Articles: sars-cov-2.
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In the setting of the raging COVID-19 pandemic, the search for innovative therapeutics is desperately sought after. As we learn more about the characteristics and metabolic health of patients and as our understanding of COVID-19 pathophysiology and treatment progresses, so is our understanding of medication effects that might increase disease severity. ⋯ KEY MESSAGESZinc deficiency caused by chronic ACE inhibitor usage may exacerbate the pathogenicity of COVID-19 in susceptible patients. A multi-center study is needed to assess the zinc levels of patients with COVID-19 who are taking ACE inhibitors and other medications that may result in low zinc levels.
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Vaccination is considered one of the most important achievements of modern medicine and has saved millions of lives. As a result, the age-old fear of severe or fatal infectious diseases has largely been forgotten in society; however, the pandemic triggered by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) shows how quickly this fear can return. Also, many people have reservations about medical measures, especially if they are directed against vague dangers. ⋯ To counteract this development, this article provides information on basic vaccination principles, legal frameworks and components of vaccines. It explains the most important categories, goals, core elements of vaccination programs and the most important recommendations of the Standing Committee on Vaccination at the Robert Koch Institute (STIKO). It explains the current state of knowledge with respect to required resources, assessment of vaccine reactions, complication management and possible vaccine damage.
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Emerg Microbes Infect · Dec 2021
Critical role of neutralizing antibody for SARS-CoV-2 reinfection and transmission.
Cases of laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 reinfection have been reported in a number of countries. Further, the level of natural immunity induced by SARS-CoV-2 infection is not fully clear, nor is it clear if a primary infection is protective against reinfection. To investigate the potential association between serum antibody titres and reinfection of SARS-CoV-2, ferrets with different levels of NAb titres after primary SARS-CoV-2 infection were subjected to reinfection with a heterologous SARS-CoV-2 strain. ⋯ In addition, direct-contact transmission was observed only from reinfected ferrets with low NAb titres (<20), and not from other groups. Further, lung histopathology demonstrated the presence of limited inflammatory regions in the high NAb titre groups compared with control and low NAb groups. This study demonstrates a close correlation between a low NAb titre and SARS-CoV-2 reinfection in a recovered ferret reinfection model.
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Acta clinica Croatica · Dec 2021
INCIDENCE OF ACUTE SYMPTOMATIC SEIZURES IN PATIENTS WITH COVID-19: A SINGLE-CENTER STUDY.
The most common neurological symptoms in patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection are headache, myalgia, encephalopathy, dizziness, dysgeusia and anosmia, making more than 90 percent of neurological manifestations of COVID-19. Other neurological manifestations such as stroke, movement disorder symptoms or epileptic seizures are rare but rather devastating, with possible lethal outcome. The primary aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of acute symptomatic seizures among COVID-19 patients, while secondary aim was to determine their possible etiology. ⋯ Of these 38 patients, 29 (76.3%) had new-onset epileptic seizures and nine (23.7%) patients with previous epilepsy history had breakthrough seizures during COVID-19. Although acute symptomatic seizures are an infrequent complication of COVID-19, seizure risk must be considered in these patients, particularly in the group of patients with a severe course of the disease. Accumulation of proinflammatory cytokines may contribute to the occurrence of seizures in patients with COVID-19, but seizures may also be secondary to primary brain pathology related to COVID-19, such as stroke or encephalitis.
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Emerg Microbes Infect · Dec 2021
LetterIsolation of 4000 SARS-CoV-2 shows that contagiousness is associated with viral load, not vaccine or symptomatic status.
Culture inoculation of 6722 nasopharyngeal samples since February 2020 allowed isolation of 3637 SARS-CoV-2 and confirmed that isolation rate is correlated to viral load, regardless symptomatology or vaccination status. Moreover, the delta variant is associated with higher viral loads and therefore higher rates of viral isolation, explaining its greater contagiousness.