Category: COVID
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
Vaccine Breakthrough Could Finally Bring COVID to Its Knees
(DailyBeast) With new COVID variants and subvariants evolving faster and faster, each chipping away at the effectiveness of the leading vaccines, the hunt is on for a new kind of vaccine—one that works equally well on current and future forms of the novel coronavirus. Now researchers at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland think they’ve found a […]
Nov 21, 2022
Rare, convergent antibodies targeting the stem helix broadly neutralize diverse betacoronaviruses
(Cell Host and Microbe) Humanity has faced three recent outbreaks of novel betacoronaviruses, emphasizing the need to develop approaches that broadly target coronaviruses. Here, we identify 55 monoclonal antibodies from COVID-19 convalescent donors that bind diverse betacoronavirus spike proteins. Most antibodies targeted an S2 epitope that included the K814 residue and were non-neutralizing. However, 11 […]
Nov 21, 2022
Consequences of COVID Reinfection (Podcast)
(MedPageToday) THealthWatch is a weekly podcast from Texas Tech. In it, Elizabeth Tracey, director of electronic media for Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, and Rick Lange, MD, president of the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso, look at the top medical stories of the week.
Nov 21, 2022
As global COVID cases rise, multiple viruses stress health systems
(CIDRAP) Global COVID-19 cases showed a small rise last week, with infection increasing in three world regions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its weekly update. In some countries in the Americas—one region where cases are rising—brisk flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity is also straining hospitals, prompting a warning today from the […]
Nov 17, 2022
BA.5 is no longer dominant in the U.S. for the first time since July, as two new subvariants take over
(NBC News) The two coronavirus subvariants, BQ.1.1 and BQ.1, seem to be better at evading immune defenses and together make up 44% of new Covid cases. Two new omicron subvariants have overtaken BA.5 as the prevailing versions of the coronavirus in the U.S. BA.5 became dominant in July, then consistently accounted for the majority of new […]
Nov 17, 2022
Variant-specific symptoms of COVID-19 in a study of 1,542,510 adults in England
(Nature) Infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus is associated with a wide range of symptoms. The REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission −1 (REACT-1) study monitored the spread and clinical manifestation of SARS-CoV-2 among random samples of the population in England from 1 May 2020 to 31 March 2022. We show changing symptom profiles associated with the different variants […]
Nov 15, 2022
Omicron BA.2 tied to more symptoms and, rarely, brain swelling in kids
(CIDRAP) A UK study suggests that Omicron BA.2 is tied to more symptoms and greater disruption in daily activities than BA.1, and Taiwanese researchers describe fatal cerebral edema in six children hospitalized for BA.2. Imperial College London researchers tracked SARS-CoV-2 transmission and symptoms among 1,542,510 randomly selected English adults, including 17,448 COVID-19 patients, from May 1, 2020, […]
Nov 15, 2022
Covid Hospitalizations Are Rising in Kids Under 6 Months, CDC Director Walensky Says
(Bloomberg) Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising among babies under 6 months old, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging mothers to get vaccinated to reduce the risk of infection in those not yet eligible for shots, Director Rochelle Walensky said. “We’re seeing more and more of those younger babies getting hospitalized,” Walensky […]
Nov 15, 2022