Covid-19: Lack of PPE in care homes is risking spread of virus, leaders warn

BMJ
Volume 368, 2020, m1280-m1280

Iacobucci, Gareth.

Introduction

A lack of access to personal protective equipment (PPE) and staff testing in care homes poses a major risk of covid-19 being spread, sector leaders have warned. Care homes have been identified as one of the biggest potential risks for virus spreading, owing to the number of elderly residents with underlying health conditions. At a health select committee hearing hosted remotely on 26 March, Sarah Pickup, the deputy chief executive of the Local Government Association, said that more equipment and testing was needed to protect both residents and workers.1 “Access to PPE is insufficient in the care sector,” she said, warning that people entering care homes on discharge from hospital could bring an infection.

Keywords

Clinical aspects, diagnosis, treatment; Ethics, social science, economics

Covid-19: diabetes clinicians set up social media account to help alleviate patients’ fears

BMJ
Volume 368, March 2020, m1262-m1262

Iacobucci, Gareth.

Abstract

A group of diabetes doctors and other clinicians has set up a social media account to help alleviate patients’ fears around covid-19 and provide them with “a secure base” of information. Around one in 13 people in the UK has diabetes, roughly 90% type 2 diabetes and 10% type 1. The UK government has advised that all people with diabetes—along with other at-risk groups—should be “particularly stringent” in following social distancing measures that ministers have set out for the whole country to follow

Keywords

Epidemiology

With COVID-19, modeling takes on life and death importance

Science (New York, N.Y.)
Volume 367, 2020, Issue 6485, p 1414-1415

Enserink, M.; Kupferschmidt, K.

Introduction

Jacco Wallinga's computer simulations are about to face a high-stakes reality check. Wallinga is a mathematician and the chief epidemic modeler at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), which is advising the Dutch government on what actions, such as closing schools and businesses, will help control the spread of the novel coronavirus in the country.

Keywords

Epidemiology

The Looming Pandemic Of COVID-19: What Therapeutic Options Do We Have Now?

Journal of the Chinese Medical Association: JCMA

Afsar, Nasir Ali

Dear Editor,

The world came to know about a new corona virus infection spreading from Wuhan, China in December 2019. Over the following three months, this respiratory pathogen, named as nCoV2019, SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19 has affected many in the most populous regions of the world and there are growing concerns about it being a pandemic. WHO has reported infection in all continents in its Situation Report-42 published on 2-March-2020 and >3000 deaths

Keywords

Clinical aspects, diagnosis, treatment

Should Scientists Infect Healthy People with the Coronavirus to Test Vaccines?

Nature

Callaway, Ewen

Introduction

As hundreds of millions of people, maybe billions, avoid social contact to spare themselves and their communities from coronavirus, researchers are discussing a dramatic approach to research that could help end the pandemic: infecting a handful of healthy volunteers with the virus to rapidly test a vaccine.

Keywords

Clinical aspects, diagnosis, treatment

Coronavirus shuts down trials of drugs for multiple other diseases

Nature

Ledford, H.

News

When 2020 began, Neena Nizar and her family were poised to harvest the fruit of a decade of hard work and sacrifice: a clinical trial of an experimental treatment for her two sons’ rare genetic disorder that was slated to start before the year’s end.

Keywords

Ethics, social science, economics

COVID-19: ban 'orientalism' by critics of wildlife trade

Infectious Disease Reports
Volume 12, March 2020, Issue 1, 8543

Pagani-Nunez, E.

Correspondence

Western voices claim that China needs “to discredit engrained cultural beliefs” to make the country’s ban on wildlife trade workable.

Keywords

COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Wildlife

How blood from coronavirus survivors might save lives

Nature

Maxmen, A.

News

Hospitals in New York City are gearing up to use the blood of people who have recovered from COVID-19 as a possible antidote for the disease. Researchers hope that the century-old approach of infusing patients with the antibody-laden blood of those who have survived an infection will help the metropolis — now the US epicentre of the outbreak — to avoid the fate of Italy, where intensive-care units (ICUs) are so crowded that doctors have turned away patients who need ventilators to breathe.

Keywords

Normative guidance; Clinical aspects, diagnosis, treatment