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Guardian's assessment of studies on hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19
The hype around hydroxychloroquine is irresponsible, but the hope is understandable, reports The Guardian. There is as yet no drug that has been shown...
Novel test for COVID-19 may deliver faster results to more people
Early identification of potential patients and diagnosis followed by isolation are critical for controlling the current COVID-19 pandemic and flattening the curve. This study...
Multi-tissue genetic analysis suggests SARS-CoV-2 may infect specific nose cells
Genes associated with how the virus SARS-CoV-2 enters a host were found to be expressed in specific healthy human respiratory, corneal and intestinal epithelial...
Air pollution associated with a high number of deaths from COVID-19
Elevated levels of nitrogen dioxide in the air may be associated with a high number of deaths from COVID-19. A study by Martin Luther...
Safety of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin for treating COVID-19
Physicians and patients should be aware of several rare but potentially life-threatening adverse effects of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, even during short courses of...
Santa Clara sero-survey: COVID-19 infections vastly exceed official counts but less deadly than estimated
Widespread antibody testing in a Californian county has revealed a much higher prevalence of coronavirus infection than official figures suggested. The findings also indicate...
Cambridge study identifies 275 options to reduce coronavirus infections
Phased re-opening of schools, businesses and open spaces should be considered alongside a range of practical ways to keep people physically apart, say the...
People over 60 also at 'considerable' increased COVID-19 complication risk
The UK’s policy for shielding older adults from COVID-19 overlooks 7.3m adults aged 60-69, placing them at increased risk and death. These are the...
Trials of anti-tumour necrosis factor therapy for COVID-19 'urgently needed'
With over 100,000 deaths worldwide from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), it is incumbent on researchers to accelerate clinical trials of any readily available and...
The case for healthcare worker screening to prevent hospital transmission
There is a strong case to be made for the mass testing of health care workers to mitigate workforce depletion by unnecessary quarantine; reduce...
New COVID-19 guidance for patients with inflammatory bowel disease — American Gastroenterological Association
The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) has published new COVID-19 guidance for gastroenterologists treating patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): AGA Clinical Practice Update on...
COVID-19 risk for smokers and COPD patients may be due to higher ACE 2 levels — small Canadian study
The increased risk for COVID-19 pneumonia in people who smoke cigarettes or have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be at least partly explained...
Cats, but not dogs, vulnerable to COVID-19
Cats can become infected with the new coronavirus but dogs appear not to be vulnerable, according to a study by researchers at the Harbin...
WHO: List of all global COVID-19 vaccine development projects
The genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was published on 11 January 2020, triggering intense global R&D activity to develop a...
UK to collect blood for trialling of convalescent plasma transfusions
The UK is preparing to collect the blood from COVID-19 survivors to investigate if convalescent plasma transfusions could improve an infected patient’s speed of...
COVID-19 10-times more deadly than swine flu
The novel coronavirus is 10 times more deadly than swine flu, also called H1N1, which caused a global pandemic in 2009. France24 reports...
Only a third of ventilated COVID-19 patients survive — report from UK's Intensive Care Centre
For COVID-19 patients who respond successfully to intensive care treatment and are able to be discharged from hospital, the road to recovery can still...
Multinational consensus statement on chest imaging and COVID-19
"We need to understand that conditions across the globe vary greatly. Our goal in developing this statement was to offer guidance that is sensitive...
Remdesivir: Small group of COVID-19 patients benefit from compassionate-use treatment
A majority of a small group of patients showed improvements after being treated with an experimental coronavirus drug made by Gilead Sciences, bolstering hopes...
Remdesivir 'highly effective' in stopping the coronavirus replication mechanism in laboratory study
Scientists at the University of Alberta have shown that the drug remdesivir is highly effective in stopping the replication mechanism of the coronavirus that...
Adaptive trial for testing of hydroxychloroquine, other COVID-19 therapies
A novel clinical trial developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine was launched to address one of the most important...
Use of clot-busting tPA on COVID-19 patients in acute respiratory distress
The woman was dying. New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital was about to call her husband and break the news that there was nothing left...
New-borns with COVID-19 experienced mild symptoms, evidence of intrauterine transmission lacking
Researchers have identified a total of four cases of new-born babies with COVID-19 infection in China. In all cases the babies experienced only mild...
Despite lack of clinical trial evidence, public should wear face masks — Oxford analysis
It's time to encourage people to wear face masks as a precautionary measure on the grounds that we have little to lose and potentially...
Virus particles may remain in air longer than previously thought — Finnish modelling study
A joint project carried out by four Finnish research organisations has studied the transport and spread of coronavirus through the air. Preliminary results indicate...
Transmission implications from small sample of first epidemiologically linked patients
In late January, a group of patients in the Starnberg area near Munich became Germany's first group of epidemiologically linked cases of COVID-19. Nine...
Loss of smell and taste validated as COVID-19 symptoms in US empirical study
Loss of smell and taste has been anecdotally linked to COVID-19 infections. In a study, researchers at University of California – San Diego Health...
Elective surgery during the COVID-19 pandemic may increase complications — small China study
A study in Wuhan, China’s COVID-19 epicentre suggests that having surgery during the coronavirus incubation period is likely to complicate or prolong your...
COVID-19 testing: False negatives may cause over-confident clinical and public health decisions
A special article calls attention to the risk posed by over-reliance on COVID-19 testing to make clinical and public health decisions. The sensitivity of...
Premature lifting of control measures may mean 2nd wave of COVID-19 — China modelling study
New modelling research suggests that China's aggressive control measures appear to have halted the first wave of COVID-19 in areas outside Hubei province, the...
Health Department launches COVID-19 information website and hotline
The Health Department has announced a newly-launched website detailing all COVID-19 related resources. IoL reports that the website contains important contact details, including the...
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Rondebosch Medical Centre is an Independent Private Health Care Facility situated in Cape Town, committed to providing quality, value driven, holistic health care to...
HPCSA's Letlape challenged on public health care pre-1994
The crude statement by the Health Professions Council of SA’s Dr Tebogo Letlape that medical aid schemes are a ‘crime against humanity’, should be...
Research ‘sheds light on how lung cancer can form’
An association between the regulation of adult stem cell growth and the formation of pre-cancerous lesions has been described for the first time by...
Most allergy sufferers don’t complete long-term treatment
Doctors may recommend allergy shots or under-the-tongue drops to their patients, but most don’t start the treatments, according to a study by Dr Robert...
Stem cells studies show promise in treating multiple sclerosis
The great promise of stem cells may finally be getting close for multiple sclerosis patients. USA Today reports that two new studies suggest that...
‘But your baby isn’t…'
Women who smoke during pregnancy may be putting their newborns at risk for cong enital heart defects, and the more they smoke, the higher...
Device suppliers owed
The South African Medical Device Industry Association says the Gauteng Health Department owes at least R265m to medical suppliers. More than 40 Gauteng supply...
Warning for baby’s death
The penalty imposed on a doctor and nurse who turned away a four-month-old baby from the acclaimed Groote Schuur Hospital shortly before the child...