Global health & medicine
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Global health & medicine · Feb 2021
EditorialCOVID-19 vaccines: implementation, limitations and opportunities.
The speed of development and the magnitude of efficacy of recently developed vaccines directed against SARS-CoV-2 has been truly remarkable. This editorial will not summarize the highly publicized and reviewed information about the design and clinical trial results of these vaccines. Rather, I will speculate about several issues regarding i) considerations of the rollout and implementation of the multiple vaccines, ii) the use of the vaccines in ways different from those used in the registrational phase 3 studies, iii) the future both of SARS-CoV-2 in the human population and of "normal" human life returning after widespread vaccination, and iv) the implications of the success of these SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for vaccine development against other pathogens.
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Global health & medicine · Apr 2020
ReviewMajor ongoing clinical trials for COVID-19 treatment and studies currently being conducted or scheduled in Japan.
The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) poses a serious threat to global public health and economies. Currently, hundreds of clinical trials on a wide variety of treatments against COVID-19 are being conducted around the world. Here, we conducted a search for ongoing clinical trials for the treatment of COVID-19 at the clinicaltrials.gov database on April 2, 2020. ⋯ The number of trials stratified by a chief country conducting the investigation were 18 in China, 5 in the United States, 4 in Canada, 3 in Italy, 2 in France and Brazil, and 4 trials are being performed multinationally. The drugs utilized in more than one trials were remdesivir (6 trials), lopinavir/ritonavir (6 trials), hydroxychloroquine (6 trials), interferon (5 trials), methylprednisolone (3 trials), nitric oxide gas (3 trials), oseltamivir (2 trials), arbidol (2 trials), and vitamin C (2 trials). We also described the Japanese trials which are now being conducted or scheduled, utilizing lopinavir/ritonavir, remdesivir, favipiravir, ciclesonide and nafamostat.
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Global health & medicine · Apr 2020
EditorialSustaining containment of COVID-19: global sharing for pandemic response.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2, has rapidly escalated into a global pandemic. One of our significant concerns is that we have no data as to whether people, who acquired immunity against this deadly virus and recovered from COVID-19, are protected from further infections with the same virus. Moreover, we have no data as to whether this pandemic will persist in our societies and continue vexing us for long periods of time. ⋯ As an international academic journal, Global Health & Medicine publishes this special issue entitled "GHM Special Topic: COVID-19". It includes a range of articles describing COVID-19 based on frontline data from Japan, China, the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, and other countries and areas worldwide. Our hope is that the rapid publication and sharing of information contribute, in whichever possible way, to this global fight against COVID-19.