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Tag: research

Topic: cognitive issuesView all posts for the topic: cognitive issues

Mounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores

Published February 28, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: The Conversation
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By Ziyad Al-Aly

From the very early days of the pandemic, brain fog emerged as a significant health condition that many experience after COVID-19.

Brain fog is a colloquial term that describes a state of mental sluggishness or lack of clarity and haziness that makes it difficult to concentrate, remember things and think clearly.

Fast-forward four years and there is now abundant evidence that being infected with SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – can affect brain health in many ways.

In addition to brain fog, COVID-19 can lead to an array of problems, including headaches, seizure disorders, strokes, sleep problems, and tingling and paralysis of the nerves, as well as several mental health disorders.

A large and growing body of evidence amassed throughout the pandemic details the many ways that COVID-19 leaves an indelible mark on the brain. But the specific pathways by which the virus does so are still being elucidated, and curative treatments are nonexistent.

Continue readingMounting research shows that COVID-19 leaves its mark on the brain, including with significant drops in IQ scores
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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Millions of Americans suffer from long COVID. Why do treatments remain out of reach?

Published February 26, 2024

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Published by: USA Today
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By Eduardo Cuevas, Karen Weintraub

More than a year after catching COVID-19, Sawyer Blatz still can’t practice his weekly rituals: running for miles in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park or biking around his adopted hometown.

In many ways, the pandemic isn’t over for the 27-year-old and millions of other Americans. It may never be.

They have long COVID, a condition characterized by any combination of 200 different lingering symptoms, some of which, like loss of taste and smell are familiar from initial infections and some totally alien, like the utter exhaustion that makes it impossible for Blatz to walk much more than a block.

Continue readingMillions of Americans suffer from long COVID. Why do treatments remain out of reach?
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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Solving the puzzle of Long Covid

Published February 22, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Science
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By Ziyad Al-Aly, Eric Topol

Preventing infections and reinfections is the best way to prevent Long Covid and should remain the foundation of public health policy. A greater commitment to nonpharmaceutical interventions, which include masking, especially in high-risk settings, and improved air quality through filtration and ventilation, are requisite. Updating building codes to require mitigation against airborne pathogens and ensure safer indoor air should be treated with the same seriousness afforded to mitigation of risks from earthquakes and other natural hazards. Reducing the risk of serious outcomes after COVID-19 and some prevention of Long Covid can be attained with vaccination of a wider spectrum of the population.

Continue readingSolving the puzzle of Long Covid
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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Fall COVID-19 vaccine cut illness risk by half overall

Published February 22, 2024

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Published by: Globe and Mail
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By Kelly Grant

The fall COVID-19 vaccine cut the risk of COVID-19 illness by about half overall, and by 67 per cent for those with a previous infection, according to new research from the Canadian network that has long tracked the performance of the annual flu shot.

This is the first time the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network, which is comprised of hundreds of primary care providers in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, produced mid-season estimates of the effectiveness of immunization against COVID-19.

Continue readingFall COVID-19 vaccine cut illness risk by half overall
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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Irish scientists discover why people with long Covid can suffer ‘brain fog’

Published February 22, 2024

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Published by: The Irish Times
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By Kevin O'Sullivan

The reason why people with long Covid can suffer from “brain fog” has been discovered by Irish scientists.

The breakthrough has profound importance for the understanding of brain fog and cognitive decline seen in some patients with the condition, according researchers at Trinity College Dublin.

It brings the possibility of new treatments for the condition, but also for other neurodegenerative illnesses such as multiple sclerosis (MS), they said.

The research, published in Nature Neuroscience on Thursday, shows disruption to the integrity of blood vessels in the brains of patients suffering from long Covid and brain fog.

Continue readingIrish scientists discover why people with long Covid can suffer ‘brain fog’
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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Long Covid ‘brain fog’ may be due to leaky blood-brain barrier, study finds

Published February 22, 2024

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Published by: The Guardian
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By Nicola Davis

From forgetfulness to difficulties concentrating, many people who have long Covid experience “brain fog”. Now researchers say the symptom could be down to the blood-brain barrier becoming leaky.

The barrier controls which substances or materials enter and exit the brain. “It’s all about regulating a balance of material in blood compared to brain,” said Prof Matthew Campbell, co-author of the research at Trinity College Dublin.

“If that is off balance then it can drive changes in neural function and if this happens in brain regions that allow for memory consolidation/storage then it can wreak havoc.”

Writing in the journal Nature Neuroscience, Campbell and colleagues report how they analysed serum and plasma samples from 76 patients who were hospitalised with Covid in March or April 2020, as well 25 people before the pandemic.

Continue readingLong Covid ‘brain fog’ may be due to leaky blood-brain barrier, study finds
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Topic: PaxlovidView all posts for the topic: Paxlovid

Paxlovid use tied to 84% lower risk of hospital care

Published February 21, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill investigators report today that COVID-19 hospitalization risk was reduced by 84% among Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir and ritonavir) recipients in a large, diverse healthcare system during January to August 2022, when the Omicron strain was dominant.

The study appears in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Paxlovid is authorized for use in US patients 12 years and older at risk for developing severe outcomes from COVID-19 infections. In early clinical trials, the use of the antiviral drug was associated with a relative risk reduction of 89% of disease progression to severe illness.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

Study shows 43% to 58% lower prevalence of long COVID among vaccinated people

Published February 20, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

A new study based on 4,605 participants in the Michigan COVID-19 Recovery Surveillance Study shows that the prevalence of long COVID symptoms at 30 and 90 days post-infection was 43% to 58% lower among adults who were fully vaccinated before infection.

The study appeared yesterday in the Annals of Epidemiology.

The 30- and 90-day timeframes were meant to compare two different definitions of long COVID. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines the condition as new or persistent symptoms 4 weeks after infection, while the World Health Organization definition defines it as 12 or more weeks after infection.

Continue readingStudy shows 43% to 58% lower prevalence of long COVID among vaccinated people
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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

Canadian data show moderate to good vaccine efficacy against COVID, flu

Published February 19, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) data reveal mid-season vaccine effectiveness (VE) against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB.1.5 variant of 47% against medically attended outpatient COVID-19 and 67% among previously infected people.

The same test-negative case-control study reports that the flu vaccine is 63% effective against medically attended outpatient infection with the influenza A H1N1 strain and 40% against H3N2.

The researchers enrolled patients with new or worsening cough that is characteristic of acute respiratory illness (ARI) who sought care within 7 days of symptom onset from community-based sentinel practitioners in Alberta, British Columbia (BC), Ontario, or Quebec.

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Topic: rapid testsView all posts for the topic: rapid tests

Researchers report COVID home tests as accurate as the same tests given by a clinician

Published February 14, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Mary Van Beusekom

A single-center study conducted at a free community testing site in Maryland suggests that patient-administered BinaxNow COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RATs) have similar accuracy as those performed by a clinician, although the results can be misinterpreted or falsely negative.

Researchers from the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital and Johns Hopkins University and their collaborators compared the sensitivity and specificity of Abbott’s BinaxNOW home RAT with those administered by a healthcare provider and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) from February to July 2022, a period of Omicron variant predominance.

The median age of the 953 participants was 34 years, 60.6% were women, 58.6% were White, 98.2% were English-speaking, and 34.1% had at least one COVID-19 symptom. Hospital staff administered both a RAT and an RT-PCR test to participants, who then self-tested with a RAT, the results of which were both self-reported and reviewed by the researchers.

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Topic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID

COVID patients are 4.3 times more likely to develop chronic fatigue, CDC report finds

Published February 14, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: ABC News
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By Mary Kekatos

COVID-19 patients are at least four times more likely to develop chronic fatigue than someone who has not had the virus, a new federal study published Wednesday suggests.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at electronic health records from the University of Washington of more than 4,500 patients with confirmed COVID-19 between February 2020 and February 2021.

They were followed for a median of 11.4 months and their health data was compared with the data of more than 9,000 non-COVID-19 patients with similar characteristics.

Fatigue developed in 9% of the COVID patients, the team found. Among COVID-19 patients, the rate of new cases of fatigue was 10.2 per 100 person-years and the rate of new cases of chronic fatigue was 1.8 per 100 person-years.

Continue readingCOVID patients are 4.3 times more likely to develop chronic fatigue, CDC report finds
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Topic: New ZealandView all posts for the topic: New Zealand

Covid-19: Vaccines saved thousands of lives during Omicron outbreak, study estimates

Published February 9, 2024

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Published by: RNZ
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A new study estimates vaccines prevented between 4000 and 12,000 deaths during the Omicron phase of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The paper, published in the medical journal Vaccine, models scenarios with different levels of vaccine coverage in the 18 months from January 2022.

The authors say the elimination strategy meant most people were able to be vaccinated before being exposed to the virus.

The researchers say it meant there were between 34,000 and 56,000 fewer hospitalisations over the period.

Continue readingCovid-19: Vaccines saved thousands of lives during Omicron outbreak, study estimates
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Topic: United StatesView all posts for the topic: United States

New Analysis Reveals Many Excess Deaths Attributed to Natural Causes Are Actually Uncounted COVID-19 Deaths

Published February 6, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Boston University
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By Jillian McKoy

Nearly 1,170,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States according to official federal counts, but multiple excess mortality studies suggest that these totals are vastly undercounted. While excess mortality provides an estimation of deaths that likely would not have occurred under normal, non-pandemic conditions, there is still little evidence into whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus contributed to these additional deaths, or whether these deaths were caused by other factors such as healthcare disruptions or socioeconomic challenges.

Now, a new study led by the School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) provides the first concrete data showing that many of these excess deaths were indeed uncounted COVID-19 deaths.

Continue readingNew Analysis Reveals Many Excess Deaths Attributed to Natural Causes Are Actually Uncounted COVID-19 Deaths
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Topic: air samplersView all posts for the topic: air samplers

Air sampling in Dane County schools tracks flu, COVID-19

Published February 4, 2024

Still COVIDing Canada Posts

Published by: Wisconsin State Journal
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By David Wahlberg

Air sampling in Dane County schools is helping health officials track flu and COVID-19, similar to how wastewater is increasingly monitored around the country for the coronavirus to gauge activity as fewer people get tested for COVID-19.

Since the beginning of the school year, flu and COVID-19 data from 16 air monitors at 15 schools in or near the county has been reported on Public Health Madison and Dane County’s respiratory illness dashboard. The devices, roughly the size of microwave ovens, are placed in communal spaces such as cafeterias. They suck air, including airborne viruses, into spongy material that is analyzed for viral genetic material.

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Topic: TorontoView all posts for the topic: Toronto

Homeless people in Toronto more likely to get COVID again compared to housed population: study

Published February 2, 2024

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Published by: CBC News / The Canadian Press
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By Nicole Ireland

People who are homeless have high rates of COVID-19 reinfection, putting the health of an already vulnerable population at further risk, a study published Friday in the BMC Infectious Diseases journal says.

Homeless people in Toronto who had COVID-19 were more than twice as likely to get it again as people who had housing, said lead author Lucie Richard, a senior research associate at the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital.

Continue readingHomeless people in Toronto more likely to get COVID again compared to housed population: study
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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines

New estimates show latest COVID vaccine cuts risk of symptomatic infection

Published February 1, 2024

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Published by: CIDRAP
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By Stephanie Soucheray

Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers published findings showing adults who received an updated 2023-24 COVID-19 vaccine were 54% less likely to have symptomatic infection than those who didn’t, and the vaccine was found to protect against JN.1 and other circulating variants.

This is one of the first studies to update 2023-24 COVID vaccine effectiveness (VE) data. The monovalent (single-strain) booster vaccine derived from XBB.1.5 was approved for use in all Americans 6 months and older on September 12, 2023, but uptake has been low. Moreover, the XBB strains of the virus, which the vaccine was based on, are no longer the dominant strains in the United States, having been replaced by JN.1 in December 2023.

Continue readingNew estimates show latest COVID vaccine cuts risk of symptomatic infection
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