Category: Clinical Considerations
Cannabis Use Tied to Increased Risk of Severe COVID
Med Page Today Hospitalization risk 80% higher versus nonusers. Cannabis use was significantly associated with a greater risk of severe outcomes following a COVID-19 infection, according to a retrospective study that spanned the first 2 years of the pandemic. Among more than 70,000 patients with a documented case of COVID at a large medical center […]
Jun 26, 2024
Why Bird Flu Is Infecting People’s Eyes
Scientific American Three U.S. dairy workers have been infected with H5N1 after contact with sick cows, and all of them developed eye symptoms. Bird flu has been behaving very strangely lately. A strain of the highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (H5N1) has been spreading in dairy cows in at least nine U.S. states. Infected cows have very high […]
Jun 4, 2024
Severe COVID-19 Lung Disease Linked to Ferroptosis
Genetic Engineering and Biotech News Over the past few years, researchers have uncovered countless details about how SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19. However, the mechanisms underlying how SARS-CoV-2 infection causes severe pulmonary manifestations remain poorly understood. This, in turn, limits treatment options. In some severe cases of COVID-19, the lungs undergo extreme damage, resulting in a range […]
May 21, 2024
What do we know about covid-19’s effects on the brain?
BMJ What are the neurological symptoms of covid-19? Covid may be primarily a respiratory infection, but a common symptom is “brain fog”—problems with memory or concentration—which can persist for weeks or months as part of long covid.1 And it’s not the only neurological effect. Giovanni Schifitto, professor of neurology at the University of Rochester Medical School […]
May 15, 2024
Griffith University researchers to trial naltrexone on long COVID patients
ABC.net Jayden Donald went from a fit and healthy teenager who rode his horses almost every day, to being so sick he could hardly sit up after his second bout of COVID-19. A year later, the 19-year-old talented equestrian has only recently returned to university and to the competitive dressage arena after being diagnosed with […]
May 7, 2024
Long COVID May Have Long-Term Impact on Surgery
American College of Surgeons More than 77% of people in the US had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 as of 2022.1 Of these, approximately 30% of survivors report having persistent symptoms classified as long COVID2 and 11% describe persistent symptoms at 6 months.3 Patients frequently complain of brain fog, cognitive difficulties, and other neurologic sequelae as the primary […]
May 7, 2024
What do we know about covid-19’s effects on the gut?
BMJ What gastrointestinal symptoms can covid-19 cause? Lack of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, and abdominal pain. These may not be the symptoms people expect with covid, but around 50% of people experience them after SARS-CoV-2 infection, and in some people they’re the only symptoms.1 Gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms may be the first sign of infection or may […]
May 1, 2024
Long COVID Taste Loss May Not Involve Taste Buds
Med Page Today Study attempts to untangle taste and olfactory dysfunction 1 year after infection. Taste dysfunction was gone 1 year after exposure to COVID-19, but smell loss remained for some people, a national cross-sectional study showed. Empirically measured taste function didn’t differ between individuals who had acute SARS-CoV-2 infection a year earlier and uninfected […]
Apr 24, 2024
Long COVID leaves telltale traces in the blood, finds new study
Medical Express Findings from the largest UK study of patients hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 infection show that long COVID leads to ongoing inflammation which can be detected in the blood. In an analysis of more than 650 people who had been hospitalized with severe COVID-19, patients with prolonged symptoms showed evidence of immune system activation. The […]
Apr 10, 2024
How lung distress from SARS-CoV-2 can cause heart damage
NIH SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can trigger a life-threatening condition called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), in which fluid leaks into the lungs and prevents oxygen from passing into the body. Other complications of COVID-19 include systemic inflammation and cardiovascular complications. Previous studies have found changes in the makeup of lung immune cells in patients […]
Apr 2, 2024