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Loss of smell should be recognised as symptom of COVID-19 _ UCL study
Four out of five people experiencing the recent loss of smell and/or taste tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies—and of those who tested positive, 40%...
Long Covid: Reviewing the Science and Assessing the Risk — Tony Blair Institute for Global Change report
The effects of “long COVID” could turn out to be a bigger public health problem than excess deaths, warns a report published by the...
Lopinavir-ritonavir in hospitalised COVID-19 patients — RECOVERY trial
The drug combination lopinavir-ritonavir is not an effective treatment for patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, according to the results of a randomised controlled...
COVID-19 severity may link to weak spots in immune system — Genome study
People infected by the novel coronavirus can have symptoms that range from mild to deadly. Now, two new analyses suggest that some life-threatening cases...
CDC update on airborne transmission of COVID-19
US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that COVID-19 can spread through virus lingering in the air, sometimes for hours, acknowledging...
COVID-19 becoming more contagious but not deadlier — Houston genome analysis
The first study to analyse the structure of the novel coronavirus from two waves of infection in a major city found that a more...
Comparative testing of antibody kits shows wide performance variations — UK study
There is wide variation in the performance of commercial kits for detecting antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), according to a...
A million deaths later and counting…
On 16 January this year, well before hysteria ignited in the general media, <emMedicalBrief reported that a coronavirus that had manifested in the city...
HIV patients: Low CD4 cell count may increase COVID-19 mortality threefold
People with HIV who had a low CD4 cell count or underlying health conditions were more likely to have poor outcomes after admission to...
Preventive nasal spray cuts viral replication in half — Australian animal study
A novel nasal treatment developed to boost the natural human immune system to fight common colds and flu, has proved remarkably successful in reducing...
ECMO substantially improved survival of critically ill COVID-19 patients — Large study
According to an international study of 1,035 patients who faced a staggeringly high risk of death, as ventilators and other care failed to support their...
COVID-19 infection may deplete testosterone – Turkish study
For the first time, data from a study with patients hospitalised due to COVID-19 suggest that the disease might deteriorate men’s testosterone levels.
Experts from...
USF researchers find death counts fail to capture full mortality effects of COVID-19
More than 200,000 people in the US have died from COVID-19. Some argue that statistic is inaccurate due to inconsistencies in how deaths are...
Large percentage of UK summer deaths incorrectly attributed to coronavirus — Oxford
Coronavirus was not the main cause of death for nearly one third of recorded COVID-19 victims in July and August, The Daily Telegraph reports...
Silk face masks may have advantages — A laboratory-based evaluation
A laboratory-based study by researchers at the University of Cincinnati, examining the properties of silk fabric to evaluate its potential as a protective barrier...
Facial masking may be generating immunity — NEJM commentary
Face masks might be helping reduce the severity of disease and ensuring that a greater proportion of new COVID-19 infections are asymptomatic, thus generating...
'Strong evidence' that BCG does not protect against COVID-19
An analysis of Swedish public health data provides "strong evidence" that receiving the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis at birth does not have a protective...
British COVID-19 test gives results in 90 minutes with 94% accuracy — Lancet
A 90-minute COVID-19 test has been shown to have over 94% sensitivity, and 100% specificity in a new study. The work was led by...
COVID-19 challenges and strategies — SA academic hospital
Six months after South Africa’s first confirmed case of the deadly COVID-19 virus – which spread across the country and has so far infected...
Benefit from convalescent plasma in severe COVID-19 — Small New York study
Preliminary data from a small study suggests convalescent plasma may have some efficacy in patients with severe COVID-19. The retrospective, propensity score-matched case-control study...
Antibody helps rid patients’ systems of SARS-Cov-2 sooner — Eli Lilly placebo trial
A drug being developed by Eli Lilly helped sick patients rid their systems of the virus that causes COVID-19 sooner and may have prevented...
COVID-19 may damage immune cells in the bone marrow — UK study
Even bone marrow may not be a safe harbour from the ravages of COVID-19, according to a study that found previously unrecognised changes in...
Eating out riskier than public transportation or haircuts — CDC analysis
Eating out may come with a higher risk of catching COVID-19 than riding public transportation or getting a haircut at a salon, a study...
Answers to 'long COVID' may lie in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome research
Between 35%- 70% of post-COVID-19 patients struggle to recover their usual health, writes MedicalBrief. Some answers may be found in data and biological material...
Pneumothorax another possible COVID-19 complication — Cambridge study
As many as 1 in 100 hospitalised COVID-19 patients may experience a pneumothorax, or punctured lung, according to a multicentre observational case series. Pneumothorax...
Seasonal coronavirus immunity is brief — 35-year case study in Nature
The duration of protective immunity against SARS-CoV-2 may be short-lived, suggests a study investigating immunity to four other, similar coronaviruses. The findings from a...
Heywood vs Shisana: Healthcare veterans clash over lockdown 'deceit'
Two veterans of South African healthcare politics and delivery have locked horns over the country’s early, hard COVID-19 lockdown, with the one accusing government...
Antibody response weak and drops quickly — small hospital study
The antibody response in patients who have recovered from coronavirus is not typically strong, and declines sharply one month after hospital discharge, a study...
Swiss Army finds reduced VO2 max capacity in soldiers with COVID-19
A study of Swiss Army personnel found reduced aerobic capacity in recruits with symptomatic COVID-19 1 to 2 months after diagnosis, researchers at the...
Heart inflammation in athletes after mild, asymptomatic COVID-19 — small study
Four of 26 competitive athletes (15%) who had recovered from mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 had evidence suggestive of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart...
Proning: Some acute ventilator patients have permanent nerve damage
Severely ill COVID-19 patients on ventilators are placed in a prone position because it's easier for them to breathe and reduces mortality. But that...
Child-to-child SARS-CoV-2 spread rare in German schools
Researchers at the University of Tübingen, Germany, Robert Koch-Institute Berlin and European Programme of Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), Stockholm, Sweden report that child-to-child transmission...
WHO update on COVID-19 vaccines: 180 candidates in 35 trials
The World Health Organisation updated its website on 9 September on COVID-19 vaccine candidates with a line listing of 180 different candidates including 35...
Presence of SARS-CoV-2 in cats — A Wuhan serological survey
A study looking at cats in Wuhan, where the first known outbreak of COVID-19 began, shows more cats might be contracting the disease than...
Corticosteroids reduce COVID-19 risk of death by 20% — WHO meta-analysis
Corticosteroids reduce the risk of death among critically ill COVID-19 patients by 20%, an analysis of seven trials has found. The results of three...
Retest 4-plus weeks after first symptoms to curb infection risk — large population study
People who've had COVID-19 should be swab tested again 4 or more weeks after symptoms first appear to minimise the risk of onward infection,...
Dutch study: Does the COVID-19 'cytokine storm' even exist?
Inflammatory proteins, also known as cytokines, play a crucial role in the immune response. If this immune response is too strong, a phenomenon known...
Russian COVID-19 vaccine’s immune response — First release of trials’ results
Russian scientists have published the first report on their coronavirus vaccine, saying early tests showed signs of an immune response. According to a BBC...
First randomised trial backs safety of common heart drugs in COVID-19 patients
Heart patients hospitalised with COVID-19 can safely continue taking angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs), according to the BRACE CORONA trial...
Post-COVID syndrome severely damages children's hearts — systematic review
Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), believed to be linked to COVID-19, damages the heart to such an extent that some children will need...