Feature Channels: Public Health

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In a nationwide effort to get people to stay at home and not travel between states or to vacation homes, new research out of the University of New Hampshire finds rural counties across the United States with high numbers of seasonal homes saw higher rates of COVID-19 cases than either urban or other rural areas.

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Answering the growing need for additional testing, and in direct response to shortages encountered in testing kit supply pipelines, the Coriell Institute for Medical Research is now offering services to create viral testing collection tubes containing different media and/or buffer formulations, for use in COVID-19 testing kits. Coriell is also exploring the feasibility of saliva as a means for testing for the new coronavirus.

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In the editorial, 'COVID-19: A new digital dawn?', published in the journal Digital Health (SAGE Publications), researchers from our Institute of Digital Healthcare at WMG, University of Warwick (together with colleagues from Warwick Medical School, University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire NHS Trust and Bristol Heart Institute, United Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust) provide insight into how these three reasons have led to an increase in digital healthcare.

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Researchers and clinicians are scrambling to find ways to combat COVID-19, including new therapeutics and eventually a vaccine. In a commentary published in the journal Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, Miller School of Medicine professor and endocrinologist Gianluca Iacobellis, M.D., Ph.D., suggests the DPP4 enzyme presents an interesting target for further research, and DPP4 inhibitors could help some COVID-19 patients.

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Roswell Park will offer plasma from the donated blood of healthy individuals who have had COVID-19 but have now fully recovered to patients with severe or life-threatening COVID-19 through an expanded access program authorized by the U.S. FDA.

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"What's the harm in visiting just one friend?" A lot of people are asking that during times of social distancing. A new website illustrates how doing so would essentially reconnect most households in a community and provide conduits through which the COVID-19 virus could spread.

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Tulane University faculty member Dr. Lina Moses, a seasoned epidemiologist and disease ecologist in the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, was deployed to Geneva where she worked on the COVID-19 response over the past two months. Receiving daily publication reports, Moses is charged with rapidly distributing the most impactful scientific information to the World Health Organization (WHO) operational response teams. This involves the daily appraisal of a vast amount of critical literature on all aspects of the novel virus relevant to the prevention of infection and the treatment of those infected.

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Spring allergies are in full force. So how do you know if your symptoms are due to allergies or the COVID-19 virus? In a new video, “How allergy symptoms differ from COVID-19,” Loyola Medicine allergist Rachna Shah, MD, outlines the different symptoms for each, and why it's important to keep your spring allergy and asthma symptoms under control during this pandemic.

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As scientists and doctors around the country step up to meet the COVID-19 pandemic threat, a physician and a laboratory scientist are sending aid to the heart of the effort to develop a vaccine through a generous donation to Saint Louis University’s Center for Vaccine Development.

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Researchers at UC San Diego Health publish the first empirical findings that strongly associate sensory loss and COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

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The dearth of coronavirus tests and the many false negatives confront doctors with a difficult decision this new tool helps them make.

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From dog walking and grocery runs to coordinating PPE donations and assisting with new telehealth initiatives, medical students at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, are volunteering their assistance to support the healthcare workforce, patients and communities in New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The FDA has granted emergency use authorization (EUA) to Rutgers’ RUCDR Infinite Biologics and its collaborators for a new collection approach that utilizes saliva as the primary test biomaterial for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the first such approval granted by the federal agency. The new saliva collection method, which RUCDR developed in partnership with Spectrum Solutions and Accurate Diagnostic Labs (ADL), will allow for broader population screening than the current method of nose and throat swabs.

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McMaster University researchers are racing to create a home-based COVID-19 testing kit, which could potentially be ready to move forward for approvals and manufacturing within months.

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A small cluster physicist explains why DIY masks work and why even a bandana is better than nothing to fight the spread of COVID19.

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A new data visualization tool examines how and why COVID-19 impacts regions differently. Using daily updated data, COVIDMinder compares community risks, mediation tools, and outcomes related to COVID-19 by state across the United States, and by county within New York state.

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The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses, with other healthcare organizations, has released a statement calling upon the government, private sector and all other Americans to “uphold their moral obligation by joining us in fighting the battle against coronavirus and the resulting COVID-19 disease.”

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In an effort to better fight COVID-19 in multiple regions of the country, Wake Forest Baptist Health has joined forces with Javara Inc. – a leading integrated clinical research organization headquartered in Winston-Salem – to conduct a community-based research study of the novel coronavirus.

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Engineers at Binghamton University, State University of New York are working with healthcare providers in the region to develop technology to help deal with the coronavirus pandemic.

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Jacob Goodman, a mechanical engineering student at Binghamton University, State University of New York, built a ventilator prototype using mainly parts he purchased from Walmart, to help during the coronavirus pandemic. Here he breaks down the parts and how the device works.

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The University of Chicago Medicine is launching a clinical trial to study whether blood plasma from people who have recovered from COVID-19 can be used to treat patients who are still in the hospital with severe disease symptoms.

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In a small group of patients hospitalized with severe complications of COVID-19 and treated with the experimental antiviral drug remdesivir, clinical improvement was observed in 68% of patients treated, according to an analysis co-authored by Jonathan Grein, MD, director of Hospital Epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai.

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Lyme Campaign Seeks Participants Who Are ‘Resilient’ to the Tick-borne Disease

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Intermountain Healthcare has created two COVID-19 Response Teams with 50 caregivers each that will deploy to the New York City area to assist hospitals this week. Intermountain has partnered with New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Northwell Health, both located in the New York City area. These healthcare systems will aim to return the favor by supporting Intermountain as much as they can when Utah faces its own surge with COVID-19 patients.

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An experimental therapy to help patients recover from COVID-19 by transfusing plasma from virus survivors into critically ill patients is being investigated by physicians at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) for use at Memorial Hermann.

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EAST LANSING, Mich. – As COVID-19 cases spike, the need for faster, more accessible testing is clear. Due to limited availability, many patients with symptoms — and their physicians — are left wondering whether they have the virus. Even when patients do get a test, overwhelmed labs can take several days to get the results.

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A Rutgers expert discusses how to maintain self-care habits during the public health crisis

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Researchers from Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City have launched two vital clinical trials to test the effectiveness and safety of two drugs – hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and azithromycin – to treat patients with COVID-19.

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A new data-driven mathematical model of the coronavirus pandemic predicts that the United States will peak in the number of “active” COVID-19 cases on or around April 20, marking a critical milestone on the demand for medical resources.

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UCLA has joined a nationwide effort to study whether convalescent plasma collected from people who have recovered from COVID-19 may yield a treatment for the deadly virus.

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Callers to the California Smokers’ Helpline can now get an additional tool to help them quit using tobacco: nicotine patches.

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Researchers from the University of Michigan have developed a helmet solution to provide support for COVID-19 patients, protect health care workers and safeguard hospital systems.

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Physician-scientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center are now enrolling patients in a clinical trial to evaluate a potential treatment of patients with COVID-19. Part of a multi-site investigation, the trial is evaluating the safety and efficacy of sarilumab, a biologic medication already approved for adults with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis, for the treatment of COVID-19.

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– University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, announced today the launch of a large-scale COVID-19 Testing Initiative that will significantly expand testing capability over the coming weeks, enabled by new funding of $2.5 million from the State of Maryland.

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As the COVID crisis continues to test the capacity of the healthcare system, what interventions are necessary to turn the tide of new infections, will the relief package have an impact, and how will a prolonged shutdown affect our economy?

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Limbitless Solutions has shifted from making bionic arms for children to 3D printing components of face shields to health care workers and first-responders responding to the COVID-19.

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The University of Central Florida, Orlando Health and 3D printing company Stratasys are leading an effort to rapidly 3D-print critical personal protective equipment (PPE) to ensure it is available for local healthcare professionals in their fight against COVID-19.

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The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) launched its new Safe and Clean at Home initiative, featuring daily cleaning challenges, tips and ideas to help all of us to clean smart while we’re spending so much more time around the house due to the coronavirus crisis.

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In an article published recently in the journal Vaccine, two researchers in the Texas Tech University Department of Psychological Sciences suggest some people find vaccines risky because they overestimate the likelihood of negative events, particularly those that are rare.

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A human-centered design professor at Northern Michigan University collaborated with an emergency room physician to create an extra shield of COVID-19 protection between patients and health care providers.

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The Food and Drug Administration has approved solutions created by scientists at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center that both expand and accelerate COVID-19 testing across Ohio.

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Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital is supporting families during the pandemic through a weekly video series called “Thrive With Your Family” that will address parents’ top questions. Episodes will be broadcast on Tuesdays at noon EST starting April 14 on the Mott Facebook page (@MottChildren) and the Michigan Medicine YouTube channel.