SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is an airborne disease transmitted via aerosols, which are spread from the oral and nasal cavities—the mouth and the nose. In addition to the well-known division and spread of the virus in the cells of the respiratory tract, SARS-CoV-2 is also known to infect the cells of the lining of the mouth and the salivary glands.
A team of researchers led by Professor Kyoko Hida at Hokkaido University have shown that low concentrations of the chemical cetylpyridinium chloride, a component of some mouthwashes, has an antiviral effect on SARS-CoV-2. Their findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Commercially available mouthwashes contain a number of antibiotic and antiviral components that act against microorganisms in the mouth. One of these, cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), has been shown to reduce the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in the mouth, primarily by disrupting the lipid membrane surrounding the virus. While there are other chemicals with similar effects, CPC has the advantage of being tasteless and odorless.
Cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC), the chemical tested in the study (Photo: Ryo Takeda)/CREDIT:Ryo Takeda
The researchers were interested in studying the effects of CPC in Japanese mouthwashes. Mouthwashes in Japan typically contain a fraction of the CPC compared to previously tested mouthwashes. They tested the effects of CPC on cell cultures that express trans-membrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2), which is required for SARS-CoV-2 entry into the cell.
They found that, within 10 minutes of application, 30–50 µg/mL of CPC inhibited the infectivity and capability for cell entry of SARS-CoV-2. Interestingly, commercially available mouthwashes that contain CPC performed better than CPC alone. They also showed that saliva did not alter the effects of CPC. Most significantly, they tested four variants of SARS-CoV-2—the original, alpha, beta and gamma variants—and showed that the effects of CPC were similar across all strains.
Covid/commons.wikimedia.org
This study shows that low concentrations of CPC in commercial mouthwash suppress the infectivity of four variants of SARS-CoV-2. The authors have already begun assessing the effect on CPC-containing mouthwashes on viral loads in saliva of COVID-19 patients. Future work will also focus on fully understanding the mechanism of effect, as lower concentrations of CPC do not disrupt lipid membranes.
Despite a long-standing hypothesis that personality traits are relatively impervious to environmental pressures, the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered the trajectory of personality across the United States, especially in younger adults, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Angelina Sutin of Florida State University College of Medicine, and colleagues.
Previous studies have generally found no associations between collective stressful events—such as earthquakes and hurricanes—and personality change. However, the coronavirus pandemic has affected the entire globe and nearly every aspect of life.
In the new study, the researchers used longitudinal assessments of personality from 7,109 people enrolled in the online Understanding America Study. They compared five-factor model personality traits—neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness—between pre-pandemic measurements (May 2014 – February 2020) and assessments early (March – December 2020) or later (2021-2022) in the pandemic. A total of 18,623 assessments, or a mean of 2.62 per participant, were analyzed. Participants were 41.2% male and ranged in age from 18 to 109.
A crowd of people at a pedestrian crossing./CREDIT:Brian Merrill, Pixabay, CC0(https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
Consistent with other studies, there were relatively few changes between pre-pandemic and 2020 personality traits, with only a small decline in neuroticism. However, there were declines in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness when 2021-2022 data was compared to pre-pandemic personality. The changes were about one-tenth of a standard deviation, which is equivalent to about one decade of normative personality change. The changes were moderated by age, with younger adults showing disrupted maturity in the form of increased neuroticism and decreased agreeableness and conscientiousness, and the oldest group of adults showing no statistically significant changes in traits.
The authors conclude that if these changes are enduring, it suggests that population-wide stressful events can slightly bend the trajectory of personality, especially in younger adults.
The authors add: “There was limited personality change early in the pandemic but striking changes starting in 2021. Of most note, the personality of young adults changed the most, with marked increases in neuroticism and declines in agreeableness and conscientiousness. That is, younger adults became moodier and more prone to stress, less cooperative and trusting, and less restrained and responsible.”
When a patient gets transferred from a hospital to a nearby specialist or rehabilitation facility, it is often difficult for personnel at the new facility to access the patient’s electronic health records – which includes important patient-specific information such as their medication history and allergies. This lack of electronic compatibility often leads to wasteful and expensive duplication of tests, X-rays and paperwork that can interfere with the treatment of patients.
A recent study at the University of Missouri highlights how the use of electronic health records have resulted better quality of care – which can direct the next steps of government programs to ensure hospitals use electronic health records in a way that promotes interoperability, or the ability for various health care organizations to quickly access a patient’s records, reduce waste and speed up decision-making to improve patient health outcomes.
So far, the adoption and implementation of electronic health records has been a bumpy road, said Kate Trout, assistant professor in the MU School of Health Professions and lead author on the study. Electronic health records have widely been cited in research literature as the most cumbersome technology ever implemented in the health care industry.
“They have the potential to be very helpful, but in practice they tend to be very disruptive because it’s time consuming to train personnel how to use them. They’re expensive, and there’s always new complicated updates and new forms that come out, and there is often a lack of interoperability for the data to be shared among different health care organizations,” Trout said. “Given the massive national investments, we wanted to see if electronic health records are being utilized in a meaningful way to promote interoperability and ultimately improve quality of care.”
electronic health records/University of Missouri
More than $30 billion has been invested by the federal government in the adoption and use of electronic health records by health care organizations in an attempt to improve the quality of care delivered to patients.
In 2011, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid established the “Meaningful Use” program – now known as the “Promoting Interoperability Program” – which offers financial incentives to health care providers who effectively utilize electronic health records in a way that promotes information sharing, public health reporting and interoperability.
Trout analyzed the impact of electronic health records on mortality rates for patients with various medical procedures and conditions. More than 5 million patients in 300 U.S. hospitals were included in the study, which merged large datasets from the electronic health records, the American Hospital Association and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
Three main categories emerged:
hospitals that meet the “Meaningful Use” requirements with their electronic health records,
hospitals that fully implement electronic health records but not in a way that meets the “Meaningful Use” requirements, and
hospitals that have either none or only partially implemented electronic health records.
Trout found that the hospitals that meet the “Meaningful Use” requirements were able to improve quality of care and reduce patient mortality rates to a greater extent than hospitals in the other two groups. While the results show some optimism, Trout cautions that more still needs to be done, including the need to analyze the impact of interoperability and advanced electronic health record functions on quality of care.
“This research highlights the importance of using electronic health records in a way that promotes interoperability to streamline processes, speed up decision-making, reduce wasted time and ultimately improve patient health outcomes,” Trout said. “Ideally, the United States could implement one standardized electronic health records system for everyone to ensure compatibility, so policy makers can hopefully benefit from this research.”
Trout added that with the use of data mining and analytics, electronic health records can be better used going forward to potentially identify patient characteristics that put them at higher risks for possible infections or other conditions.
healthcare
“With this information, are there alerts we can put in after a surgery to ensure we follow up at critical points in time?” Trout said. “Are there certain patient populations that we can use the data to catch them earlier and make sure we give them extra care and not just put them through the same routine protocols as everyone else? That is how we move away from only focusing on implementing the technology and progress toward encouraging innovative ideas that ultimately improve patient health outcomes.”
Trout said this research can be particularly useful for rural hospitals that historically have less resources and lag behind their urban counterparts in adopting health technology like telehealth and electronic health records. There have been many closures of rural hospitals, an issue that has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and rural patients tend to have more co-morbidities and worse health outcomes.
“I am passionate about helping vulnerable, underserved populations, and our personal health is often tied to where we live and various social determinants of health,” Trout said. “Those ideas are not incorporated into our clinical data yet, but they should be going forward. My overall goal is to harness the data in a way that we can hopefully start to spend less and get more.”
New Delhi, Sep 16 (IANS) In the last 24 hours, India reported 6,298 fresh Covid-19 cases and 23 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.
The new fatalities increased the overall death toll to 5,28,273. The active caseload spiked to 46,748, accounting for 0.1 per cent of the country’s total positive cases.
The recovery of 5,916 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 4,39,47,756. Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.71 per cent.
Meanwhile, the daily and weekly positivity rates stood at 1.89 per cent and 1.70 per cent, respectively.
Also in the same period, a total of 3,33,964 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall tally to over 89.09 crore.
As of Friday morning, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 216.17 crore.
Over 4.07 crore adolescents have been administered with a first dose of Covid-19 jab since the beginning of vaccination drive for this age bracket.
India on Friday reported marginal rise at 15,754 fresh Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, against 12,608 infections on Thursday, with 47 more Covid deaths, taking the nationwide death toll to 5,27,253 so far.
The active caseload of the country stands at 1,01,830 cases, accounting for 0.23 per cent of the country’s total positive cases. The recovery of 15,220 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 4,36,85,535. Consequently, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.58 per cent, said the Union Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, India’s daily positivity rate has marginally declined to 3.47 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate in the country currently also stands at 3.90 per cent. In the same period, a total of 4,54,491 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall tally to over 88.18 crore.
As of Friday morning, India’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 209.27 crore, achieved via 2,78,10,025 sessions. More than 3.99 crore adolescents have been administered with a first dose of Covid-19 jab since the beginning of vaccination drive for this age bracket.
In a paper published in the journal of Ocular Immunology and Inflammation, physicians from the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine reported that several patients using germicidal lamps in an attempt to sanitize against the coronavirus, developed painful inflammation of the cornea, a condition called photokeratitis. These consumer-available ultraviolet (UV) emitting devices were being used in an attempt to eliminate coronavirus from homes and offices.
“During the height of the pandemic, we noticed an increased number of patients coming in with irritation, pain and sensitivity to light,” said first author and Bascom Palmer resident Jesse Sengillo, M.D. “We realized this was after direct exposure to germicidal lamps that emit UV light in the C range to kill bacteria and viruses. This can be quite a painful experience for the patient, but with prompt topical lubrication and antibiotics to prevent infection, patients often do very well.”
UV photokeratitis occurs when the cornea is overexposed to ultraviolet radiation. This can happen at high elevation, where less UV rays are absorbed by the atmosphere, or near water, snow or other reflective surfaces in the environment. A few hours after exposure, patients experience burning in their eyes and sometimes intense light sensitivity.
Numerous germicidal lamps are on the market, and while they may be safe for at-home use, customers need to pay close attention to manufacturer recommendations to prevent damage to the eyes and skin.
“The patients we met were not aware of these recommendations, and many were unknowingly exposed at work” said co-author and fellow resident Anne Kunkler. “For UV-C emitting devices, it is best to leave the room while the device is on. Our patients were directly exposed to the light for various lengths of time. A few hours later, they felt discomfort and sought medical attention.”
Feeling eye discomfort?
Dr. Sengillo and colleagues encourage anyone feeling eye discomfort after exposure to one of these devices to promptly seek medical attention a medical professional from an ophthalmologist.
While germicidal lamps are being purchased to protect people during the pandemic, this study did not attempt to address whether they are effective in destroying coronaviruses. “There are many COVID-19 related publications recently. It is important that we disseminate information accurately and responsibly to avoid public confusion.”
Dr. Sengillo and colleagues note that some UV-C emitting germicidal devices are proven to be effective in killing various microbes and viruses, but to the authors knowledge, they have not been tested against COVID-19 specifically yet. “Our study was not designed to answer that question. If you choose to use these lamps, just make sure to follow manufacturer recommendations closely to avoid unnecessary injury,” said Dr. Sengillo.
As schools in the United States are gearing up to open, anew study has come out stating that children are equally susceptible to infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) but exhibit mild symptoms compared with adults. Though data is sparse on children, they do spread respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses far wider than previously thought.
Early reports did not find strong evidence of children as major contributors to SARS-CoV-2 spread owing to school closures ahead of the pandemic and no large-scale investigations of schools in community transmission had been conducted, said the researchers. Now that public health systems ponder to reopen schools and day cares, the new study on children’s transmission potential has sent alarm bells to public health officials in the US and elsewhere.
The study conducted between March 23 and April 27, 2020 on replication of SARS-CoV-2 in older children found similar levels of viral nucleic acid as adults, but significantly greater amounts of viral nucleic acid among those younger than 5 years. The SARS-CoV-2 reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was performed on nasopharyngeal swabs collected at various hospitals and clinics including drive-through testing sites at a pediatric tertiary medical center in Chicago, Illinois.
This cohort included all individuals aged younger than 1 month to 65 years who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 or those with symptoms suggestive of a COVID-19–compatible illness and/or high-risk exposures. In all, 145 patients with mild to moderate illness within 1 week of symptom onset were tested.
Divided in 3 groups — young children younger than 5 years, older children aged 5 to 17 years, and adults aged 18 to 65 years — researchers found young children had significantly equivalent or more viral nucleic acid in their upper respiratory tract compared with older children and adults. Some had even 100-fold greater amount of SARS-CoV-2 in the upper respiratory tract.
Thus, the study suggests that young children can potentially be important drivers of SARS-CoV-2 spread in the general population, and are more likely to transmit. “Behavioral habits of young children and close quarters in school and day care settings raise concern for SARS-CoV-2 amplification in this population as public health restrictions are eased,” wrote authors in their paper published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
Any Covid-19 vaccine? All nations and the entire world humanity was eagerly awaiting the precious announcement from at least one top nation that its scientists have successfully completed clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccine.
When expectations were running high that it would be China, where the novel coronavirus had its origin in the city of Wuhan, unexpectedly Russia has announced first to the world that its clinical trials are completed successfully and the vaccine is ready for production.
The Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University is the one which has claimed that it has successfully completed the trails their vaccine has all the “safety of those vaccines that are currently in the market.”
Announcing the news, Vadim Tarasov, the director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology of the Unviersity said the clinical trials have been conducted on volunteers, reports Russian news agency Sputnik, adding that the first group of volunteers would be discharged on 15 July and the second on 20 July.
Russian vaccine
The vaccine was produced by Russia’s Gamalei Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology on June 18. “Sechenov University has successfully completed tests on volunteers of the world’s first vaccine against coronavirus,” Tarasov said.
“The safety of the vaccine is confirmed. It corresponds to the safety of those vaccines that are currently on the market,” said another scientist Alexander Lukashev, director of the Institute of Medical Parasitology, Tropical and Vector-Borne Diseases at Sechenov University.
“Sechenov University in a pandemic situation acted not only as an educational institution but also as a scientific and technological research center that is able to participate in the creation of such important and complex products as drugs,” Tarasov said.
Elsewhere, Gilead Sciences, Oxford University’s researchers and American biotech company Moderna are at the forefront of developing a Covid-19 vaccine, while a Canadian and Chinese joint project is equally pushing the date for completion of clinical trials. BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate is expected to be ready by the end of 2020.
No more hand shakes or fist bumps if you are returning to your office. Temperature and symptom checks, plastic desk shields, and face coverings worn at all times — are some of the urgent recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for those who are gearing up to return to offices despite the pandemic.
“Replace high-touch communal items, such as coffee pots, water coolers, and bulk snacks, with alternatives such as prepackaged, single-serving items,” says one of the guidelines issued by the CDC.
Workers in office buildings may be at risk for exposure to the coronavirus. Office building employers, building owners and managers, and building operations specialists can take “steps to create a safe and healthy workplace and protect workers and clients,” said the CDC on its website.
Applicable anywhere in the world, including India once the lockdown is lifted next week, here’s the list:
CDC Guidelines to Office Goers
Replace high-touch communal items, such as coffee pots, water coolers, and bulk snacks
Upon arriving at work, employees should get a temperature and symptom check.
Inside the office, desks should be six feet apart or partition with plastic shields be erected.
Seating should be barred in common areas.
Face coverings should be worn at all times.
Regular hand washing of at least 20 seconds; no fist bumps or handshakes; no face touching.
Limit use and occupancy of elevators to maintain social distancing of at least 6 feet.
Repeat disinfecting of surfaces, cleansing out the ventilation system, opening windows and allow ventilation.
Display posters in offices recommending best practices.
The guidelines would lead to a far-reaching remaking of the corporate work experience and those who are returning to work are urged to drive to work by themselves, instead of taking public transportation or car-pooling, to avoid potential exposure to the virus.
The CDC has finally advised companies to allow white-collar employees at all levels to continue work from home, which has proved effective in the last few months.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday reiterated its earlier stand that the novel coronavirus originated in bats in China late last year and was not manipulated or constructed in a laboratory. This follows last week statement by US President Donald Trump that his government was trying to determine whether the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan.
Refuting the reports which are pointing out that the virus was of lab origin and manipulated with HIV virus to make it deadly, WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib told a Geneva news briefing, “All available evidence suggests the virus has an animal origin and is not manipulated or constructed virus in a lab or somewhere else. It is probable, likely that the virus is of animal origin.”
Though it was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans, there had “certainly” been an intermediate animal host, she stressed.
Wuhan lab origin?
Increasingly, reports have been going viral online stating that the virus has Wuhan lab origin and manipulated to mix it with HIV virus, making deadlier than any other virus known so far. The latest such report from the Washington Post on Tuesday revealed that hackers were able able to steal nearly 25,000 emails, passwords and classified documents allegedly belonging to the WHO, the Gates Foundation, as well as the Wuhan Institute of Virology, among other organizations. The details were posted on image board website 4chan, later shared on Pastebin, a text storage site, social media platforms Twitter and Telegram.
“Using the data, far-right extremists were calling for a harassment campaign while sharing conspiracy theories about the coronavirus pandemic,” said Rita Katz, Intelligence Group SITE’s executive director. “The distribution of these alleged email credentials were just another part of a months-long initiative across the far right to weaponize the covid-19 pandemic.”
Earlier, Luc Montagnier, a Nobel winning French scientist who co-discovered HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) came out with a theory that the novel coronavirus came from a lab, denying WHO and Chinese government clims to the contrary. Montagnier claimed that the new ‘SARS-CoV-2’ virus came as a resultant in attempting to manufacture a vaccine for the AIDS virus, which may have got accidentally released. He claimed it in a podcast by Pourquoi Docteur and also in a TV interview on April 17.
