Category: COVID
Drop in COVID alertness could create deadly new variant, WHO says
(Reuters) Lapses in strategies to tackle COVID-19 this year continue to create the perfect conditions for a deadly new variant to emerge, as parts of China witness a rise in infections, the head of the World Health Organization said on Friday. The comments by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mark a change in tone just […]
Dec 5, 2022
11% of COVID-19 survivors have residual lung damage, study finds
(CIDRAP) A new study in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine reveals about an 11% incidence of residual lung damage—known as interstitial lung disease—after COVID-19 hospitalization. Interstitial lung disease is a broad category of lung damage and disease defined by fibrotic scarring. The damage is often irreversible. Link to Study
Dec 5, 2022
So You Say You Haven’t Had Covid. You’re Probably Mistaken, Study Finds
(KFF) Researchers tested 1,574 people from August 2021 to May 2022, and 44% of them said they had never had covid. But serologic testing found that 42% of them had antibodies that indicated a previous infection. Meanwhile, new research shows that SARS-CoV-2 can live on some groceries for days.
Dec 5, 2022
(CNN) The brains of US teens have physically changed during the Covid-19 pandemic, aging faster than normal, a new study says. The young study participants also reported more severe symptoms of anxiety, depression and what scientists call internalized problems – meaning feelings of sadness, low self-esteem and fear and trouble regulating their emotions – after the first […]
Dec 5, 2022
How Qatar Provided Early Answers About COVID Immunity
(MedPage Today) While the world turns its attention to Qatar for the World Cup, the tiny Middle Eastern nation jutting into the Persian Gulf is more recognized in the medical research community for providing some of the earliest insights into vaccine efficacy, waning immunity, and reinfection during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a national healthcare system […]
Nov 29, 2022
Covid becomes plague of elderly, reviving debate over ‘acceptable loss’
(Washington Post) In October, Felton’s team logged six deaths due to the virus, many of them among vaccinated people. Their ages: 80s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 90s.They included Betty Witzel, 88, described by her family as a tomboy who carried snakes in her pocket as a child and grew up to be a teacher, mother of […]
Nov 29, 2022
MRI Highlights Brain Blips Long After COVID Symptoms Have Subsided
(MedPageToday) A specialized type of MRI showed lingering brain abnormalities in patients up to 6 months after they recovered from COVID-19. Data from susceptibility-weighted MRI in 46 COVID-recovered patients and 30 healthy controls showed that the former had significantly higher susceptibility values in regions of the frontal lobe and brain stem, according to Vidur Mahajan, […]
Nov 29, 2022
Is it Covid, flu or RSV? A few hallmarks can help distinguish among the illnesses
(NBC News) Covid, flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are together driving a national wave of respiratory illnesses. Around 76% of U.S. hospital inpatient beds are full, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. Pediatric beds are at a similar level, though six states have 90% or more of their pediatric beds full, […]
Nov 28, 2022
COVID-19 disrupts gut microbiome
(NIH) The trillions of microbes living in the gut—bacteria, fungi, and viruses—are known collectively as the gut microbiome. Research has shown that changes in gut microbes may contribute to a variety of diseases and conditions. COVID-19 patients often have imbalances in their gut microbes that allow antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections to take over. These patients also […]
Nov 22, 2022
What Covid taught scientists and the public about the flu
(NBC News) For nearly three years, the medical and scientific world scrutinized Covid. That research helped experts gain a new understanding of a much older virus: the flu. On March 3, 2020, the head of the World Health Organization began a daily press briefing exhorting countries around the world to do more to stop the spread […]
Nov 22, 2022