Latest healthcare news
Vaccine Doses; Does Delaying the Second Dose of COVID Vaccine Save Lives?
As Matt Hancock said in a webinar to me, if you have four grandparents and only four vaccines, do you vaccinate all four or do you just vaccinate two? This is a question which we have all been asking and the government appear to have answered. However, the...
Understanding the Variants of SARS-CoV-2
An interesting report by Talha Burki published in The Lancet February 6, 2021 discusses this topic. A new consortium is trying to find out whether the variants of SARS-CoV-2 which are emerging will have different clinical effects. All viruses mutate but the...
The WHO Team Investigating the Origin of COVID-19
An interesting report published in The Lancet 6 February 2020 by John Zarocostas reports on the investigation. With new infections of COVID-19 still spreading rapidly, and health systems stretched to their limits, public Interest is now focused on the WHO...
Early testing can help prevent the development of ovarian cancer
Early testing can help prevent the development of ovarian cancer Dr Angela Rai, The London General Practice Ovarian Cancer is the 6th most common cancer in females in the UK. This cancer arises from the ovaries, which are part of the female reproductive system and are...
The efficacy of Colchicine in non-hospitalised patients with COVID-19
An interesting preprint in medRxiv by Tardif and others published on 26th January 2021 reports new medical research which has yet to be evaluated. Evidence suggests the role of an inflammatory storm in COVID-19 patients. Colchicine is an orally administered,...
How do we assess the number of COVID-19 Deaths?
An interesting preprint in medRxiv published January 2021 looked at this question. Factors such as non-uniform definitions of mortality, uncertainty in diseases prevalence, and bias sampling complicates the quantification of fatality during an epidemic. ...
Long Covid
COVID-19 seems to be a multisystem disease, sometimes occurring after a relatively mild acute illness. Clinical management requires whole patient perspective. This relates to patients who have a delayed recovery from an episode of COVID-19 who were managed in the...
FACE Masks, Which Ones Should We Wear and Can We Wear Coverings Made From Household Fabrics?
An interesting article published in the Journal of M1 by Guha and others January 13, 2021. Face coverings constitute an important strategy for containing pandemics. Infection from airborne respiratory viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 can occur in at least...
What Proportion of Coronavirus Disease COVID-19 Spread is Associated with Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from Persons with no Symptoms?
An interesting study by Johansson and others published in the Journal of American Medical Association January 7, 2021 explored this question. This study assessed the relative amount of transmission from presymptomatic, never symptomatic and...
Does Previous Exposure To COVID-19 Mean That You Can Still Carry the Virus and Be An Asymptomatic Transmitter?
Public Health England published a press release on 14 January 2021 which suggested that past COVID-19 infection provides some immunity, but people may still carry and transmit the virus. The study found that past COVID-19 infection provides...
