Category: Pulmonary News

These researchers identified 158,445 Scottish health care workers between 18 and 65 years of age who were employed by the National Health Service. They used Scottish employment databases to create linkages to other health-related databases and to identify members of their households (n = 229,905). Additionally, the researchers used these same databases to identify people from the general population. They mined the databases to identify hospitalizations for COVID between March 1, 2020 (when cases of COVID were first identified in Scotland), and June 6, 2020. Among the health care workers, 90,733 (57.3%) had direct patient contact (they used the term ... Read more

n this open-label phase II trial from 39 hospitals in India, the researchers randomized patients to standard care (n = 229) or standard care plus convalescent plasma (n = 235). The patients had all been hospitalized with moderate illness (PaO2/FiO2 ratio between 200 mm Hg and 300 mm Hg or a respiratory rate of more than 24 per minute with oxygen saturation 93% or less on room air). To be eligible, there also had to be a matched plasma donor (adults with a previous PCR-confirmed symptomatic bout with COVID). The staff administered the convalescent plasma as two infusions administered 24 ... Read more

This Icelandic study measured a variety of IgG and IgM antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in six groups of Icelanders who had either never been tested or had tested negative and in two groups of Icelanders who had tested positive and had recovered. They weighted the sample by age and sex to estimate the number of Icelanders who had been infected and used that to estimate the infection fatality ratio (deaths/[symptomatic + asymptomatic positives]) and case fatality ratio (deaths/symptomatic positives). Among patients who had experienced a symptomatic infection, IgG antibody levels remained stable over a four-month period, which is encouraging in terms ... Read more

The World Health Organization has created a Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies (REACT) working group to perform an ongoing series of meta-analyses. This meta-analysis did a careful search of clinical trial registries to identify all ongoing or completed studies comparing a systemic corticosteroid with placebo or usual care in patients who were critically ill with COVID-19. Trials that included patients with mild or moderate disease or that had not recruited patients were excluded. They identified nine clinical trials, and seven agreed to share data with the REACT team for meta-analysis. Trials were done in six European countries, the United ... Read more

Abstract Introduction: To compare outcomes in patients hospitalized with coronavirus (COVID-19) receiving famotidine therapy with those not receiving famotidine. Methods: Retrospective, propensity-matched observational study of consecutive COVID-19-positive patients between February 24, 2020, and May 13, 2020. Results: Of 878 patients in the analysis, 83 (9.5%) received famotidine. In comparison to patients not treated with famotidine, patients treated with famotidine were younger (63.5 ± 15.0 vs 67.5 ± 15.8 years, P = 0.021), but did not differ with respect to baseline demographics or preexisting comorbidities. Use of famotidine was associated with a decreased risk of in-hospital mortality (odds ratio 0.37, 95% confidence interval 0.16-0.86, ... Read more

Abstract Objectives: As schools plan for re-opening, understanding the potential role children play in the coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and the factors that drive severe illness in children is critical. Study design: Children ages 0-22 years with suspected severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection presenting to urgent care clinics or being hospitalized for confirmed/suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) were offered enrollment in the MGH Pediatric COVID-19 Biorepository. Enrolled children provided nasopharyngeal, oropharyngeal, and/or blood specimens. SARS-CoV-2 viral load, ACE2 RNA levels, and serology for SARS-CoV-2 were ... Read more

Available information on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission by small particle aerosols continues to evolve rapidly. To assess the potential role of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in airborne viral transmission, this study sought to determine the viral presence, if any, on air handling units in a healthcare setting where Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients were being treated. The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in approximately 25% of samples taken from nine different locations in multiple air handlers. While samples were not evaluated for viral infectivity, the presence of viral RNA in air handlers ... Read more

Objective : To evaluate the association between physical distancing interventions and incidence of coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) globally. Design : Natural experiment using interrupted time series analysis, with results synthesised using meta-analysis. Setting : 149 countries or regions, with data on daily reported cases of covid-19 from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and data on the physical distancing policies from the Oxford covid-19 Government Response Tracker. Participants : Individual countries or regions that implemented one of the five physical distancing interventions (closures of schools, workplaces, and public transport, restrictions on mass gatherings and public events, and restrictions ... Read more

Regardless of the use of respiratory PPE, other procedures to reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 infection should be followed, including maintaining physical distance, self-isolation, quarantine, frequent hand hygiene (using soap and water or alcohol-based hand rub), covering coughs and sneezes by using a bent elbow or paper tissue, refraining from touching the face, and frequent disinfection of frequently touched surfaces. List 1: Use of N95 Respirators, Surgical Masks, and Cloth Masks in Community Settings ACP discourages the use of N95 respirators by asymptomatic or symptomatic persons in community settings to reduce the risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in the absence of ... Read more

Around the world, more than 100 candidate vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are in various stages of development and testing. On May 18, US biotech firm Moderna revealed the first data from a human trial: its COVID-19 vaccine triggered an immune response in people, and protected mice from lung infections with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. The current study was an open-label Phase I trial on 45 healthy adults. The participants received two doses four weeks apart of Moderna’s messenger RNA vaccine (mRNA-1273) at doses of 25 μg, 100 μg, or 250 μg. There was no comparison group, and, a significant limitation, the researchers ... Read more