PHARMACY experts at the University of Huddersfield are urging caution over claims that widely-available antimalarial drugs could be a “magic bullet” to prevent and cure CoVid-19. And the medicines can – if used rashly – have serious side effects. Although there have been some encouraging signs from small-scale preliminary trials of the drugs chloroquine (CQ)...
by Frontiers Cytokine storms may affect the severity of COVID-19 cases by lowering T cell counts, according to a new study published in Frontiers in Immunology. Researchers studying coronavirus cases in China found that sick patients had a significantly low number of T cells, a type of white blood cell that plays a crucial role...
by Maja Husaric and Vasso Apostolopoulos, The Conversation Coughs are a valuable diagnostic tool, but how do you know if you’ve got a relatively harmless cough, a coronavirus cough—or something else altogether? An occasional cough is healthy, but one that persists for weeks, produces bloody mucus, causes changes in phlegm color or comes with fever,...
The head of the World Health Organization has warned that “the worst is yet ahead of us” in the coronavirus outbreak, raising new alarm bells about the pandemic just as many countries are beginning to ease restrictive measures. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus didn’t specify exactly why he believes that the outbreak that has infected...
by Kate Thayer, Chicago Tribune As the coronavirus pandemic intensified, so did Catherine Payne’s strategies for avoiding infection while undergoing chemotherapy. The 33-year-old Chicago woman was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer in November and began treatment soon after, suppressing her immune system. What started as avoiding the gym, air travel and limiting contact with...
A new type of sensor device from the German health technology company Digital Diagnostics AG can be used for immediate tests for the new SARS coronavirus. The SARS-CoV-2 MEMS 5 Minute Test(TM) is created as a pocket-size lab and can be used in four steps anywhere on-site by general practitioners, paramedics and nursing staff without...
BY YEKATERINA KADYSHEVSKAYA, USC The discovery comes just as new data are revealing that some of the hardest hit victims of COVID-19 suffer from obesity and other chronic conditions A USC-led international team of scientists has found the precise shape of a key player in human metabolism, which could lead the way to better treatments...
By MARY KEKATOS SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM A French study found that only 4.4% of 350 coronavirus patients hospitalized were regular smokers and 5.3% of 130 homebound patients smoked This pales in comparison with at least 25% of the French population that smokes Researchers theorized nicotine could prevent the virus from infecting cells or...
BY DAN ROBITZSKI / APRIL 21 2020 New research suggests that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could have already mutated into more than 30 separate strains. The study found that different strains can generate vastly different levels of viral load as others, the South China Morning Post reports, making them far more dangerous. One...
by Elsevier In parallel to their current work on a potential coronavirus vaccine, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have developed a new vaccine delivery system for vaccines using live or attenuated viral vectors: a finger-tip sized patch that contains 400 tiny needles, each just half of one millimeter. Their progress is...
