A cost-effective program to fight COVID-19 in resource-challenged countries

BOSTON – A public health strategy that combines contact tracing and community-based screening with isolation and quarantine centers can substantially reduce infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 while being cost-effective in low-and-middle-income countries like South Africa, a study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found. In a paper published in The Lancet Global Health, the…

Hearing test may detect autism in newborns

For years, researchers have known through numerous studies that hearing and other sensory systems of adults and children who have autism differ from children or adults without autism. Now, University of Miami and Harvard Medical School researchers who explored responses to the standard hearing test administered to millions of newborns around the world, are closing…

Examining impact of a point mutation in SARS-Cov-2 spike on virus transmission and pathogenicity

The current dominant variant of SARS-CoV-2, containing a D614G substitution in the spike protein, appears to have evolved to enhance transmissibility, according to a new study in human cells and animal models. Its results address concerns that have been raised about how this emergent mutation could enhance transmissibility, antigenicity, and/or pathogenesis, with implications for therapies…