PLOS (2020) - Co-infection of dengue and COVID-19: A case report

Title:

Co-infection of dengue and COVID-19: A case report 

 

Authors:

Morgane Verduyn, Nathalie Allou,Virgile Gazaille, Michel Andre, Tannvir Desroche, Marie-Christine Jaffar, Nicolas Traversier, Cecile Levin, Marie Lagrange-Xelot, Marie-Pierre Moiton & Stella Hoang

Published:

PLOS, 3 August 2020

https://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0008476

From the article:

Dengue and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may share clinical and laboratory features.  

 

Reunion Island is a French overseas department located in the Indian Ocean with a population of more than 850,000 inhabitants. Due to its tropical climate, Reunion Island is at risk of arbovirus outbreaks. An increase in the number of dengue cases has been reported on the island since the beginning of 2018, with 3 different serotypes circulating mostly in austral summer. According to the last epidemiological report of March 30, 2020 from Santé Publique France, 3,144 new cases of dengue have been diagnosed since the beginning of 2020 in Reunion Island [1]. On March 2020, the first COVID-19 cases were imported to the island from metropolitan France by airplane.

bioRxiv, 23 September 2020 (preprint) - Respiratory disease in cats associated with human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK

Title:

Respiratory disease in cats associated with human-to-cat transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK

 

Authors:

Margaret J Hosie, Ilaria Epifano, Vanessa Herder, Richard Orton, Andrew Stevenson, Natasha Johnson, Emma MacDonald, Dawn Dunbar, Michael McDonald, Fiona Howie, Bryn Tennant, Darcy Herrity, Ana C Filipe, Daniel G Streicker, Brian J Willett, Pablo R Murcia, Ruth F Jarrett, David L Robertson & William Weir

 

Published:

bioRxiv, 23 September 2020

[Keep in mind that is a preprint article and not yet peer reviewed.]

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.23.309948v1

 

From the abstract:

Two cats from different COVID-19-infected households in the UK were found to be infected with SARS-CoV-2 from humans, demonstrated by immunofluorescence, in situ hybridisation, reverse transcriptase quantitative PCR and viral genome sequencing. Lung tissue collected post-mortem from cat 1 displayed pathological and histological findings consistent with viral pneumonia and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antigens and RNA. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in an oropharyngeal swab collected from cat 2 that presented with rhinitis and conjunctivitis.

 

medRxiv, 24 August 2020 (preprint) - Impact of population density on Covid 19 infected and mortality rate in India

Title:
 Impact of population density on Covid 19 infected and mortality rate in India
 
Authors:
Arunava Bhadra, Arindam Mukherjee & Kabita Sarkar
 
Published:
medRxiv, 24 August 2020
Keep in mind that this is a preprint. In other words, this article is not yet peer reviewed.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.21.20179416v1
 
Abstract:
The residents living in areas with high population density, such as big or metropolitan cities have higher probability to come into close contact with others and consequently any contagious disease are expected to spread rapidly in dense areas. However, recently after analyzing Covid-19 cases in US researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, London school of economics and IZA Institute of Labor Economics conclude that spread of Covid-19 is not linked with population density. Here we investigate the influence of population density on Covid-19 spread and related mortality in the context of India. We find some correlation between Covid-19 spread and population density which becomes more pronounced as statistics improves.

How Deadly Is Covid-19? Researchers Are Getting Closer to an Answer

Title:
How Deadly Is Covid-19? Researchers Are Getting Closer to an Answer

Authors:
Brianna Abbott & Jason Douglas

Published:
The Wall Street Journal, 21 July 2020
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-deadly-is-covid-19-researchers-are-getting-closer-to-an-answer-11595323801

From the article:
Research suggests the new coronavirus kills about five to 10 people for every 1,000 that it infects, though rate varies based on age and access to health care.
 

Researchers use biometrics, including data from the Oura Ring, to predict COVID-19 symptoms in advance [TechCrunch, 28 May 2020]

Title:
Researchers use biometrics, including data from the Oura Ring, to predict COVID-19 symptoms in advance

Author:
Darrell Etherington

Published:
TechCrunch, 28 May 2020
https://techcrunch.com/2020/05/28/researchers-use-biometrics-including-data-from-the-oura-ring-to-predict-covid-19-symptoms-in-advance/

From the article:
"A team of researchers from the West Virginia University (WVU) Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute (RNI), along with WVU’s Medicine department and staff from Oura Health have developed a platform they say can be used to anticipate the onset of COVID-19 symptoms in otherwise healthy people up to three days in advance. This can help with screening of pre-symptomatic individuals, the researchers suggest, enabling earlier testing and potentially reducing the exposure risk among front-line healthcare and essential workers."

Star Rapid video (7 May 2020) - How To Prevent Your Company From COVID-19 Infections? - 6 Steps To Prevent Coronavirus Infections

Title of video (9:16):
How To Prevent Your Company From COVID-19 Infections? - 6 Steps To Prevent Coronavirus Infections

Published:
Star Rapid, 7 May 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpn7LoHEg94

Note:
"If you are going back to work, then you MUST watch this. Six important steps to prevent you and your company from #covid19 infections."

medRxiv, 19 May 2020 - The infection fatality rate of COVID-19 inferred from seroprevalence data [& blog posts relating to this article] - fascinating

Title:
The infection fatality rate of COVID-19 inferred from seroprevalence data

Author:
John Ioannidis, Stanford University

Published:
medRxiv, 19 May 2020
[Keep in mind that this study has not been peer-reviewed.]
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.13.20101253v1

From the abstract:
1) Objective: 
To estimate the infection fatality rate of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) from data of seroprevalence studies. 

2) Methods:
Population studies with sample size of at least 500 and published as peer-reviewed papers or preprints as of May 12, 2020 were retrieved from PubMed, preprint servers, and communications with experts. Studies on blood donors were included, but studies on healthcare workers were excluded. The studies were assessed for design features and seroprevalence estimates. Infection fatality rate was estimated from each study dividing the number of COVID-19 deaths at a relevant time point by the number of estimated people infected in each relevant region. Correction was also attempted accounting for the types of antibodies assessed.

3) Results:
Twelve studies were identified with usable data to enter into calculations. Seroprevalence estimates ranged from 0.113% to 25.9% and adjusted seroprevalence estimates ranged from 0.309% to 33%. Infection fatality rates ranged from 0.03% to 0.50% and corrected values ranged from 0.02% to 0.40%.

4) Conclusions:
The infection fatality rate of COVID-19 can vary substantially across different locations and this may reflect differences in population age structure and case-mix of infected and deceased patients as well as multiple other factors. Estimates of infection fatality rates inferred from seroprevalence studies tend to be much lower than original speculations made in the early days of the pandemic. 


Blog posts linking to this article:

Did Gov Destroy Economy for NOTHING? COVID May Be Less Deadly Than Flu, Study Finds
By Selwyn Duke
Published: New American, 21 May 2020

You’re Telling the Truth, but Your Visualization Isn’t
By Josh Lauer
Published: towards data science, 21 May 2020

Pandemic Blog 23: Why One Published research Finding is Misleading
By: John D. MacArthur, Professor of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Madison (owner of the blog)
Published: Quomodocumque, 19 May 2020


Also take note of this article:

COVID-19 Prevalence: John Ioannidis Responds to His Critics
By Michael Schulson
Published: Medscape, 16 May 2020