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The worse the air pollution, the greater the chances of needing intensive care and mechanical ventilation
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People infected in the second wave of the pandemic, when Beta was dominant, they were more likely to require hospitalization than those infected during the first wave
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Here is a summary of some of the latest scientific studies on the new coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.
Air pollution worsens severe covid
Dirty air contributes to the severity of COVID-19, according to a study of one of the most polluted cities in the United States. Researchers who studied 2,038 adults hospitalized with covid-19 in the Detroit area found that those who needed intensive care and machines to help them breathe they were more likely to live in neighborhoods with higher levels of air pollution and lead paint. The worse the air pollution, the greater the chances of needing intensive care and ventilation mechanics.
Dr. Anita Shallal, from Hospital Henry Ford de Detroit, said prolonged exposure to air pollution can damage the immune system and make it more susceptible to viral infections, while fine particles in air pollution can also act as carriers of the virus and help it spread.
The study “draws attention to systemic inequalities that may have led to the marked differences in COVID-19 outcomes along racial and ethnic lines, “Shallal said in a statement from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, where he presented the findings on Friday. “Communities of color are more likely to be located in areas closer to industrial pollution and from working in businesses that expose them to air pollution. ”
The beta variant can increase hospitalizations and deaths
The Beta variant of the coronavirus can be more lethal than the original version of the virus, according to South African researchers who studied more than 1.5 million COVID-19 patients. Although the Delta variant now accounts for the highest percentage of new covid-19 cases in many countries, Beta is still circulating, with mutations that make it highly contagious and more difficult to prevent or treat than the original version.
The researchers found that people infected in the second wave of the pandemic, when Beta was dominant, they were more likely to require hospitalization than those infected during the first wave, after taking into account patient risk factors and how overburdened hospitals were.
In addition, hospitalized patients with covid-19 had a 31% higher risk of death in the second wave, according to the report published on Friday in The Lancet Global Health. The researchers did not know the infectious variant of each patient, so they had to use the periods of the first and second waves as surrogates for the type of variant, co-author Dr. Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg.
“We hope to repeat the analysis, comparing the third wave in South Africa with the first two waves, to try to understand in a similar way whether the Delta wave is associated with an increased risk of death, “he said.
MRNA Vaccines Work Well in US “Real World” Study
Related news
Covid-19 vaccines most commonly used in the United States They are effective not only in clinical trials, but also in the “real world,” according to a national study. Using data from a sample of US adults hospitalized between March and May 2021, Researchers found that the Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines “prevented approximately 87% of COVID-19 hospitalizations that would have occurred if the vaccines had not been administered, “said Dr. Wesley Self of Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The effectiveness was similar for the two vaccines and was higher, with 97.3%, among adults aged 18 to 49, his team reported in an article published Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Among immunosuppressed people, vaccines prevented approximately 59% of covid-19 hospitalizations that otherwise would have occurred. That’s still a “substantial benefit,” Self said, but “because protection isn’t that good for people with immunosuppression, we think (they) should still take precautions to avoid getting COVID-19 even if they’ve been vaccinated.” , has said.
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