Articles: coronavirus.
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B Acad Nat Med Paris · Aug 2021
Review[From SARS, MERS to COVID-19: a journey to understand bat coronaviruses].
From the beginning of this century, three coronaviruses (CoVs) have caused severe human respiratory diseases, including severe respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which outbroke in 2002-2003, 2012 and 2019-2020, respectively. These viruses are three different species belonging to Coronaviridae family, Betacoronavirus genus. Discovery of closely-related CoVs in bats indicates that bats are natural reservoirs of these viruses. ⋯ However, these bat viruses seem to be low pathogenic in human ACE2 transgenic mice compared with the SARS-CoV-2. These results imply that these bat CoVs have potential interspecies transmission to other animals and humans. Our work highlights the necessity of preparedness for future emerging infectious diseases caused by these CoVs.
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J Infect Public Health · Aug 2021
Observational StudyClinical characteristics and predictors of mortality among COVID-19 patients in Saudi Arabia.
The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused more than 1.8 million deaths, with a fatality rate of 2.5% in more than 200 countries as of January 4, 2021. Analysis of COVID-19 clinical features can help predict disease severity and risk of mortality, early identification of high-risk patients, and provide knowledge to inform clinical interventions. ⋯ In this cohort, COVID-19 patients within the older age group (≥65 years) admitted to the ICU with increased C-reactive protein levels in particular, were associated with increased odds of mortality. Further clinical observations are warranted to support these findings and enhance the mapping and control of this pandemic.
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Symptoms of COVID-19 vary in severity and presentation. When admitting patients to the hospital, it is desirable to isolate patients with COVID-19 from those without the disease. However, reliably identifying patients with COVID-19 in the emergency department before hospital admission is often limited by the speed and availability of testing. Previous studies determined a low lymphocyte count is commonly found in patients with COVID-19. We sought to explore the sensitivity of absolute lymphocyte count in patients presenting to the emergency department requiring subsequent hospitalization who were found to have COVID-19. ⋯ Knowing the sensitivity of absolute lymphocyte count in patients with COVID-19 may help identify patients who are unlikely to have the disease. Additionally, absolute lymphocyte count can be used as a marker of disease severity in patients with COVID-19.
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Coronaviruses are RNA viruses classified into Alphacoronavirus, Betacoronavirus, Gammacoronavirus and Deltacoronavirus. Their name comes from their conformation with the observation of spicules forming a sort of crown. Coronaviruses seem to come from bats, and more particularly Alphacoronaviruses and Betacoronaviruses (the genus where zoonoses are observed), while birds are the source of Gammacoronaviruses and Deltacoronaviruses. ⋯ Most Alphacoronaviruses are species specific. They can be responsible for serious diseases such as the cat coronavirus, responsible for feline infectious peritonitis, transmissible gastroenteritis (GET) in piglets and porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED), porcine respiratory coronavirus (PRCV). Finally, a deltacoronavirus can be found in both pigs (PD CoV UKU15) and birds.