Articles: sars-cov-2.
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Following the high morbidity and mortality due to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in New Orleans, Louisiana, we sought to assess progress toward herd immunity. ⋯ SARS-COV-2 IgG antibodies were prevalent only in 8% of the participants. IgG prevalence was highest among non-Hispanic Blacks and participants with higher BMI but was lower among older participants.
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SARS-CoV-2 infections rapidly spread along with Brazilian territory with heterogeneous transmission and mortality rates, mostly depending on region and period. Investigation of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is an important tool to understand virus circulation. Given that blood donors are a representative casuistic of a healthy population, the authors evaluated the seroprevalence of IgG and IgM COVID-19 antibodies in 2,806 blood donors from a blood bank located in São Paulo, Brazil. ⋯ In conclusion, blood donors' samples proved to accurately reflect virus circulation in the healthy population.
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Electrotherapy or electrical stimulation (ES) is a part of clinical intervention in the rehabilitation field. With rehabilitation intervention, electrotherapy may be provided as a treatment for pain relief, strengthening, muscle education, wound recovery, or functional training. Although these interventions may not be considered as the primary therapy for patients, the advantages of the ease of operation, lower costs, and lower risks render ES to be applied frequently in clinics. ⋯ The most common at-home applications in previous studies showed positive effects on pain relief, functional ES, muscle establishment, and motor training. Currently, there is a lack of certain products for at-home brain modulation; however, transcranial direct current stimulation has shown the potential of future home-based rehabilitation due to its relatively small and simple design. We have organized the features and applications of ES tools and expect the future potential of remote therapy during the viral pandemic.
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Eur. J. Intern. Med. · Jan 2022
Management of COVID patients with convalescent plasma: Do we have the final word?
Immunotherapy with convalescent plasma (CP) has been used in the past in several different infectious diseases and proposed as a potential therapeutic option in patients with COVID-19. However, a clear benefit was never demonstrated and randomized clinical trials (RCTs) conducted in different populations of COVID-19 patients showed contrasting results. In general, current evidences suggest that CP in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 does not reduce the progression to severe respiratory failure or death within 30 days. ⋯ The administration of plasma with low titer of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs), the use of suboptimal surrogate serological tests to determine NAbs titer, the delayed administration of CP from the onset of COVID-19 symptoms and the lack of information about antibody titer of recipients before CP infusion, are all limiting factors that may have affected the study results. Thus, a potential benefit of early (within the first 72 h from onset of symptoms), high titer CP in patients with mild COVID-19 (pO2/FiO2>300) cannot be definitively excluded. However, immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies developed from CP demonstrated efficacy in reducing progression to severe COVID-19 and hospitalization and are today recommended in the early phase of COVID-19.
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The population living in conditions of poorness has a heavier pathological burden than social strata with better economic possibilities. ⋯ The evidence generated should lead to decisions aimed at improving the quality of life of the population with social deprivations and vulnerabilities, which needs to be protected against the consequences of current COVID-19 pandemic.