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Saliva can be more effective than nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 testing
The addition of a simple processing step to saliva samples before testing may improve COVID-19 detection rate, eliminate the challenges of nasopharyngeal testing, and...
Many post-COVID patients get new medical problems, US study finds
Hundreds of thousands of people in the United States have sought medical care for post-COVID health problems that they had not been diagnosed with...
Warmer temperatures lessen COVID-19 spread, but controls still needed
Research shows that transmission of the virus behind COVID-19 varies seasonally, but warmer conditions are not enough to prevent transmission. A study led by...
Regeneron treatment cuts COVID-19 mortality by 20% — RECOVERY trial
The world‘s largest trial of COVID-19 therapeutics has provided the first convincing evidence that a therapy that directly attacks the virus can save hospitalised...
Drop in convalescent plasma use in US hospitals linked to higher COVID-19 mortality
A slowdown in the use of convalescent plasma to treat hospitalised COVID-19 patients led to a higher COVID-19 mortality during a critical period during...
Vegetarians and pescatarians less likely to develop severe Covid-19
Vegetarians and pescatarians are up to 73% less likely to develop severe Covid-19 than meat-eaters, a Johns Hopkins study finds. But no association was...
Encouraging safety results from Sisonke trial of J&J vaccine in SA
The Sisonke Phase 3b clinical trial of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, during which an impressive nearly 290,000 frontline South African health workers...
COVID-19 Wuhan lab escape theory gets a second look
Initially dismissed as conspiracy theory, the possibility that the COVID-19 is the consequence of a Chinese laboratory accident is suddenly getting a second look,...
Low testosterone may link to more sever COVID-19 — Washington University study
Among men, low testosterone levels may to more severe disease, found a Washington University study, reports MedicalBrief.
Although the study could not prove low testosterone as a...
India’s COVID crisis – New cases decline but daily deaths top 4,500
New cases of COVID-19 are declining in India but the health system is failing and daily deaths continue rising, writes MedicalBrief. There have been horror...
Pfizer vaccine 'extraordinarily effective' against UK and SA variants — Two studies
The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine is "extraordinarily effective" at protecting against severe disease caused by two dangerous variants, according to two studies, reports The New...
Cutaneous reactions to Moderna and Pfizer vaccination — Registry-based study
While some dermatologic reactions to Moderna and Pfizer vaccines mimicked SARS-CoV-2 infection itself, cutaneous reactions to COVID-19 vaccination are generally minor and self-limited, and...
New CDC guideline admits that COVID-19 transmission is airborne
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is finally acknowledging something that health experts have been saying for a while now: COVID-19...
Alternative corticosteroid regimes in treatment of COVID-19
Researchers at the Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Academic Hospital write: SARS-CoV-2 is the third known coronavirus within the past 18 years to cause severe...
Obesity's strong link to severe COVID outcomes, especially in under-40s and Black people
A study of 6.9m English patients found that people with excess weight, especially for younger adults and Black people, are at substantially increased risk...
Mortality 20x higher in pregnant women with COVID but SAHPRA says no to vaccination
US authorities this week advised pregnant women be inoculated — based on a study of the Moderna/Pfizer vaccines — at the same time that...
Injected antibody cocktail cuts COVID-19 infection risk by over 80%
A single injected administration of Regeneron's monoclonal antibody cocktail cuts the risk of developing COVID-19 by over 80%, reports MedicalBrief. Antibody drugs may give...
Lancet removes hyped preprint on efficacy of vitamin D for COVID-19
A widely promoted preprint, claiming that vitamin D led to an “80% reduction in need for ICU and a 60% reduction in deaths” has...
'Sobering' findings on natural protection against COVID-19 reinfection
A massive Danish study found only 80% natural protection from SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in general, declining to 47% in the elderly, reports MedicalBrief. A commentary...
Ivermectin fails as COVID-19 treatment in limited Colombian trial
COVID-19 patients treated with the controversially repurposed drug Ivermectin in a randomised Colombian trial did no better than a placebo group, reports MedicalBrief. However,...
Single shot of AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines reduce hospital treatment for elderly
A single shot of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID jab reduces the chance of needing hospital treatment by more than 80%, an...
Repurposed tocilizumab did not significantly improve severe COVID-19 pneumonia
A study has found that a repurposed drug used to treat arthritis did not significantly improve the outcomes of patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia....
Convalescent plasma: Optimal timeframe and donor profile
The optimal timeframe for donating convalescent plasma for use in COVID-19 immunotherapy, which was given emergency-use authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration...
Still no definitive answer on Vitamin D3 to treat COVID-19
Among patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 there was no difference in length of hospital stay in those given a single 200,000-IU dose of...
20% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients with diabetes died within 28 days — CORONADO
Updated results from a study of hospitalised COVID-19 patients with diabetes shows 1 in 5 died within 28 days of hospitalisation, French researchers at...
Abnormal sodium levels predict COVID-19 death or respiratory failure
Hospitalised patients with COVID-19 and abnormal sodium levels in the blood have an increased risk of experiencing respiratory failure or dying, according to a...
Pfizer single dose cuts asymptomatic infection and transmission potential — Cambridge
New data from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge suggests that a single dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can reduce by 75% the number of...
Now a 'worrisome New York variant — Columbia University
A new SARS-CoV-2 lineage that shares worrisome similarities with other recent variants of concern is on the rise in New York City, according to...
Pregnant women pass COVID antibodies to their babies — Weill Cornell
Antibodies that guard against COVID-19 can transfer from mothers to babies while in the womb, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine...
Updated pooled analysis of 3 Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine trials
In this updated pooled analysis of three randomised trials of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine by Oxford/AstraZeneca, the overall effectiveness of the vaccine in reducing...
More data backs high efficacy of single-dose Pfizer jab but Fauci sceptical
Israeli, Canadian and UK studies showing a single dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 85% effective is not changing the two-dose policy of the...
Infection with original strain protects against severe COVID after infection by variant — UCT
Emeritus Professor Jonny Myers, an occupational health and public health medicine specialist in the Centre for Environmental and Occupational Health Research at the department...
Heart damage in more than half of acute COVID-19 patients — Study in 6 UK hospitals
A British multicentre study across six acute hospitals found that myocardial injury during acute COVID-19 infection requiring acute hospital admission is associated with a...
Super-spreaders: Exhale increases with COVID-19 infection, age, and obesity
Scientists and public health experts have long known that certain individuals, termed "super-spreaders," can transmit COVID-19 with incredible efficiency and devastating consequences.
Now, researchers at...
30% of COVID-19 patients have lingering symptoms 6 months later — Washington study
Nearly a third of people with COVID-19 had lingering symptoms a median of 6 months after infection onset, a single-centre prospective study found. Among...
Glasses make COVID-19 infection up to 3x less likely — India study
Glasses wearers are up to three times less likely to catch COVID-19, a study by researchers at NPCD Centre, Kampur Dehat in Northern India,...
Asthmatics at no higher risk of COVID-19 — Australian meta-analysis
A study looking at how COVID-19 affects people with asthma provides reassurance that having the condition doesn't increase the risk of severe illness or...
Humidity from masks may lessen severity of COVID-19 — NIH study
Masks help protect the people wearing them from getting or spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, but now researchers from the National Institutes...
Israeli data shows Pfizer vaccine 94% effective against COVID-19
Israel’s largest healthcare provider has reported a 94% drop in symptomatic COVID-19 infections among 600,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer’s vaccine...
UK Office of National Statistics validates QCovid risk prediction tool
Research led by Professor Julia Hippisley-Cox in the University of Oxford’s Nuffield department of primary care health sciences, with collaborators across the UK, found...