Nancy Lapid

(Reuters.) – Here is a list of recent COVID-19 studies. There is some research that needs to be further investigated to verify the results and has yet to receive peer review certification.

Coronavirus infections are rare but not fatal

Recent findings indicate that COVID-19 reinfections are very rare. Qatari researchers compared the results of 1,304 people with second-degree SARS-CoV-2 infections to 6,520 who had been infected for the first. The chances of contracting severe illness were 88% lower in people who had second-degree infections. The findings were published online by researchers from The New England Journal of Medicine. Patients with reinfected were 90 percent less likely than patients who had been infected in the past. No one was hospitalized or succumbed to COVID-19 in the second-infected patient, according to Dr. Laith Jamal Abu-Raddad from Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar. He said that almost all reinfections are mild. This may be due to immune memory, which prevented the disease from progressing to worse outcomes. According to researchers, severe illnesses in those who have been previously infected were only about 1%. Half of the people with second infections had their first one more than nine years ago. Researchers noted that it is unclear how long immunity against serious reinfections would last. They speculate that if it lasts for a prolonged time, this could mean that infections become more benign as coronavirus becomes more widespread.

For lingering breathinglessness, a Cardiac Stress Test is useful

Research suggests that cardiac stress testing might be able to help COVID-19 victims suffering from persistent shortness-of-breath. The current guidelines for cardiopulmonary exercise testing do not recommend it due to concerns that the test might worsen patients’ conditions. “We found that cardiopulmonary exercises testing was capable of identifying reduced exercise capability in around 45% patients,” stated Dr. Donna Mancini from the Icahn Medical School at Mount Sinai. A Monday report by Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Heart Failure revealed that all the patients in the study experienced persistent shortness of breathing for over three months following COVID-19 treatment. Lung function, chest CT scans, chest Xrays, and echocardiograms all showed normal results. Mancini explained that exercise testing revealed issues that could have gone unnoticed. She stated that low-level functional testing, like a six-minute walk test, is not recommended to find these abnormalities.

Experimental smartwatch COVID-19 detector improving

Researchers reported in Nature Medicine Monday that the future of smartwatch alerting systems to detect COVID-19 disease early is closer than expected. The new system was tested on 2,155 Fitbit, Apple (NASDAQ) Watch, Garmin(NASDAQ:) and other devices. The researchers found that 84 out of 18 volunteers had coronavirus infection. The algorithms of the researchers generated alarms for 67 (80%) of infected people, an average of three days before the symptoms started. According to them, this is the first case of COVID-19 asymptomatic detection. The system currently relies on resting heart rates, according to Michael Snyder, a Stanford University School of Medicine researcher. Snyder said that watchmakers should be able provide more precise physiologic information in the future. Snyder stated that there are many stressors that can cause alerting. The majority of the triggers are easily identified – excessive alcohol consumption, travel, work, and other stressors. So the user can ignore alerts. Researchers said that if watches are able to record other data, such as heart rate variability or respiration rate and skin temperature, then it will be easier to identify COVID-19 cases. Snyder explained that this is a research project. But, we expect FDA approved devices to dominate this field soon.

Vaccines in development: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/VACCINE-TRACKER/xegpbqnlovq/