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By Nancy Lapid
(Reuters) – Here is a summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Air pollution worsens severe COVID
Dirty air contributes to the severity of COVID-19, according to a study from one of the most polluted cities in America. Researchers who studied 2,038 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Detroit area found that those who needed intensive care and machines to help them breathe were more likely to live in neighborhoods with higher levels of air pollution and lead paint. The more severe the local air contamination, the greater the likelihood of needing intensive care and mechanical ventilation. Dr Anita Shallal of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit said that long-term exposure to air pollution can alter the immune system and make it more susceptible to viral infections, while fine particles from pollution air can also act as a vector for the virus and help it spread. . The study “draws attention to systemic inequalities that may have led to marked differences in COVID-19 results across racial and ethnic lines,” Shallal said in a statement from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Disease infectious diseases, where she presented the results. Friday. “Communities of color are more likely to be located in areas closer to industrial pollution and to work in companies that expose them to air pollution.” (https://www.eccmid.org/)
Beta variant may increase hospitalizations and deaths
The beta variant of the coronavirus may be more deadly than the original version of the virus, according to researchers in South Africa who have studied more than 1.5 million COVID-19 patients. Although the Delta variant now accounts for the largest percentage of new COVID-19 cases in many countries, beta is still circulating, with mutations that make it highly contagious and more difficult to prevent or treat than the original version. Researchers found that people infected in the second wave of the pandemic, when beta was dominant, were more likely to require hospitalization than those infected in the first wave, after taking into account patient risk factors and overloading hospitals. Additionally, COVID-19 hospital patients had a 31% higher risk of death in Wave 2, according to the report published in The Lancet Global Health on Friday. The researchers did not know each patient’s infectious variant, so they had to use the periods of the first and second wave as a proxy for the type of variant, co-author Dr Waasila Jassat told Reuters. Johannesburg National Institute of Communicable Diseases. “We hope to repeat the analysis, comparing the third wave in South Africa to the first two waves, to similarly try to understand whether the Delta wave is associated with a higher risk of death,” she said. declared. (https://bit.ly/2UItx7z)
MRNA vaccines work well in US “real world” study
The most commonly used COVID-19 vaccines in the United States are effective not only in clinical trials but also in the “real world,” according to a national study. Using data from a sample of US adults hospitalized between March and May 2021, researchers found that mRNA vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna “prevented about 87% of hospitalizations for COVID-19 that would have occurred. if the vaccines had not been administered. said Dr Wesley Self of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Efficacy was similar for both vaccines and was highest – at 97.3% – in adults aged 18 to 49, his team reported in an article published Thursday on medRxiv ahead of the peer review. In immunocompromised people, vaccines have prevented about 59% of COVID-19-related hospitalizations that would otherwise have occurred. This is still a “substantial benefit,” a Self said, but “because the protection is not as good for people with compromised immunity, we believe they should still take precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19 even if they have been vaccinated,” Self mentioned. (https : //bit.ly/3AQZN90)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl in an external browser for a Reuters graphic on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
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