Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
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).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.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.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.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.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).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).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).SARS-CoV-2 dual infection with Delta and Omicron variants in an immunocompetent host: a case report
Dual infections (those caused by two different viral variants) have been described with RNA viruses but are rare among respiratory viral infections (Calistri et al., 2011; Myers et al., 2011). For SARS-CoV-2, few cases of dual infection have been reported, despite an extremely high number of persons being infected worldwide (Francisco et al., 2021; Pedro et al., 2021; Roychoudhury et al., 2022; Samoilov et al., 2021; Vankeerberghen et al., 2021). However, pinning down these cases is complicated; they can be identified with higher probability during the transition from dominance of one SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern to another in the population.Comparison of antibody response durability of mRNA-1273, BNT162b2, and Ad26.COV2.S SARS-CoV-2 vaccines in healthcare workers
Vaccination with Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved/authorized COVID-19 vaccines is imperative to control the ongoing pandemic. Several studies have demonstrated robust similar or higher early anti-spike (anti-S), anti-S-receptor binding domain (RBD), and neutralizing antibody (nAb) responses after primary vaccination with mRNA-1273 compared with BNT162b2 and higher responses with both mRNA vaccines compared with Ad26.COV2.S (Collier et al., 2021; Debes et al., 2021; Naranbhai et al., 2022; Richards et al.Exhaled breath SARS-CoV-2 shedding patterns across variants of concern
Both virus characteristics and host response influence SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The more transmissible and immune evasive variants of concern (VOC) shape the former (Liu and Rocklöv, 2021; Nishiura et al., 2022; Planas et al., 2021a, Planas et al., 2021b, Planas et al., 2022; Willett et al., 2022), whereas, vaccine-and natural infection-based immunity and their waning shape the latter (Feikin et al., 2022).An isothermal lab-on-phone test for easy molecular diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 near patients and in less than 1 hour
The world has been facing the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that was first detected in China in December 2019 (Wu and McGoogan, 2020). This virus can spread from an infected individual's mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak, sing, or breathe, spreading more easily indoors and in crowded settings. COVID-19 is associated with a variety of clinical outcomes, including asymptomatic infection, mild upper respiratory infection, severe lower respiratory disease, including pneumonia and respiratory failure, and, in some cases, death.Chronic active Epstein-Barr exacerbated by COVID-19 co-infection
The Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a double-stranded DNA virus belonging to the human Herpesviridae family (Dunmire et al., 2018). It infects over 90% of adults worldwide. Typically, it is transmitted through the oral route through the exchange of saliva, where it targets B-cells and epithelial cells in the tonsils. It then undergoes an incubation where it sheds intermittently into the blood and saliva. When the immune system tries to neutralize it, the virus becomes latent and remains in B-cells for the individual's lifetime (Dunmire et al., 2018).Validation of the NeuMoDx™ SARS-CoV-2 assay with COPAN eNAT® and E&O Viral PCR Sample Solution collection media types in comparison with other validated SARS-CoV-2 RNA assays
Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA are the gold standard for diagnosis because of their high sensitivity and specificity (Park et al., 2020). Assay validation during the pandemic was challenging because of the need for rapid implementation of novel tests (Vandenberg et al., 2021).Admissions to a large tertiary care hospital and Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 SARS-CoV-2 polymerase chain reaction positivity: primary, contributing, or incidental COVID-19
Monitoring national hospitalization rates for COVID-19 has been essential throughout the pandemic to guide public health decision-making and to evaluate vaccine efficacy. However, with the rapid worldwide spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant of concern (associated with a decreased severity) and increasing immunity against SARS-CoV-2, interpreting the true impact of these hospitalization rates has been complicated (Viana et al., 2022; World Health Organization, 2021).Ct values as a diagnostic tool for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 viral load using the QIAstat-Dx® Respiratory SARS-CoV-2 Panel
Soon after the outbreak of COVID-19 (World Health Organization 2020), caused by SARS-CoV-2, the first diagnostic methods were developed to respond to the rapid transmission of the virus. The first published real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 ribonucleic acid (RNA) in human samples was developed by Drosten and colleagues and rapidly became endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the reference method to diagnose COVID-19 (Corman et al., 2020).
