Dental procedures can pose a high risk of viral transmission because the tools that are used often produce aerosols, which can contain high numbers of Coronavirus.
The aerosols are generated when saliva mixes with water and air streams used in dental procedures. As a result, access to routine dentistry continues to be limited during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
They found that using air turbine drill types, which are the most common type of dental drill, creates dense clouds of aerosol droplets that spread as fast as 12 metres per second and can quickly contaminate an entire treatment room. Just one milliliter of saliva from infected patients contains up to 120 million copies of the virus, each having the capacity to infect.
They tested a different type of drill, known as high torque electric micromotor, with and without the use of water and air streams. They found that using this drill type at low speeds of less than 100,000 rpm without air streams produced 60 times fewer droplets than air turbine drill types.
In addition, they found that aerosol concentration and spread within a room is dependent on the positioning of the patient, presence of ventilation systems, and the room’s size and geometry. It is also influenced by the initial direction and speed of the aerosol itself, which can be affected by the type of cutting instrument (burr), and the amount and type of cooling water used.
Release date: 17 December 2020
Source: Imperial College London
Masks Not Enough to Stop COVID-19’s Spread Without Distancing
Simply wearing a mask may not be enough to prevent the spread of COVID-19 without social distancing.
In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, researchers tested how five different types of mask materials impacted the spread of droplets that carry the coronavirus when we cough or sneeze.
Each of the masks captured the vast majority of droplets, ranging from the regular cloth mask, which allowed about 3.6% of the droplets to go through, to the N-95 mask, which statistically stopped 100% of the droplets. But at distances of less than 6 feet, even those small percentages of droplets can be enough to get someone sick, especially if a person with COVID-19 sneezes or coughs multiple times.
Release date: 22 December 2020
Source: American Institute of Physics
Increased Meat Consumption Associated With Symptoms of Childhood Asthma
Substances present in cooked meats are associated with increased wheezing in children, Mount Sinai researchers report. Their study, published in Thorax, highlights pro-inflammatory compounds called advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) as an example of early dietary risk factors that may have broad clinical and public health implications for the prevention of inflammatory airway disease.
Researchers examined 4,388 children between 2 and 17 years old from the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a program of the National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is designed to evaluate the health and nutritional status of adults and children in the United States through interviews and physical examinations.
Release date: 22 December 2020
Source: The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Community Spread of COVID-19 Tied to Patient Survival Rates at Area Hospitals
Discovering wide variation in hospitals’ COVID-19 survival rates, researchers found that the levels of COVID-19 in the surrounding community was likely the driving factor.
High rates of COVID-19 in the county where a hospital is located appears to reduce survival rates among hospitalized patients with the virus, according to a new study from researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and at UnitedHealth Group. These findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The team analyzed nearly 40,000 patients with COVID-19 admitted to 955 hospitals across the nation between January 1 and June 30, 2020. They examined what proportion of those patients either died in the hospital within 30 days of being admitted or were discharged to hospice, which could also signal a likely death from the virus. They found that, on average, almost 12 percent of patients admitted with COVID-19 to hospitals nationwide died, but the mortality rates in the hospitals with the best outcomes was 9 percent compared to nearly 16 percent for the group of hospitals with the worst outcomes.
Release date: 22 December 2020
Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
COVID-19 spread increases when UV levels decrease
Seasonal changes in UV may alter the spread of COVID-19 but not as much as social distancing.
Natural variations in ultraviolet radiation influence the spread of COVID-19, but the influence is modest compared to preventive measures such as physical distancing, mask wearing, and quarantine, according to new research from Harvard University.
Analyzing daily COVID-19 and weather data from over 3,000 administrative regions in more than 170 countries, Proctor, together with co-authors Peter Huybers, also at Harvard University, Tamma Carleton and Kyle Meng from the University of California Santa Barbara and Jules Cornetet at France’s École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, found that the spread of COVID-19 through a population tended to be lower in the weeks following higher UV exposure. Findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Release date: 15 December 2020
Source: Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Hope can make you happier with your life
Having hope for the future could protect people from risky behaviors such as drinking and gambling – according to new research from the University of East Anglia.
Researchers studied ‘relative deprivation’ – the feeling that other people have things better than you in life.
They wanted to find out why only some people experiencing this turn to escapist and risky behaviors such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs, over-eating or gambling, while others do not.
And they found that the answer lies in hope.
Postgraduate researcher Shahriar Keshavarz, from UEA’s School of Psychology, said: “I think most people have experienced relative deprivation at some point in their lives. It’s that feeling of being unhappy with your lot, the belief that your situation is worse than others, that other people are doing better than you.
Release date: 16 December 2020
Source: University of East Anglia
Genes could be key to new Covid-19 treatments
Genetic evidence is second only to clinical trials as a way to tell which treatments will be effective in a disease. Existing drugs that target the actions of the genes reveal which drugs should be repurposed to treat Covid-19 in clinical trials, experts say.
Genes involved in two molecular processes – antiviral immunity and lung inflammation – were pinpointed. The breakthrough will help doctors understand how Covid-19 damages lungs at a molecular level.
Researchers from the University of Edinburgh made the discovery by studying the DNA of 2,700 patients in 208 intensive care units (ICUs) in the UK.
Nature
Release date: 15 December 2020
Source: University of Edinburgh
Research strongly suggests COVID-19 virus enters the brain
More and more evidence is coming out that people with COVID-19 are suffering from cognitive effects, such as brain fog and fatigue.
And researchers are discovering why. The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like many viruses before it, is bad news for the brain. In a study published Dec.16 in Nature Neuroscience, researchers found that the spike protein, often depicted as the red arms of the virus, can cross the blood-brain barrier in mice.
This strongly suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID-19, can enter the brain.
The spike protein, often called the S1 protein, dictates which cells the virus can enter. Usually, the virus does the same thing as its binding protein, said lead author William A. Banks, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine and a Puget Sound Veterans Affairs Healthcare System physician and researcher. Banks said binding proteins like S1 usually by themselves cause damage as they detach from the virus and cause inflammation.
Release date: 16 December 2020
Source: University of Washington Health Sciences/UW Medicine
Young people who go to bed later drink and smoke more due to their impulsivity
Young people who prefer to stay up late are more impulsive than their peers who go to bed earlier, which makes them more likely to drink alcohol and smoke, a new study in the journal Chronobiology International, reports.
In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of Surrey and Brunel University London investigated how being an evening type (someone who prefers to stay up late and functions better in the evening) links to impulsivity, anxiety, and substance use. Young people often prefer to stay up late, and those who do are known to be at higher risk of mental health issues and problematic substance use.
To better understand why this is, researchers recruited 191 participants aged between 18-25 years old. Participants were surveyed on their sleeping preference (morning or evening types), their sleep quality, levels of anxiety and impulsivity, and asked about how many cigarettes they smoked and how much alcohol, coffee, and other caffeinated drinks they consumed.
Release date: 14 December 2020
Source: University of Surrey
Fast Walking in Narrow Corridors Can Increase COVID-19 Transmission Risk
Computational simulations have been used to accurately predict airflow and droplet dispersal patterns in situations where COVID-19 might be spread. In the journal Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, results show the importance of the shape of the space in modeling how virus-laden droplets move through the air.
The cough-generated droplets from a walking individual disperse differently in a narrow corridor and an open space. In an open space, the droplets are dispersed in a large range attached to the person; in narrow corridors, the droplets are concentrated in a small bubble and are left further behind. CREDIT: Xiaolei Yang
If a person walking in a corridor coughs, their breath expels droplets that travel around and behind their body, forming a wake in the way a boat forms a wake in water as it travels. The investigation revealed the existence of a “re-circulation bubble” directly behind the person’s torso and a long wake streaming out behind them at approximately waist height.
Release date: 15 December 2020
Source: American Institute of Physics
Coronavirus spread during dental procedures could be reduced with slower drills
Dental procedures can pose a high risk of viral transmission because the tools that are used often produce aerosols, which can contain high numbers of Coronavirus.
The aerosols are generated when saliva mixes with water and air streams used in dental procedures. As a result, access to routine dentistry continues to be limited during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
They found that using air turbine drill types, which are the most common type of dental drill, creates dense clouds of aerosol droplets that spread as fast as 12 metres per second and can quickly contaminate an entire treatment room. Just one milliliter of saliva from infected patients contains up to 120 million copies of the virus, each having the capacity to infect.
They tested a different type of drill, known as high torque electric micromotor, with and without the use of water and air streams. They found that using this drill type at low speeds of less than 100,000 rpm without air streams produced 60 times fewer droplets than air turbine drill types.
In addition, they found that aerosol concentration and spread within a room is dependent on the positioning of the patient, presence of ventilation systems, and the room’s size and geometry. It is also influenced by the initial direction and speed of the aerosol itself, which can be affected by the type of cutting instrument (burr), and the amount and type of cooling water used.
Release date: 17 December 2020
Source: Imperial College London