Virus News and Research

Latest Virus News and Research

Trying out LA’s new coronavirus testing regime

Last week, after Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that Los Angeles was offering COVID-19 tests to all city and county residents, I decided to get one myself — and test Garcetti's bold new promise in the bargain.

8 May 2020

Researchers investigate anosmia as a marker of COVID-19

People who have recently experienced loss of smell are being urged to participate in a survey as a new global research group investigates the symptom as a marker of COVID-19.

8 May 2020

Researchers develop vaccine for virus associated with type 1 diabetes

According to many observations, certain virus infections may play a part in the autoimmune attack that leads to type 1 diabetes. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and at the universities of Jyväskylä and Tampere have now produced a vaccine for these viruses in the hope that it could provide protection against the disease. The study is published 6 May 2020 in the scientific journal Science Advances.

8 May 2020

New guidelines needed to manage stroke patients during COVID-19, says neurologist

Broad modifications to current standards for treating acute stroke patients during the COVID-19 pandemic may be needed to preserve health care resources, limit disease spread and ensure optimal care, according to a Loyola Medicine neurologist.

8 May 2020

Intervention strategy based on shield immunity could reduce risk of expanding economic activity

While attention remains focused on the number of COVID-19 deaths and new cases, a separate statistic - the number of recovered patients - may be equally important to the goal of minimizing the pandemic's infection rate as shelter-in-place orders are lifted.

8 May 2020

Repurposing existing drugs is a more rapid alternative than developing COVID-19 vaccine

Repurposing existing medicines focused on known drug targets is likely to offer a more rapid hope of tackling COVID-19 than developing and manufacturing a vaccine, argue an international team of scientists in the British Journal of Pharmacology today.

8 May 2020

Eerie emptiness of ERs worries doctors as heart attack and stroke patients delay care

The patient described it as the worst headache of her life. She didn’t go to the hospital, though. Instead, the Washington state resident waited almost a week.

8 May 2020

Most COVID-19 patients lose sense of smell by the third day, shows study

A University of Cincinnati researcher says a study of COVID-19 patients shows loss of the sense of smell is most likely to occur by the third day of infection with the novel virus. Most of these patients are also experiencing a loss of the sense of taste.

8 May 2020

Children are immune prepared for SARS-CoV-2

At least 30 new diseases have emerged in the last 20 years and now together threaten the health of hundreds of millions of people. For many of these diseases, there is no treatment, cure, or vaccine. While most of these diseases are dangerous to children, especially those younger than five years old, the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), seems to spare most of them.

8 May 2020

Pangolins may be the key to new COVID-19 treatments

Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, have made an important discovery about the immune response to coronaviruses in pangolins that could point to new approaches for treating human cases of infection.

8 May 2020

Antibodies from llamas may hold cure for novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

As scientists across the globe race to find an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus, a team of scientists believe that a four-year-old llama named Winter may hold the key to fight the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

7 May 2020

New evidence suggests that schools should be kept closed to prevent COVID-19 spread

With most countries at a standstill, the circulating novel coronavirus has changed the way people live. Though some countries are starting to ease lockdown measures, with schools reopening, health experts worry that this may aggravate the situation. Two new studies provide evidence that children spread the coronavirus and transmit it, making them potential carriers of the infection.

7 May 2020

Predicting the dose for repurposing nitazoxanide in COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in May 2020 reports a model that could help evolve appropriate dosage protocols for future clinical trials of the repurposed drug nitazoxanide in COVID-19 prevention and treatment. The researchers say, “It was possible to achieve plasma and lung tizoxanide concentrations, using proven safe doses of nitazoxanide, that exceed the EC90 for SARS-CoV-2.”

7 May 2020

Study predicts the spread of COVID-19 in India

Dr. Shinjini Ghosh and colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, have come up with a predictive model that analyzes the spread of COVID-19 infection in India. Their study titled, "Predictive Model with Analysis of the Initial Spread of COVID-19 in India," was released prior to peer review on the preprint server Medrxiv.

7 May 2020

SARS-CoV-2 found in semen of COVID-19 patients

Since the novel coronavirus, now called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), emerged in December 2019, viral loads have been detected in body fluids, such as urine samples, saliva, stool samples, and in the gastrointestinal tract. Now, a new study reveals the SARS-CoV-2 virus in semen.

7 May 2020

U.S. needs to boost the number of beds for COVID-19 patients

A new study published in JAMA Network Open sheds light on the increased demand for intensive care and inpatient beds amid the coronavirus outbreak, based on two cities in China to determine the level of hospital capacity needed to respond to outbreaks of severe coronavirus disease 2019 in U.S. cities.

7 May 2020

Vitamin D could improve outcomes in COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 shows that vitamin D could have a beneficial effect on the course of illness for COVID-19 patients.

7 May 2020

Excluding children from COVID-19 clinical trials may limit their treatment options

A new viewpoint article from Harvard Medical School, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, discusses the hesitancy to include children in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) clinical trials, potentially diminishing their therapeutic options in the long run.

7 May 2020

Talking and breathing can contribute to COVID-19 spread, shows study

Current knowledge about the role of aerosols in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 warrants urgent attention.

7 May 2020

Low levels of vitamin D can increase susceptibility to COVID-19 infection

A new study has found an association between low average levels of vitamin D and high numbers of COVID-19 cases and mortality rates across 20 European countries.

7 May 2020