Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
Safety and immunogenicity of a third dose of COVID-19 protein subunit vaccine (CovovaxTM) after homologous and heterologous two-dose regimens
The Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of SARS-CoV-2 was first identified in November 2021 (Viana et al., 2022) and has dramatically increased the transmission of COVID-19 worldwide. The COVID-19 vaccine protects against serious disease, hospitalization, and death. However, vaccination does not entirely prevent infection and transmission to others. Massive two-dose vaccination campaigns cannot prevent breakthrough infections caused by the variants (Cele et al., 2022; Kuhlmann et al., 2022). A third dose is recommended to obtain high immunity against the Omicron variant and its subvariants.Open-label phase I/II clinical trial of SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain-tetanus toxoid conjugate vaccine (FINLAY-FR-2) in combination with receptor binding domain-protein vaccine (FINLAY-FR-1A) in children
Protecting children against COVID-19 is pivotal for controlling virus dissemination and reducing disease incidence. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations among children and adolescents, firstly driven by the Delta variant and recently by Omicron, have risen sharply, even in countries with high adult vaccination coverage (Delahoy et al., 2021; Elliott et al., 2022). This context has accelerated the clinical trials of anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccines for children (Ali et al., 2021; Frenck et al., 2021; Han et al., 2021; Wallace et al., 2021; Walter et al., 2021; Xia et al., 2022).COVID-19 and diarrhea: putative mechanisms and management
Since December 2019, COVID-19 has become a global threat to public health and the economy. The main causative agent of this disease, SARS-CoV-2, first appeared in Wuhan city of China and the World Health Organization declared it a global pandemic on March 2020 (Huang et al., 2020). Along with a great toll on economic growth and interruption of the general lifestyle of people, COVID-19 has become one of the major public health crises infecting around 533 million people till June 12, 2022, taking more than 6.3 million lives reported from 226 countries (World Health Organization, 2022).Post-acute symptoms 3-15 months after COVID-19 among unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals with a breakthrough infection
Vaccination represents the most important strategy to prevent infection, severe complications, and death caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Feikin et al., 2022). SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may also reduce the risk of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) (Antonelli et al., 2022; Azzolini et al., 2022; Kuodi et al., 2022), but conflicting results have been presented (Taquet et al., 2022). We aimed to describe self-reported PASC symptoms, including memory and concentration problems, changes in smell and taste, fatigue, and dyspnea, persisting 3-15 months after a positive test in SARS-CoV-2 unvaccinated and vaccinated participants with a breakthrough infection.Reduction in severity and mortality in COVID-19 patients owing to heterologous third and fourth-dose vaccines during the periods of delta and omicron predominance in Thailand
As of July 30, 2022, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has led to more than 582 million confirmed cases globally with more than 170 million in Asia and almost 5 million in Thailand alone (Mathieu et al., 2022). This has unfortunately resulted in almost 6.4 million deaths worldwide, 1.5 million deaths across Asia, and over 31,000 deaths in Thailand (Mathieu et al., 2022). While public health measures like wearing masks, social distancing, and appropriate hygiene measures were able to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the rapid development and deployment of vaccines were responsible for reducing the clinical impact of COVID-19 substantially (Doroshenko, 2021; Moore et al.A large series of molecular and serological specimens to evaluate mother-to-child SARS-CoV-2 transmission: a prospective study from the Italian Obstetric Surveillance System
The ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is characterized by multiple epidemic waves associated with different viral strains with diverse transmissibility and lethality. The previous highly pathogenic SARS-CoV-1 and middle east respiratory syndrome coronavirus were associated with poor obstetric outcomes (Schwartz and Graham, 2020). Given the importance of understanding COVID-19’s impact on pregnant women, fetuses, and newborns, the Italian Obstetric Surveillance System (ItOSS), coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Italian National Institute of Health-ISS), launched a nationwide population-based, prospective cohort study aimed at analyzing cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women with the purpose to provide useful indications to guide decision makers and support clinical practice (Donati et al.Viable SARS-CoV-2 detected in the air of hospital rooms of patients with COVID-19 with an early infection
COVID-19 is caused by the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2. Understanding the role of surface and air contamination near patients with COVID-19 in the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is essential to ensure the prevention of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. SARS-CoV-2 RNA has been detected on surfaces and in the air in hospitals (Dinoi et al., 2022; Gonçalves et al., 2021). However, only a few studies have recovered viable SARS-CoV-2 from the air collected near the patients with COVID-19 (Lednicky et al., 2020, 2021; Vass et al.SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance in Malaysia: displacement of B.1.617.2 with AY lineages as the dominant Delta variants and the introduction of Omicron during the fourth epidemic wave
Since the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020, COVID-19 continues to be an important health problem worldwide (Gao et al., 2021). The index case of COVID-19 was detected on December 1, 2019, in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China (Helmy et al., 2020; Valencia, 2020). As of January 2022, there were 380 million COVID-19 cases, with a mortality rate of 1.5% (Worldometer, 2022). COVID-19 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, an enveloped, nonsegmented, positive-sense RNA β-coronavirus (Zhou et al.Clinical outcomes associated with Mu variant infection during the third epidemic peak of COVID-19 in Colombia
By July 2022, four COVID-19 epidemic peaks and 210 lineages have been registered in Colombia, including several variants of interest and concern (INS, 2022). However, a higher number of cases and deaths occurred during the third epidemic peak, when the B.1.621 (Mu) variant was associated with 50% of the cases in the country (Álvarez-Díaz et al., 2022a). Although several factors in the clinical history of patients with COVID-19 have been associated with a severe or fatal outcome, including comorbidities, age, and smoking history (Zhang et al.Booster dose of SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA vaccines strengthens the specific immune response of patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A prospective multicenter longitudinal study
Since the COVID-19 pandemic appearance, a global effort has been made to develop effective vaccines to stem SARS-CoV-2 infection through the induction of a coordinated B and T cell immune response (Agrati et al., 2021; Aiello et al., 2022a; Sette and Crotty, 2021, 2022). Humoral immunity consists of antibodies binding the SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) protein that neutralizes the virus, whereas cellular immunity includes virus-specific B and T cells, which provide long-term memory and promptly expand following re-exposure to antigens (Sette and Crotty, 2021, 2022).Baricitinib vs tocilizumab treatment for hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19 and associated cytokine storm: a prospective, investigational, real-world study
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 has devastated countries. The race to find adequate therapies is ongoing, but significant progress has been made since 2019. Our understanding of COVID-19 pathogenesis revealed the need for targeting the dysregulated immune response. The term cytokine storm first appeared 30 years ago, describing a potentially life-threatening condition triggered by various pathogens, hematologic and immunological disorders, and is characterized by peripheral hyperactivation of T-lymphocytes, resulting in elevated cytokines levels, systemic inflammation, and end-organ damage (Chatenoud et al.Transmission dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant infections in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, January-February 2022
From the end of 2020, multiple variants of concern have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most recently, the Omicron variant has become dominant worldwide over other strains, with the potential for the emergence of other new variants or subvariants in the future. The Omicron variants have demonstrated increasing transmissibility and therefore are more challenging to control (Kraemer et al., 2021; World Health Organization, 2022). In general, increased transmissibility for a variant indicates an increased transmission strength, a higher transmission speed, or both.Workup of cerebral involvement in patients with COVID-19 – authors’ reply
We thank Scorza et al. for their comments on our article (Chen et al., 2022) discussing the new S protein mutation of SARS-CoV-2 and its potential effects on immune regulation, associated with the apparent increase in the incidence of severe neurological symptoms in Taiwanese pediatric patients.Workup for cerebral involvement in COVID-19 requires cerebral imaging, electroencephalography, and cerebrospinal fluid studies
We read with interest the article by Chen et al. (2022) concerning five pediatric patients with severe neurological complications of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection. It was concluded that a new mutation in the spike protein of the Omicron BA.2.3.7 variant may be responsible for the sudden increase in neurological complications of COVID-19 (Chen et al., 2022). The study is appealing but raises concerns.Effect of corticosteroids in patients with COVID-19: a Bayesian network meta-analysis
As of August 5, 2022, nearly 600 million persons have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and more than 6 million individuals have died because of this disease (World Health Organization, 2022). Evidence has shown that a severely dysregulated immune response plays a critical role in patients with COVID-19 (Prete et al., 2020; Vabret et al., 2020).Immunogenicity and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines in people living with HIV: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has led to the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic. By August 19, 2022, more than 590 million have had confirmed COVID-19 and more than 6 million have died worldwide (World Health Organization, 2022). The morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 and its complications and large-scale economic disruption have prompted an unprecedented pace in highly efficacious vaccine development (Berlin et al., 2020; Merad et al., 2022). As of August 19, 2022, a total of 12.4 billion vaccine doses have been administered (World Health Organization, 2022), and the most widely used are messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, including BNT162b2 (Pfizer-BioNTech, New York, NY, USA-Mainz, Germany) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna, Cambridge, MA, USA) vaccines and viral vector vaccines, such as Ad26.CoV2.S (Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ, USA), ChAdOx (AstraZeneca, Cambridge, UK), Sputnik V (Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Moscow, Russia), and the traditional inactivated virus alum-adjuvanted candidate vaccine CoronaVac (Sinovac, Beijing, China) (Piccaluga et al.Characteristics of long-COVID among older adults: a cross-sectional study
Long-COVID has been reported to affect a substantial portion of survivors of COVID-19, including those who experienced mild acute disease (Carter et al., 2022; Chen et al., 2022; Yan et al., 2021). In many of the cases, the affected individuals experience debilitating symptoms that affect their physical and cognitive function, impairing their quality of life. Recent longer-term follow-up studies show that many individuals do not experience full recovery even 1 year after infection (PHOSP-COVID Collaborative Group, 2022; Zhang et al.Effect of Inactivated SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines and ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 Vaccination to Prevent COVID-19 in Thai Households (VacPrevent trial)
COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 infection and caused the pandemic with high mortality. Household transmission is the most common transmission source in the countries with COVID-19 outbreaks (Pollán et al., 2020). In England, the secondary infection rate is 4-6.4 per 100 households (Hall et al., 2021). The secondary attack rate (SAR) in other countries is 16.3-53% (Grijalva et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020; Singanayagam et al., 2022). The systematic review demonstrated an average of 17% secondary infections (4-45%), and the SAR was 31.1% during the B.1.617.2 outbreak, whereas the high transmissibility in Thai households was 56% (Madewell et al.A global epidemiological analysis of COVID-19 vaccine types and clinical outcomes
SARS-CoV-2 has led to more than 275 million cases of disease and 5 million deaths worldwide. COVID-19 vaccines deployed in many parts of the world since early 2021, albeit unevenly, have been shown to protect vaccinees against disease and mortality (Al Kaabi et al., 2021; Butt et al., 2021; Cheng et al., 2021; Fadlyana et al., 2021; Jara et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021; Rotshild et al., 2021; Sadoff et al., 2021; Tanriover et al., 2021). However, at the time this study was conducted, there was conflicting evidence about the quality and potency of immune protection afforded by COVID-19 messenger RNA (mRNA)-based and adenovirus-vectored vaccines (ADVV) compared with inactivated virus vaccines (IVV) against SARS-CoV-2 pre-Omicron variants (Cheng et al.Effectiveness of the neutralizing antibody sotrovimab among high-risk patients with mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 in Qatar
Several monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 have been developed for the treatment of COVID-19 (Miguez-Rey et al., 2022). One of these is sotrovimab, which significantly reduced the risk of COVID-19 hospitalization and death due to infection with pre-Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants in a randomized clinical trial (Gupta et al., 2021). The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency authorization to permit the use of sotrovimab for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in patients at high risk of progression to severe COVID-19 (US Food and Drug Administration, 2022).Diagnostic accuracy of a novel SARS CoV-2 rapid antigen test and usefulness of specimens collected from the anterior nasal cavity
Many health care providers are hopeful regarding COVID-19 testing programs that use accurate rapid antigen tests to reduce the burden on the health care system through early diagnosis of infection (Chen et al., 2021). If performed appropriately, these testing programs can support rapid and accurate decisions with respect to the isolation and treatment of patients with COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2020a). Currently, various antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs) for SARS-CoV-2 are commercially available (Brümmer et al.Spike-specific T-cell responses in patients with COVID-19 successfully treated with neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2
Passive immunization by administering neutralizing monoclonal antibodies (moAbs) against SARS-CoV-2 is an effective therapeutic strategy in reducing both hospitalization and death related to COVID-19 (Dougan et al., 2021; Gupta et al., 2021; Montgomery et al., 2022; Weinreich et al., 2021). To date, the Food and Drug Administration has approved more than 30 SARS-CoV-2 moAbs for clinical trials. In Italy, five moAbs have been introduced into clinical practice for early treatment of COVID-19 following clearance by the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA) (AIFA, 2022).Seroprevalence of infection-induced SARS-CoV-2 antibodies among health care users of Northern Italy: results from two serosurveys (October-November 2019 and September-October 2021)
COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2, was declared a public health emergency of international concern on January 30, 2020. As of June 12, 2022, there have been 533,160,628 confirmed cases worldwide, including over 6 million deaths (WHO, 2022).SARS-CoV-2 vertical transmission during the first trimester of pregnancy in asymptomatic women
It is now well established that in utero vertical SARS-CoV-2 transmission can occur during the late third trimester (Fenizia et al., 2020; Vivanti et al., 2020). A systematic review of the cases reported in the literature estimated that of all the newborns who were SARS-CoV-2-positive, congenital transmission ranged from 5.7 to possibly 12.2% (Raschetti et al., 2020). As specimens are easily accessible postpartum, many studies focused on the late third trimester to assess the risk of vertical transmission.Simultaneous co-infection with Omicron (B.1.1.529) and Delta (21A/478K.V1) SARS-CoV-2 variants confirmed by whole genome sequencing
The national data of the epidemiological survey of COVID-19 variants carried out in France has shown a predominance of the Delta variant (21A/478K.V1) since June 29, 2021 (Santé publique France 2021). Since the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) was first reported (WHO, 2021), it has rapidly spread worldwide. Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant compared with other variants of concern (VOCs) (WHO, 2021) but no simultaneous co-infection. We described herein a case of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron and Delta VOCs co-infection, confirmed by whole genome sequencing (WGS).
