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Similarities between COVID-19 deaths and severe rheumatic illnesses — University of Calgary
Rheumatologists at the University of Alberta are flagging similarities between the deaths of some COVID-19 patients and those with rheumatic illnesses, and are testing...
WHO Guide: Cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces in the context of COVID-19
The key challenge faced by all countries is slowing the rate of transmission of the virus to mitigate the overwhelming of health services. In...
England's minority ethnic groups at higher risk of COVID-19 – UK Biobank data
Evidence available to date suggests that minority ethnic groups in England, particularly black and south Asian people, may be at increased risk of testing...
Impacts of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality in SA may differ from other countries
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) rapidly became a public health emergency of international concern requiring urgent...
Remdesivir for COVID-19 improves time to recovery – peer-reviewed Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial
The investigational antiviral remdesivir is superior to the standard of care for the treatment of COVID-19, according to a study. The preliminary analysis is...
Negligible transmission of COVID-19 among pupils and teachers — Australian study
Coronavirus does not spread widely in schools, according to an Australian study. Previous studies have suggested that younger children are likely to only contract...
People with HIV not at higher risk of death or severe illness from COVID-19
Two studies of COVID-19 cases published in recent days lead investigators to the cautious conclusion that people living with HIV are not at higher...
New COVID-19 treatment shows promising results in animal trial — Peking University
Chinese scientists say a new drug is showing promising results in treating and preventing COVID-19, which could be effective in ending the pandemic before...
Rapid coronavirus diagnosis using AI: sensitivity equal to a senior thoracic radiologist
Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms applied to chest computed tomography (CT) images and clinical history can quickly and accurately identify patients with COVID-19, according to...
Evidence that early social distancing policies saves lives — Columbia model
If the US had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died...
Uncoordinated regional policies threaten core policy responses to COVID-19 — MIT 'big data' model
Social distancing is the core policy response to COVID-19. But as federal, state, and local governments begin opening businesses and relaxing shelter-in-place orders worldwide...
Milken Institute tracker of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines
FasterCures, a centre of the Milken Institute, is currently tracking the development of treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 (coronavirus).
This tracker contains an aggregation of...
Review of epidemiology, mechanisms, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 — Zunyi Medical University
In a review article – explicitly targeted to non-specialists as well – a team of experts from Zunyi Medical University in China review the...
Positive early results from Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine — NIH non-reviewed study
Volunteers who received Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine had positive early results, according to the biotech company, which partnered with the National Institutes of Health to...
Former UCT doctor warns SA: Be ready for an enigmatic disease and a flood of patients
COVID-19 is not a single-specialty disease. Everyone has to collaborate, parceling out work where resources are most needed and finding the best way to...
More evidence from France and China that hydroxychloroquine not successful in treating COVID-19
The anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine does not significantly reduce admission to intensive care or death in patients hospitalised with pneumonia due to COVID-19, finds a...
Life-threatening COVID-associated inflammatory syndrome affects more children in Europe
A new life-threatening inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-19 has affected 230 children in Europe and killed two so far this year. Reuters Health reports...
Delays in cancer surgery caused by COVID-19 may cost UK thousands of lives — Institute of Cancer Research
Delays to cancer surgery and other treatment caused by the COVID-19 crisis could result in thousands of additional deaths linked to the pandemic in...
Recommendations on stroke management in a COVID-19 setting — international panel
Neurologist Dr Adnan I Qureshi, a professor of clinical neurology at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Medicine, led a team of stroke experts...
First empirical findings that strongly associate sensory loss with COVID-19
Loss of smell and taste has been anecdotally linked to COVID-19 infections. And now researchers at University of California – San Diego Health report...
Cambridge study shows need to screen hospital workers with minimal or no symptoms
Hospital staff may be carrying SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, without realising they are infected, according to a study by researchers at...
Talking loudly produces enough droplets to transmit coronavirus — Stanford study
Given that 1mm of oral fluid contains approximately 7m copies of the coronavirus (according to previous research), Business Insider reports that the authors of...
Antihypertensives do not increase risk of COVID-19 infection or its severity
Antihypertensive medications acting on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system were not found to increase the risk of either testing positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) or...
Experimental cell therapy treatment improves 4 out of 6 patients — small, peer-reviewed study
Four of six critically ill COVID-19 (coronavirus) patients significantly improved after receiving an experimental therapeutic designed to reduce inflammation, a major cause of death...
Anti-inflammatory improved respiratory function in 8 severe COVID-19 patients with sHLH
A small study in Greece found that the clinically approved anti-inflammatory drug anakinra, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, improved respiratory function in patients with...
Antiviral drug speeds recovery of COVID-19 patients — small Wuhan study
According to a study, treatment with interferon (IFN)-α2b may significantly accelerate virus clearance and reduce levels of inflammatory proteins in COVID-19 patients. The research...
Antibody from recovered SARS patient inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infectivity — proof of concept study
An antibody isolated from a patient who has recovered from SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) is shown to effectively block SARS-CoV-2 infectivity. Antibodies that...
Not a true reflection to compare COVID-19 and seasonal influenza mortality — JAMA viewpoint
As of early May 2020, approximately 65,000 people in the US had died of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by the severe...
Analysis of the London School of Health and Tropical Medicine's model of COVID-19 in South Africa
Charles Simkins, head of research at the Helen Suzman Foundation writes that founded in 1899 with a donation from an Indian philanthropist, the London...
Children with cancer are not at a higher risk for COVID-19 infection or morbidity
Researchers from MSK Kids at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (MSK) found that children with cancer are not at a higher risk of being...
Detailed analysis of immune response to SARS-CoV-2 'bodes well' for vaccine
A collaboration between the labs of Dr Alessandro Sette, and Dr Shane Crotty, at La Jolla Institute for Immunology is starting to fill in...
ER doctors highlight under-appreciated cardiovascular risks of COVID-19
A study from University of Virginia Health System's Dr William Brady, and colleagues aims to serve as a guide for emergency-medicine doctors treating patients...
Diabetics make up a third of England's COVID hospital deaths
One third of all hospital deaths from coronavirus in England have been among diabetics, The Daily Telegraph reports research shows. Experts said the major...
A quick summary of the COVID-19 literature so far — Medscape
Since 25 March, two HIV clinical fellows, Dr Eric Meyerowitz and Dr Aaron Richterman have recorded a bi-weekly deep dive into the most compelling...
Ethnic minorities in UK at up-to 4x higher mortality risk from COVID-19 — NHS data analysis
In the largest study to date on the risk factors associated with COVID-19, UK researchers have found that people of Asian and Black ethnic...
Hydroxychloroquine again fails to show benefit in COVID-19 patients — New York study
The malaria treatment repeatedly championed by US President Donald Trump as a “game changer” in the fight against the novel coronavirus has again failed...
Anti-coagulants may improve survival in hospitalised COVID-19 patients
Treating hospitalised COVID-19 patients with anti-coagulants may improve their chances of survival, researchers from the Mount Sinai COVID Informatics Centre report. The study could...
Hong Kong clinical trial compares two drug regimens with interferon/ribavirin and lopinavir-ritonavir
A commentary on the Politicsweb site says that The Lancet has published the results of a clinical trial in Hong Kong comparing two drug...
COPD and smoking associated with higher COVID-19 mortality
Current smokers and people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have an increased risk of severe complications and higher mortality with COVID-19 infection, according...
Vitamin D levels may play significant role in COVID-19 incidence and mortality
Separate studies have found a significant correlation between vitamin D levels and COVID-19 incidence and mortality rates. The first is a statistical analysis by...