The level of oxygen when walking identifies patients at risk; cancer patients should be given priority vaccination

(Reuters) – The following 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.

Oxygen level when walking identifies patients at risk

It may be useful to assess blood oxygen levels in patients when walking if this level is normal when sitting, suggests a new study. Low blood oxygen levels, or hypoxia, contribute to shortness of breath and worsening disease in patients with COVID-19. At 10 Chicago-area hospitals, doctors studied 531 patients with COVID-19 whose blood oxygen levels were normal while resting. About one in four have developed hypoxia when standing up and walking. These people were almost five times more likely to eventually need basal oxygen supply and almost eight times more likely to need advanced oxygen therapy, compared to patients with low oxygen levels. in the blood was maintained while walking. The drop in blood oxygen levels while walking could be detected an average of 12 hours before patients needed supplemental oxygen, the researchers found. So-called ambulatory hypoxia “may serve as an early, non-invasive physiological marker of the likelihood of developing moderate to severe disease and help clinicians triage patients and initiate earlier interventions,” the researchers proposed in a published article. Thursday on medRxiv before peer review. (bit.ly/3mC8n3e)

Cancer patients should be given priority vaccination

Cancer patients who contract COVID-19 are at high risk of poor outcomes and should be considered for priority access to coronavirus vaccines, according to the American Association for Cancer Research COVID-19 and the Task Force on the cancer. The working group reviewed the available data on the death rates of cancer patients who developed COVID-19 and based its recommendation on 28 publications. Their position paper was published in the journal Cancer Discovery on Saturday. Another Italian study reiterated that fear of infection should not be a reason for delaying cancer treatments. Among the nearly 60,000 cancer patients treated earlier this year in Italy, less than 1% developed COVID-19, they reported Thursday in JAMA Oncology. Early reports from China indicated a much higher risk of contracting COVID-19 in patients on cancer treatment, Dr Carlo Aschele of Ospedale Sant’Andrea in La Spezia told Reuters. “In Italy, oncologists, as well as patients, were terrified, expecting to face a huge amount of infections and deaths, especially among patients receiving chemotherapy or immunotherapy,” he said. declared. The reassuring results will allow oncologists and patients to make informed decisions about anti-tumor treatment during this pandemic, he added. (bit.ly/2Jce4ao; bit.ly/3nFhRvF)

EU regulators call for caution on vaccines and treatments for pregnant women

The European Medicines Agency said on Monday that the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE should only be given during pregnancy “on a case-by-case basis” because there is not yet enough data on the potential risks for pregnant women. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had previously acknowledged the problem on their website. He says that “getting vaccinated is a personal choice for pregnant women”. There is also a lack of data on COVID-19 treatments in pregnant women, according to an article published Wednesday in The Lancet Global Health. Researchers who reviewed clinical trial registries found that out of 722 studies on the treatment of COVID-19, 538 (75%) specifically excluded pregnant women. “Without explicit and proactive efforts to recruit and retain pregnant women in COVID-19 treatment trials, pregnant women will suffer from having fewer medical options available to them because we do not include them in clinical trials.” , co-author Dr. Melanie Taylor of the World Health Organization and the CDC said in a statement. “There is a very real possibility that the treatment (for COVID-19) will be approved … without evidence-based advice for use in pregnant women.” (bit.ly/3h7hO9C; bit.ly/3rki4qD; reut.rs/3nFLnBI)

Low risk of re-infection for those who test positive for antibodies

A study of more than three million people adds to the evidence that people with COVID-19 antibodies have a significantly lower risk of future infection with the novel coronavirus. Working with health data analytics companies HealthVerity and Action, as well as commercial labs Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp, researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in the United States had access to more than 50% of the results. commercial COVID-19 antibody tests performed in the United States. States through August. Overall, 11.6% of the tests were positive for antibodies. When the researchers looked at study subjects who returned to labs for repeat testing, they found that people who tested positive for antibodies on the first test had an approximately 10-fold lower risk of having evidence of ‘a new infection compared to people who tested negative for the first time. “This finding suggests that people who test positive for antibodies … have significant immunity to SARS-CoV-2 and are less at risk of future infection,” said Dr. Norman Sharpless of NCI. . His team’s report was posted on medRxiv on Sunday ahead of the peer review. (bit.ly/2LTk8FD)

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