Coronavirus Disease COVID 19 News and Research

Latest Coronavirus Disease COVID 19 News and Research

FDA authorizes first two COVID-19 serology tests

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first two COVID-19 serology tests that display an estimated quantity of antibodies present in the individual's blood.

1 Aug 2020

Meta-analysis shows 57% mortality reduction with convalescent plasma in COVID-19

Now, a new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in July 2020 reports that an older treatment modality, namely, the use of convalescent antibody-rich plasma, brings down the mortality rate in hospitalized COVID-19 patients by an astonishing 57%. This adds evidence for the use of convalescent plasma in the treatment of high-risk patients.

1 Aug 2020

Children carry 100 times more SARS-CoV-2 virus as adults, study says

As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues to wreak havoc across the globe, it has been thought that children mostly seemed to be spared by severe illness. In the majority of cases, children infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) only develop a mild illness, with some tagged as asymptomatic.

31 Jul 2020

Research suggests New York City may have reached coronavirus herd immunity threshold

A new study by researchers at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Brookhaven National Laboratory and published on the preprint server medRxiv in July 2020 discusses the effect of a factor called persistent contact heterogeneity on the final epidemic size of COVID-19.

31 Jul 2020

Air travel helped spread novel coronavirus in Brazil

Domestic and international air travel helped spread the novel coronavirus in Brazil, a study has found, as tourism bodies push for global travel to resume amid infection resurgences in some countries.

31 Jul 2020

NIH invests $248.7 million in new COVID-19 testing technologies to meet U.S. demand

The National Institutes of Health is investing $248.7 million in new technologies to address challenges associated with COVID-19 testing (which detects SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus).

31 Jul 2020

Mandatory BCG vaccination correlates with flattening of the curve in COVID-19 spread

Scientists have found that countries with mandatory Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccination until at least the year 2000 tended to exhibit slower infection and death rates during the first 30 days of the outbreak of COVID-19 in their country.

31 Jul 2020

Brain Navi develops new nasal swab robot to prevent cross infections

Inspired by the pandemic, Brain Navi developed a new robot to perform nasal swab tests autonomously to prevent cross infections so we can save the medical system and reestablish economies.

31 Jul 2020

COVID-19 rapid antibody test receives CE mark and mass production begins

The COVID-19 rapid antibody test, developed by Abingdon Health, the medical device manufacturer leading the UK-Rapid Test Consortium, has received its CE mark. This means it is approved for professional use in the UK and EU.

31 Jul 2020

Leading expert is sounding the alarm on newly-identified symptom of coronavirus

A VascularNurse Consultant and senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield is sounding the alarm on a newly-identified symptom of the coronavirus, dubbed COVID-toes, after witnessing a sharp increase in the amount of patients being referred to vascular clinics, with similar symptoms to arterial disease but, who then test positive for COVID-19.

31 Jul 2020

Don’t count on lower premiums despite pandemic-driven boon for insurers

When COVID-19 smacked the United States in March and April, health plans feared medical costs could skyrocket, jacking up premiums drastically in 2021, when millions of the newly unemployed might still be out of work.

31 Jul 2020

Avoiding care during the pandemic could mean life or death

These days, Los Angeles acting teacher Deryn Warren balances her pain with her fear. She's a bladder cancer patient who broke her wrist in November. She still needs physical therapy for her wrist, and she's months late for a cancer follow-up.

31 Jul 2020

Managing cancer patients during COVID-19 pandemic

An ESMO interdisciplinary expert consensus paper on how to manage cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic has been published today in Annals of Oncology.

31 Jul 2020

Social distancing is a useful tool in preventing further spread of COVID-19

According to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the implementation of social distancing policies corresponded with significant reductions in transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and reduced community mobility, both in the U.S. and globally, providing evidence that social distancing is a useful tool in preventing further spread of COVID-19.

31 Jul 2020

A cheaper and rapid pooling strategy for RT-PCR-based detection of SARS-CoV-2

In a report in the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, published by Elsevier, researchers at Augusta University and PerkinElmer Genomics describe a cheaper, rapid, and accurate pooling strategy for the RT-PCR-based detection of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples.

31 Jul 2020

New simple way of detecting COVID-19 in blood plasma

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic claims increasing numbers of patients, testing numbers are rising in most nations at the leading edge. However, the current reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT PCR) testing is often unavailable and takes up to several days for results to arrive.

31 Jul 2020

War of sugars - estrogen provides protection in COVID-19

Now a new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in July 2020 reports that sex hormones could affect the function of the fusion protein that is dependent upon the human ACE2 receptor, thus preventing the entry of the virus into the host cell.

31 Jul 2020

Researchers report a liquid biopsy for COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in July 2020 reports the potential of cell-free DNA as a marker of the severity of disease in COVID-19. This could help triage patients as well as provide a prognostic marker.

30 Jul 2020

Lab profiles differentiate MIS-C from severe COVID-19 in children

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the SARS-CoV-2 virus seemed only rarely to have serious complications in children.

30 Jul 2020

Researcher uses in silico analysis of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to fast-track passive immunity

With millions of COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, people are turning to antibody tests to find out whether they have been exposed to the coronavirus that causes the disease. But what are antibodies? Why are they important? If we have them, are we immune to COVID-19? And if not, why not?

30 Jul 2020