Experience throughout the world, including in Europe, shows that advanced age is the most important risk factor for death in COVID-19: people aged over 70 years are over 10 times more likely to die compared to those aged below 50. Other factors increasing the risk of death include male sex and comorbidities, including obesity, hypertension,…
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Spain is one of the European countries besides the UK and Italy that was particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic in March. Early on, it was not possible to predict the extent of the outbreak. The first case in Spain was a German tourist who brought the virus to La Gomera in the Canary…
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DALLAS, June 5, 2020 — Analysis of Seattle emergency medical services (EMS) and hospital data from January 1 to April 15, 2020, indicates bystander CPR is a lifesaving endeavor whose benefits outweigh the risks of COVID-19 infection, according to a new article published yesterday in the American Heart Association’s flagship journal Circulation. Resuscitation of patients…
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Narayanan Studying Application Of Brilacidin For Treatment Of Coronavirus Infections Aarthi Narayanan, Assistant Professor, National Center for Biodefense and Infectious Diseases, received $35,000 from Innovation Pharmaceuticals, Inc., for a project in which she is examining the use of Brilacidin for the treatment of coronavirus infections. Brilacidin is an investigational new drug. It is a polymer-based…
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Germany was not hit as hard by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic as many other European countries. The reason for this is that the wave of infection reached Germany later, that the authorities were warned by the situation in Italy and Spain and at an early stage ordered a lockdown and conducted extensive testing. Up to June…
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Scientists at the University of Liverpool and University of Utrecht have taken another step forward on their quest to develop a viable drug based on teixobactin – a new class of potent natural antibiotic capable of killing superbugs. Research published in Nature Communications provides fundamental new insights into how teixobactins kill bacteria, including the discovery…
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As communities across the U.S. have struggled to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, many have focused on the lack of widespread testing as a major barrier to safely reopening the country. As progress has been made on this front, concern has shifted to testing accuracy, predominantly with antibody tests, which are designed…
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Disrupted nightly sleep and clogged arteries tend to sneak up on us as we age. And while both disorders may seem unrelated, a new study from the University of California, Berkeley, helps explain why they are, in fact, pathologically intertwined. UC Berkeley sleep scientists have begun to reveal what it is about fragmented nightly sleep…
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Early data from a clinical study suggest that blocking the Bruton tyrosine kinase (BTK) protein provided clinical benefit to a small group of patients with severe COVID-19. Researchers observed that the off-label use of the cancer drug acalabrutinib, a BTK inhibitor that is approved to treat several blood cancers, was associated with reduced respiratory distress…
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The drug acalabrutinib, FDA-approved for the treatment of several types of B cell cancers, improved the oxygenation levels and decreased molecular markers of inflammation in a majority of 19 patients hospitalized for the treatment of severe COVID-19, according to a new study by Mark Roschewski and colleagues. The drug was administered to 11 patients on…
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