Covid 19

The study, published in The Lancet journal, indicated that patients with co-infection of SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and influenza viruses were over four times more likely to require ventilation support and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they only had Covid.

The study led by an international team of researchers from the US, Mexico and Sweden found that the prevalence of long Covid in children and adolescents, following a Covid-19 infection was 25.24 per cent. The team identified more than 40 long-term effects associated with COVID-19 in children and adolescents.

The benefits of exercise on human health have been myriad. Now, research shows that exercise can also break the vicious cycle of inflammation that can lead to developing diabetes and depression months after a person recovers from the virus. So far no medically recognised treatment exists for long Covid, defined by the US Centres for Disease Control as "a constellation of other debilitating symptoms".

Researchers from the University of Oxford looked at changes to the brains of 785 people, aged 51-81, on average of 4.5 months after mild SARS-CoV-2 infection. The study, published in the journal Nature, identified a number of effects, including a greater reduction in grey matter thickness in the regions of the brain associated with smell (the orbitofrontal cortex and parahippocampal gyrus).

The research, published in the Molecular Biology and Evolution journal on Friday, detailed "mutational bursts" in the Covid virus before returning to its "normal" rate of mutation. The paper revealed that successive variants of concern such as Beta and Delta had mutated faster than earlier variants, noting differences of months to weeks.

According to the Global Burden of Disease, nearly a quarter (24.8 per cent) of all deaths in India is due to cardiovascular diseases (CVD). "Heart disease and Covid are intricately linked. If you remove the 'O' and 'I', Covid becomes CVD. Covid- 19 is like a stress test for the heart," Dr Ramakanta Panda, cardiac surgeon and head of Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai, told IANS.

A team from the University of Michigan found higher-than-expected levels of antiphospholipid autoantibodies, which can trigger blood clots in the arteries and veins of patients with autoimmune disorders, including lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome. Antibodies typically help the body neutralise infections. Autoantibodies are antibodies produced by the immune system that mistakenly target and sometimes damage the body's own systems and organs.

Both studies, published on Friday, examined pediatric emergency department (ED) visits data from 2019 through January 2022, Xinhua news agency reported. One study showed Covid-19-related ED visits increased across all pandemic years and among pediatric age groups. There were also increases in the weekly number and proportion of ED visits for certain types of injuries and some chronic diseases.

A recent study by the Imperial College London has shown that the risk of reinfection with the Omicron coronavirus variant is more than five times higher than other strains. Researchers at Deakin University in Australia's Melbourne stated that the first signs of Omicron's immune-evasive properties came from data collected in South Africa.

Small coronavirus respiratory particles can remain moist and airborne for a longer time and at greater distance than scientists have thought so far. Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory estimates that droplets encased in mucus could remain moist for up to 30 minutes and travel up to about 200 feet. The findings were published in the journal International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer.