Latest healthcare news
Do We Have Any Effective Treatments For COVID-19 In Community Based Patients?
A study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine May 27th 2021 by Tardif and others researched this issue in relation to colchicine. Evidence suggests excessive inflammation in COVID-19 patients plays a role in the development of...
Can Indoor Mass Gathering Live Music Events Take Place If the Attendees Are Screened by Lateral Flow Antigen Tests?
An interesting article published by Revollo and others in The Lancet Infectious Diseases May 27th 2021 sought to research and answer this question. The banning of mass gathering indoor events to prevent SARS-CoV-2 spread has had important effects on local...
Can One Have COVID-19 But Be Antigen and PCR Negative?
An interesting correspondence by Lekpa and others published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases May 28th 2021 suggests that this is indeed the case. They feel that the clinical case and context for the suspicion of COVID-19 needs to be brought into the...
Are the Pfizer and AstraZeneca Vaccines Effective Against Symptomatic Disease from the Indian Origin Strain known as B.1.617.2
They are effective against the B.1.1.7 mutation which remains the dominant strain across the United Kingdom and first detected in Kent This weekend Public Health England published a study which showed that cases of the B.1.617.2 strain had risen sharply in the...
Will We Have Effective Antiviral Therapy Against SARS-CoV-2 by the Autumn?
An editorial published in the British Medical Journal May 17th by Dr David Smith and Dr Gill tries to answer this question. They feel that the target is over ambitious and may risk errors. The UK Government has launched a COVID-19 antiviral...
Does Having the COVID mRNA Vaccine such as the Moderna and Pfizer Vaccines Promote Immunity in the Pregnant and Lactating Female?
An interesting study published by Collier and others in the Journal of the American Medical Association published online May 13th 2021 sought to answer this question. Pregnant women are at an increased risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 but have...
Cancer and COVID-19 Infection
A study by Lee and others published in the BMJ Health & Care Informatics 2021 looked into this issue and concluded an increased risk of fatality for patients with COVID-19 plus haematological malignancies and demonstrated similar findings of COVID-19 on melanoma,...
What Is the Real Risk of a Central Venous Thrombosis and Portal Vein Thrombosis in Those Vaccinated With COVID-19 Vaccine?
What Is the Real Risk of a Central Venous Thrombosis and Portal VeinThrombosis in Those Vaccinated With COVID-19 Vaccine? A preprint published in medRxiv aimed to estimate the absolute risk of central venous thrombosis and portal venous thrombosis in the two weeks...
Treatments for COVID, do they help, in particular convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.
The RECOVERY trial An interesting article published in The Lancet by the recovery collaborative group dated May 14Th 2021, sought to answer this question. Many patients with COVID-19 have been treated with plasma containing anti-SARS-CoV-2...
The Russian Sputnik V vaccine
Bucci and others published correspondence in The Lancet May 12th 2021 reviewing this issue. They suggest that restricted access to data hampers trust in research. They go on to continue suggesting that access to data that underpins study findings is imperative to...
