Health News

Long COVID may affect almost 37% of COVID-19 patients

Individuals with long COVID exhibit lingering symptoms, such as fatigue and brain fog, that persist beyond the typical recovery period of 3–4 weeks after the symptom onset. A recent study assessed the incidence of long COVID symptoms using data extracted from de-identified electronic health records. The study found that more than one in three individuals […]

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COVID-19 deaths: CDC may underestimate risk for people of color

The way in which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report COVID-19 deaths may lead to an underestimation of racial and ethnic disparities, according to a new study. The authors say that the CDC use a statistical method called “weighting” that discounts the impact of the uneven geographical distribution of COVID-19 deaths in […]

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Can zinc levels predict COVID-19 severity?

A recent study examined the links between zinc levels in people hospitalized with COVID-19 and both disease progression and outcome. The study found that participants with low zinc levels had a 21% mortality rate compared with 5% in those with healthy zinc levels. The time to clinical recovery was approximately three times less in those […]

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What is the protective value of different face masks?

Researchers have assessed how effective various medical and consumer-grade masks are at protecting the wearer from exposure to particles similar in size to SARS-CoV-2. In a new study, scientists have analyzed how effective consumer-grade masks, medical masks, and modified medical masks are at protecting the wearer from particles of a similar size to SARS-CoV-2. The […]

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What explains Africa’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

In this opinion piece, Prof. Agnes Binagwaho, M.D., MPEd, Ph.D. — vice-chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity in Kigali, Rwanda — and her research associate Kedest Mathewos explain why African countries fared much better than their Western counterparts in the fight against COVID-19. In 2019, the Global Health Security Index ranked countries according […]

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COVID-19's impact on dengue transmission

A recent study has demonstrated that physical distancing measures resulted in a significant increase in reported cases of dengue in Thailand but unchanged rates in Malaysia and Singapore. Dengue is transmitted to humans through the bite of certain species of Aedes mosquitos that carry one of the virus’s four serotypes: dengue viruses 1–4. These mosquitos […]

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Why social distancing is key in containing the new coronavirus

Researchers say that SARS-CoV-2’s rapid spread is likely due to the movements of people with no or very mild symptoms — namely, those who are unaware that they even have the virus. That is why social distancing is such an important containment measure, they explain. One of the main questions on scientists’ and public health […]