Related news to Covid-19
Men predominate in more than 85% of COVID-19 decision-making and key advisory bodies around the globe, with gender parity in just 3.5%, reveals an analysis of the available data, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health.
Release date: 1 October 2020
Source: EurekAlert
Rush to publish is testing research integrity process.
33 papers retracted, withdrawn, or had serious doubts raised as of end of July.
Thousands of COVID papers on pre-print servers where fewer quality checks made.
As of 7 May 2020, 1221 studies on COVID-19 were registered on the international clinical trial registry site, ClinicalTrials.gov.
And as of 31 July 2020, 19 published articles and 14 preprints about COVID-19 have been retracted, withdrawn, or had serious doubts raised about the integrity of their data, formally known as an expression of concern.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a flood of potentially substandard research amid the rush to publish, with a string of papers retracted or under a cloud and a surge in submissions to pre-print servers where fewer quality checks are made, a leading ethicist has warned in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
Release date: 1 October 2020
Source: BMJ
For the first time, data from a study with patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 suggest that the disease might deteriorate men’s testosterone levels.
Testosterone is associated with the immune system of respiratory organs, and low levels of testosterone might increase the risk of respiratory infections. Low testosterone is also associated with infection-related hospitalisation and all-cause mortality in male in ICU patients, so testosterone treatment may also have benefits beyond improving outcomes for COVID-19.
Publishing their results in the peer-reviewed journal The Aging Male.
Release date: 28 September 2020
Source: Taylor & Francis Group
Azithromycin — a commonly-prescribed antibiotic — also is being investigated as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Azithromycin’s association with cardiac events also has been debated. In 2012, the FDA issued a warning for azithromycin stating that it had been linked to cardiac events, but subsequent studies have yielded mixed results.
Now, researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago have found that azithromycin by itself is not associated with an increase in cardiac events; however, if the drug is taken with certain other drugs that affect the electrical functioning of the heart, then cardiac events increased.
“Our findings should give researchers and clinicians looking at azithromycin as a potential treatment for COVID-19 pause,” said Haridarshan Patel, a researcher in the department of pharmacy systems, outcomes and policy at the UIC College of Pharmacy and corresponding author on the paper. “We found that if taken together with drugs that affect the electrical impulses of the heart, the combination is linked with a 40% increase in cardiac events, including fainting, heart palpitations and even cardiac arrest.”
Drugs that affect the electrical impulses of the heart, specifically the interval in the electrical rhythm called the QT interval, are called QT-prolonging drugs. These drugs include blood pressure medications such as ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers, some antidepressants, anti-malaria drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, opioid medications and even muscle relaxers.
“Because QT-prolonging drugs are used so commonly, our findings suggest that doctors prescribing azithromycin should be sure that patients are not also taking a QT-prolonging drug,” Patel said.
In a previous study, Patel and colleagues found that one in five people prescribed azithromycin also were taking a QT-prolonging drug.
Release date: 16 September 2020
Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
Source: American Heart Association
Release date: 14 September 2020
Obesity may cause a hyperactive immune system response to COVID-19 infection that makes it difficult to fight off the virus, according to a new manuscript published in the Endocrine Society’s journal, Endocrinology.
Release date: 3 September 2020
Source: The Endocrine Society
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), believed to be linked to COVID-19, damages the heart to such an extent that some children will need lifelong monitoring and interventions, said the senior author of a medical literature review published Sept. 4 in EClinicalMedicine, a journal of The Lancet.
Release date: 4 September 2020
Source: University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to sicken millions and claim the lives of thousands of people in the US, as millions lose their jobs, as parents and teachers worry about kids going back to school, as renters face eviction and homeowners face foreclosures… it may not come as a surprise that mental health in the general population is far from good right now.
But a first-of-its-kind School of Public Health study finds that this unprecedented time has more than tripled the prevalence of depression symptoms in the US, from 8.5 percent of adults before the pandemic to 27.8 percent as of mid-April.
The findings are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Release date: 2 September 2020