Pneumonia News and Research

Latest Pneumonia News and Research

When flu season converges with COVID-19

As if the COVID-19 pandemic isn't scary enough, the flu season is not far away. How severe will the flu season be as it converges with the COVID-19 outbreak? What can we do to prepare?

30 May 2020

5-day Remdesivir dose works as well as the 10-day dose in COVID-19, study finds

With more than 5.8 million people infected with the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the search is on for an effective SARS-CoV-2 vaccine or drug to treat COVID-19 disease.

28 May 2020

How comorbidities affect SARS-CoV-2 viral entry

Almost from the start of the current COVID-19 pandemic, it has become clear that individuals suffering from other medical conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and lung disease are far more likely to contract the infection and to have a poorer outcome.

28 May 2020

Mouse model mimics clinical course and pathology observed in COVID-19 patients

A mouse model of infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) reproduces features observed in human patients, researchers report May 26 in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

27 May 2020

New models use computer vision and AI to identify COVID-19 in X-rays

Students at Cranfield University have designed computer models that can identify COVID-19 in X-rays.

27 May 2020

My mother died of the coronavirus. It’s time she was counted.

We recently received the death certificate for my mother, who died May 4 in an assisted living facility near New York City. "Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome" was the primary cause. And the secondary — no surprise — was "suspected COVID-19."

27 May 2020

Blood clotting disorders may explain some of the worst symptoms of COVID-19

The hypothesis that blood clotting disorders may explain some of the worst symptoms of COVID-19, including respiratory failure and pulmonary fibrosis, was suggested in mid-April by researchers in Brazil affiliated with the University of São Paulo's Medical School (FM-USP) via an article accepted for publication by the Journal of Thrombosis.

27 May 2020

Montefiore and Einstein evaluate a new drug combination to fight COVID-19

Montefiore Health System Albert Einstein College of Medicine have begun the next stage of the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT), to evaluate treatment options for people hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection.

26 May 2020

Children with COVID-19 presenting with sudden severe lung disease

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to seek out new victims, puzzling new presentations are further confusing the situation. A new study published online in The Lancet Rheumatology in May 2020 reports a case of severe COVID-19 in a child who rapidly developed acute respiratory distress symptoms without prior respiratory symptoms. This case should alert clinicians to consider this diagnosis in children as well.

24 May 2020

Lung ultrasound use in COVID-19 patients

One point of discussion is the best approach to imaging infected patients, because computed tomography (CT) scanning, the gold standard method for chest imaging, can spread infection due to the need to transport the patient to specialized facilities.

24 May 2020

Study shows cats can harbor SARS-CoV-2 without any symptoms

A recent paper from Spanish researchers at the Hospital Universitario San Pedro-CIBIR, available on the medRxiv* preprint server, suggests that cats may act as asymptomatic dispersers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), even though viral transmission from animals to humans still seems highly unlikely.

24 May 2020

Smokers at increased risk of severe COVID-19 according to a large population study

A new UK study available on the preprint server medRxiv screened 2.4 million users of a symptom reporting application during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, revealing that smokers are at higher risk of increased symptom burden and more prone to hospitalization.

24 May 2020

Blanket prescription of do-not-resuscitate orders in COVID-19 patients may be unwarranted

It's inappropriate to consider blanket do-not-resuscitate orders for COVID-19 patients because adequate data is not yet available on U.S. survival rates for in-hospital resuscitation of COVID-19 patients and data from China may not relate to U.S. patients, according to a new article published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal.

22 May 2020

Coronavirus tests the value of artificial intelligence in medicine

Dr. Albert Hsiao and his colleagues at the University of California-San Diego health system had been working for 18 months on an artificial intelligence program designed to help doctors identify pneumonia on a chest X-ray. When the coronavirus hit the United States, they decided to see what it could do.

22 May 2020

New clinical trial to test treatment that targets overactive immune response to COVID-19

For some COVID-19 patients, the body's immune response may be as destructive as the virus that causes the disease.

22 May 2020

New review discusses findings on coronavirus immunity

A new review discusses the findings from over 40 studies on coronavirus immunity and what they could mean for the Covid-19 pandemic.

22 May 2020

IL-6 blocker use in severe COVID-19 increases risk of secondary infections

With many hundreds of thousands of deaths due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is a rush to find an effective vaccine or drug against the virus. A new study on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 shows that the use of some biologically plausible drugs may be counterproductive, and care should be taken when trying out unproven therapies.

22 May 2020

Study evaluates the effectiveness of interferon beta 1b in COVID-19 pneumonia

As the world struggles to overcome the current COVID-19 pandemic with non-pharmacological interventions, in the absence of an effective drug or vaccine, existing immunomodulators are being repurposed. A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 shows no clinical benefit to the use of one such drug, called interferon beta 1b (IFN beta1b).

22 May 2020

Excessive blood clotting and stroke in COVID-19 patients

The coronavirus disease COVID-19 is causing excessive blood clotting and stroke in young and healthy people, a new study has found.

21 May 2020

COVID-19 in farmed Mink in the Netherlands

A new study published on the preprint server bioRxiv in May 2020 reports the development of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection in farmed mink in two locations in the Netherlands.

21 May 2020