Articles: pandemics.
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The first outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) occurred in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in late 2019. The subsequent COVID-19 pandemic rapidly affected the health and economy of the world. The global approach to the pandemic was to isolate populations to reduce the spread of this deadly virus while vaccines began to be developed. ⋯ The production of mRNA-based vaccines is a promising recent development in the production of vaccines. However, there remain significant challenges in the development and testing of vaccines as rapidly as possible to control COVID-19, which requires international collaboration. This review aims to describe the background to the rationale for the development of mRNA-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccines and the current status of the mRNA-1273 vaccine.
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Current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines state that patients with moderate to severe asthma may be at greater risk for more severe disease if infected with SARS-CoV-2; however, no published data support this suggestion. During this pandemic, it is recommended that patients with asthma continue taking all controller inhalers and other asthma medication as prescribed to prevent exacerbations and limit outpatient clinic and emergency room exposure. Symptoms that may differentiate COVID-19 from asthma exacerbations caused by another trigger may include fever, fatigue, anorexia, or myalgias. Patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 should avoid nebulizer treatments due to the risk of aerosolization.
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Chinese medical journal · May 2020
Clinical characteristics of novel coronavirus cases in tertiary hospitals in Hubei Province.
The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) causing an outbreak of pneumonia in Wuhan, Hubei province of China was isolated in January 2020. This study aims to investigate its epidemiologic history, and analyze the clinical characteristics, treatment regimens, and prognosis of patients infected with 2019-nCoV during this outbreak. ⋯ The majority of patients with 2019-nCoV pneumonia present with fever as the first symptom, and most of them still showed typical manifestations of viral pneumonia on chest imaging. Middle-aged and elderly patients with underlying comorbidities are susceptible to respiratory failure and may have a poorer prognosis.