Tag: covid

Categories : COVID General Interest UncategorizedTags :

Nurse Recounts His Year on the Frontlines

On By ModernMedia
Stethoscope. Photo by Robert Ruggiero on Unsplash

One year into the first case of COVID being detected in South Africa, one nurse recounts the hardships he and other healthcare workers have faced as they battled against the pandemic.

Lebohang Nkoana, a nurse on the frontline at Thelle Mogoerane Hospital in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, spoke to IOL of his experiences.

“When Covid-19 came, no one knew what to expect,” said Nkoana, who has been a nurse for eight years and is also a branch secretary for the Democratic Nurses Organisation of SA.

“It was devastating because we were already short-staffed. At first, we were resistant. We did not want to work with Covid-19 patients

“We were just using normal non-sterile gloves. Then we stopped working for two days as we did not want to risk our lives and also because we were not fully informed about the disease.”

Like many in the first days of the pandemic, he was forced to work without adequate PPE. Lack of regulation and price gouging had also worsened the PPE situation during the early days of the pandemic.

“There was no PPE, no increment, nothing. I had to use what I had at my disposal to protect myself and render a service.

“I went into a Covid ward to save lives, but in the process, exposed myself.”

Mr Koana contracted COVID during the course of his duty, and lost 19 of his colleagues to the disease, with little in the way of support for his trauma. He is also stigmatised in his community, as people assume that he has COVID. He also fears for his wife and two children.

“I am not scared for myself, because as a nurse, I took an oath. I am scared for my children. If I bring the virus home and it kills my wife, who will take care of our children?”

Source: IOL

Categories : COVIDTags :

Scientist Issues Stark Warning on Brazil’s COVID Response

On By ModernMedia

If Brazil continues to let COVID rage unchecked, it risks deadly new variants emerging to threaten the global community, a Duke University neuroscientist in Brazil told The Guardian.

Miguel Nicolelis urged the international community to put pressure on the Brazilian government, which has made little effort to manage its COVID outbreak which has so far left a quarter of a million Brazilians dead. Brazil’s COVID deaths amount to one tenth of the world’s total.

“The world must vehemently speak out over the risks Brazil is posing to the fight against the pandemic,” said Nicolelis who has spent much of the lockdown in his São Paulo flat.

“What’s the point in sorting the pandemic out in Europe or the United States, if Brazil continues to be a breeding ground for this virus?”

He said: “It’s that if you allow the virus to proliferate at the levels it is currently proliferating here, you open the door to the occurrence of new mutations and the appearance of even more lethal variants.”

Manaus, the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon, has already seen the emergence of a deadly, highly transmissible variant, P1, six cases of which have been detected in the UK already. The new variant with its “unique constellation of mutations” may also evade immunity, scientists have warned.

“Brazil is an open-air laboratory for the virus to proliferate and eventually create more lethal mutations,” Nicolelis said. “This is about the world. It’s global.”

The warning comes as hospitals around Brazil are on the verge of collapse, with a record 1726 daily deaths recorded on Tuesday.

“We’ve now gone past 250 000 deaths, and my expectation is that if nothing is done we could have lost 500 000 people here in Brazil by next March. It’s a horrifying and tragic prospect, but at this point it’s perfectly possible,” he said.

Nicoleis puts the blame squarely upon Brazil’s far right President Jair Bolsonaro. “The policies that he is failing to put into practice jeopardise the fight against the pandemic in the entire planet.”

José Gomes Temporão, who was the health minister during the 2009 swine flu pandemic, said Bolsonaro and others would have to be held accountable for their poor response.

“To this day, Brazil doesn’t have a national plan to combat COVID,” Temporão complained, criticising Bolsonaro’s failure to secure sufficient vaccines for Brazil. 

“I don’t think there is any other leader who is so obtuse, so backward, who has such a mistaken and warped vision of reality as the president of Brazil,” Temporão said. “History will condemn these people.”

Source: The Guardian

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease COVIDTags :

Study Shows That COVID Causes Heart Damage

On By ModernMedia

Heart problems in COVID are caused by the virus invading heart cells and causing damage, according to a new study.

Heart problems such as arrhythmia and lack of pumping ability were associated with COVID even at the start of the pandemic. However, it was not clear whether these effects were caused by the virus, or whether it was due to the body’s inflammatory response in mounting a defence against the virus. 

“Early on in the pandemic, we had evidence that this coronavirus can cause heart failure or cardiac injury in generally healthy people, which was alarming to the cardiology community,” said senior author Kory J Lavine, MD, PhD, an associate professor of medicine. “Even some college athletes who had been cleared to go back to competitive athletics after COVID-19 infection later showed scarring in the heart. There has been debate over whether this is due to direct infection of the heart or due to a systemic inflammatory response that occurs because of the lung infection.”

Dr Lavine, along with other researchers from the Washington University School of Medicine, engineered stem-cell derived tissue as a model for how human heart tissue contracts. Studying these heart tissue models, they came to the conclusion that the viral infection kills muscle cells as well as the muscle fibre units involved in heart muscle contraction. This cell death and muscle fibre destruction happened even without inflammation.

“Our study is unique because it definitively shows that, in patients with COVID-19 who developed heart failure, the virus infects the heart, specifically heart muscle cells,”  Dr Lavine said. “Inflammation can be a second hit on top of the damage caused by the virus, but the inflammation itself is not the initial cause of the heart injury.”

While other viral infections have been linked to heart damage, SARS-CoV-2 is unique in that monocytes and dendritic cells dominate the immune response, while other viruses that damage the heart attract T and B cells.

“COVID-19 is causing a different immune response in the heart compared with other viruses, and we don’t know what that means yet,” Dr Lavine said. “In general, the immune cells seen responding to other viruses tend to be associated with a relatively short disease that resolves with supportive care. But the immune cells we see in COVID-19 heart patients tend to be associated with a chronic condition that can have long-term consequences. These are associations, so we will need more research to understand what is happening.”

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Bailey, A. L., et al. (2021) SARS-CoV-2 Infects Human Engineered Heart Tissues and Models COVID-19 Myocarditis. JACC: Basic to Translational Science. doi.org/10.1016/j.jacbts.2021.01.002.

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Gratitude for Engineer’s ‘Hack’ Website for Vaccination Appointments

On By ModernMedia

Frustrated with the difficulties faced in scheduling a vaccination appointment, a New York software engineer developed a website to make it easier for his fellow New Yorkers to schedule an appointment.

Huge Ma was trying to get a COVID vaccination appointment for his mother. “You had to basically open three tabs, one for each major government vaccine portal, and then refresh all day until you got an appointment,” the 31-year-old told The Guardian. This experience inspired him to create a website, Turbovax, that helped people to book their appointments more easily. After taking a “look under the hood” in January and doing two weeks of coding, he unveiled his website – essentially a bot that trawls relevant New York sites for appointments and shares them on Twitter and on a website.

Almost immediately, the website took off, with one million page views a day, with tens of thousand of people having booked appointments using the bot, Mr Ma estimated. People have even asked him to bring TurboVax to their cities.

“The response has been incredibly overwhelming,” he said. “There’s been so much gratitude. Hundreds, thousands of emails from people who have gotten appointments through TurboVax, which is honestly kind of just mind-blowing, and humbling as well.” 

He was unprepared for the reaction. “I would never have thought that I could have built something that has such tangible impact on other people’s lives.” 

However, running the site is difficult as Mr Ma has to balance this with his day job working at Airbnb, and the Google Docs-based site is buckling under the demand.

“Technically it’s kind of a hack. It’s not built in the way that modern websites are supposed to be built,” said Ma. “These are the shortcuts that we take to put something in the world that we think is useful and I think that’s a trade-off that I would still make.”

Though it is free, Mr Ma accepts donations and has gathered $35 000 so far. TurboVax is one of a number of citizen-led services that have popped up to help Americans deal with the difficulties of vaccine appointment bookings, such as NYC Vaccine List in New York and VaccinateCA in California.

Mr Ma shut down the website over the weekend in protest against a spate of hate crimes targetting Asian Americans, tweeting, “Anti-Asian hate crimes are out of control. I am taking a stand because I fear for my friends and family.” However, local law enforcements said there is no sign that a number of recent assaults against Asian Americans were racially motivated.

Since far more white people have received vaccinations than black or Latino people, Mr Ma said the technology can “help level the playing field”.

“Not everyone has the ability to sit in front of a computer and refresh all day,” he explained. “That said, I know that no system is perfect. This tech can help but it can’t solve other inequities in the system.”

Source: The Guardian

Categories : COVID Medical IndustryTags :

SA Medical Aid Schemes May Not Have to Pay for Public’s Vaccines

On By ModernMedia

Medical aid scheme executives have pointed out that the latest budget means that medical aid schemes may no longer need to contribute for the vaccination of the South African population without medical insurance. 

South Africa’s medical insurance schemes had been in discussions on funding at least part of the government’s vaccine rollout for uninsured members of the public.

The R9 billion allocated in the budget may be enough to cover the vaccine costs of the entire country, said executives from the two leading medical aid schemes.

About 7 million people are covered by medical aid schemes, about a quarter of the country’s population. Discovery Health, Medscheme and Momentum together administer some 80% of private sector medical aid plans.

“I think the government is looking at this and saying this is our role,” said Damian McHugh, executive head of sales and marketing at Momentum Health Solutions. He agreed with the idea that the budget figure implied that schemes may not have to help cover vaccinations for non-members, although it did not remove the discussion of subsidies.

McHugh went on to explain that the costs would depend on which vaccines were procured, and schemes would still have to contribute in case booster shots or new vaccination rounds became necessary.

However, given record additions to their reserves last year due to medical services not being taken or postponed, along with not having to contribute to the vaccination of non-members, medical aid schemes stand to reap even greater benefits.

Source: Reuters

Categories : COVID Medical IndustryTags :

Global COVID Recovery Needs to Address Oxygen Shortages

On By ModernMedia

At the virtual launch of Global Citizen’s Recover Better Together Campaign, access to vaccines and medical resources was highlighted as a key area to address.

“Covid-19 has threatened the lives and livelihoods of everyone on the planet. To respond, we must take several urgent actions. The only way that we will be able to recover better, together is by defeating the virus everywhere through universal access of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics,” said World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

To this end, the Recover Better Together Campaign, an initiative organised by the Global Citizen, the European Commission and the WHO, aims to create momentum for global COVID pandemic recovery, with a return to the implementation of global goals.

“To fight the pandemic, we need to pool resources, capabilities, knowledge and intellectual property. That is why we continue to call on world leaders to support the COVAX facility to ensure rapid and equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines for all countries. Another important step is to enable the transfer of medical technology for the duration of the pandemic,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa.

One of key medical resource is oxygen, which is in short supply in many low- and middle-income countries, which have to provide enough for up to half a million COVID patients. WHO data shows that 1.1 million cylinders are needed daily in developing countries, with Africa seeing the biggest surge in demand. Hospitals in Nigeria have reported running out of oxygen, leading to preventable deaths.

According to the WHO, public hospitals across 41 African countries have fewer than 2000 working ventilators. In comparison, the United States has more than 170 000 ventilators. The South African private sector has about 4000 ventilators, and around 2000 in the public sector. The WHO said the launch of the Covid Tools Accelerator Therapeutics pillar, co-led by Unitaid and Wellcome, has improved access to oxygen. On 25 February the Covid-19 Oxygen Emergency Taskforce was also launched by the WHO.

Unitaid Executive Director Dr Philippe Duneton said the Taskforce now needs an additional $90 million US for delivery of oxygen in up to 20 countries including Malawi, Nigeria and Afghanistan.

“This is a global emergency that needs a truly global response, both from international organisations and donors. Many of the countries seeing this demand struggled before the pandemic to meet their daily oxygen needs,” said Duneton. “Now it’s more vital than ever that we come together to build on the work that has already been done, with a firm commitment to helping the worst-affected countries as quickly as possible.”

Source: Health-e News

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Pope Appoints New Personal Doctor After Predecessor Died of COVID

On By ModernMedia

The 84 year-old Pope Francis today appointed a new personal doctor to replace his previous one, 78 year-old Fabrizio Soccorsi, who passed away on January 9 from COVID related complications. He had served in the role since 2015.

Dr Soccorsi had been admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on 26 December because of cancer, but died due to “pulmonary complications” caused by COVID. Pope Francis had held a funeral service on 26 January for the late Dr Soccorsi.

During his medical career, he had been head physician of the hepatology ward in Rome’s San Camillo-Forlanini hospital and director of its department of liver diseases, the digestive system and nutrition; he also taught immunology at medical schools.

His replacement, Roberto Bernabei, is an expert in health care for the elderly. Dr Bernabei, 69, leads the geriatrics and rehabilitative medicine department at Rome’s Gemelli, which is the Catholic hospital where popes traditionally go to be treated.

It is believed the pontiff remains in good health, despite having had part of his lung removed after developing pleurisy as a young man. He received a COVID vaccine in early January alongside former pope Benedict.

Source: Eyewitness News

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Recent Mother With COVID to Have Life Support Withdrawn

On By ModernMedia

In the UK, a comatose woman with COVID who had recently delivered her son via caesarean section should be allowed to die, a judge has ruled.

Mr Justice Hayden said that doctors should cease the woman’s life support treatment as it was no longer preserving her life but rather dragging out her death.

He said that the situation was “a tragedy of an almost unimaginable dimension” and was told there was “zero” chance of the woman making any meaningful recovery.

The woman (whose identity is withheld) was rushed to hospital a month ago while 32 weeks pregnant, after falling ill with COVID at home.

The judge was told that she had Addison’s disease, an acquired primary adrenal insufficiency from bilateral autoimmune damage to the adrenal cortex. The woman’s pancreas had ceased to function and one of her lungs had “died”, with a specialist saying that she had “essentially no normal lung function”.

The woman, who is of the Muslim faith, has a husband and a three year old son. Her husband and sister opposed the decision to withdraw life support as it was against their beliefs.

“To unplug the machine, this is for us like asking someone to kill us,” the woman’s sister said. “When God has written our death, that is when we will die.”

In an urgent court application, the judge took the case in a virtual hearing held late on Tuesday. The judge concluded that ending the woman’s life was in her best interests, adding that doctors had prepared a palliative care plan.

“This family is seeking a miracle,” he said. “This is a very young mother in circumstances of almost unspeakable sadness.”

Source: The Guardian

Categories : COVID Immune SystemTags :

COVID Tracking in Space Company Employees Yields Antibody Clues

On By ModernMedia

SpaceX, an aerospace manufacturing company currently providing satellite launch services as well as transport of crew  to the International Space Station, collaborated with researchers from MIT to monitor the spread of COVID amongst its employees. 

Unusually, the paper included SpaceX CEO Elon Musk as a byline author. The technology entrepreneur is known to be quite hands-on in his company’s projects. However, he has also courted controversy by openly questioning COVID tests and saying he and his family would not take COVID vaccines, saying that achieving herd immunity naturally was a better strategy.

SpaceX was seeking data-driven methods to safeguard its essential workforce. The collaboration allowed the researchers to track the emergence of mild and asymptomatic cases in a cohort of adults as early as April, when data for such cases were rare.

“Essentially, this study indicates that it’s not simply the presence or absence of antibodies that matter; rather, the amount and type of antibodies may play a defining role in the development of a protective immune response,” said Professor Galit Alter, Harvard Medical School and Immunologist, Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital. 

The study was originally aimed at measuring antibody levels over time, but when reinfections began to be reported, the team realised their samples had some valuable information.

“In early spring, we weren’t sure if asymptomatic infection could drive long-lived antibodies,” said Prof Alter, “nor whether they possessed the capability to neutralise or kill the virus.”

The researchers knew that 120 participants had mild or asymptomatic COVID infections, resulting in their bodies producing antibodies. Using sophisticated techniques to analyse those antibodies, they found that individuals with stronger symptoms in mild COVID, had a larger number of antibodies and developed immune functions associated with natural immune protection. 

The study found that although the presence of antibodies was sufficient to determine whether an individual had experienced a COVID infection, they did not automatically mean that individual is protected against the virus in the long term.

Antibody effector functions (on the ‘long arm’ of the antibody) linked to long-term protection, such as T cell activation and virus neutralisation were only seen in certain immune responses. These involved high levels of antibodies targetting a part of the virus known as the receptor binding domain.

“Once you hit a certain threshold of these antibodies, it’s like a switch turns on and we can observe antibody effector functions,” said first author Yannic Bartsch, PhD. “These functions were not observed in individuals with lower antibody binding titers, and the level of protection from reinfections is uncertain in these individuals.”

Source: News-Medical.Net

Journal information: Bartsch, Y. C., et al. (2021) Discrete SARS-CoV-2 antibody titers track with functional humoral stability. Nature Communications. doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21336-8.

Categories : COVID General InterestTags :

Confusion Results in Vaccine Priority for ‘6.2cm’ Tall UK Man

On By ModernMedia

As a result of an error at his GP surgery, a healthy man aged 32 was offered an early COVID vaccination because his height was recorded as 6.2cm – giving him a calculated Body Mass Index (BMI) of 28 000.

Liam Thorp, political editor at The Liverpool Echo’s, said he was left “really confused” after he was offered the vaccine ahead of the government’s rollout, sharing the “frankly surreal” experience in a Twitter thread.  Vaccinations are not expected to begin until later in the year for the UK’s under-50s without underlying health conditions, perhaps as soon as March.

Manchester Evening News politics and investigations editor, Jennifer Williams, replied: “Should they not have been in touch before to see how the man the size of a thumb was getting on?” And palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke said: “This, for me, is the single best tweet of the entire pandemic, Liam. And may I please commend your decency in not exploiting your remarkable BMI to jump the queue?”

Despite being “on the chunky side”, Thorp didn’t think of his himself as obese. He said he was “uneasy”, thinking that he still ought to accept the invitation for vaccination, he contacted his GP about the situation whereupon he learned of the error which resulted in his height being recorded as 6.2cm – a mixup of his height as 6ft 2in (188cm). This resulted in his bizarre BMI of 28 000.

“If I had been less stunned, I would have asked why no one was more concerned that a man of these remarkable dimensions was slithering around south Liverpool. But he was very apologetic and really nice and I think he was just relieved that I found it so funny,” recalled Thorp.

Dr Fiona Lemmens, chair of NHS Liverpool clinical commissioning group, said: “I can see the funny side of this story but also recognise there is an important issue for us to address.”

Source: The Guardian