Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Immunological memory can protect people against new infection after COVID-19 recovery

Until now, it was unclear whether a survived SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 leads to persistent immunological memory and thus can protect against a new infection.

18 Nov 2020

Chilblain-like skin lesions reported in adolescents and young adults during the pandemic

A team of investigators in the Department of Dermatology, Hospital Infantil Universitario Niño Jesús, Madrid, Spain and Dermatologia Pediatrica Association, Bari, Italy, say acral ischemic lesions, similar to chilblains, have been reported across the globe throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

17 Nov 2020

New AHA COVID-19 CVD Registry details the disparities in care

A new American Heart Association collaborative model for COVID-19 research, using data from the new AHA COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease Registry, found Hispanic and Black adults with COVID-19 were far more likely to be hospitalized than their white counterparts, as were people with obesity and COVID-19, according to three late-breaking research studies presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2020.

17 Nov 2020

New molecular tool can help better understand the probability of zoonosis

The way a virus like Influenza A is transmitted from animals to humans, is still not well understood. How does the virus recognize the host cells in humans, even if the surface is different from that of animals? Researchers of the University of Twente mimicked the cell surface on a molecular scale, including the sugars to which the virus attaches.

17 Nov 2020

Children's DTP vaccine may provide cross-immunity for COVID-19

He found that the viruses subject to pediatric vaccinations do not have cross-reactive epitopes for SARS-CoV-2, showing they cannot provide protection against COVID-19.

17 Nov 2020

Psychological assessment needed for pregnant women to reduce stress during COVID-19

There is consensus among studies dealing with natural disasters, such as famines, earthquakes, and pandemics, that the stress to which pregnant women are exposed during such crises has short and long-term consequences, both on their health and on that of their unborn babies.

17 Nov 2020

SARS-CoV-2-specific IgM / IgG responses accurately predict COVID-19 outcome

Researchers from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, recently built a proteome microarray with 20 out of the 28 predicted SARS-CoV-2 proteins to help understand IgM/IgG responses specific to SARS-CoV-2.

17 Nov 2020

Hydrogen therapy may help severely ill COVID-19 patients

Researchers from the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital, Chengdu in China, have explored the possibility of using hydrogen therapy on severely ill COVID-19 patients. The team published their study's findings, titled "Hydrogen: A Potential New Adjuvant Therapy for COVID-19 Patients," in the latest issue of the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology.

17 Nov 2020

Males may have higher but more transient SARS-CoV-2 immunity than females post-infection

Adding another piece to the puzzle that is coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) serology, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in November 2020 suggests that males have stronger but more transient anti-severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) protective immunity than females.

17 Nov 2020

Allowing movement and not closing borders may be effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19

New data reveals the moving out of densely populated cities is a more impactful strategy than closing borders at decreasing the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

17 Nov 2020

Facemasks do not diminish lung function during physical activity, shows study

Wearing a facemask helps limit the spread of COVID-19 by reducing respiratory droplets and aerosols spewed into the air when people breathe, talk, laugh, sneeze or cough.

17 Nov 2020

Study shows limited influence of BMI on shaping SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses

A new study by researchers at the Harvard Medical School and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard showed that obesity is not tied to the increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, the team demonstrated that obesity is associated with increased manifestations of symptoms in mild COVID-19 infections, suggesting that obesity impacts the pathophysiology of COVID-19.

16 Nov 2020

Asymptomatic individuals mount polyfunctional antibody response to SARS-CoV-2

Researchers in France have conducted a study showing that people who are asymptomatic following infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) – elicit a polyfunctional antibody response to the virus.

16 Nov 2020

Multi-model forecasts could help inform management of COVID-19 pandemic

A team of researchers from various institutions in the UK has reviewed multi-model forecasts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic made between the end of March and mid-July 2020.

16 Nov 2020

Corticosteroids can help in survival of elderly patients with severe COVID-19

A new study group based in France have looked at the rates of survival among elderly patients with COVID-19 who were administered with corticosteroids.

16 Nov 2020

Antifungal agent Itraconazole inhibits SARS CoV-2 in vitro

Itraconazole is a broad-spectrum antifungal agent that has been shown to have some in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2 by a team of Belgian and German researchers.

16 Nov 2020

Nanobodies: unharnessed potential in COVID-19 treatment

A new study published in the Journal of Biomolecular Structure and Dynamics in October 2020 discusses the use of nanobodies in diagnosing and treating this deadly disease.

16 Nov 2020

Metabolic biomarkers could predict COVID-19 severity

A new study suggests that metabolic biomarkers could possibly predict the severity of COVID-19 in patients.

16 Nov 2020

Care pathways for pregnant women with COVID‐19

A recent review published in the journal Global Challenges in October 2020, sums up what is currently known about the treatment of COVID-19 during pregnancy and offers recommendations for how healthcare professions might better manage pregnant COVID-19 patients in the future.

16 Nov 2020

Goblet cells are prime target for SARS-CoV-2, study finds

A recent study reports that in the airway of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a type of airway epithelial cell – called a goblet cell – presents a prime target for the virus and plays a vital role in promoting viral replication in this tissue.

16 Nov 2020