Coronavirus (COVID-19) Collection
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).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.Non-severe COVID-19 complicated by cytotoxic lesions of the corpus callosum (mild encephalitis/encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion): a case report and literature review
Coronavirus disease 2019- (COVID-19-) associated cytotoxic lesions of the corpus callosum (CLOCCs) have been reported as a rare neurological abnormality in severe cases. Here, a case of CLOCCs in the early stages of mild COVID-19 infection during the Omicron BA.1 epidemic is reported along with a literature review.Clinical cardiovascular emergencies and the cellular basis of COVID-19 vaccination: from dream to reality?
COVID-19 first emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, resulting in a rapid spread in the outbreak of pneumonia. The pandemic has affected millions of individuals and claimed more than 6 million lives worldwide, leading to massive health, social, and economic issues (Cascella et al., 2022). Patients with COVID-19 often experience fatigue, fever, cough, pneumonia, and acute respiratory distress syndrome at the advanced stages (Shirani et al., 2020). Except for respiratory symptoms, COVID-19 might be directly or indirectly linked to severe cardiovascular complications, such as palpitation, chest pain, and acute cardiovascular injury (Driggin et al.When to test for COVID-19 using real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction: a systematic review
By the end of 2019, a new enveloped RNA betacoronavirus was identified as responsible for episodes of a novel type of pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), it quickly spread to regions beyond China and later caused a global pandemic (Phan et al., 2020). In February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) named the disease caused by this pathogen COVID-19. COVID-19 has a varied clinical spectrum (World Health Organization, 2020b). Affected patients may be asymptomatic or develop various symptoms and complications, ranging from cough, myalgia, and headache to secondary infections, shock, and respiratory failure.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 role of children in household transmission of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis
As of April 29, 2022, there have been 510.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 6.2 million confirmed deaths worldwide, and individuals around the world are still experiencing the aftermath of the fourth wave of the pandemic, which was caused by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 (WHO COVID-19 Dashboard Data, 2022).COVID-19-Associated Mucormycosis: An Opportunistic Fungal Infection. A Case Series and Review
During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a sudden increase in the number of mucormycosis cases worldwide, presenting a new challenge to clinicians managing these patients (Kumar et al., 2021; Mahalaxmi et al., 2021). Although the first case of COVID-19–associated mucormycosis (CAM) was reported in Chile, most cases were reported in India and were linked to infection with the Delta variant (B.1.617.2) (Rao et al., 2021). Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most commonly identified risk factor for developing mucormycosis (Gupta et al., 2021; John et al., 2021; Kumar et al., 2021).The efficacy and adverse effects of favipiravir on patients with COVID-19: A systematic review and meta-analysis of published clinical trials and observational studies
COVID-19 was declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020 because of its widespread prevalence and life-altering consequences (World Health Organization 2020). The disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, an enveloped positive-sense RNA virus that relies primarily on RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) for viral gene transcription and replication (Zhu et al., 2020). It is well recognized for its unprecedented speed of transmission in asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers (Gandhi et al., 2020).Association of epicardial adipose tissue with the severity and adverse clinical outcomes of COVID-19: A meta-analysis
More and more COVID-19 cases have been confirmed since December 2019. As of December 21, 2021, there have been over 273 million confirmed cases and over 5.3 million deaths worldwide (World Health Organization, 2021). Hospitals, especially intensive care units (ICU), are currently overcrowded in some countries. Determining how to assess the severity quickly and predict the outcomes of COVID-19 (such as the need for hospitalization) after patients visiting an outpatient or emergency department began a research goal for doctors, which could efficiently allocate medical resources and help doctors make treatment-related decisions.Systematic review and meta-analysis of olfactory and gustatory dysfunction in COVID-19
COVID-19, which started at the end of 2019 (Chen et al., 2020), is still prevalent worldwide. It has caused more than 200 million infections and 4.3 million deaths, with infection and death numbers continuing to be updated. Individuals infected with the virus usually develop nonspecific symptoms in the prodromal stage of the disease, in which fever, cough, dyspnea, muscle pain, and fatigue are the most common symptoms (Huang et al., 2020 Wang et al., 2020;). In the early stages of the outbreak, the focus was on individuals with the infection and people exposed to them.Virtual Infection Prevention and Control in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges and opportunities to infection prevention and control (IPC) efforts globally. It has spurred healthcare workers and healthcare systems to implement new technologies and strategies for IPC. Virtual infection prevention and control (VIPC) refers to the technologies and strategies separated geographically or temporally from the point of medical care to control the spread of contagious diseases. Although a new field, VIPC has been rapidly employed in a variety of contexts throughout the pandemic as healthcare providers adapted to and innovated in the changing IPC landscape.Seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in India, March 2020 to August 2021: a systematic review and meta-analysis
COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus has spread rapidly across the world since December 2019. The pandemic has overwhelmed the health systems of developed and developing nations alike (Chowdhury & Jomo, 2020). Countries lacked the required ability to test, trace, treat, and isolate/quarantine the infected population. It is well established that true community burden would remain higher than the reported caseload owing to various reasons like asymptomatic infections, the differences in testing strategies by time and place, variable sensitivities of laboratory tests used for diagnosis, and other factors influencing the health-seeking behaviour of the population (M.Clinical significance of hepatosplenic thrombosis in vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia after ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccination
Since the first cases were discovered at the end of 2019, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has significantly altered the lives of people around the world. Vaccines to prevent infection from its causative organism, SARS-CoV-2, were developed by the end of 2020 and have now become humanity's hope of regaining normalcy by acquiring protective immunity against COVID-19. However, as vaccines against COVID-19 have been distributed globally at an unprecedented rate, cases of serious adverse events post-vaccination have been accumulating.Real-world effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines: a literature review and meta-analysis
Globally, as of October 15, 2021, there had been more than 239.4 million confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), including over 4.8 million deaths (WHO, 2021b). Since the outbreak of COVID-19, several vaccines have been tested and granted emergency use authorization. Phase III trials reported high vaccine effectiveness (VE) against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection with these vaccines, such as 70.4% effectiveness of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222; Oxford-AstraZeneca) (Voysey et al., 2021), 95% effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) (Skowronski and De Serres, 2021), 94.1% effectiveness of the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna) (Baden et al., 2021), and 50.7% effectiveness of an absorbed COVID-19 (inactivated) vaccine (CoronaVac) (Palacios et al., 2020).Measuring the impact of a single dose of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (recombinant) coronavirus vaccine on hospital stay, ICU requirement, and mortality outcome in a tertiary care centre
On March 11, 2020, WHO declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic [World Health Organization, 2020]. Most of countries have since faced significant challenges in combating this disease. By June 2021, the cumulative number of cases reported globally had exceeded 180 million, and the number of global deaths had reached almost 4 million across 216 countries.COVID-19 and antimicrobial stewardship: lessons learned, best practices, and future implications
As of May 20, 2021 there have been 164 922 114 cases and 3 418 084 deaths from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide according to the COVID-19 Dashboard maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. Additionally, healthcare workers have comprised a significant number of cases ranging from 3.9% to 13.1% and 0.5–1.9% of deaths in various studies (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2020; Guerrero-Torres et al., 2020; Lapolla et al., 2021). The current pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on global healthcare systems, which in addition to the loss of life has caused significant economic disruption, leading to shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) and medications (Badreldin and Atallah, 2021).COVID-19 pandemic: lessons learned from more than a century of pandemics and current vaccine development for pandemic control
Since the 1980s, at least 30 new infectious disease threats have emerged (Mukherjee, 2017). Of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) identified since 1940, 60% were zoonotic in nature, of which 70% originated in wildlife (Jones et al., 2008). This trend is expected to rise because of increased human–animal contact, climate change, land use changes, global population growth, and increased global interconnectedness (Jones et al., 2008, Mukherjee, 2017, Petersen et al., 2018).Risk factors for pulmonary embolism in patients with COVID-19: a systemic review and meta-analysis
Since December 2019, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly spread worldwide and caused more than 1 billion infections and 2 million deaths to date (Ackermann et al., 2020). The pathophysiology of COVID-19 has not yet been fully revealed. However, the direct viral toxicity (Alonso-Fernández et al., 2020), endothelial cell damage, and dysregulation of the immune response (Ameri et al., 2020) are widely believed to participate in the process (Artifoni et al., 2020). Emerging evidence has revealed that pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common complication in patients with COVID-19, with a higher incidence rate of 5−19% (Bavaro et al., 2020, Benito et al., 2020, Bilaloglu et al., 2020) and mortality rate of 8.7−45.1% (Bompard et al., 2020, BujaL et al., 2020, Bunce et al., 2011) than that in patients without COVID-19 (Ceriani et al., 2010, Chen et al., 2020) (incidence: 1.7−7.5%, mortality: 6.8%).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.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).Real-world clinical performance of commercial SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests in suspected COVID-19: A systematic meta-analysis of available data as of November 20, 2020
Nucleic acid amplification tests, such as real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR), performed on upper respiratory tract samples, are considered the gold standard for clinical diagnostic detection of current SARS-CoV-2 infection (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020; European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2020). RT-PCR requires a professionally run laboratory with molecular-biological competence and transport infrastructure between the place of sample collection and the laboratory.The use of non-invasive ventilation in COVID-19: A systematic review
The outbreak of COVID-19 began in Wuhan, China, in late December 2019, and has since spread globally, leading to an ongoing pandemic. Among COVID-19 patients, the percentage of patients with severe and critical COVID-19 was reported to be 13.8% and 4.7%, respectively (China CDC, 2020). The most likely cause of death was severe respiratory failure (Berlin et al., 2020). Thus, if means of respiratory support, such as non-invasive ventilation (NIV), can be chosen correctly and implemented in time, the fatality in severe patients could be reduced (Sundaram et al., 2020).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).Accounting for health inequities in the design of contact tracing interventions: A rapid review
Contact tracing plays a key role in controlling communicable diseases by seeking to break the chain of transmission between individuals. It is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as part of the global strategy for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which also includes case identification, isolation, testing, care, and quarantine (World Health Organization, 2020). Contact tracing consists of identifying and monitoring individuals who have been in close contact with an infected person (Public Health Ontario, 2021).
