Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
What are the differences in transmissibility between novel and emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants?
Medical News – Currently, the majority of reporting of secondary attack rates (SAR) in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have defined secondary infection as recent polymerase chain reaction (PCR) positivity in a contact who is displaying symptoms. By only including those who are symptomatic while having detectable viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) during sampling, this method undercounts […]
Sep 30, 2022
Scientists race to test vaccines for Uganda’s Ebola outbreak
Science – A multipronged international effort has begun to pull out all the stops to launch trials of experimental Ebola vaccines in Uganda, which declared an outbreak of the deadly disease on 20 September. According to the most recent World Health Organization (WHO) update, Uganda has had 18 confirmed and 18 suspected cases of Ebola, […]
Sep 30, 2022
Uganda Ebola cases jump to 50, with 1 more death
CIDRAP – The number of people infected in Uganda’s Ebola Sudan outbreak jumped to 50 today, with 14 more cases added to the total, the World Health Organization (WHO) African region said today on Twitter. One more person died, raising the fatality count to 24. Of the 14 new cases, 13 are lab-confirmed and 1 is listed […]
Sep 30, 2022
Two COVID boosters effective against severe Omicron in nursing homes
CIDRAP – A study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report shows that US nursing home residents who received a second mRNA COVID-19 vaccine booster dose 60 days earlier were 26% protected against Omicron infection, 74% against hospitalization or death, and 90% against death alone. A team led by researchers from the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Providence, Rhode […]
Sep 29, 2022
COVID-19 Cases on the Rise in the UK. Is the US Next?
Newsmax – The recent rise in coronavirus cases in the U.K. isn’t due to a new variant say experts, but rather a signal that the predicted fall surge is upon us. Experts calculated COVID-19 cases would rise in October and continue to increase during the winter as people spend more time indoors. According to the Zoe […]
Sep 29, 2022
New Guidance Focuses on Long COVID in Kids
Med Page Today – When it comes to long COVID in children, physicians should focus on mitigating symptoms and encouraging multidisciplinary rehabilitation designed to improve age-appropriate development, according to new clinical guidance from the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (AAPM&R). Long COVID can present differently in children, so standard practices for managing the […]
Sep 29, 2022
New Infectious Threats Are Coming. The U.S. Probably Won’t Contain Them.
NYT – The coronavirus revealed flaws in the nation’s pandemic plans. The spread of monkeypox shows that the problems remain deeply entrenched. If it wasn’t clear enough during the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become obvious during the monkeypox outbreak: The United States, among the richest, most advanced nations in the world, remains wholly unprepared to […]
Sep 29, 2022
Nature – Understanding the epidemic growth of the novel SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is critical for public health. We compared the ten-day secondary attack rate (SAR) of the Omicron and Delta variants in households using Norwegian contact tracing data, December 2021 – January 2022. Omicron SAR was higher than Delta, with a relative risk (RR) of […]
Sep 29, 2022
Translational Research and Clinical Interventions – Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused >3.5 million deaths worldwide and affected >160 million people. At least twice as many have been infected but remained asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic. COVID-19 includes central nervous system manifestations mediated by inflammation and cerebrovascular, anoxic, and/or viral neurotoxicity mechanisms. More than one third […]
Sep 29, 2022
Study aims to understand how SARS-CoV-2 affects the brain long-term
Medical News – In addition to the lungs, COVID-19 also affects the central nervous system (CNS) through anoxic, viral neurotoxicity, inflammation, and cerebrovascular mechanisms. As a result, about one-third of COVID-19 patients develop different neurologic problems, such as seizures, loss of sense of smell or taste, and stroke. Related study in Translational Research and Clinical Interventions
Sep 29, 2022