Dr K K Aggarwal
President CMAAO, HCFI,
With input from Dr Monica Vasudev
29th January
1331: A September 2020 review of ITP secondary to COVID included 23 papers and a total of 45 patients. The review authors note that more than 70% of cases occurred in patients who were over 50 years and 75% had had moderate-to-severe COVID infections. However, the sample size of 45 is too small to definitively describe what’s happening in the overall population.
1332: China has adopted a new method for detecting the coronavirus: anal swabs for select groups, mainly high-risk cases and people in quarantine. Some people who have been subjected to anal testing include passengers arriving in Beijing and a group of more than 1,000 schoolchildren and teachers who were thought to have been exposed to the virus. The use of anal swabs is limited because it’s invasive and inconvenient. If a stool sample cannot be obtained, a saline-soaked cotton swab about 1-2 inches long is inserted into the anus, with the sample tested for active traces of the virus. Li Tongzeng, deputy director of the respiratory and infectious diseases department at Beijing Youan Hospital, said in an interview with state media that anal swabs appear to be more accurate at detecting the coronavirus than nasal or throat testing.
1333: ONS Infection Survey: UK strain people have more coughing, sore throat or fatigue as symptoms of COVID-19, but are less likely to lose their sense of taste or smell. The variant, is more transmissible, and could also be associated with higher mortality.
"Loss of taste and loss of smell were significantly less common in new variant compatible positives than triple positives," the ONS said [Nov. 15, 2020
to Jan. 16, 2021. https://bit.ly/39nkRZ1]. A "triple positive" PCR test result indicates that someone has COVID-19 but not the British variant.
"Other symptoms were more common in new variant compatible positives, with the largest differences for cough, sore throat, fatigue, myalgia (muscle pain) and fever,". "There is no evidence of difference in the gastrointestinal symptoms, shortness of breath or headaches."
1334: A new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa has been found in the United States for the first time, with two cases diagnosed in South Carolina. The two cases were discovered in adults in different regions of the state and do not appear to be connected. Neither of the people infected has traveled recently, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control said.
1335: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease should be vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, according to recommendations issued by the International Organization for the Study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IOIBD).
Patients with IBD and other immune-related conditions were excluded from SARS-CoV-2 vaccine trials, leaving many questions regarding the safety and effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in IBD patients.
1336: The Biden administration is exploring whether factories can be retrofitted to produce more of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to speed up vaccination of the vast majority of Americans.
1337: Short-term mortality climbs sharply for patients hospitalized with COVID-19 found to have atrial fibrillation (AF), especially new-onset AF, which, as a predictor of poor early outcomes, points to a need for more aggressive management, observe researchers from two separate studies.
1338: The antiviral agent plitidepsin (Aplidin) can block proliferation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in different cell lines and in the lungs of mice. The antiviral activity of plitidepsin was nearly 28-fold stronger than that of remdesivir against SARS-CoV-2 in the in vitro research.
The researchers also note that the two agents act on different targets.
Plitidepsin works by inhibiting the eEF1A protein in the host, not the virus, which could be an advantage because it avoids problems associated with future viral resistance. The study was published online January 25 in Science. Elongation factor 1-alpha 1 (eEF1a1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the EEF1A1 gene.
1339: Concerns of hyperkalemia once circled with the use of spironolactone — a potassium-sparing diuretic that also lowers levels of the hormone aldosterone
