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News Scan for Apr 21, 2022

Patient contracted Omicron just 20 days after Delta strain of COVID-19

A 31-year-old woman from Spain contracted COVID-19 twice within 3 weeks, despite being fully vaccinated and recently receiving a booster shot, according to a case report that will be presented at the upcoming European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) meeting. The case provides evidence that the Omicron strain is able to evade previous immunity.

News Scan for Apr 22, 2022

Study reveals COVID-19 death rate 3 times higher than for flu in adults

Adults hospitalized early in the pandemic with COVID-19 were at more than triple the risk of death than those with influenza, despite the flu patients being older and having more chronic illnesses, according to new data from Spain to be presented at this year's European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), which starts tomorrow.

News Scan for Apr 25, 2022

COVID vaccines may have saved 19,000 lives in under a year in California

A modeling study estimates that COVID-19 vaccination prevented more than 1.5 million infections, 72,000 hospitalizations, and 19,000 deaths in the first 10 months of vaccination in California, according to a study published late last week in JAMA Network Open.

COVID-19 Scan for Apr 26, 2022

Fourth COVID vaccine dose tied to 78% lower risk of death in older Israelis

Israelis aged 60 and older given a fourth dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine amid the Omicron surge had a 64% lower risk of hospitalization and 78% lower risk of death than those who received three doses, suggests an observational study published yesterday in Nature Medicine.

News Scan for Apr 27, 2022

DRC launches vaccine campaign in new Ebola outbreak area

Following the reappearance of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC's) Equateur province, the country today launched an rVSV-EBOV vaccine campaign, tapping an initial shipment of 200 doses, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said today.

COVID-19 Scan for Apr 28, 2022

Modeling study shows geographical disparities in US COVID deaths

Using excess mortality data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), researchers from Georgetown University found significant regional differences in mortality rates due to COVID-19, with a disproportionate number of virus deaths in Southern states.

News Scan for Apr 29, 2022

Sensitivity of home COVID rapid antigen tests peaks 4 days after illness onset

The sensitivity of home rapid antigen COVID-19 tests peaks 4 days after symptom onset, suggesting that a negative antigen test should be followed by a second test in 1 or 2 days, according to a prospective study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.

News Scan for May 02, 2022

COVID vaccine uptake at Minnesota workplace rose after $1,000 incentive

The rate of full COVID-19 vaccination among employees of a private Minnesota medical device manufacturer rose 10.4 percentage points after the company began offering $1,000 incentives for immunization, finds a study published late last week in JAMA Network Open.

News Scan for May 03, 2022

Severe COVID-19 may cause 10-point IQ drop, 20-year brain aging

Cognitive impairment from severe COVID-19 is equivalent to losing 10 IQ points or 20 years of aging, and any recovery is slow at best, suggests a small study published late last week in eClinicalMedicine.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 07, 2021

Low testosterone in men tied to severe COVID-19

New data presented at the European Association of Urology congress this week show that men with low testosterone who were hospitalized for severe COVID-19 during the first wave of infections in Milan, Italy, were more likely to need intensive care and mechanical ventilation, and they had a sixfold increased risk of death.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 08, 2021

US COVID vaccination program may have saved 279,000 lives

The US COVID-19 vaccination program may have saved almost 280,000 lives and prevented 1.25 million hospitalizations, according to the results of a modeling study published yesterday by the Commonwealth Fund.

News Scan for Jul 09, 2021

Vaccination linked to COVID-19 decline in healthcare workers

In Orange County, California, COVID-19 vaccination in healthcare personnel (HCP) was connected with a 94% reduction in HCP cases 3 weeks after second doses of mRNA-based vaccines were administered, according to a JAMA Network Open research letter yesterday.

Stewardship / Resistance Scan for Jul 12, 2021

Non-antibiotic drugs may be a risk for resistant bacteria

A study of hospital patients in Israel found a link between multidrug-resistant gut bacteria and exposure to commonly used non-antimicrobial drugs (NAMDs), researchers reported last week at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

News Scan for Jul 12, 2021

Flu vaccine linked to better COVID-19 symptoms

People who received the flu vaccine prior to having COVID-19 had less risk of sepsis, stroke, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and disease requiring emergency or intensive care, according to a study presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) this year.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 13, 2021

Public health groups support mandatory COVID vaccines in healthcare

Today a consensus statement by several leading public health organizations and a commentary in the Annals of Internal Medicine voiced support for mandating COVID-19 vaccinations in US healthcare workers (HCWs).

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 14, 2021

Bacterial infections found in higher-risk, hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Half of 399 hospitalized COVID-19 patients developed bacterial infections 48 or more hours after hospitalization, according to a PLOS One study yesterday. The bacterial superinfections were associated most strongly with lung disease, encephalopathy, mechanical ventilation, hospital stay of 8 or more days, and steroid treatment.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 15, 2021

Early monoclonal antibody combo for COVID-19 cuts hospital, death rates

Yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine results from a phase 3 trial showed that a combination of bamlanivimab plus etesevimab monoclonal antibodies led to a lower incidence of COVID-19–related hospitalization and deaths.

News Scan for Jul 16, 2021

Half of hospitalized COVID patients developed complications, study finds

Half of patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 across 302 UK hospitals developed one or more health complications within 28 days or discharge, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet.

News Scan for Jul 19, 2021

People in poor nations more likely to accept COVID vaccines, survey finds

Eighty percent of survey respondents in 10 developing countries indicated a willingness to get a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 65% in the United States and 30% in Russia, according to a study published late last week in Nature Medicine.

News Scan for Jul 20, 2021

COVID-19 erased Latino mortality advantage in LA County

While Latino people have lower rates of mortality despite their higher rates of poverty compared with White people in the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic erased it, at least in Los Angeles County, according to a JAMA research letter yesterday.

News Scan for Jul 21, 2021

COVID-19 didn't spread among school bus riders, Virginia study finds

A study yesterday in the Journal of School Health finds that while 39 elementary and high school students in a Virginia public school district rode school buses while infected with SARS-CoV-2, investigators found no evidence of viral transmission to other students or adults.

News Scan for Jul 22, 2021

Camp outbreak shows COVID-19 transmission from children to adults

Children and teens spread COVID-19 to household adults after returning home from a sleep-away camp in June 2020, according to correspondence published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday.

COVID-19 Scan for Jul 23, 2021

Side effects after Pfizer COVID vaccine more common after COVID-19

Patients with a history of COVID-19 were more likely to have side effects after their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine than those who were never infected, according to a Vaccine study yesterday.

News Scan for Jul 26, 2021

COVID in dorms led to roommate transmission 20% of the time, study says

Out of 574 multiple-occupancy dorm rooms, roommate transmissions occurred only 20% of the time, according to a study during the fall 2020 semester at the University of Colorado Boulder.

News Scan for Jul 27, 2021

Republicans COVID vaccine acceptance up 7% after party endorsements

Republicans' intended COVID-19 vaccine uptake rose 7% after watching and reading endorsements from elite Republican leaders versus those from Democrat leaders, according to a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.