Article Summary
April 17, 2020
Rapid Serological Tests Have a Role in Asymptomatic Health Workers COVID-19 Screening
To gain insight on the prevalence of asymptomatic cases among healthcare workers (HCWs), Paradiso et al tested 525 asymptomatic HCWs of a Cancer Institute in Vo’Euganeo (a red zone quarantined area in Northern Italy) using VivaDiagTM antibody testing. They report that none of the 6 workers who tested positive for COVID-19 with the VivaDiagTM kit…
Delayed clearance of SARS-CoV-2 in male compared to female patients: High ACE2 expression in testes suggests possible existence of gender-specific viral reservoirs
In this study, the authors evaluate the time to viral clearance in 68 symptomatic patients (71% males and 29% females), and report that females achieved viral clearance significantly earlier than males, with a median difference of 2 days. Shastri et al hypothesize that high expression of ACE2 in testes could indicate that testicular viral reservoirs…
Public Policy and economic dynamics of COVID-19 spread: a mathematical modeling study
In order to assess the impact of quarantine measures on deaths, hospitalizations and economic output, this modeling study that looked at various scenarios founds that when quarantine is quickly lifted, a second outbreak takes place, whereas strict restrictions on seniors combined with gradual lifting of quarantine for the general population resulted in a limited number…
The Effect of Stay-at-Home Orders on COVID-19 Infections in the United States
Using data on stay-at-home orders and daily confirmed COVID-19 cases at the county level in the U.S., this modeling study suggests that if a national stay-at-home order was issued on March 13 when a national emergency was declared, the number of infections and deaths may have reduced by hundreds of thousands and thousands, respectively. The…
April 16, 2020
Smoking is Associated with COVID-19 Progression: A Meta-Analysis
From a meta-analysis of 12 published papers with a total of 9,025 COVID-19 patients, this study identifies smoking as a risk factor for progression of COVID-19. Smokers had significantly higher odds (OR=2.25) of COVID-19 progression than never smokers. Physicians and public health professionals should collect data on smoking and e-cigarette use as part of clinical…
Estimating the final epidemic size for COVID-19 outbreak using improved epidemiological models
Ranjan presents results from three epidemiological models (logistic, SIR and generalized SIER) that were used to make predictions for the final epidemic size of COVID-19 for the most affected countries, indicating that the final epidemic size in the US, Italy, Spain, and Germany could be 1.1, 0.22, 0.24 and 0.19 million respectively. The model also…
The impact of COPD and smoking history on the severity of Covid-19: A systemic review and meta-analysis
A comprehensive systematic literature search to explore the risk of COVID-19 in patients with pre-existing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and ongoing smoking history indicates that COPD and ongoing smoking attribute to the worse progression and outcomes of COVID-19. Zhao et al. (Apr 15, 2020). The impact of COPD and smoking history on the severity…
Clinical characteristics of 3,062 COVID-19 patients: a meta-analysis
A meta-analysis of clinical characteristics of 3,062 COVID-19 patients suggest that fever, fatigue, cough and expectoration were the most commonly experienced symptoms of COVID-19 patients. A relatively small percentage of patients were asymptomatic. Most patients showed normal leucocytes counts, lymphopenia, elevated levels of C-reactive protein and ESR. Bilateral lungs involvement was common. Zhu et al….
Incidence, clinical outcomes, and transmission dynamics of hospitalized 2019 coronavirus disease among 9,596,321 individuals residing in California and Washington, United States: a prospective cohort study
This study of 1,277 hospitalized, COVID-19 patients who resided in CA or WA and had Kaiser Permanente insurance identified these key characteristics: (1) older and male patients were more likely than younger or female patients to be admitted to the ICU and to die, (2) an 11-day average duration of stay for hospitalized patients and…
Cardiovascular Diseases and COVID-19 Mortality and Intensive Care Unit Admission: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
In a systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 papers including 3,473 patients, Shamshirian et al find that acute cardiac injury, hypertension, heart failure and overall cardiovascular diseases were significantly associated with mortality and disease severity in COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 patients need to be carefully monitored for CVD and managed properly in case of acute cardiac…
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