COVID-19 Archives - Page 7 of 20 - Dr Amin Azhari

Early COVID-19 symptoms differ among age groups

Symptoms for early COVID-19 infection differ among age groups and between men and women, new research has found.

These differences are most notable between younger age groups (16-59 years) compared to older age groups (60->80 years), and men have different symptoms compared to women in the early stages of COVID-19 infection.

The paper, published in The Lancet Digital Health . The researchers modelled the early signs of COVID-19 infection and successfully detected 80% of cases when using three days of self-reported symptoms.

18 symptoms were examined, which had different relevance for early detection in different groups. The most important symptoms for earliest detection of COVID-19 overall included loss of smell, chest pain, persistent cough, abdominal pain, blisters on the feet, eye soreness and unusual muscle pain. However, loss of smell lost significance in people over 60 years of age and was not relevant for subjects over 80. Other early symptoms such as diarrhoea were key in older age groups (60-79 and >80). Fever, while a known symptom of disease, was not an early feature of the disease in any age group.

Men were more likely to report shortness of breath, fatigue, chills and shivers, whereas women were more likely to report loss of smell, chest pain and a persistent cough.

While these models were generated in the COVID Symptom study app, models were replicated across time suggesting they would also apply to non-app contributors. Although the models were used on the first strain of the virus and Alpha variants, the key findings suggest the symptoms of the Delta variant and subsequent variants will also differ across population groups.

Release date: 30 July 2021
Source: King’s College London

PCR of Gargle Lavage Samples as Effective as Nasopharyngeal Swabs to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Infection

Twenty-six subjects from a cohort of 80 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 via nasopharyngeal swab, and all 26 tested positive using gargle lavage (mouthwash), according to new research published in Microbiology Spectrum, the new open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. That’s good news, because nasopharyngeal swabbing, currently the gold standard for collecting samples for COVID testing, has a low rate of acceptance due to the discomfort of having a nasal passage swabbed .The detection method for testing samples used in this study is the highly sensitive real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Our results show that in all cases, where people were positively tested by the gold standard nasal swabbing, one could also detect the virus in gargle lavage by the same RT-PCR method.

Release date: 21 July 2021
Source: American Society for Microbiology

Rethinking Remdesivir oral version

Researchers modify current drug, creating oral version that can be taken earlier in COVID-19 diagnoses; in cell and animal studies, revised drug proved effective and safe.

Remdesivir is an antiviral drug originally discovered as part of a program to develop antiviral agents with activity against novel emerging viruses. In the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was tested as a potential therapeutic and found to measurably reduce recovery time for hospitalized COVID-19 patients. The Food and Drug Administration approved its use in October 2020 and it remains the only FDA-approved antiviral for treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Currently, remdesivir must be administered intravenously, a process that restricts its use to patients hospitalized with relatively severe or advanced cases of COVID-19. The FDA has approved the use of remdesivir only for adults and children age 12 and older.

In a new paper of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe cell and animal studies that demonstrate how lipid modifications of remdesivir nucleoside can improve drug delivery, effectiveness and toxicity compared to remdesivir.

Release date: 02 August 2021
Source: University of California – San Diego

No particular risk of infection of Sar-Cov-2 from cash

No particular risk of infection of Sars Cov 2 from cash - پول نقد و کرونا

Fear of contagion is driving much more contactless payments during the pandemic. It wouldn’t be necessary.

How long do coronaviruses remain infectious on banknotes and coins? Is it possible to become infected through contact with cash? Experts at the European Central Bank, in collaboration with the Department of Medical and Molecular Virology at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, wanted to clarify this question. The researchers led by Professor Eike Steinmann and Dr. Daniel Todt developed a method specifically to test how many infectious virus particles can be transferred from cash to the skin in real-life conditions. Conclusion: under realistic conditions, the risk of contracting Sars-Cov-2 from cash is very low. The study has been published in the journal iScience.

Viruses on banknotes and coins
To find out how long Sars-Cov-2 persists on coins and banknotes, the researchers treated various euro coins and banknotes with virus solutions of different concentrations and over several days observed how long infectious virus was still detectable. A stainless-steel surface served as a control in each case. The results are reassuring: while infectious virus was still present on the stainless-steel surface after seven days, on the 10-euro banknote, it took only three days to completely disappear. For the 10-cent, 1-euro, and 5-cent coins after six days, two days and one hour, respectively, no infectious virus was detectable. “The rapid decline on the 5-cent piece is because it’s made of copper, on which viruses are known to be less stable,” explains Daniel Todt.

Release date: 29 July 2021
Source: Ruhr-University Bochum

Public Health, Public Health, Public Health, Public Health, Public Health, Public Health, Public Health, Public Health, Public Health

Reducing COVID-19 isolation times

The highly infectious nature of the new coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) has changed social habits throughout the world. Even with vaccinations on the rise, many countries hesitate to allow their residents to return to pre-pandemic activity. Moreover, they continue to demand that infected people isolate themselves for a minimum number of days after the onset of symptoms in a one-size-fits-all manner.

In a new study, a multi-national effort that included researchers at the Institute for Advanced Study of Biology (ASHBi), Kyoto University, Japan, uses a mathematical simulator of the SARS-COV-2 dynamics to demonstrate that the number of days can be reduced for many patients if PCR tests are used.

Patient isolation is one of the most effective if not most effective means of preventing the spread of SARS-COV-2. Beginning last year, people had to quickly adapt to weeks-long isolation after testing positive or showing symptoms, but these policies are exhausting societies. To maintain public cooperation, policymakers are seeking guidelines that shorten the isolation period while minimizing the risk of releasing infectious patients. eLife

Release date: 27 July 2021
Source: Kyoto University

Covid-19

Emergency department visits related to opioid overdoses up significantly during COVID-19 pandemic

Emergency department visit rates because of an opioid overdose increased by 28.5% across the U.S. in 2020, compared to 2018 and 2019, recent Mayo Clinic research finds. Emergency visits overall decreased by 14% last year, while visits because of an opioid overdose increased by 10.5%. The result: Opioid overdoses were responsible for 0.32 out of 100 visits, or 1 in every 313 visits, which is up from 0.25, or 1 in every 400 visits, the previous two years.

This trend is supported by preliminary data recently released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recorded more than 93,000 opioid overdose deaths in 2020. That’s a 29.4% increase from the year prior and the most opioid overdose deaths every recorded in the U.S.

The research was published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine and was presented in June at the AcademyHealth annual research meeting. The research also was presented at the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine’s conference, where it was selected for a plenary session.

Release date: 26 July 2021
Source: Mayo Clinic

Common COVID-19 Antibiotic No More Effective Than Placebo

A UC San Francisco study has found that the antibiotic azithromycin was no more effective than a placebo in preventing symptoms of COVID-19 among non-hospitalized patients, and may increase their chance of hospitalization, despite widespread prescription of the antibiotic for the disease.

Azithromycin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic, is widely prescribed as a treatment for COVID-19 in the United States and the rest of the world. “The hypothesis is that it has anti-inflammatory properties that may help prevent progression if treated early in the disease,” said Oldenburg. “We did not find this to be the case.”

The study included 263 participants who all tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 within seven days before entering the study. None were hospitalized at the time of enrollment. In a random selection process, 171 participants received a single, 1.2 gram oral dose of azithromycin and 92 received an identical placebo.

At day 14 of the study, 50 percent of the participants remained symptom-free in both groups. By day 21, five of the participants who received azithromycin had been hospitalized with severe symptoms of COVID-19 and none of the placebo group had been hospitalized.

The researchers concluded that treatment with a single dose of azithromycin compared to placebo did not result in greater likelihood of being symptom-free.

The study, which was conducted in collaboration with Stanford University, appears in the JAMA.

Release date: 16 July 2021
Source: University of California – San Francisco

COVID-19 antibodies persist at least nine months after infection

Testing of an entire Italian town shows antibody levels remain high nine months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic.

Researchers from the University of Padua and Imperial College London tested more than 85 percent of the 3,000 residents of Vo’, Italy, in February/March 2020 for infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and tested them again in May and November 2020 for antibodies against the virus.

The team found that 98.8 percent of people infected in February/March showed detectable levels of antibodies in November, and there was no difference between people who had suffered symptoms of COVID-19 and those that had been symptom-free. The results are published in Nature Communications.

Release date: 19 July 2021
Source: Imperial College London

Public Health

Common Medication Used to Reduce Cholesterol Levels May Reduce COVID-19 Severity

Using anonymized medical records from a national registry, UC San Diego researchers confirm earlier findings that statins may substantially minimize adverse outcomes from SARS-CoV-2 infection.

In a new study from University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers have confirmed that patients taking statin medications had a 41 percent lower risk of in-hospital death from COVID-19. The findings were published in PLOS ONE and expand upon prior research conducted at UC San Diego Health in 2020.

Statins are commonly used to reduce blood cholesterol levels by blocking liver enzymes responsible for making cholesterol. They are widely prescribed: The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 93 percent of patients who use a cholesterol-lowering drug use a statin.

Release date: 25 July 2021
Source: University of California – San Diego

“Long COVID”: More than a quarter of COVID-19 patients still symptomatic after 6 months

In a new study of adults from the general population who were infected with COVID-19 in 2020, more than a quarter report not having fully recovered after six to eight months. Those findings are described in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

In the new study, researchers recruited 431 participants from within the contact tracing system in Zurich, Switzerland. All participants had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 between February and August 2020, and completed an online questionnaire about their health a median of 7.2 months after their diagnosis. Symptoms had been present at diagnosis in 89% of the participants and 19% were initially hospitalized. Compared to individuals not participating in the study, participants were younger–with an average age of 47.

Overall, 26% of participants reported that they had not fully recovered at six to eight months after initial COVID-19 diagnosis. 55% reported symptoms of fatigue, 25% had some degree of shortness of breath, and 26% had symptoms of depression. A higher percentage of females and initially hospitalized patients reported not having recovered compared to males and non-hospitalized individuals. A total of 40% of participants reported at least one general practitioner visit related to COVID-19 after their acute illness. The authors say that their findings underscore the need for the timely planning of resources and patient services for post-COVID-19 care.

Release date: 13 July 2021
Source: EurekAlert

Tag Archive for: COVID-19