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Global review of BCG vaccine protection from severe COVID-19
A epidemiological evidence review suggests a negative association between national bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) vaccination policy and the prevalence and mortality of coronavirus disease. However,...
Comprehensive review of COVID-19's extrapulmonary effects
After only a few days caring for critically ill COVID-19 patients at the start of the outbreak in New York City, Dr Aakriti Gupta,...
Herd immunity assumptions challenged by latest research
There is a growing body of evidence that immunity to COVID-19 is short lived, writes MedicalBrief. The latest study, from the UK, found levels of...
COVID-19 linked strokes more severe and have worse outcomes — Acute Stroke Registry
Acute ischaemic strokes (AIS) associated with COVID-19 are more severe, lead to worse functional outcomes and are associated with higher mortality, according to researchers...
Neurological complications linked to COVID-19 occurring globally — University of Liverpool review
A review by University of Liverpool researchers has shown that strokes, delirium and other brain complications are reported from most countries where there have...
Blacks at doubled higher risk for COVID-19 — University of Chicago analysis
Results of an analysis has found that Black individuals were twice as likely as White individuals to test positive for COVID-19. The average age...
Pre-clinical study supports remdesivir as COVID-19 treatment
The news about remdesivir, the investigational anti-viral drug that has shown early promise in the fight against COVID-19, keeps getting better. Researchers at Vanderbilt...
Hyperglycaemia link to higher COVID-19 mortality in those not previously diagnosed as diabetic
Research from Wuhan, China shows that, in patients with COVID-19 but without a previous diagnosis of diabetes, abnormally high blood sugar is associated with...
Persistence of at least one symptom in almost 90% of recovered COVID-19 Italian patients
In Italy, a large proportion of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) presented with symptoms (71.4% of 31 845 confirmed cases as of 3 June,...
Older, critical COVID-19 patients may have increased risk of bradycardia with lopinavir and ritonavir
Older, critically ill patients with COVID-19 who received a combination of the antiretroviral medications lopinavir and ritonavir experienced bradycardia, a slow heart rate, more...
COVID-19 outcomes and immune function in people with HIV — NY cohort study
People living with HIV spent a similar amount of time in hospital as HIV-negative COVID-19 patients and had a comparable death rate during the...
Schools have not developed into hotspots — ongoing German study
The medical faculty of the TU Dresden and Dresden University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus started a study on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus...
Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Spain: Nationwide, population-based sero-epidemiological study
Summary
Background: Spain is one of the European countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Serological surveys are a valuable tool to assess the extent...
SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in COVID-19 hotspots – Lancet comment
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has surprised the world with its range of disease manifestations, from asymptomatic infection to critical illness leading...
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases-sponsored phase 1 trial tested mRNA vaccine
An investigational vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19 was generally well tolerated and prompted neutralising activity in healthy adults, according to interim results. The...
Smell tests should be part of routine COVID-19 screenings — STAT News
Temperature checks could well join the long list of fumbled responses to the pandemic, from the testing debacle to federal officials’ about-face on masks,...
Clinical and demographic risk factors for COVID-19 deaths in 17 million NHS patients
Risk factors associated with COVID-19 death, based on analyses of full pseudonymized health records of 17m adults in England, are reported in a study...
Urgent need to mitigate surgical risk during pandemic
A large, 24-nation cohort study reporting post-operative outcomes in COVID-19 of post elective and emergency surgical patients found poor outcomes exceeding those seen in most...
COVID-19 herd immunity may be unachievable — Spanish study of 61,000 people
Spain's large-scale study on the coronavirus indicates just 5% of its population has developed antibodies, strengthening evidence that a so-called herd immunity to COVID-19...
NICD report: Epidemiology and clinical characteristics of COVID-19 in SA children
According to a National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) report, children made up less than 7% of all reported COVID-19 cases in South Africa and...
Groote Schuur doctors on benefits of high-flow nasal oxygen — Spotlight report
Spotlight reports that doctors at two of the Western Cape’s most impacted COVID-19 hospitals say they have seen positive outcomes from using high-flow nasal...
Problematic response of the elderly to COVID-19 — 27-country survey
Survey results from 27 countries suggest that, despite their increased risk of severe illness due to COVID-19, elderly people are not more willing to...
WHO discontinues hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir treatment arms for COVID-19
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced that it has accepted the recommendation from the Solidarity Trial’s International Steering Committee to discontinue the trial’s...
JAMA study: 35% of excess US deaths tied to causes other than COVID-19
Since COVID-19’s spread to the US earlier this year, death rates in the US have risen significantly. But deaths attributed to COVID-19 only account...
Immunity to COVID-19 may be higher than tests have shown — Karolinska Institutet
Research from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that many people with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 demonstrate so-called T-cell-mediated immunity to the new...
Outbreak in Italian town of Vo shows importance of asymptomatic cases — Nature
A study of COVID-19 in the quarantined Italian town of Vò, where most of the population was tested, reveals the importance of asymptomatic cases....
Small Spanish study supports link between coronavirus and COVID toes
There's considerable controversy over whether "COVID toes” – red sores or lesions on the feet and hands in children and young adults – are...
SARS-CoV-2 infection associated with platelet hyper-reactivity — small Utah study
Changes in blood platelets triggered by COVID-19 could contribute to the onset of heart attacks, strokes, and other serious complications in some patients who...
Infectious Diseases Society of America updates COVID-19 management guidelines
The Infectious Diseases Society of America updated the treatment portion of its COVID-19 management guidelines, making more specific recommendations for medications. “Back in April...
UK's NICE review not recommending vitamin D to reduce risk of COVID-19
A UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rapid evidence review has failed to find data to support using vitamin D supplements...
Coronavirus vaccine likely in 12 months — ARV drug co-inventor Larry Corey
Unlike HIV, the coronavirus is more open to the development of a vaccine and one should be within the grasp of modern science by...
HIV drug combo shows no benefit in treating COVID-19 patients — Oxford trial
A combination of antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV had no beneficial effect in patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in a large-scale randomised trial. Reuters...
Survivors need PTSD screening — COVID Trauma Response Working Group guidelines
Patients affected by COVID-19 need to be urgently screened for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and receive regular check-ups for at least a year. The...
Brain complications in patients with COVID-19 — First UK nationwide surveillance study
Researchers at the University of Liverpool have led the first nationwide surveillance study of the neurological complications of COVID-19. A study of 153 patients...
UK's new rules: No communal dancing nor screaming on rollercoasters
No "communal dancing", singing or laughing. No screaming on rollercoasters or making a cuppa for the plumber. The UK's new post-lockdown rules change daily...
Clear signs of brain injury with severe COVID-19 — Small Swedish study
Certain patients who receive hospital care for coronavirus infection (COVID-19) exhibit clinical and neuro-chemical signs of brain injury, a University of Gothenburg study shows....
Critically ill COVID-19 patients 10x more likely to develop cardiac arrhythmias
Patients with COVID-19 who were admitted to an intensive care unit were 10 times more likely than other hospitalised COVID-19 patients to suffer cardiac...
Higher rates of severe COVID-19 in BAME populations remain unexplained
Higher rates of severe COVID-19 infections in Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) populations are not explained by socioeconomic or behavioural factors, cardiovascular disease...
Two US research reports on multi-system inflammation syndrome in children
Two US research groups have reported finding nearly 300 cases of an alarming apparent side effect of COVID-19 in children, a condition called multisystem...
Children with multi-system inflammatory syndrome post-COVID-19 — Small UK study
In recent weeks, a multi-system hyper-inflammatory condition has emerged in children in association with prior exposure or infection to SARS-CoV-2. A new case series...