold, belong to the same viral family as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes COVID-19.

15 Oct 2020

New guidance for "Long COVID" patients

“Long Covid,” which affects around 10% of patients, refers to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that is still causing symptoms beyond 3 to 4 weeks.

15 Oct 2020

Blood purification outside the body in COVID-19 patients

Rodney Rosalia et al., in a recent medRxiv preprint research paper, study the longitudinal variation of parameters involved with systemic inflammation in critically ill COVID-19 patients upon EBP treatment.

15 Oct 2020

Study links SARS-CoV-2 seasonality to increased spread at lower temperatures

In a recent paper available on the bioRxiv preprint server, US researchers show that individual particles of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) undergo structural destabilization at relatively mild but elevated temperatures – strengthening the case for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) resurgence in the winter.

15 Oct 2020

Researchers identify potential drugs that could be repurposed as pan-coronavirus treatments

A large international consortium of almost 200 researchers from 14 leading institutions in six countries has studied three different coronaviruses - SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV - with the aim of finding vulnerabilities shared by these three pathogens.

15 Oct 2020

Experts review contribution of Task Force in prevention and control of non-communicable diseases

On 24 September 2020, the Friends of the Task Force met in the margins of the high-level segment of the 75thsession of the United Nations General Assembly. Participants included Member States, UN agencies and non-State actors.

15 Oct 2020

INRS invests $1 million in COVID-19 research to address society's urgent needs

Quebec is particularly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For more than 50 years, Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has placed research at the service of the development of society, focusing its efforts on strategic issues.

15 Oct 2020

Cloud-based tool can rapidly detect and track emerging pathogens

Published today in the journal GigaScience is a new open source, cloud-based tool called IDseq that makes it possible to rapidly detect, identify, and track emerging pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2.

15 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 can infect brain cells and damage neurons

Researchers have found that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) can infect the brain cells, mainly the astrocytes, and negatively affects cognition and neuronal cells.

15 Oct 2020

Digital environmental tools can help track and predict effects of COVID-19

A digital sprint, featuring a series of hackathons, led by Cranfield University and the Natural Environment Research Council has seen multiple projects awarded prizes for innovation and use of digital technology.

15 Oct 2020

Obese persons have greater risk of developing severe COVID-19

The probability that an obese person will develop severe COVID-19 is high regardless of age, sex, ethnicity, and the presence of co-morbidities such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart or lung disease, according to a study by Brazilian researchers published in Obesity Research & Clinical Practice.

15 Oct 2020

Capillary blood microsampling could prove a breakthrough in SARS-CoV-2 serosurveillance

As COVID-19 seems to be making a comeback in many areas of the world, including Japan, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 shows the relevance of microsamples of blood in serosurveillance of this disease.

15 Oct 2020

Researchers develop ViDok app to test potential COVID-19 treatments

Anyone with a smartphone can download the app ViDok, which lets users pick from a library of molecules that might bind to key proteins on the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, and then can tweak the molecules to try to find a better fit.

15 Oct 2020

Higher levels of lymphocytes reduce risk of long-term complications in asymptomatic COVID-19 patients

COVID-19 remains stubbornly inconsistent. More than a million people have died and 35 million have been diagnosed, but a large fraction of people infected with the coronavirus--about 45%, according to recent estimates--show no symptoms at all.

15 Oct 2020

Rapid SARS‐CoV‐2 IgM‐IgG combined antibody test

A recent study published on the preprint server medRxiv in October 2020 reports a new diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2 based on the detection of antibodies.

15 Oct 2020

SARS-CoV-2 may become endemic if reinfection proves commonplace, say researchers

To date, a few verified repeat SARS-CoV-2 infections have been documented around the world. "Should reinfection [with SARS-CoV-2] prove commonplace, and barring a highly effective vaccine delivered to most of the world's population, SARS-CoV-2 will likely become endemic," write Jeffrey Shaman and Marta Galanti in this Perspective.

15 Oct 2020

Human bivalent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies more potent

A recent study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in October 2020 reports more effective viral neutralization by bivalent anti-spike antibodies. This could promote the development of better therapeutics and vaccines.

15 Oct 2020

Certain live-attenuated vaccines can prevent severe complications of COVID-19

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc globally, with over one million deaths to date. Yet what if an existing vaccine could make COVID-19 less deadly? A study just published put the theory to test, with promising results.

15 Oct 2020

Researchers investigate the spread of SARS-CoV-2

Winter is on its way. And in this year of coronavirus, with it comes the potential for a second wave of COVID-19. Add in flu season and our tendency to head inside and close our windows to the cold, wet weather, and it appears the next several months are going to present us with new health challenges.

15 Oct 2020