Polio

Asymptomatic and symptomatic COVID-19 patients show similar shedding patterns

Patients with confirmed asymptomatic COVID-19 infections shed virus at similar levels to those who are experiencing symptoms, underscoring the importance of public health actions to control the spread of the virus, researchers from South Korea reported yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Kids 5 and younger could spread COVID-19 as much as adults, study finds

Children younger than 5 years with mild or moderate COVID-19 have much higher levels of coronavirus genetic material in their nose and throat than do older children and adults, according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics.

Plague outbreak in DRC sickens 45, some with pneumonic symptoms

A plague outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that began on June likely involves all three types, including pneumonic, and has so far resulted in 45 cases, 9 of them fatal, the World Health Organization (WHO) said yesterday in a statement.

Another case added to DRC Equateur Ebola outbreak total

One more Ebola case has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Equateur province outbreak, raising the total to 57, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said on Twitter today.

The added case is a probable infection, involving a patient who apparently died. Of the 57 cases, 53 are lab-confirmed and 4 are now listed as probable. The fatality count is now at 22.

Pandemic could set back decades of HIV, TB, malaria advances, experts say

Some low- and middle-income countries could see deaths due to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria spike by as much as 10%, 20%, and 36%, respectively, over the next 5 years because of health service disruptions amid the COVID-19 pandemic and response, according to a modeling study published yesterday in The Lancet Global Health.

Obese COVID-19 patients at risk for respiratory failure but not hospital death

A retrospective cohort study of 1,687 COVID-19 patients at two New York City hospitals published yesterday in the Annals of Internal Medicine revealed that 31% were obese, and obese patients were at higher risk of respiratory failure.

WHO declares end to DRC Ebola public health emergency

The Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) 10th Ebola outbreak—declared over by national health officials yesterday—no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) under the International Health Regulations, a World Health Organization (WHO) emergency committee announced today.

Study shows high SARS-CoV-2 positivity rate among Latinos

More than 40% of Latinos in the Baltimore-Washington, DC metropolitan region who were tested for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, were positive, a rate far higher than for any other racial/ethnic group, researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine reported yesterday in JAMA.

Autopsies show brain damage in COVID-19 patients

A study yesterday in The Lancet presents the clinical findings of autopsies conducted on six German patients (four men and two women, aged 58 to 82 years) who died from COVID-19 in April. All six had evidence of extensive brain pathologies at the time of death.

Each patient had severe viral pneumonia caused by COVID-19 and required mechanical intubation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.

Canadian data show rise in MRSA, VRE blood infections

Data collected from Canadian acute care hospitals show significant increases in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) bloodstream infections (BSIs) in recent years, according to a study in the Canada Communicable Disease Report (CCDR).