COVID-19

Two Pandemics, One Challenge—Leveraging Molecular Test Capacity of Tuberculosis Laboratories for Rapid COVID-19 Case-Finding

Mon, 2020-11-02 19:18 — mike kraft

Two Pandemics, One Challenge—Leveraging Molecular Test Capacity of Tuberculosis Laboratories for Rapid COVID-19 Case-Finding In many settings, the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic coincides with other major public health threats, in particular tuberculosis. U... Emerging Infectious Diseases journal

...TB laboratories can be an important resource to increase the global capacity for SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic testing and research. However, expanding their scope to the detection of a viral pathogen warrants careful planning.

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Europe is locking down a second time. But what is its long-term plan?

Mon, 2020-11-02 17:46 — mike kraft

Europe is locking down a second time. But what is its long-term plan? New measures seek to lower the spread of the coronavirus, but some scientists say Europe should eliminate it Science | AAAS

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As U.S. COVID-19 cases break records, weekly deaths rise 3%

Mon, 2020-11-02 17:33 — mike kraft

As U.S. COVID-19 cases break records, weekly deaths rise 3% The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States hit another record high last week, rising 18% to more than 575,000, while deaths inched up 3%, according to a Reuters analysis of state and county reports. Reuters Staff U.S.

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ANALYSIS: In Search for the virus, WHO let China take charge

Mon, 2020-11-02 17:11 — mike kraft

...Nine months and more than 1.1 million deaths later, there is still no transparent, independent investigation into the source of the (COVID-19) virus. Notoriously allergic to outside scrutiny, China has impeded the effort, while leaders of the World Health Organization, if privately frustrated, have largely ceded control, even as the Trump administration has fumed.

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Families, day cares feel strain of new COVID-19 health rules

Mon, 2020-11-02 12:53 — mike kraft

.... As more families make the jump back to group day care this fall in an attempt to restart lives and careers, many parents, pediatricians and care operators are finding that new, pandemic-driven rules offer a much-needed layer of safety but also seem incompatible with the germy reality of childhood.

They stem largely from coronavirus guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lowering the fever threshold, disqualifying even a single bout of diarrhea or vomiting and making sniffles suspect in group settings.

But the guidelines don’t take into account that young children are prone to catching the common viral infections that help build up their immune systems, or that seasonal allergies, crying, even teething and normal playground exertion can prompt a COVID-19-like symptom.

And the price parents and kids pay for such symptoms — which could easily signal either a happy, healthy toddler, or a lurking case of the disease that has now killed more than 230,000 people in the U.S. — is now a dayslong disruption. ...uilt over neglecting work.

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Scientists presenting the findings, from 100 non-hospitalised COVID-19 patients in Britain, said they were “reassuring” but did not mean people cannot in rare cases be infected twice with the disease. “While our findings cause us to be cautiously optimis

Mon, 2020-11-02 11:05 — mike kraft

T-cell study adds to debate over duration of COVID-19 immunity A small but key UK study has found that "cellular immunity" to the pandemic SARS-CoV-2 virus is present after six months in people who had mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 - suggesting they might have some level of protection for at least that time. Kate Kelland U.S.

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STUDY: Coronavirus Genetic Mutation May Have Made COVID-19 More Contagious

Mon, 2020-11-02 10:52 — mike kraft

It’s Evolving: Coronavirus Genetic Mutation May Have Made COVID-19 More Contagious A study involving more than 5,000 COVID-19 patients in Houston finds that the virus that causes the disease is accumulating genetic mutations, one of which may have made it more contagious. According to the paper published in the peer-reviewed journal mBIO, that mutation, called D614G, is located in Mike O'Neill SciTechDaily

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A Rapid Virus Test Falters in People Without Symptoms, Study Finds

Mon, 2020-11-02 10:35 — mike kraft

As the number of coronavirus cases in the United States exceeds 9.2 million, experts continue to call for a massive scale-up of testing among both the healthy and the sick — a necessary measure, they have said, to curb the spread of an infection that can move swiftly and silently through the population.

One strategy has involved the widespread use of rapid tests, which forgo sophisticated equipment and can return results in minutes. Purchased in bulk by the federal government and shipped nationwide, millions of these products have already found their way into clinics, nursing homes, schools, athletic teams’ facilities and more, buoying hopes that the tests might hasten a return to normalcy.

But a new study casts doubt on whether rapid tests perform as promised under real-world conditions, especially when used in people without symptoms.

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States Undercount Positive Rapid Tests, Masking the Spread of Disease

Mon, 2020-11-02 10:27 — mike kraft

As rapid coronavirus tests are becoming more widely available, delivering results in minutes for patients in doctor's offices, nursing homes, schools and even the White House, officials warn of a significant undercount, blurring the virus's spread nationally and in communities where such tests are more commonly used.

Public health officials say that antigen tests, which are faster than polymerase chain reaction (P.C.R.) tests but less able to detect low levels of the virus, are an important tool for limiting the spread of the coronavirus. But they caution that with inconsistent public reporting, the case undercount may worsen as more “point-of-care” antigen tests, as well as D.I.Y. and home test kits, come on the market.

“We want to be sure that we’re not now saying, ‘there’s no disease,’ when there is lots of disease. All that’s happened is that the science with which we identify it has evolved,” said Janet Hamilton, the executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the group that helps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention define cases of the coronavirus....

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