Articles: sars-cov-2.
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Emergency physicians are on the front lines of treating patients with highly infectious respiratory diseases. Personal protective equipment is one defense against contamination from droplet and aerosol secretions. Intubation is a procedure that greatly can increase provider's risk of exposure. ⋯ There has been scant literature demonstrating the effectiveness of such devices. This study aimed to determine degree of droplet contamination to the intubator utilizing a novel barrier enclosure with a fluorescent simulated respiratory contagion. This model confirmed both added protection to the providers preforming intubation, and reduction of spread of the droplets when such a device is applied to patient care.
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Commun Dis Intell (2018) · Jun 2020
COVID-19, Australia: Epidemiology Report 19 (Fortnightly reporting period ending 21 June 2020).
Notified cases of COVID-19 and associated deaths reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) to 21 June 2020. Confirmed cases in Australia notified up to 7 June 2020: notifications = 7,491; deaths = 102. The incidence of COVID-19 has markedly reduced since a peak in mid-March. ⋯ Case numbers in Europe remain relatively steady, while there is significant growth in the South East Asia region, including in India and Bangladesh. Reported cases are increasing in Africa, although the numbers are much smaller. In the Pacific region there are few new cases reported daily.
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The technology-driven world of the 21st century is currently confronted with a major threat to humankind, represented by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome, coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). As of now, COVID-19 has affected more than 6 million confirmed cases and took 0.39 million human lives. SARS-CoV-2 spreads much faster than its two ancestors, SARS-CoV and Middle East respiratory syndrome-CoV (MERS-CoV), but has low fatality rates. ⋯ However, home-based point-of-care diagnostics are still under development, which may prove transformative in current COVID-19 pandemic containment. Similarly, vaccines and therapeutics against COVID-19 are currently in the pipeline for clinical trials. In this review, we discuss the noteworthy advancements, focusing on the etiological viral agent, comparative genomic analysis, population susceptibility, disease epidemiology and diagnosis, animal reservoirs, laboratory animal models, disease transmission, therapeutics, vaccine challenges, and disease mitigation measures.
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Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), first reported in China during December of 2019, is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Infection later spread very rapidly around the globe with over 8,708,008 cases reported, including more than 461,715 deaths reported across at least 216 countries by June 20, 2020. It was declared as a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 11, 2020. ⋯ An urgent unmet need led to the planning and opening of multiple drug development trials for treatment and vaccine development. In this article, we have compiled comprehensive data on many candidate drugs such as remdesivir, favipiravir, ribavirin, umifenovir, arbidol, lopinavir, ritonavir, baricitinib, hydroxychloroquine, nitazoxanide, azithromycin, baloxavir, oseltamivir, losartan, and tocilizumab. We have tabulated available data on various clinical trials testing various aspects of COVID-19 therapeutics.
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In the 21st century, three highly pathogenic betacoronaviruses have emerged, with an alarming rate of human morbidity and case fatality. Genomic information has been widely used to understand the pathogenesis, animal origin and mode of transmission of coronaviruses in the aftermath of the 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreaks. ⋯ Here, we review how genomic information has been used to tackle outbreaks caused by emerging, highly pathogenic, betacoronavirus strains, emphasizing on SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. We focus on shared genomic features of the betacoronaviruses and the application of genomic information to phylogenetic analysis, molecular epidemiology and the design of diagnostic systems, potential drugs and vaccine candidates.