Covid19-Sources

Serological surveillance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibodies is important to monitor population COVID-19 immunity. Dried blood spots (DBS) are a valuable method for serosurveys, particularly in remote settings and in children. We compared the measurement of SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific IgG in paired blood samples collected by standard venepuncture (serum) and the hemaPEN microsampling DBS device from children and adults using an established in-house ELISA. A total of 83 participants (10 months to 65 years of age) with paired serum and hemapen samples were included in the analysis; N=41 adults (36 COVID-positive and 5 COVID-negative) and N=42 children (37 COVID positive and 5 COVID-negative). Moderate- to strong-correlations between paired hemaPEN DBS eluates and serum SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies for RBD (r=0.9472, P

Welcome to another summer of Covid-19 infections. Here’s what to do to reduce your risk of catching the disease and what to do if you get it.

Die neuen variantenangepassten Covid-19-Impfstoffe von Biontech/Pfizer sind ab 6. August 2024 erstmalig bestellbar, teilte der Deutsche Apothekerverband (D...

Even in those without long COVID.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on healthcare across the globe. Patients who were severely infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19, sometimes became infected with other pathogens, which is termed coinfection. If the ...

Employment levels for workers with a disability have grown in recent years. What might be driving this?

Mice that received antibodies from Long COVID patients showed symptoms including pain and dizziness, a Yale-led study has found.

DMZ – WISSENSCHAFT ¦ Sarah Koller ¦ Eine im April veröffentlichte Studie liefert neue Erkenntnisse über die Wirksamkeit von COVID-19-Impfstoffen bei der Verhinderung von Long COVID-Symptomen und post-COVID-Thromboembolien und kardiovaskulären Komplikationen. Die Studie basierte auf Daten von mehr als 20 Millionen Teilnehmern und wurde von Forschern in Norwegen durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass COVID-19-Impfstoffe konsequent Long COVID-Symptome bei Erwachsenen verhindern. Die Studie ergab, dass geimpfte Personen ein signifikant geringeres Risiko haben, Long COVID-Symptome zu entwickeln, im Vergleich zu ungeimpften Personen. Dies gilt unabhängig vom verwendeten Impfstoff (BNT162b2, mRNA-1273 und ChAdOx1). Darüber hinaus wurde festgestellt, dass die Impfung mit einem beliebigen COVID-19-Impfstoff auch das Risiko von post-COVID-Thromboembolien und kardiovaskulären Komplikationen verringert. Dies ist insbesondere in den ersten 180 Tagen nach einer SARS-CoV-2-Infektion der Fall.

This study examines whether an association exists between COVID-19 infection and progression to clinical diabetes among youth with presymptomatic type 1 diabetes.

Clinical disease incidence jumped after infection

Atemwegsinfekte im ersten Halbjahr 2024 häufigste Ursache für Fehlen am Arbeitsplatz

— Pandemic 𓅃 Index (@pan_accindex)

Das Antidiabetikum Metformin schützt einer Studie zufolge vor Long-Covid.

Outpatient treatment with metformin reduced long COVID incidence by about 41%, with an absolute reduction of 4·1%, compared with placebo. Metformin has clinical benefits when used as outpatient treatment for COVID-19 and is globally available, low-cost, and safe.

Nature Communications - After contracting COVID-19, a substantial number of individuals develop a Post-COVID-Condition with neurological symptoms. Here, the authors show symptom-specific brain...

2023 Übersterblichkeit von über 50 % bei jungen Menschen zwischen 1 und 39 Jahren im Vergleich zur Entwicklung im Zeitraum 2010 bis 2019. Mehrere Forscher vermuten, dass Spätfolgen von die Ursache für den Anstieg sein könnten. — Tove Harris 🕊😷 (@NFMai)

COVID is a slow-moving catastrophe. — David Lingenfelter, PhD (@dlingenfelter)

Verschiedene Impfungen sollen positive Nebenwirkungen haben. Das belegen Daten von Wissenschaftlern. Drei Impfstoffe stehen im Fokus.

The Ever-Expanding Biological Minefield

Due to high-population density, frequent close contact, possible poor ventilation, university classrooms are vulnerable for transmission of respirator…

Even younger people who had mild COVID-19 showed persistent cognitive impairments.

Sports Medicine - An infection with SARS-CoV-2 can lead to a variety of symptoms and complications, which can impair athletic activity. We aimed to assess the clinical symptom patterns, diagnostic...

There is growing evidence that adults with Long COVID suffer from different sets of stigmata related to their condition. In children with Long COVID, this aspect has never been investigated. This study aims to investigate if children with Long COVID also experience stigma. Methods: Children with a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection evaluated at 3 month follow-ups in a pediatric post COVID unit were asked to fill in an online Long COVID Stigma Scale survey before they were assessed by a pediatrician. Doctors were unaware of children’s responses when they performed a diagnosis of Long COVID or full recovery from previous infection, according to the World Health Organization definition of pediatric Long COVID. Responses to the Stigma scale were then compared in the two cohorts of children. Results: 224 patients responded to the questionnaire; 40 patients were diagnosed with Long COVID. Children with Long COVID significantly more frequently felt embarrassed about having Long COVID (p 0.035), felt embarrassed about having physical limitations (p 0.001), felt they were valued less due to Long COVID (p 0.003), felt they were different from other peers due to Long COVID (p 0.033), felt significantly more frequently that people behaved differently towards them because they might be lying since the diagnosis of Long COVID (p 0.006), that they were less respected by others due to Long COVID (p 0.017), that other people thought that Long COVID is not a real disease (p 0.007), that other people thought that developing Long COVID is a sign of weakness (p 0.008), and that other people might judge them negatively due to their diagnosis of Long COVID (p 0.001). Conclusions: Children with Long COVID, similar to adults, are suffering from stigmata due to their condition,. These data may have implication and should be used by the public, policy makers, and healthcare professionals regarding pediatric Long COVID.

Introduction: Exploring T cell response duration is pivotal for understanding immune protection evolution in natural SARS-CoV-2 infections. The objective of the present study was to analyze the T cell immune response over time in individuals who were both vaccinated and COVID-19-naive and had undetectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies at the time of testing. Methods: We performed a retrospective descriptive analysis using data extracted from the electronic medical records of consecutive adult individuals who underwent COVID-19 immunity screening at a private healthcare center from September 2021 to September 2022. The study participants were divided into three groups according to the post-vaccination time period, as follows: group A (up to 3 months), group B (3–6 months), and group C (6 months). T cell response was evaluated using the IGRA methodology T-SPOT®.COVID. Results: Of the total number of subjects (n = 165), 60/165 (36.4%) had been vaccinated in the last 3 months (group A), 57/165 (34.5%) between 3 and 6 months (group B), and 48/165 (29.1%) at least 6 months prior to the examination day (group C). T cell positivity was reported in 33/60 (55.0%) of group A, 45/57 (78.9%) of group B, and 36/48 (75%) of group C (p 0.007). No statistically significant differences were revealed in the spot-forming cell (SFC) count among groups, with mean SFC counts of 75.96 for group A, 89.92 for group B, and 83.58 for group C (Kruskal–Wallis test, p = 0.278). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that cellular immunity following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may endure for at least six months, even in the presence of declining or absent IgG antibody levels.

Accumulating evidence points to persistent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in immunocompromised individuals as a source of genetically divergent, novel lineages, generally characterised by increased transmissibility and immune escape. While intrahost evolutionary dynamics of the virus in chronically infected patients have been previously reported, existing knowledge is primarily based on samples obtained from the nasopharyngeal compartment. In this study, we investigate the intrahost evolution and genetic diversity that accumulated during a prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection with the Omicron sublineage BF.7, estimated to have persisted for over one year in an immunosuppressed patient. Based on the sequencing of eight viral genomes collected from the patient at six time points, we identified 86 intrahost single-nucleotide variants (iSNVs), two indels, and a 362 bp deletion. Our analysis revealed distinct viral genotypes in the nasopharyngeal (NP), endotracheal aspirate (ETA), and bronchoalveolar (BAL) samples. Notably, while significant divergence was observed between NP and BAL samples, most of the iSNVs found in ETA samples were also detected in NP or BAL samples. This suggests that NP samples may not offer a comprehensive representation of the overall intrahost viral diversity. Nonsynonymous mutations were most frequent in the spike and envelope genes, along with loss-of-function mutations in ORF8, generated by a frameshift mutation and a large deletion detected in the BAL and NP samples, respectively. Using long-range PCR on SARS-CoV-2 samples sequenced as part of routine surveillance, we validated that similar deletions causing ORF8 loss of function can be carried by SARS-CoV-2 during acute infection. Our findings not only demonstrate that the Omicron sublineage BF.7 can further diverge from its already exceptionally mutated state but also highlight that patients chronically infected with SARS-CoV-2 can develop genetically specific viral populations across distinct anatomical compartments. This provides novel insights into the intricate nature of viral diversity and evolution dynamics in persistent infections. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This work was supported in part by the Region Wallone project WALGEMED (convention no. 1710180) and the FNRS (H.C.008.20). Sequencing was done as a part of the National Genomic Surveillance Platform for SARSCoV2 in Belgium. SD acknowledges support from the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (F.R.S. FNRS, Belgium; grant F.4515.22), from the Research Foundation Flanders (Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Vlaanderen, FWO, Belgium; grant G098321N), and from the European Union Horizon 2020 projects MOOD (grant agreement 874850) and LEAPS (grant agreement 101094685). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: The Ethics committee/IRB of the University Hospital Liege gave ethical approval for this work. Reference number: 2020-139. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes

ome data suggest a higher incidence of diagnosis of autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRDs) among patients with a history of COVID-19 compared with uninfected patients. However, these studies had methodological shortcomings. Objective: To investigate the effect of COVID-19 on long-term risk for incident AIRD over various follow-up periods. Design: Binational, longitudinal, propensity-matched cohort study. Setting: Nationwide claims-based databases in South Korea (K-COV-N cohort) and Japan (JMDC cohort).

„Ich glaube, dass wir in ein paar Jahrzehnten eine Epidemie von früh dementen Menschen erleben werden, vor allem von denen, die mehrmals COVID-19 hatten“, so die Neurowissenschaftlerin und Alzheimer-Forscherin … 🧵 — Ralf Wittenbrink (@RWittenbrink)