Imbalances in type and volume of bacteria may also be implicated in ‘long COVID’ The variety and volume of bacteria in the gut, known as the microbiome, may influence the severity of COVID-19 as well as the magnitude of the immune system response to the infection, suggests research published online in the journal Gut. Imbalances in
EMA has received an application for conditional marketing authorisation (CMA) for a COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. The assessment of the vaccine, known as COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca, will proceed under an accelerated timeline. An opinion on the marketing authorisation could be issued by 29 January during the meeting of EMA’s scientific committee for human medicines (CHMP), provided
A model developed by CDC researchers estimates that 59% of coronavirus cases in the United States are spread by asymptomatic carriers. Transmissions from individuals who have not yet begun to exhibit signs of infection account for 35% of that total, while transmissions from people who never develop symptoms make up the other 24%. A model
Pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV-2 appear to be at higher risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19 than infected women who are not pregnant. Yet newborns are mostly doing well. Reports indicate that only about 5 percent of babies born to COVID-19-infected mothers are themselves infected, and most newborns who test positive have mild or
Dozens of people being treated for COVID-19 at a Florida hospital last summer became additionally infected with a mysterious, often deadly fungus called Candida auris, a US government study said Friday. The multidrug-resistant yeast was first identified in Japan in 2009 and has been a top priority for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
COVID-19 patients admitted to intensive care in the early months of the pandemic were subject to a significantly higher burden of delirium and coma than is typically found in patients with acute respiratory failure. Choice of sedative medications and curbs on family visitation played a role in increasing acute brain dysfunction for these patients. That’s
Clinicians should consider prescribing intravenous tocilizumab following the criteria defined below for patients in intensive care. Intravenous sarilumab could be considered as an alternative (if available).Any provider organisation treating patients with this intervention will be required to assure itself that the internal governance arrangements have been completed before either medicine is prescribed. These arrangements may
Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE announced results from an in vitro study conducted by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) that shows the antibodies from people who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with a key mutation that is also found in two highly transmissible strains. The results were published
When we speak of variants we refer to differences in the sequence of the genome due to mutations. Strain is a variant in which changes in its biology are demonstrated (antigenicity, transmissibility, virulence,…). For now, let’s talk about variants. The evaluation of the new variants should answer these questions: Has the new variant appeared by
Impact on molecular tests remains low The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting clinical laboratory staff and health care providers that the FDA is monitoring the potential impact of viral mutations, including an emerging variant from the United Kingdom known as the B.1.1.7 variant, on authorized SARS-CoV-2 molecular tests, and that false negative results
