Category: COVID

Categories : COVID UncategorizedTags :

Medical Aid Schemes to Share Cost of Nationwide Vaccination

On By ModernMedia

As arrangements are being made to pay for the COVID vaccination programme for South Africa, medical aid schemes are expected to contribute to the cost towards ensuring at least 67% of the population receives a vaccine, which is the minimum number to establish herd immunity.

Across South Africa, there are some 9 million medical aid beneficiaries, making up some 16% of the population and who collectively spent R186 billion last year on healthcare. The total cost of providing sufficient vaccines for the South African population is thought to range from R5 billion to R20 billion, depending on whether the vaccine is simply bought for the commercial price or whether the distribution and administration costs are factored in as well.

Discussions into paying for the mass vaccinations have suggested that mass-employers, such as mines, ought to contribute  This week, the Council for Medical Schemes (CMS) confirmed that vaccination would be a minimum prescribed benefit, so this will not be paid for out of medical savings.”The CMS acknowledges that there may be an additional cost burden to medical schemes for the provision of the vaccine, but this is not expected to be prohibitively high,” the body said. “In addition, industry associations have assured the CMS that vaccine costs can be absorbed by most medical schemes.”

South Africa’s vaccine source is not yet clear, although President Cyril Ramaphosa has hinted that Canada may share its excess vaccine stock. Canada currently has enough vaccine pre-purchase agreements to vaccinate its population five times over.

Source: Business Insider

Categories : COVID UncategorizedTags : 1 Comment

WHO Team Barred from Entry into China

On By ModernMedia

According to the World Health Organization, its team sent to China to investigate the origins of COVID were denied entry.

Conveying his disappointment at the team being barred from entry into China due to visas not being issued, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “today, we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permissions for the team’s arrival in China.”

Addressing the media in Geneva, he continued, “I’m very disappointed with this news, given that two members had already begun their journeys and others were not able to travel at the last minute, but had been in contact with senior Chinese officials.”

“But I have been in contact with senior Chinese officials. And I have once again made it clear that the mission is a priority for WHO and the international team.” He added, “We are eager to get the mission underway as soon as possible.” 

The experts were to investigate the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in Wuhan.  The team of 10 will be led by Peter Ben Embarek, WHO’s expert on zoonoses – diseases that cross over the species barrier into humans from animals.

Dr Michael Ryan, the emergencies chief at WHO, said the understanding was that the team would begin the deployment from Tuesday, and that two of its members had begun travelling to China, with one member already turned back due to visa issues while the other was still in transit.

“We did not want to put people in the air unnecessarily if there wasn’t a guarantee of their arrival in China being successful,” said Ryan. “Dr Tedros has taken immediate action and has spoken with senior Chinese officials and has fully impressed upon them the absolute critical nature of this.”
“We hope that this is just a logistical and bureaucratic issue that can be resolved very quickly,” he continued.

According to the The Financial Times, Hua Chunying, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, on Wednesday said, “Tracing the source [of the virus] is a complicated issue. To ensure that the international team’s work progresses smoothly, they must go through the necessary procedures.”

Source: The Independent

Categories : COVIDTags :

Steroids Indicated Only for Most Severe COVID Patients

On By ModernMedia

According to new research, treating COVID patients with steroids to manage inflammation and stave off a cytokine storm may only be useful in patients with severe COVID.

Most patients with moderate to severe COVID in fact have a suppressed immune system, suggesting that treatment with steroids such as dexamethasone should only be applied to patients with most severe COVID. Severe COVID patients develop a hyperinflammatory reaction known as a cytokine storm.

The researchers measured cytokine levels in 168 adults with COVID, 26 with flu and 16 that were healthy volunteers. When dexamethasone or other steroids are administered to patients with already lowered immune system, they can backfire.

“We did identify a subset of Covid-19 patients with the broadly upregulated array of cytokines.. But, overall, the average person with Covid-19 had less inflammation than the average person with flu,” said study co-author Paul Thomas of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The study authors thus believe that steroids should only be directed at the small subset of COVID patients with an overactive immune response. What they say is an urgent requirement now is a fast, reliable and cheap test to measure cytokines, thereby identifying those patients that are likely to benefit from dexamethasone.

Source: Times of India

Categories : COVIDTags :

New Study Shows Pollution May Accelerate COVID Spread

On By ModernMedia

A study from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University shows that pollution may have contributed to the rapid spread of COVID through the United States.

The spread of COVID is directly associated with the long-term ambient level of PM2.5 (particles less 2.5 micrometres in diameter) and the reproduction number R0 for the coronavirus. PM2.5 are small enough to enter the lungs and cause damage. Matters are only worsened with secondary inorganic components in PM2.5.

Looking at 43 factors such as age, population density and time delays in lockdown orders, and comparing it to pollution statistics, they found a linear association with PM2.5 concentrations and inorganic components. Interestingly, this relationship only appeared above a certain level of air pollution.

“Annual mean PM2.5 national standards are set at or below 12 microgrammes per cubic metre, below that you are supposed to be safe,” said Rajan Chakrabarty, associate professor in the Department of Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering. “What we saw, the correlation we’re seeing is well below that standard.”

More detailed analysis showed that black carbon in the form of soot had a synergistic effect. “We found black carbon acts as a kind of catalyst. When there is soot present, PM2.5 has more of an acute effect on lung health, and therefore on R0.”

Source: Science Daily

Categories : COVIDTags :

Black Market for Negative COVID Tests

On By ModernMedia

According to Business Insider South Africa, falsified negative COVID tests are being used around the world, with even a black market for them existing.

In France, seven people were arrested when a traveller at Charles de Gaulle Airport was discovered trying to travel with a falsified negative COVID digital certificate. The fraudulent certificates were being sold for $180 (R2,800) to $360 (R5,600) each. In October, a group of travellers in Brazil faked their own COVID test results trying to get into the Fernando de Noronha island group. While in the UK, a number of people admitted altering the test results for friends, because the certificates were electronic and very simple to alter and then print.

Categories : COVID PulmonologyTags :

MRI Scans Reveal Post-COVID Extent of Lung Damage

On By ModernMedia

A study of non-hospitalised individuals who had recovered from COVID but still experienced breathing difficulties had revealed lung damage where other tests were unable to.

To investigate post-COVID lung damage, Prof Fergus Gleeson led a study involving 10 participants aged 19 to 69, of whom eight had been experiencing breathing difficulties three months after a COVID infection. They had not been hospitalised for their COVID, and conventional scans had not been able to detect any abnormalities with their lungs.

The patients’ lungs were imaged using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans with xenon present in the lungs. Xenon, a noble gas, is non-toxic Xenon has a long history of use as a contrast agent, and is soluble with pulmonary tissue, allowing for investigation of specific lung characteristics that are connected to gas exchange and alveolar oxygenation, at the level of small airways where pulmonary function tests (PFTs) cannot provide information.

The scans revealed that there was indeed lung damage preventing alveolar oxygenation – and it was unexpectedly severe.

Prof Gleeson said, “I was expecting some form of lung damage, but not to the degree that we have seen.”

The findings help to explain the phenomenon of “long COVID”, where patients who have recovered from COVID continue to experience fatigue and breathing difficulties months after the original infection has ended.Based on the findings, Prof Gleeson will undertake a study with a further 100 participants based on the same criteria.

Source: BBC News 

Categories : COVIDTags :

No Lockdown May Worsen Economies

On By ModernMedia

In an article for The Conversation, Michael Smithson of the Australian National University argues that far from there being a toss-up between saving lives with a lockdown, and protecting the economy by keeping a country open, lockdown may in fact protect the economy.

Some arguments even leaned towards Indeed, US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said in June, “I think we’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage.”

The choice of whether to implement lockdown has been a particularly difficult choice to make for South Africa, beset by deep inequality. Its lockdown caused its economy to shrink by 51% in the second quarter.

Economic and COVID data from 45 countries was sourced for analysis. The data has two outliers; namely China, which implemented a very effective early lockdown, and India, which implemented a strict lockdown that became very ineffective as time went by.

Consumer expenditure, an important indicator of economic activity, was negatively correlated with COVID cases, indicating that the economy fared better with attempts to suppress the virus (at least temporarily).

In European countries, GDP was positively correlated with COVID cases, indicating that economic activity itself drove up the rate of COVID cases. 

The article’s conclusions do have some limitations. The economic data were drawn from the second quarter, and COVID cases were taken as of June 30, but the pandemic hit different countries at different times. 

Categories : COVIDTags :

Gauteng to Brace for Second COVID Wave in January

On By ModernMedia

Speaking at a memorial for healthcare workers who have died from COVID, acting MEC of Health Jacob Mamabolo says that the Gauteng health department is expecting a second wave of the virus in January.

Gauteng, which represents 30.1% of all cumulative COVID cases nationwide, is expected to see a resurgence on the back of holiday festivities and travel, based on modelling information supplied to the provincial command council.

“We need to be reminded that the battle with Covid-19 is not yet over. We are still in the outbreak stage and not in the post-Covid-19 period yet. Here in Tshwane we still have hotspots and areas that are of great worry such as Atteridgeville, Sunnyside, Ga-Rankuwa and Mamelodi,” said Mamabolo.

He further added that alcohol consumption would lead to people being discouraged in following the COVID health and safety rules, and that staff were already exhausted from a long year of fighting the disease. He added that it was necessary that extra staff were approved for the fight in the coming year.    Source: Rekord East

Categories : COVID VaccinesTags :

Questions Raised over Oxford’s Unusual Vaccine Regimen

On By ModernMedia

The recent announcement of the Oxford’s and AstraZeneca’s vaccine trial being 70% effective up to 90% effective has raised some pointed questions.

The trial had two treatment arms, one receiving two full doses of the AZD1222 vaccine and a half dose plus a full dose, with the doses being administered 28 days apart. The “half dose then full dose”  treatment arm reported the 90% protection. The problem was that the trial was never meant to have such an arm. 

It was noticed that some participants were only receiving a half dose because they were experiencing fewer effects than expected such as arm pain and headache. This was subsequently corrected so that they would still receive the full dose on the second administration.

Of particular concern is that the “90% effectiveness” is based on a much smaller subset of the trial participants, with a correspondingly higher statistical uncertainty. So much so that there is statistical overlap with their lower effectiveness of 62% quoted for the two full doses. Furthermore, the participants were from the initial stages of the vaccine trial, where they were aged 18-55 and therefore have little applicability to the results of the main trial which included older age groups as well. 

The details of exactly why the half-measure doses came to be administered in the first place have not been revealed by Oxford or AstraZeneca. Meanwhile in the US, a Phase III of the trial is being rolled out with 40 000 participants, and the “half dose then full dose” regimen may be included – however, uncertainty about it and whether it isn’t a statistical fluke will have to be cleared up first.

Source: Ars Technica

Categories : COVID Expert OpinionTags :

AI Solutions Are No Magic Bullet Against COVID

On By ModernMedia

A leading researcher in the field of medical image analysis has cautioned against the rush to provide AI solutions to the COVID pandemic, arguing that the need to help out must not compromise scientific principles.

Prof Hamid Tizhoosh, head of KIMIA Lab, Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo wrote a piece on Medical-News.Net where he laid out the problems involved in such “quick fix” solutions.

He explains that AI researchers often make “toy” datasets which they use to experiment with in their own labs. In the middle of the pandemic, it is difficult to collaborate with radiographers who have their hands full dealing with COVID patients’ images.

AI research requires the acquisition and curation of large amounts of high-quality data, and currently there is an absence of this. While there are still few publicly available X-ray images or CT images of COVID patients’ lungs, they are beginning to crop up on the internet. AI researchers and enthusiasts are scraping together these images for their data sets and supplementing them with those of pneumonia patients, which are much more readily available. The results of their AI work are being released in papers that are not peer reviewed, yet some claim to be authoritative solutions.

Tizhoosh draws attention to the validity of this data. In one instance, he saw that the data included a pneumonia case from a paediatric patient. He cautions that, “AI is neither a ventilator nor a vaccine nor a pill; it is extremely unlikely that the exhausted radiologists in Wuhan, Qom or Bergamo download the Python code of our poorly trained network (using insufficient and improper data and described in quickly written papers and blogs) to just obtain a flawed second opinion.”

He concludes that the AI developments must come after appropriate images are made available by hospitals, that ethics approval is received and the data is properly de-identified.