May 27, 2020 - a podcast by COVID19LST

Your daily COVID-19 LST Report:

— Climate:  Researchers call attention to ways the COVID-19 pandemic is unmasking healthcare disparities in two widely different groups, truck drivers and tuberculosis patients. In the words of London analysts who examined the impact on TB patients, care for these vulnerable populations should not be “sidelined”. On a similar theme, Australian researchers discuss the ethical dilemmas around distributive justice and fair resource allocation.

— Epidemiology:  Literature reviews and case reports continue to clarify the diagnostic and prognostic value of dermatologic findings in COVID-19. Patients over 50 with elevated BMI were also associated with mortality, but to a lesser extent.  Demonstrating that obesity over age being a stronger predictor of disease outcome

— Understanding the Pathology:  A UK Biobank (UKB) to analysis of 322,948 subjects (mean age 68-years-old) found an association between the ApoE e4e4 allele and a positive COVID-19 test. Similar results were obtained after excluding patients with pre-existing conditions linked to COVID-19 severity, suggesting the ApoE e4e4 allele independently increases the risk of severe COVID-19 infection.

— Transmission and Prevention:  An assessment of viral load in two COVID-19 patients in Seoul, Korea via nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs, saliva, sputum, and urine cultures using rRT-PCR found that the viral load was consistently high in saliva and relatively higher than in the oropharynx during the subclinical period which raises concerns for occult transmission.

— Management: The Asian-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) COVID-19 Taskforce published clinical practice guidelines for "management of liver injury, liver transplantation, autoimmune diseases, chronic liver diseases, delivery of elective and emergency services, and conduct of clinical trials" in the Asia-Pacific region during the COVID-19 pandemic

— Adjusting Practice: A retrospective observational study in Beijing found that during the pandemic, acute ischemic stroke patients exhibited on average a 40 minute longer hospital arrival to reperfusion time than before the pandemic, suggesting the need to streamline COVID-19 screening and hospital admission protocols for suspected stroke patients.

—R&D: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial found shortened time to recovery in remdesivir treated patients (median 11 days compared to 15 days, P<0.001), supporting the preported therapeutic potential of remdesivir for patients with COVID-19.

— Mental Health and Resilience: Obesity and how perceived weight discrimination affects  behavior. 

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