Latest healthcare news
SARS-CoV-2 Variants, How Could They Be Detected?
An interesting preprint by Smyth and others in medRxiv suggested that waste-water based epidemiology may provide an alternative and complimentary approach for monitoring communities for the novel variants. Given that SARS-CoV-2 can infect the cells of the...
Return to School and Will This Increase the Transmission of SARS-CoV-2?
An interesting study published as a preprint in medRxiv.org looked at this in17 schools in Wisconsin, America. The study by Falk and others looked at the specific mitigation strategies employed at these schools during a time of exceptionally high COVID-19...
Incubation and Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
A research paper published in BMC infectious diseases on 11th March reviewed this issue. It is essential to understand the epidemiological parameters that determine the transmission dynamics of COVID-19 for public health intervention. Globally, a number of...
Ebola Virus and the Current Outbreak in Guinea
A new genetic analysis appears to suggest that a survivor of the 2014 to 2016 West African Ebola outbreak has continued to harbour the virus some five years after being infected and eventually now has transmitted it to someone. The previous known longest Ebola...
Does Having the Pneumococcal Pneumonia Vaccination Help Against COVID-19?
An interesting, manuscript accepted in the Journal of Infectious Diseases Oxford Academic by Lewnard and others published 9th March 2021 investigated the association. They investigated Kaiser Permanente Healthcare members who were aged 65 or over as of 1st March 2020...
Coronavirus Variants and Mutations
This is neatly defined by Corum and Zimmer in the New York Times. Each coronavirus contains nearly 30,000 letters of RNA. This genetic information allows the virus to infect cells and hijack them to make new viruses. As an infected cell builds new...
Antibody Tests and Their Experience Within UK Healthcare Workers
A study published in the Clinical Medicine Journal of the Royal College of Physicians in the United Kingdom by Robinson and others in March 2021 compared the use of the Roche and Abbott assay for antibodies amongst a large cohort of healthcare workers in Southern...
Cervical Cancer Screening in Older Women
Half of cervical cancer deaths in England now occur in women aged over 65. Most women in the NHS cervical screening programme aged over 65 have never had a test for human papillomavirus (HPV). HPV testing of cervical samples has now replaced cytology for primary...
Vaccine Snippets
Professor Justin Stebbing in his weekly science update looks at the current research. The risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is significantly lower amongst patients who had received at least one dose of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine compared to an...
Social Distancing, Is It Being Complied With?
An interesting article published in PLOS1 March 15th 2021 by Hoben and others reviewed this question. They analysed CCTV clips to assess people's behaviour in public spaces. They concluded that compliance with social distancing directives appeared to...
