3D Animation Captures Viral Infection in Action – NIH Director’s Blog

With the summer holiday season now in full swing, the blog will also swing into its annual August series. For most of the month, I will share with you just a small sampling of the colorful videos and snapshots of life captured in a select few of the hundreds of NIH-supported research labs around the country.To get us started, let’s turn to the study of viruses. Researchers now can generate vast amounts of data relativelyContinue…

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Excess Death Rates for Republican and Democratic Registered Voters in Florida and Ohio During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Public Health | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network

Between January 1, 2018, and December 31, 2021, there were 538 159 individuals in Ohio and Florida who died at age 25 years or older in the study sample. The median age at death was 78 years (IQR, 71-89 years). Overall, the excess death rate for Republican voters was 2.8 percentage points, or 15%, higher than the excess death rate for Democratic voters (95% prediction interval [PI], 1.6-3.7 percentage points). After May 1, 2021, when vaccinesContinue…

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Potential of Exercise as a COVID-19 Prevention Strategy – American Journal of Preventive Medicine

a woman in a red and white dress sitting outdoors

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic represents one of the greatest threats to population health in more than a century. As of January 2023, >6.7 million deaths globally were attributed to COVID-19. As new mutations evolve, it is apparent that the virus will not be eliminated soon and that strategies for managing life with COVID-19 are needed.1A recent American Journal of Preventive Medicine study shows that exercise and exercise intensity have a strong impact onContinue…

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A New Accounting of COVID-19’s True Death Toll | Time

The Real Death Toll of Covid 19

More than 6 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide, according to official counts. But the more comprehensive toll, tallying deaths directly or indirectly attributable to COVID-19, may be three times higher, according to a new study published in the Lancet.“We can confidently say that the pandemic has killed an extra 18.2 million people,” says Dr. Chris Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington and a co-author of theContinue…

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Cerebrospinal Fluid Offers Clues to Post-COVID ‘Brain Fog’ | UC San Francisco

Some patients who develop new cognitive symptoms after a mild bout of COVID-19 have abnormalities in their cerebrospinal fluid similar to those found in people with other infectious diseases. The finding may provide insights into how SARS-CoV-2 impacts the brain.In a small study with 32 adults, comprising 22 with cognitive symptoms and 10 control participants without, researchers from UC San Francisco and Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, analyzed the cerebrospinal fluid of 17 of theContinue…

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NIH study identifies features of Long COVID neurological symptoms | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

NIH study identifies features of Long COVID neurological symptoms | National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Twelve people with persistent neurological symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection were intensely studied at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and were found to have differences in their immune cell profiles and autonomic dysfunction. These data inform future studies to help explain persistent neurological symptoms in Long COVID. The findings, published in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation(link is external), may lead to better diagnoses and new treatments. Source: NIH study identifies features of Long COVID neurological symptomsContinue…

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Risk Factors Associated With Post−COVID-19 Condition: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | Infectious Diseases | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network

This meta-analysis of 41 studies that included a total of 860 783 patients demonstrates that there were certain epidemiologic and clinical risk factors that are associated with a higher risk of developing PCC. In particular, female sex, older age, higher BMI, and smoking were significantly associated with increased risk of persistent symptoms of 3 months or more after the acute phase of COVID-19 infection, ie, PCC. In addition, preexisting comorbidities, including anxiety and/or depression, asthma, COPD,Continue…

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The neuroinvasiveness, neurotropism, and neurovirulence of SARS-CoV-2: Trends in Neurosciences

Severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has been shown to be associated with a range of neurological complications during the acute and postacute phases.The pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2-associated CNS disease is complex and diverse, and cannot be explained by one sole mechanism.To understand the pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2-associated CNS disease, it is important to gain deeper insights into the neuroinvasiveness, neurotropism, and neurovirulence of SARS-CoV-2. It is also imperative to consider the kinetics, since a viralContinue…

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