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COVID-19 Scan for Sep 23, 2020

Asymptomatic COVID in healthcare workers points to risk of silent spread

A study released this week shows a 40% asymptomatic rate among healthcare workers (HCW) testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 at the time of screening—meaning they had no symptoms compatible with a COVID-19 diagnosis—raising concerns about silent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings.

News Scan for Sep 24, 2020

Inflammation linked to higher death risk, could shed light on COVID in men

A large study of German patients presented online at this week's European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Conference on Coronavirus Disease found that men have a 62% higher risk of death from COVID-19, possibly due to higher levels of inflammation.

COVID-19 Scan for Sep 25, 2020

Demographics, underlying conditions tied to worse COVID in health workers

Today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) provides updated information from voluntary reports on 100,570 healthcare personnel (HCP) with COVID-19 from February to July that shows variations in risk, including higher death rates in minority workers.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 05, 2020

COVID-19 jail outbreak curbed using network-informed steps, CDC says

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Chicago area analyzed movement networks during a COVID-19 outbreak at the Cook County Jail in Chicago, finding that medical isolation and contact interventions were effective at reducing transmission.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 06, 2020

Study finds greater severity, disability in COVID-19 strokes

A University College London (UCL) and UCL Hospital study this week found that COVID-19–associated ischemic strokes—caused by an obstruction of blood vessels in the brain—are more severe and more likely to result in disability or death than non-COVID strokes are, and Asian people are especially hard-hit.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 09, 2020

At least 9% of COVID-19 patients readmitted within 2 months, study finds

In a Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report (MMWR) study today, data from the Premier Healthcare Database showed that, of 106,543 patients who survived after being admitted for COVID-19 from March through July, 9,504 (8.9%) were readmitted to the same hospital within 2 months of discharge for any condition, infectious disease–related or not.

News Scan for Nov 10, 2020

Study finds 46% of high-risk adults endangered by workplace exposure

A study yesterday found that employment-related exposure to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, endangers workers and their household members.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 11, 2020

Older people more likely to embrace COVID prevention steps, study finds

A PLOS One study yesterday showed that behavioral responses to the pandemic differ by age and change over time, with older people more likely to practice pandemic-mitigating behaviors—hygiene, quarantining, and physical distancing—and all age-groups demonstrating greater likelihood of engaging in risky behavior over time.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 12, 2020

Mega study shows blacks, Asians have increased COVID-19 infection risk

A meta-analysis of 50 studies and 18,728,893 US and UK patients with COVID-19 found that black people were 2.02 times more likely and Asians 1.50 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 compared with white people. The researchers also found that Hispanic people had a 1.77 adjusted risk ratio (RR), but none of the applicable studies had been peer reviewed.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 13, 2020

Fluvoxamine possible treatment for mild-to-moderate COVID

In a preliminary study conducted on 152 patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 infections, no patient in a group of 80 people who took a 15-day course of fluvoxamine, an antidepressant, reported clinical deterioration, as opposed to 6 (8.3%) of 72 who took a placebo.

News Scan for Nov 13, 2020

Pharmacist-led stewardship linked to improved antibiotic prescribing

An antibiotic stewardship program (ASP) intervention led by ambulatory care pharmacists was associated with improvements in guideline-concordant antibiotic prescribing in a family medicine residency clinic, researchers reported today in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

COVID-19 Scan for Nov 16, 2020

COVID-19 3-month follow-up shows residual lung abnormalities

A 3-month follow-up study of 142 COVID-19 survivors in China showed that 85.9% of patients had abnormalities on computed tomography (CT) chest scans and 52 (36.6%) had chronic and fibrotic changes.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 23, 2020

Brazilian trial finds no COVID-19 benefit from hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin

A randomized controlled trial of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Brazil found that the use of hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, did not improve clinical status at 15 days compared with standard care, researchers reported today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 24, 2020

Study finds no transmission of COVID-19 from moms to newborns

A study yesterday in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health found no evidence of COVID-19 transmission between 120 babies born to mothers with COVID-19, even after 2 weeks of breastfeeding with appropriate hygiene precautions.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 27, 2020

Analysis of remdesivir COVID-19 trials posts encouraging results

In a comparative analysis published late last week in Clinical Infectious Diseases, the antiviral drug remdesivir was linked to significantly greater recovery and a 62% lower death rate by day 14 versus standard treatment in hospitalized adults with severe COVID-19.

News Scan for Jul 28, 2020

Survey: More US workers out sick amid pandemic than any other time on record

More than 2 million American workers called in sick in a single week in mid-April, causing the highest absence rate on record and leading to suspicions that COVID-19 cases were substantially undercounted, according to a research letter published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 29, 2020

Invasive ventilation, older age, dialysis tied to COVID-19 death in Germany

An observational study of 10,021 COVID-19 patients admitted to 920 German hospitals has found that patients requiring mechanical ventilation were at highest risk for death—especially those 80 years and older and those needing dialysis.

News Scan for Jul 30, 2020

Study shows higher COVID-19 exposure rates in pregnant black, Hispanic women

Pregnant black and Hispanic women at two Philadelphia hospitals were five times more likely than their white and Asian peers to have been exposed to COVID-19, according to a study published yesterday in Science Immunology.

News Scan for Jul 31, 2020

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.

COVID-19 Scan for Aug 03, 2020

Telehealth is a boon—except for many older Americans unable to use it

Telemedicine is booming amid the COVID-19 pandemic, but many older US adults—particularly those who are low-income, male, black or Hispanic, older than 65 years, less educated, living in rural areas, or have disabilities or poor health—are unable to access remote services, cutting them off from healthcare.

News Scan for Aug 04, 2020

COVID-19 RNA found on surfaces after asymptomatic patients' eye exams

COVID-19 genetic material—not necessarily live virus—was found on surfaces in a 1-meter (3.3-foot) diameter circle where asymptomatic patients who had passed coronavirus triage had eye exams, according to a small study published yesterday in JAMA Ophthalmology.

News Scan for Jun 16, 2020

Steroid cuts deaths in COVID-19 patients with severe respiratory illness

Unpublished data from a large randomized controlled trial in the United Kingdom indicate that dexamethasone, a cheap, widely available steroid, reduces deaths in hospitalized COVID-19 patients requiring respiratory support.

News Scan for Jun 17, 2020

Face masks allow virus-containing droplets to escape, study finds

In a study with implications for COVID-19 transmission, mild coughing can expel small saliva droplets through and around a face mask and travel as far as 1 meter (3.3 feet), according to a study published yesterday in Physics of Fluids.

COVID-19 Scan for Jun 18, 2020

Study links 2 gene clusters with increased risk for severe COVID-19 illness

A genomic analysis of hundreds of European patients who had severe cases of COVID-19 pointed to two gene clusters—one of them related to blood type—that seemed to be associated with severe disease, according to a report published yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

News Scan for Jun 19, 2020

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.