Latest healthcare news
Can COVID-19 Affect Fertility?
The BMJ clears this controversial topic up for us in its news published 19th February. New expert guidance dictates that there is absolutely no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can affect the fertility of women or men. The guidance published by the...
What is the New Norm going to be following the COVID Pandemic and what is the Roadmap to the Ending of Lockdown in England?
The government has set out their roadmap for ending lockdown in a 60 plus page document. The document, however, warns that vaccines on their own may not be enough to prevent a significant proportion of people being infected whilst the restrictions are...
Long-haul COVID, How Can We Learn from other Infection Triggered Illnesses?
Aucott and Redman discuss this in their letter in The Lancet published March 5th 2021. 115 million people worldwide have been infected with SARS-CoV-2 during the COVID-19 pandemic, with extensive implications for morbidity and mortality. Description...
COVID News Round Up
Matt Hancock announced at the press conference on Friday 5th March that there was no evidence of onward transmission of the Brazil Coronavirus variant of concern. He informed that the mystery person infected with it had been found. Apparently, officials had been...
What is the Impact of the Vaccine Rollout on the Second Wave and Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies in England?
A preprint published in MedRxiv by Ward and others on 26th February 2021 reviews this. The vaccination programme which began in England in December 2020 gave priority to administering the first dose to the largest number of older individuals, health care and care home...
How Long is One Infectious for Following COVID-19 Infection?
An interesting article published by Owusu in the Journal of Infectious Diseases 27th February 2021 looked at this issue. They collected serial nasopharyngeal specimens at various time points from 109 individuals with PCR confirmed COVID-19. They...
How Will Coronavirus Evolve?
An interesting article published in the Scientific American by William Haseltine looks at this issue. With declining rates of new infections and the rollout of vaccines, some are beginning to speak of an end to COVID-19. But that rhetoric in Haseltine's...
Guidance For Fasting in Ramadan
Ramadan 12th April to 12th May 2021 All able-bodied Muslims are expected to fast during the month of Ramadan from dawn until dusk. This is complete abstinence from food, drink and sexual relations. There are a number of exemptions to this, and in such cases the...
SARS-CoV-2 and Airplane Travel
An accepted manuscript published in the Journal of Travel Medicine by Wang and others on 19th February 2021 looked at this question. Clearly an issue of concern to anyone travelling is the possibility of in-flight transmission of COVID-19 during long and short haul...
How Many Years of Life Have Been Lost to COVID-19?
A review article in PubMed.gov published 18th February 2021 by Arolas and others looked at this issue They analysed the premature mortality impact of COVID-19 by calculating the amount of life years lost across 81 countries covering over 1.279866 million...
