On December 23, a research team from Riken and other institutes announced the results of a study showing that after infection with the novel coronavirus, the heart may be persistently infected with the virus and the risk of heart failure may increase, even if the patient does not develop noticeable heart disease. The team points to the possibility of a sharp increase in the number of heart failure patients in the near future and calls for countermeasures to be taken.
Infection with the novel coronavirus occurs when a protruding “spike protein” on the surface of the virus binds to the ACE2 receptor on the surface of human cells. According to the team, the heart is more likely to express ACE2 compared to other organs. It has also been reported that some people infected with the novel coronavirus have reduced cardiac function, but the detailed mechanism is not known.
Comments closedAccording to a small case-control study today in Scientific Reports, long COVID can affect heart rate variability (HRV) at rest and during deep breathing, adding to the evidence that persistent symptoms of the virus can be associated with cardiac and dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system (dysautonomia). This system regulates involuntary functions like heartbeat, blood pressure, and sweating.
The study, conducted by Brazilian researchers, included 21 patients with long COVID and 20 controls. Long COVID—defined by the authors as new or persistent symptoms experienced 12 or more weeks after infection—has been associated with heart palpitations, orthostatic intolerance (difficulty staying upright), dizziness, and syncope.
Comments closedAn analysis of 7 million contacts of COVID-19 patients in the United Kingdom estimates that most transmissions resulted from exposures lasting 1 hour to several days and that households accounted for 40% of spread from spring 2021 to early 2022.
Comments closedDue to its rapid growth and potential to add to the respiratory virus burden in Northern Hemisphere countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) today designated JN.1, part of the BA.2.86 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, as its own variant of interest.
The announcement came following an assessment from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
Comments closedA long-running study into COVID-19 immunity has unearthed promising insights on the still-mysterious disease, one of its lead researchers says — but she’s concerned its funding could soon dry up.
The Stop the Spread project, a collaboration by the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI) and the University of Ottawa, has been monitoring antibody responses to COVID-19 in hundreds of people since October 2020.
Comments closedIn the 18 months after a serious COVID-19 or seasonal influenza infection, patients are at a significant increased risk of death, hospital readmission, or health problems affecting a number of organs, though COVID patients are hit harder, according to a study published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
The study was led by Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, the chief of research and development at the VA St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University. Al-Aly has been studying long COVID for the past 3 years, and has been interested in studying the differences between the acute and chronic phases of the disease.
Comments closedFour years ago, Sonja Mally was a busy tattoo artist with a photographic memory and penchant for long hikes.
Now, the 38-year-old Toronto woman considers it a good day if she can do a small drawing, muster the energy to walk around the block or “perform very basic tasks.”
“It’s a hard thing to have to explain to people why maybe one day you might be doing fine and the next day you can’t find the words to complete a sentence,” Mally said.
Comments closedFour years after the first cases of what was later called COVID-19, infections continue to spread and lead to new cases of long COVID. However,…
Comments closedThe Government of Canada has reached an agreement with Mitsubishi Chemical Group Corporation (MCG), Medicago’s parent company. This company will have to pay $40 million in addition to transferring the intellectual property developed by Medicago to the new Quebec company Aramis Biotechnologies.
Comments closedAbout one in nine Canadian adults have had long-term symptoms from COVID-19 infection, according to a Statistics Canada report issued Friday.
That amounts to 3.5 million Canadians, it said.
Almost 80 per cent of those people with long-term symptoms have them for six months or more, the report said.
In addition, more than half of those who ever had long-term symptoms still had them as of June 2023.
Comments closedEarly in the pandemic, scientists warned that COVID-19 could cause long-term sequelae even after a mild infection. After all, at least a dozen other known pathogens cause post-infection syndromes. Why didn’t we see this problem coming, and possibly prevent millions of people from developing long COVID?
Comments closedA study yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases shows women who have COVID-19 infections within a week before giving birth are at an increased risk for severe maternal morbidity (SMM) events, including acute renal failure and adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
Comments closedAir sampling was as effective in monitoring COVID-19 and influenza A (IAV) activity as three other methods in a Wisconsin school district from September 2022 to January 2023, according to a study published today in JAMA Network Open.
Comments closedResearchers in China report thinning of the gray matter and other changes in certain parts of the brain in 61 men after COVID-19 Omicron infection.
For the study, published late last week in JAMA Network Open, the researchers evaluated 61 men before and after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in January 2023. The men had been part of a larger cohort who had undergone magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychiatric screenings before infection in August and September 2022. Average age was 43 years.
Comments closedAmid a declining life expectancy across the country, new national data released this week show that years on from the beginning of the pandemic, COVID-19…
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