Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Combination of heat and high relative humidity can disinfect N95 mask materials

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept around the world early this year, shortages of protective equipment such as N95 masks left healthcare workers little choice but to reuse the masks they had - increasing the risk of infection for both them and their patients.

26 Sep 2020

Shorter time from COVID-19 symptom onset to hospitalization linked to disease severity, death

New research presented at this week's ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online) shows that a shorter time from symptom onset to hospitalization is associated with more serious disease and death in patients with COVID-19.

26 Sep 2020

SARS-CoV-2 emergence linked with decrease in circulation of common respiratory viruses

Analysis of samples taken to test for respiratory viruses over the past five years suggests that the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 was associated with a large drop in circulation of other common respiratory viruses during the first wave.

26 Sep 2020

ECMO appears to be saving the lives of many critically ill COVID-19 patients

It saved lives in past epidemics of lung-damaging viruses. Now, the life-support option known as ECMO appears to be doing the same for many of the critically ill COVID-19 patients who receive it, according to a new international study.

26 Sep 2020

Study examines the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on health care disparities

A new Viewpoint piece published online in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society examines the ways in which COVID-19 disproportionately impacts historically disadvantaged communities of color in the United States, and how baseline inequalities in our health system are amplified by the pandemic.

25 Sep 2020

About 10% patients with severe disease create auto-antibodies that attack the immune system

People infected by the novel coronavirus can have symptoms that range from mild to deadly. Now, two new analyses suggest that some life-threatening cases can be traced to weak spots in patients' immune systems.

25 Sep 2020

Inflammation in the eye after COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv shows the occurrence of ocular pathology in the period of recovery following COVID-19. This throws more light on the occurrence of inflammation in people recovering from COVID-19.

25 Sep 2020

Faulty genes and an autoimmune condition linked to severe COVID-19 in young, healthy people

More than 10 percent of young and healthy people who develop severe COVID-19 have misguided antibodies that attack not the virus, but the immune system itself, new research shows. Another 3.5 percent, at least, carry a specific kind of genetic mutation.

25 Sep 2020

New studies report specific mechanisms of impaired type I interferon signaling in COVID-19 patients

Two new studies report specific mechanisms of impaired type I interferon (IFN) signaling in some hospitalized patients suffering from severe cases of COVID-19, suggesting that screens for these defects could help identify patients at the highest risk of life-threatening complications from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

25 Sep 2020

Individuals with severe forms of COVID-19 disease can have compromised type I interferon responses

Individuals with severe forms of COVID-19 disease can present with compromised type I interferon (IFN) responses based on their genetics, according to results published in two papers today in the journal Science.

25 Sep 2020

New study may explain why more men than women die from COVID-19

New findings by scientists at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators help explain why some people with COVID-19 develop severe disease.

25 Sep 2020

Human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 confirmed

Cat-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been experimentally proven, but little is known about the significance of this novel virus as a feline pathogen or its reverse zoonotic potential. The establishment of new animal reservoirs of SARS-CoV-2 could pose serious problems for human health in the future.

24 Sep 2020

New antibodies protect mice against lethal infections of influenza B virus

Researchers have identified two antibodies that protect mice against lethal infections of influenza B virus, report scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

24 Sep 2020

Climate anomaly exacerbated WWI mortality and the Spanish flu pandemic

Scientists have spotted a once-in-a-century climate anomaly during World War I that likely increased mortality during the war and the influenza pandemic in the years that followed.

24 Sep 2020

Researchers demonstrate the utility of AI in identifying neural degeneration

Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated the utility of artificial intelligence (AI) in identifying and categorizing neural degeneration in the model organism C. elegans. The tool uses deep learning, a form of AI, and should facilitate and expedite research into neural degeneration.

24 Sep 2020

Experimental cancer drug AR-12 inhibits SARS-CoV-2 virus

Nine months into the global pandemic, which has infected more than 32 million people, there is still no approved effective and safe drug or vaccine against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

24 Sep 2020

Linoleic acid binds SARS-CoV-2 spike protein

Now, a team of researchers at the Max Planck-Bristol Center for Minimal Biology and Bristol's School of Biochemistry has identified a druggable pocket in the virus's spike protein that can be used to prevent the infection of cells. The study findings, published in the journal Science, are a groundbreaking discovery that will help develop new therapies and drugs to stem the growing pandemic.

24 Sep 2020

Cold plasma inactivates SARS-CoV-2

In one such effort, Zhitong Chen et al., in a recent medRxiv* preprint paper find that by employing an efficient cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) with argon feed gas on different surfaces inactivates the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus.

24 Sep 2020

As fires and floods wreak havoc on health, new climate center seeks solutions

For the past month, record-breaking wildfires have torched millions of acres from the Mexican border well into Canada, their smoke producing air so toxic that millions of people remained indoors for days on end while many visited hospitals because of respiratory distress.

24 Sep 2020

AI used to define the cytokine storm implicated in fatal COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv* in September 2020 reports the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to identify an invariant or universal host immune response found in all viral pandemics so far. The association of this response with severe COVID-19 phenotypes indicates a new understanding of the human immune response in viral pandemics.

24 Sep 2020