Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
Anakinra or high-dose corticosteroids in COVID-19 pneumonia patients who deteriorate on low-dose dexamethasone: an observational study of comparative effectiveness
Some patients with COVID-19 pneumonia display clinical and laboratory signs of a hyperinflammatory response, including markedly elevated serum C-reactive protein (CRP) and ferritin levels, followed by rapid respiratory status decompensation and progression to multisystem organ failure. These observations led to the use of varying doses of corticosteroids and targeted anti-cytokine agents, including anakinra, an anti-interleukin (IL)-1 treatment, early in the pandemic.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.High-dose corticosteroids in patients hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia: an observational study of comparative effectiveness
The optimal dose of corticosteroids in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection is uncertain, particularly among patients with severe respiratory impairment (The WHO Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies [REACT] Working Group, 2020), and practice remains varied. Recent randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that compared high (12 mg) to low (6 mg) doses of dexamethasone in patients hospitalized for severe COVID-19 pneumonia found no difference in mortality (Bouadma et al., 2022) or were inconclusive (COVID STEROID 2 Trial Group et al.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).Azithromycin use and outcomes in patients with COVID-19: an observational real-world study
COVID-19, caused by the new SARS-CoV-2, continues to be widespread, with nearly 600 million cases and >6 million deaths worldwide as of August 29, 2022 (World Health Organization, 2022). Most patients with COVID-19 have flu-like syndrome with a variety of mild symptoms including rhinitis, pharyngitis, cough, and fever. However, some patients experience a more life-threatening disease characterized by respiratory failure, a proinflammatory state, and arterial thromboembolism, which may require hospitalization and intensive care unit (ICU) admission (Bonaventura et al.Benefits of plasma exchange on mortality in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis
The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst in more than 100 years, causing numerous infections and deaths worldwide. Despite the use of multiple drugs with different mechanisms, mortality from COVID-19 remains high, especially in critically ill patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), sepsis, and associated cytokine release syndrome (CRS) (Cegolon et al., 2022; Cegolon et al., 2020; Memish et al., 2021). Therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE) is a safe and effective method for treating various diseases by removing pathological substances and replenishing the deficient plasma components (Cegolon et al., 2022; Fernández-Zarzoso et al., 2019).The safety and effectiveness of tocilizumab in older adult critically ill patients with COVID-19: a multicenter, cohort study
Since the novel severe acute respiratory sydnrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) emergence in 2019 (Huang et al., 2020), coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused more than four million deaths globally (World Health Organization, 2021). COVID-19 pneumonia can progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiorgan dysfunction, or death (Que et al., 2022). This progression may be attributed to the body's inflammatory response exacerbating inflammatory mediators such as cytokines and chemokines, leading to cytokine storm (Que et al., 2022).Parasites Protect from Severe COVID-19. Myth or Reality?
During the overheating investigations of factors that can decrease COVID-19 severity, coinfection with some parasitic diseases was identified (Gluchowska et al., 2021). In this letter, we will elaborate why we think that the protective effect of intestinal parasitic coinfection with COVID-19 could be a myth.Hypothyroidism does not lead to worse prognosis in COVID-19: findings from the Brazilian COVID-19 registry
A global health crisis was established with the emergence of COVID-19 (Gelfand et al., 2021). It is well known that individuals with some underlying medical conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension, are more likely to develop severe COVID-19, require hospitalization and intensive care, and have higher mortality rates (Marcolino et al., 2021; Sanyaolu et al., 2020; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. People with Certain Medical Conditions. September 4th, 2021).Genomic characterization of SARS-CoV-2 and its association with clinical outcomes: a 1-year longitudinal study of the pandemic in Colombia
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), an RNA virus from the coronavirus family with a genome of 29.8 kb, has emerged as a new viral pathogen that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Due to its important transmission capabilities, this virus spread rapidly around the world, and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic situation in March 2020. By 29 July 2021, there had been >196 million cases and approximately 4 million reported deaths worldwide (Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, 2021).Bacteraemic pneumococcal pneumonia and SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia: differences and similarities
Streptococcus pneumoniae remains the most common cause of community-acquired pneumonia (Van der Poll and Opal, 2009; Johansson et al., 2010). Among pneumonia pathogens, it is the leading cause of hospitalization and death in adults (Roson et al., 2001; Shariatzadeh et al., 2005). Approximately 15–25% of cases of pneumococcal pneumonia are bacteraemic (Said et al., 2013), and bacteraemic pneumococcal community-acquired pneumonia (B-PCAP) has traditionally been considered an invasive form of infection related to higher inflammatory status, worse in-hospital course and shorter long-term survival (Capelastegui et al., 2014; Ishiguro et al., 2016; Ruiz et al., 2019).Statins reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19: an updated meta-analysis of 147 824 patients
The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), remains a major public health problem across the globe, despite the availability of vaccines (Hamed et al., 2021). Consequently, there is a continuing need for effective pharmacological therapies that reduce the morbidity and mortality of patients with COVID-19.Severe features during outbreak but low mortality observed immediately before and after a March–May 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in Stockholm, Sweden
Excess all-cause mortality is increasingly being used to monitor the timing and severity of COVID outbreaks; however the COVID-attributable fraction of the all-cause mortality is not always clear ( www.euromomo.eu ). When calculating weekly excess mortality, fluctuations in mortality rates by calendar year are minimized by calculating a baseline mortality over several years (Ledberg, 2020). As there are also temporal trends in mortality (increased life expectancy), the average mortality estimation cannot use too many years (Ledberg, 2020).ABC2-SPH risk score for in-hospital mortality in COVID-19 patients: development, external validation and comparison with other available scores
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is still the main global health, social and economic challenge, overwhelming healthcare systems in many countries and heavily burdening others (WHO 2020, Emanuel et al., 2020). Case rates continue to rise, and some hospitals are nearly at their full capacity of intensive care unit (ICU) beds. The emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and India is currently a cause of huge concern – with very high viral growth, being more transmissible, less detectable with the RT-PCR technique, or deadlier than the wild-type SARS-CoV-2, and with evidence of lower vaccine efficacy (Conti et al., 2121, Zhang, 2021, Faria et al., 2021, Rubin, 2021).Association of Lung Ultrasound Score with Mortality and Severity of COVID-19: A Meta-Analysis and Trial Sequential Analysis
Global coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) broke out at the end of 2019 (Zhu et al., 2020). COVID-19 has rapidly spread all over the world, causing a pandemic within a short period due to its transmission dynamics. By the end of January 2021, more than one hundred million COVID-19 cases were confirmed in 215 countries, causing just under two million deaths (Bajaba et al., 2021).Association between risk of venous thromboembolism and mortality in patients with COVID-19
Hospitalized patients with COVID-19 exhibit an increased risk of developing venous thromboembolism (VTE) (Moores et al., 2020a). For those patients, it is proposed to apply Padua prediction score (PPS) or International Medical Prevention Registry (IMPROVE) risk assessment models (RAM) to detect the risk stratification of VTE, guiding thromboprophylaxis (Zhai et al., 2020). Several VTE RAMs have been conducted with large cohorts of acutely ill hospitalized medical patients and introduced to individualize VTE risk of hospitalized patients (Kahn et al., 2012).Clinical presentation, outcomes and factors associated with mortality: A prospective study from three COVID-19 referral care centres in West Africa
As of 05 May 2021, it was estimated that 153 million people had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 and that COVID-19 had killed 3.2 million people worldwide. Africa accounted for 3% of deaths from COVID-19, although 17% of the world’s population lives there. Europe (10% of world population, 34% of deaths from COVID-19) and North America (4% of world population, 19% of deaths from COVID-19) have been impacted comparatively much higher (WHO Coronavirus (COVID-19) Dashboard, n.d.). Therefore, the death toll from COVID-19 seemed lower in Africa than in Europe and North America, although some predictions indicated the opposite (Martinez-Alvarez et al., 2020).Clinical characteristics and outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a MERS-CoV referral hospital during the peak of the pandemic
Since the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 and the declaration of the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, it has infected more than 88 million individuals around the world with almost two million deaths as of January 7, 2020 (World Health Organization, n.d.). In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), 363,582 individuals have been infected with 6,282 deaths, with a national case fatality ratio (CFR) of 1.7% (Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health, n.d.a, n.d.b), which is less than that reported by the United States (CFR of 2.7%), Italy (CFR of 9.5%), and China (CFR 5.2%) (World Health Organization, n.d.The COVID-19 pandemic is deepening the health crisis in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo
The health status of the population of South Kivu, an eastern province of Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), has been and remains under extensive epidemiological surveillance, including mandatory reporting of all cases of major infections (Ebola, cholera, malaria, etc.) in each health zone. This monitoring enables rapid public health alerts (e.g. outbreaks of Ebola in 2019 and cholera in 2020), and has been further activated since the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (Organisation mondiale de la Santé – Democratic Republic of Congo, 2020).Clinical features and risk factors associated with morbidity and mortality among patients with COVID-19 in northern Ethiopia
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), a novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019, has resulted in an unprecedented global pandemic of respiratory illness, termed ‘coronavirus disease 2019’ (COVID-19) (Huang et al., 2020; Zhu et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020). As of 3 February 2021, more than 104 million cases of COVID-19 and 2.26 million COVID-19-related deaths have been reported worldwide (World Health Organization, 2021). The first case of COVID-19 in Ethiopia was reported on 13 March 2020, and there had been 138,861 cases of COVID-19 and 2116 (1.5%) COVID-19-related deaths as of 3 February 2021.Serum amyloid A concentrations, COVID-19 severity and mortality: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis
A state of excessive local and systemic inflammation and immune activation are strongly associated with oxidative stress, coagulation abnormalities, and multi-organ dysfunction in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) (Fajgenbaum and June, 2020; Hojyo et al., 2020). While safe and effective vaccines have been developed and are currently being rolled out, effective therapies to mitigate the clinical manifestations of COVID-19, e.g., repurposed antiviral and immunosuppressant agents, remain limited (Siemieniuk et al., 2020).Comparative assessment of mortality risk factors between admission and follow-up models among patients hospitalized with COVID-19
The SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected more than 100 million and killed nearly 2.5 million people worldwide over the past few months (JHU, 2020). Although most patients are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, 10% of them require hospitalization and 5% advanced medical support (Wu and McGoogan, 2020). Early identification of severe cases that will demand longer hospitalizations and increased costs can help guide medical decisions and manage hospital resources, especially in economically deprived areas.Meta-analysis of cardiac markers for predictive factors on severity and mortality of COVID-19
COVID-19 is a viral infectious disease that was first discovered in Wuhan, China, at the end of 2019 and caused by SARS-CoV2 infection (Jin et al., 2020). Until 26 September 2020 a total of 32,429,965 patients worldwide had been tested positive for COVID-19 and 985,823 had died (World Health Organization, 2020a). The clinical manifestations of COVID-19 include fever, cough, fatigue, muscle aches, diarrhoea, and pneumonia, which can develop into acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), metabolic acidosis, and even liver, kidney or heart failure (Chen et al., 2020b; Huang et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2020a).A shorter symptom onset to remdesivir treatment (SORT) interval is associated with a lower mortality in moderate-to-severe COVID-19: A real-world analysis
Remdesivir is the current recommended anti-viral treatment in moderate-to-severe COVID-19. However, data on impact of timing of therapy, efficacy, and safety are limited. We evaluated the impact of timing of remdesivir initiation (symptom onset to remdesivir treatment [SORT] interval) on in-hospital all-cause mortality in patients with moderate-to-severe COVID-19.Combination therapy with tocilizumab and corticosteroids for aged patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia: A single-center retrospective study
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the causative agent of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), is a novel beta-coronavirus first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China (Huang et al., 2020). Most cases of SARS-CoV-2 infection have a mild-to-moderate course, although a significant proportion of patients will ultimately develop acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) (Wang et al., 2020), which carries a high mortality rate (Wu et al., 2020). Older age has been consistently identified as a risk factor for death and poor outcomes in COVID-19.
