People who had multiple infections were three times more likely to be hospitalized for their infection up to six months later than those who only got COVID-19 once, and were also more likely to have problems with clotting, gastrointestinal disorders, kidney, and mental-health symptoms. The risks appeared to increase the more infections people experienced.
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Topic: vaccinesView all posts for the topic: vaccines
Updated COVID vaccine 71% effective against hospitalization for older adults
The estimated effectiveness of the updated COVID-19 vaccine among people aged 60 and older in the Netherlands was 70.7% against hospitalization and 73.3% against intensive care unit (ICU) admission in fall and early winter 2023, according to a study published yesterday in Eurosurveillance.
Researchers at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and University Medical Center Utrecht parsed data on hospitalizations with admission dates from October to December to estimate the effectiveness of the XBB.1.5 Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine among recipients of at least one previous vaccination. The study included 2,050 hospitalized adults aged 60 and older, 14.4% of whom had received the 2023 COVID-19 vaccine.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Long Covid causes changes in body that make exercise debilitating – study
Many people with long Covid feel tired, unwell and in pain for lengthy periods after exercise, and researchers say they now know why.
Experts say they have evidence that biological changes are to blame, such as severe muscle damage, mitochondrial problems and the presence of microclots in the body.
“It’s really confirming that there is something inside the body going wrong with the disease,” said Dr Rob Wüst, an author of the study at Vrije Universiteit (Free University) Amsterdam.
Long Covid is thought to affect tens of thousands of people in the UK alone, and many experience a worsening of symptoms for weeks after a single bout of exercise.
Comments closedTopic: pandemic responseView all posts for the topic: pandemic response
Opinion: The U.S. is facing the biggest COVID wave since Omicron. Why are we still playing make-believe?
The pandemic is far from over, as evidenced by the rapid rise to global dominance of the JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2. This variant is a derivative of BA.2.86, the only other strain that has carried more than 30 new mutations in the spike protein since Omicron first came on the scene more than two years ago. This should have warranted designation by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern with a Greek letter, such as Pi.
By wastewater levels, JN.1 is now associated with the second-biggest wave of infections in the United States in the pandemic, after Omicron. We have lost the ability to track the actual number of infections since most people either test at home or don’t even test at all, but the very high wastewater levels of the virus indicate about 2 million Americans are getting infected each day.
Comments closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Vaccination Dramatically Lowers Long Covid Risk
At least 200 million people worldwide have struggled with long COVID: a slew of symptoms that can persist for months or even years after an infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID. But research suggests that that number would likely be much higher if not for vaccines.
A growing consensus is emerging that receiving multiple doses of the COVID vaccine before an initial infection can dramatically reduce the risk of long-term symptoms. Although the studies disagree on the exact amount of protection, they show a clear trend: the more shots in your arm before your first bout with COVID, the less likely you are to get long COVID. One meta-analysis of 24 studies published in October, for example, found that people who’d had three doses of the COVID vaccine were 68.7 percent less likely to develop long COVID compared with those who were unvaccinated. “This is really impressive,” says Alexandre Marra, a medical researcher at the Albert Einstein Israelite Hospital in Brazil and the lead author of the study. “Booster doses make a difference in long COVID.”
Comments closedTopic: brain damageView all posts for the topic: brain damage
Ongoing brain injury caused by COVID-19 may not always be detected by routine tests
A new study published recently in Nature Communications details that markers of brain injury are present in the blood many months after COVID-19 infection, despite inflammation blood tests being normal.
The COVID-CNS study analysed samples from over 800 patients hospitalised with COVID-19 from across England and Wales, half of whom with new neurological conditions. Here researchers measured brain injury markers, serum inflammatory proteins (cytokines), antibodies, and brain (neuroglial) injury proteins.
Comments closedTopic: United StatesView all posts for the topic: United States
Less than 5% of US preschool cohort hospitalized for COVID were fully vaccinated, study finds
Only 4.5% of a cohort of pediatric COVID-19 patients admitted to US hospitals during the period of Omicron predominance had completed their primary COVID-19 vaccine series, and 7.0% had started but didn’t finish the series, The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal reports.
The study team, led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers, enrolled 597 vaccine-eligible COVID-19 inpatients aged 8 months to 4 years at 28 hospitals participating in the Overcoming COVID-19 network from September 2022 to May 2023. A total of 62.1% of patients were aged 8 months to 1 year, and 37.9% were aged 2 to 4 years.
Comments closedTopic: respiratory syncytial virusView all posts for the topic: respiratory syncytial virus
New antibody treatment for RSV in infants highly effective in reducing hospitalisations
A new antibody treatment could reduce by 80 per cent the numbers of babies and young children admitted to hospital with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a “groundbreaking” study has found.
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, the study involved 8,058 healthy babies aged up to 12 months from the UK, France and Germany, who were approaching their first RSV season. Half were randomly assigned to receive the antibody nirsevimab by injection, while 4,021 babies received standard care.
Of the babies who received the treatment, only 11 (0.3 per cent) were hospitalised, in comparison with the 60 babies (1.5 per cent) who were hospitalised after receiving just the standard care.
Comments closedTopic: brain damageView all posts for the topic: brain damage
Brain damage caused by COVID-19 may not show up on routine tests, study finds
Comments closedOur study shows that markers of brain injury are present in the blood months after COVID-19, and particularly in those who have had a COVID-19-induced brain complication (e.g. inflammation, or stroke), despite resolution of the inflammatory response in the blood. This suggests the possibility of ongoing inflammation and injury inside the brain itself which may not be detected by blood tests for inflammation.
Topic: Alzheimer’s diseaseView all posts for the topic: Alzheimer’s disease
COVID-19 linked to a greater risk of Alzheimer’s, other disorders
Another long-term effect of the novel coronavirus appears to be a higher chance of patients contracting Alzheimer’s disease in the years to follow, according to the latest research.
Numerous large research projects overseas have shown a link between COVID-19 and cognitive disorders, along with Alzheimer’s.
“The novel coronavirus is a new risk factor for dementia,” said Takayoshi Shimohata, a neurology professor at Gifu University, who also serves on the health ministry’s editorial committee that compiles a manual for treating COVID-19’s aftereffects. “There needs to be greater understanding that the illness also affects the brain.”
Comments closedTopic: heart failureView all posts for the topic: heart failure
Post-COVID ‘heart failure pandemic’ possible: Japan researchers
After contracting COVID-19, patients may have higher risk of heart failure from persistent viral infection in their hearts, even without developing notable heart disease, according to study results announced by Japanese researchers on Dec. 23.
The team including researchers from Riken, Japan’s largest scientific institute, pointed out the possibility of a “heart failure pandemic” in the near future, and is stressing the need for countermeasures.
Comments closedTopic: heart failureView all posts for the topic: heart failure
コロナ感染、心不全のリスク高まる可能性 理研など研究
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 closedTopic: long COVIDView all posts for the topic: long COVID
Long COVID changes heart rate variability, study suggests
According 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 closedTopic: researchView all posts for the topic: research
COVID contact-tracing study suggests length of exposure biggest factor in disease spread
An 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.
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Topic: variantsView all posts for the topic: variants
WHO designates JN.1 as separate COVID-19 variant of interest
Due 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.
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Topic: budget cutsView all posts for the topic: budget cuts
This COVID study has been tracking immunity for 3 years. Now it’s running out of money
A 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.
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