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Congenital heart defects plus COVID-19 increase risk of severe illness and ICU
People with a congenital heart defect, hospitalised with COVID-19 infection, had more risk of severe illness or death than those without a heart defect,...
COVID -19 may cause neurological tissue damage, grey matter loss – Oxford
COVID-19 may cause changes in the brain, including greater loss of grey matter and tissue damage, than naturally occurs in uninfected people, a large...
‘Heartbreaking’: South Africa has more than 134,000 orphans from COVID-19
In what researchers describe as a “heartbreaking hidden pandemic”, up to 6.7m children globally have been orphaned or lost a caregiver due to COVID-19....
WHO 'strongly recommends' baricitinib for ventilated COVID patients
More critically ill COVID-19 patients on a mechanical ventilator or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) survived when randomised to receive baricitinib, compared with those on...
70-year-old disulfiram protects against acute lung injury in COVID – US rodent study
A US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approved drug that has been in clinical use for more than 70 years may protect against lung...
Vitamin supplementation unlikely to reduce COVID-19 mortality – Toledo meta-analysis
A meta-analysis of 26 studies that included more than 5,600 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 has found that taking immune-boosting micronutrients like vitamin C, vitamin...
Higher COVID-19 mortality in young Africans than European and US counterparts
African children and adolescents hospitalised with COVID-19 experience substantially higher mortality rates than Europeans or North Americans of the same age, according to the...
Antarctic find fuels theory of accidental COVID leak from research lab
The controversial theory that COVID-19 accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory was given fresh momentum after scientists studying soil samples in Antarctica stumbled upon...
Strokes in COVID-19 patients associated with higher disability and death risk
Patients with COVID-19 who suffer acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) appear to be at significantly higher risk of severe disability and death compared with stroke...
Booster mRNA vaccines wane in effectiveness at 4 months – CDC
A nationwide study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is the first to show that immunity against severe COVID-19 disease...
Extensive placental damage in some unvaccinated women causes stillbirths
In unvaccinated mothers with COVID-19, the placentas had a severe abnormality called SARS-CoV-2 placentitis, which killed the placental tissue and resulted in stillbirths or...
Natural immunity offers ‘robust protection’ in severe Omicron – Qatar study
The effectiveness of previous COVID-19 infection in preventing reinfection was estimated at 56% against the Omicron variant, compared with 90% against the Alpha variant,...
A summation of what is known about Omicron’s BA.2 variant
Omicron BA.2 is inherently substantially more transmissible than BA, and possesses immune-evasive properties but does not increase its transmissibility from vaccinated individuals with breakthrough...
Reverse zoonoses in COVID-infected lions and pumas at Gauteng zoo
Reverse zoonotic COVID-19 transmission from asymptomatic animal handlers at a Gauteng zoo not only posed a risk to endangered big cats kept in captivity...
WHO: Humanity’s biggest mistake has been to underestimate the coronavirus
Humanity’s biggest collective failing regarding COVID-19 has been underestimating it – and the virus has sequentially exploited the resulting opportunities – says Dr Mike...
Discovery Health’s large real-world analysis of Omicron
Discovery Health, South Africaʼs largest private health insurance administrator, has released at-scale, real-world analysis of the Omicron outbreak based on 211,000 COVID-19-positive test results...
South African sanitisers: Barely a quarter meet WHO virucidal standards
An analysis of South African hand-sanitisers found that barely a quarter conform to World Health Organization guidelines on the alcohol content necessary to have...
‘Strong evidence’ of COVID-19’s origin in Wuhan live-animal market
COVID-19’s Patient Zero was a woman working at China’s Wuhan animal market, not an accountant unconnected to the facility, as previously concluded by the...
Intravenous remdesivir reduced hospitalisation by 87% in high-risk COVID patients
A three-day course of intravenous remdesivir reduced the risk of hospitalisation by 87% versus placebo, in COVID-19 outpatients at high risk of progression to...
Vaccination 5x more effective against hospitalisation than prior COVID infection — CDC analysis
A nationwide analysis from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are associated with significantly more immunity...
Neurological complications after first dose of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines
Increased but low risk of Guillain–Barré syndrome and Bell’s palsy after first dose of the Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccine, as well as of haemorrhagic stroke after...
Anti-vaccine chiropractors: A rising force of misinformation
An Associated Press investigation has found that in the United States, “a major purveyor” of anti-vaccine activism and misinformation is a small but vocal...
UK reports 30,000 “yellow card” menstrual-related vaccination occurrences
Medical professionals are increasingly being approached by women who have experienced changes to periods and unexpected vaginal bleeding after being vaccinated, writes Dr Victoria...
Healthy boys at greater risk from vaccination than COVID itself — US analysis
Healthy boys may be more likely to be admitted to hospital with post-vaccination myocarditis, a rare side-effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine, than with...
Acute COVID: 35% higher risk of substantial decline in kidney function
COVID-19 survivors exhibited substantially increased risk of adverse kidney outcomes in the post-acute phase, found an analysis of 1.7m US military veterans’ records, in...
New COVID variant — More mutated, more transmissible, and all over SA
A coronavirus variant first detected in South Africa and since found in England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland, could be more infectious than other mutations and...
Doctors are ambivalent about the looming catastrophe of ‘long COVID’
The medical community has been ambivalent about recognising “ long COVID” as a legitimate disease or syndrome, partly because it currently has no accepted...
Efficacy and safety of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after six months
The Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccine prevents COVID-19 effectively for up to six months after the second dose across diverse populations, including 100% efficacy against the...
CDC warns: Delta more transmissible than Ebola, as contagious as chickenpox
The Delta variant is more transmissible than Ebola and as infectious as chickenpox, warns the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, writes MedicalBrief....
Study supporting Ivermectin for COVID withdrawn over ethical concerns
The efficacy of Ivermectin, the drug being unofficially promoted worldwide for treating COVID-19, is again under challenge after a much cited study suggesting the...
COVID-19 vaccines highly effective in most people in clinical risk groups — Massive UK study
The Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca/Oxford COVID-19 vaccines are as effective at preventing symptomatic illness in people with underlying medical conditions as in the rest of...
Azithromycin doesn't reduce hospitalisation or mortality risk in mild-to-moderate COVID-19
A randomised clinical trial conducted in the United Kingdom found that use of the antibiotic azithromycin in patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 did not reduce...
Long COVID: More than a quarter of patients still symptomatic after six months — Swiss study
In a study of adults from the Zurich general population who were infected with COVID-19 in 2020, more than a quarter report not having...
COVID-19 antibodies persist at least nine months after infection — Assay tests in Italy
Researchers from the University of Padua and Imperial College London tested more than 85% of the 3,000 residents of Vo’, Italy, in February/March 2020...
Delta variant: Not just hyper-contagious but also multiplies more rapidly inside respiratory tract
After months of data collection, scientists agree: the Delta variant is the most contagious version of the coronavirus worldwide. It spreads about 225% faster...
Pfizer and Moderna cut COVID-19 infection risk by 91% in the fully vaccinated
mRNA vaccines were highly effective among working-age adults in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection when administered in real-world conditions, lessening the viral RNA load, risk of...
Need for full COVID vaccination to protect against Delta — Pasteur Institute
With the welter of news about the Delta variant spreading around the world, one theme has emerged: this form of the virus that causes...
Ivermectin: Studies come thick and fast; Regulators remain unmoved
Three significant studies of Ivermectin in COVID-19 have been released in the past week, with two sets of meta-analyses delivering contradictory results and the...
FDA approves arthritis drug for emergency use in hospitalised COVID patients
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an emergency use authorisation (EUA) for Roche's Actemra, an arthritis medicine, to treat adults and...
Millions of cancelled operations due to COVID and high death risk – UK study
The first nationwide study of the impact of COVID-19 on surgery at NHS hospitals in the United Kingdom has revealed that more than 1.5...