In final results, Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech announced today that their mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine has 95% efficacy, even better than the 90% found in its initial analysis, and they will apply for emergency use authorization (EUA) from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within days. The announcement comes as cases in the United States surge [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to challenges in the steady supply of single-use masks (respirators) [1] and many hospitals are faced with using new types of respirators to avoid stock-outs. While certified FFP2/KN95 respirators have the ability to prevent airborne infections, like COVID-19, influenza or tuberculosis, the performance of the respirators depends on tight sealing [...]
A single shot given every two months has proved to be more effective than a daily pill at preventing HIV in women, researchers reported Monday, an advance that medical experts hailed as groundbreaking in the fight against the deadly virus that causes AIDS. The finding that the long-acting drug would prevent HIV in six doses [...]
Abstract The outbreak of pneumonia caused by 2019 Novel Coronavirus arises significant concern for virus transmission and control. The control of the indoor environment or public-enclosed environment is crucial to reduce the risk of infection. Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning (HVAC) systems are used to create a healthy, thermal-comfort indoor environments. Thus, the rational use of HVAC [...]
At least 231 people in Texas prisons and jails have died from COVID-19, including 27 staff members, 14 people in jail and 190 people in prison, according to a new report from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin. The report’s lead researcher, Professor Michele Deitch, told NPR’s Weekend Edition that the main takeaway from the report is [...]
Masks, social distancing and hand hygiene have become widely accepted as ways to reduce the spread of coronavirus but some scientists are saying the ventilation of our homes and workplaces could be another tool in our prevention armoury. As we learn more about COVID-19, more evidence has emerged that the virus spreads through aerosols as well [...]
Mechanisms underlying adverse birth and later in life health effects from exposure to air pollution during the prenatal period have not been not fully elucidated, especially in the context of mixtures. We assessed the effects of prenatal exposure to mixtures of air pollutants of particulate matter (PM), PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen oxides, NO2, NOx, ultrafine particles [...]
Introduction One of the leading challenges in the 2013–2016 West African Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak was how best to quickly identify patients with EVD, separating them from those without the disease, in order to maximise limited isolation bed capacity and keep health systems functioning. Methodology We performed a systematic literature review to identify all [...]
Background The second largest Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak began in the Democratic Republic of Congo in July 2018 in North Kivu Province. Data suggest the outbreak is not epidemiologically linked to the 2018 outbreak in Equateur Province, and that independent introduction of Ebola virus (EBOV) into humans occurred. We tested for antibodies to ebolaviruses in [...]
BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgian authorities “abandoned” thousands of elderly people who died in nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic and did not seek hospital treatment for many who were infected, violating their human rights, Amnesty International said in an investigation published Monday. One of the hardest-hit countries in Europe, Belgium has reported more than 531,000 confirmed [...]
