Over 56% Cancer Survivors Associated With Severe Covid-19 Illness by Hannah Joy on February 3, 2021 at 8:12 PM
In the United States, more than half (56.4%) of cancer survivors have additional underlying medical conditions associated with severe COVID-19 illness.
The report appearing in JNCI: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, suggests that prevalence of these conditions among cancer survivors is nearly 40% higher than that in the general population.
Cancer, and other underlying medical conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart diseases, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and obesity, are associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 illness.
For this study, investigators Changchuan (Charles) Jiang, MD, PhD, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Xuesong Han, PhD, American Cancer Society, and colleagues used data from the 2016-2018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a national cross-sectional survey of the ci
WHO Warns Of Continued COVID-19 Transmission Even After Vaccines by Pooja Shete on January 30, 2021 at 5:18 PM
Senior official at the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned about the risk of continued transmission of COVID-19 in the future even after large-scale vaccinations.
Executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme Michael Ryan said that he doesn t believe that the world should start setting elimination or eradication of this coronavirus as success.
Ryan said, That is not the bar for success. The bar for success is reducing the capacity of this virus to kill, to put people in hospital, to destroy our economic and social lives.
Coronavirus Vaccine Deals Keep WHO-led Covax at Risk by Angela Mohan on January 29, 2021 at 2:45 PM
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that bilateral deals on coronavirus vaccines between countries and companies are putting at risk the promise of Covax, the WHO-led global initiative aimed to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. At least 56 bilateral vaccine deals have been signed, which fragments the market, forces countries to compete, and drives up prices of Covid-19 vaccines, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his speech at a meeting. Vaccine nationalism is self-defeating and inefficient, leaving the world s poorest and most vulnerable people at risk, he warned. The emergence of rapidly spreading variants makes the urgent and equitable rollout of vaccines all the more important.
Immune Cell in Blood may Increase Severe COVID-19 Risk by Angela Mohan on January 29, 2021 at 3:01 PM
Journal of Clinical Investigation. Our results help increase the understanding of what causes severe COVID-19 and is an important piece of the puzzle in understanding the connection between the early, innate immune system, which includes M-MDSC, and the later, adaptive immune system, which includes T cells, said researcher Anna Smed Sorensen from Karolinska Institutet.
T cells are part of the immune system and play an important part in the body s protection against viral infections such as COVID-19. M-MDSCs have been shown to increase in other inflammatory conditions, and their suppressive effect on T cell activity has been established.
COVID-19 Vaccination in India to Stretch To Late 2022 by Colleen Fleiss on January 28, 2021 at 9:22 PM
COVID-19 vaccination programme in India will stretch to late 2022, suggested a new study. Similar will be the scenario for most middle-income countries, including China, said the report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research division of the Economist Group.
While vaccination programme currently underway have raised hope of beating the pandemic, unequal distribution of vaccines, along with production issues, has become a major pain point.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his call for equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines as the global caseload has surpassed the 100 million mark, another grim milestone as the pandemic rages on.