Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Latest Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome News and Research

Study compares deaths in Sweden and Norway before and after COVID pandemic

A recent epidemiological study, currently available on the medRxiv preprint server, demonstrates that all-cause mortality was mostly unchanged during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic compared to the previous four years in Norway and Sweden – two countries which took very different routes in their battle against this disease.

16 Nov 2020

COVID-19 outbreak on an American aircraft carrier: A case study in transmission

A new study showing the dynamics of infectious spread within close quarters of an aircraft carrier. The study presents a rich case study that may help us better understand the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2’s transmission and thereby fine-tune present policies that aim to prevent its spread.

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

Xylitol and grapefruit seed extract nasal spray could help COVID-19 patients

United States based researchers have published a report exploring the potential role of Xylitol and Grapefruit seed extract (in the form of a nasal spray) in treating COVID-19.

16 Nov 2020

Primate model helps detect features of COVID-19 virus

Features of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19, which could be useful for developing vaccines and treatment strategies, were identified using a nonhuman primate model developed at the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB).

16 Nov 2020

PARP inhibitor, stenoparib inhibits pre- and post-entry processes of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

A team of researchers from the Northern Arizona University evaluated a new PARP inhibitor, stenoparib, which has recently advanced to Stage II of clinical trials to treat ovarian cancer. Their study, an initial report on in vitro stenoparib activity against human coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2, has been published on the preprint server bioRxiv*.

15 Nov 2020

Strategizing pediatric healthcare preparedness for the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic

The paper, put together by a team of scientists based in the United Kingdom and Italy, also underscored the need for healthcare policies to account for the very real possibility of inadequate protective personal equipment (PPE), staff and hospital capacity, aggravated by the increased number of pediatric infections.

15 Nov 2020

Measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission through wastewater in poor regions

A new paper published in the journal Science of the Total Environment on November 10, 2020, discusses the reality of the virus’s wastewater transmission. Overall, the researchers found that wastewater transmission would have a disproportionate impact on countries with low development indices.

15 Nov 2020

Study looks at SARS-CoV-2 RNA contamination in COVID-19 isolation ward of a hospital

To try and shed more light on SARS-CoV-2’s transmission, a research group based in Italy examined a COVID-19 isolation ward in a Milan hospital to evaluate the level of contamination present in the air and on surfaces with SARS-CoV-2 RNA (the virus’s genetic material).

15 Nov 2020

Drugs targeting neutrophils could reduce ARDS in severe COVID-19

Scientists in Taiwan recently published a report on their use of anti-neutrophil strategies to treat acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) – a life-threatening condition that can arise in critical COVID-19 cases – in the journal Frontiers in Pediatrics.

15 Nov 2020

New methodology predicts mutation hotspots in SARS-CoV-2 virus

Researchers in Sweden and China have presented a new methodology for predicting mutation “hotspot” sites within severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) - the agent responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

15 Nov 2020

Researchers identify prognostic markers that could guide COVID-19 management

A team of researchers in Europe has created a comprehensive data resource to help improve understanding of how coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) progresses and how biomarkers could be used to guide treatment approaches and disease monitoring.

15 Nov 2020

Inhaled nebulized interferon beta-1a (SNG001) helps COVID-19 patients recovers

Now, a team of researchers at the Synairgen Research, Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, United Kingdom, has found that inhaled nebulized interferon beta-1a (SNG001), a drug used for multiple sclerosis, helped COVID-19 patients have greater odds of improvement and recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

15 Nov 2020

Dopamine-release mechanisms in the brain may play a major role in SARS-CoV-2 infection

The study, which appeared in the Journal of Taibah University Medical Sciences, shows that the SARS-CoV-2 may behave akin to the CNS pathogenic mechanism of JEV and HIV during the early stages of infection.

15 Nov 2020

High prevalence of cross-reactive anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in sub-Saharan Africa

A recent study published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases has explained the lower prevalence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in sub-Saharan Africa compared to that in the US, Europe, and Asia.

15 Nov 2020