The inexpensive antidepressant fluvoxamine might help keep patients with Covid-19 from developing severe disease, according to a study published in The Lancet Global Health. Researchers found in another study that the coronavirus can infect cells of the inner ear, which may help explain the balance problems, hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing in the ears) experienced by some Covid-19 patients.
According to a Wall Street Journal report, the preferred Covid-19 shot globally is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Britain said on July 7 the country would provide genomic sequencing support to Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan to help identify, assess and track new variants of the novel coronavirus.
In a roundup of scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines, a prostate cancer drug improved Covid-19 survival in a clinical trial and mildly ill young Covid-19 patients reported lasting symptoms in another study.
Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide passed a grim milestone of 4 million on June 17, according to a Reuters tally, as many countries struggle to procure enough vaccines to inoculate their populations.
Pfizer Inc.’s oral rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz reduced death or respiratory failure in hospitalized Covid-19 patients with pneumonia in Brazil, meeting the study’s main goal.
Covid-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally, more than double what official numbers show, according to an analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. IHME found that Covid-19 deaths are significantly underreported in almost every country.
An experimental monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid-19 being developed by Eli Lilly and Co. and AbCellera Biologics Inc. can “potently” neutralize numerous coronavirus variants, including those first identified in the UK, Brazil, South Africa, California and New York, scientists found in test tube experiments. According to another study, some Covid-19 survivors infected early in the pandemic still have detectable antibodies against the virus a year later.
Brazil’s richest and most populous state, Sao Paulo, warned its ability to care for seriously ill Covid-19 patients was on the verge of collapse as it ran perilously low on key drugs, according to a letter to the federal government seen by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Confusion and complacency in addressing Covid-19 means the pandemic is a long way from over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on April 12.
