By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the new coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
The Modern vaccine protects against new variants
Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine protects against new variants of the virus found in Britain and South Africa, the researchers reported on Monday in bioRxiv before the peer review. They found no reduction in the effect of antibodies induced by the vaccine in the UK variant. They observed a significant reduction in the effectiveness of antibodies in the South African variant, although Moderna still believes that its two-dose vaccine will provide protection. The company said it would test a new booster injection for the South Africa variant that could be made available if needed. Dr. Paul Offit of the University of Pennsylvania, a member of the vaccine advisory panel of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said he was only slightly concerned that the vaccine did not protect against the variants. “It’s a little worrying that you see a less neutralizing antibody response,” he said, but even those lower levels can still be sufficient to protect against serious infections. “The purpose of this vaccine is to keep you out of the hospital and away from the morgue. If you get a symptomatic or mildly symptomatic infection, it will not be a burden on the health care system,” said Offit. (https://bit.ly/3ocFUBD; https://reut.rs/2Mj0Z06)
Full-dose anticoagulants help keep patients out of ventilators
A trio of tests found that administering full-dose blood-thinning treatments to moderately ill patients hospitalized with COVID-19 reduced the need for support for vital organs, such as mechanical ventilation, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced Friday. -market. Blood clotting is a serious problem in COVID-19. The three tests, conducted in more than 300 hospitals on four continents, tested whether there is a greater benefit to administering a full dose of the anticoagulant heparin compared to the lowest dose normally used to prevent blood clots in hospitalized patients. In December, the researchers reported that the higher dose was harmful in patients who were already on life support. The new data shows “that when we give higher doses of anticoagulants to patients who are not yet seriously ill, it is beneficial and should become the standard treatment,” said study leader Matthew Neal of the University of Pittsburgh in a statement. . The researchers said that inexpensive and readily available treatment can help reduce the burden on intensive care units. The tests also suggest a possible survival benefit with full-dose heparin in patients who are not yet on life support, but who need further studies, said the NIH. The agency did not release full study data. (https://bit.ly/39j1BMp)
Lifetime history of smoking associated with risk of death COVID-19
Ex-smokers who have quit smoking still face greater risks with COVID-19 than never smokers, a new study shows. Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Health System in Ohio and Florida studied 7,102 patients with COVID-19, including 6,020 who never smoked, 910 former smokers and 172 current smokers. The risk of hospitalization and death increased with the cumulative amount that patients have already smoked and the increases in risk were similar for current smokers and ex-smokers, the researchers found. Those who smoked more – the equivalent of one pack a day for 30 years, or two packs a day for at least 15 years – were 2.25 times more likely to be hospitalized and 89% more likely to die after a diagnosis of COVID-19 when compared to never smokers, the researchers reported on Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine. The history of smoking throughout life is therefore linked to the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, concluded the research team, adding that diseases typically associated with smoking, such as heart and lung diseases, probably contributed to these results worse. (https://bit.ly/3caMeHu)
One in three with COVID-19 may not know
At least a third of people infected with the highly contagious coronavirus may not realize it, a new report warns. Some of them are “pre-symptomatic”, which means that they have no symptoms, but will eventually develop them. Others will remain asymptomatic during infection. “Infection without symptoms … is important because infected people can transmit the virus to others, even if they have no symptoms,” the researchers said on Friday in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They analyzed data from 43 studies that used gold standard PCR tests to diagnose COVID-19 and 18 that used antibody tests to look for evidence of previous infection. These studies “provide convincing evidence that the asymptomatic fraction of SARS-CoV-2 infection is considerable,” they said. The researchers called for new strategies to control the spread of the virus, such as “cheap and quick home tests to identify and contain pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic cases, along with government programs that provide financial assistance and, if necessary, housing to enable infected people. isolate themselves. “It will be important to know whether vaccines are preventing asymptomatic infections, they said. (https://bit.ly/3oiHFNG)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl in an external browser to see a Reuters graph on vaccines under development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid, Manas Mishra and Caroline Humer; Editing by Bill Berkrot)