Month: August 2020

Scientists in Hong Kong have reported the first confirmed case of reinfection with the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, reportedly backed up by genetic sequences of the two episodes of the 33-year-old man’s infections in March and in August 2020. Naturally, people are worried what this could mean for our chances of resolving the pandemic. Here’s why they shouldn’t worry. Nearly nine months after the first infection with the novel coronavirus, we have very poor evidence for reinfection. However, virologists understand that reinfection with coronaviruses is common, and immunologists are working hard to determine how long the hallmarks of protective immunity will last in recovered patients. The rare reports of reinfection so far were not accompanied by virus sequencing data so they co...

And, as more children are diagnosed with the illness, doctors are encountering more with complications than they have so far in the 6-month-old pandemic, experts say. Jy’Merius Glynn at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He was severely ill with COVID-19 but is doing much better. CONTRIBUTED After emergency room doctors in Rome, Georgia, stabilized Hunt’s son, the teenager was transferred to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite. In the intensive care unit, he was placed on a ventilator and underwent dialysis. “They were the worst 15 days of my life,” said Hunt. It’s unclear if her son’s epilepsy played a role in him becoming so ill. Such dire pediatric cases have been extremely rare. Most children who get COVID-19 don’t get critically ill with the disease. Many do...

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Adjusted for population, residents over the age of 80 still have the highest rate in the county, followed by residents in their 20s. Enbal Shacham, a professor at St. Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice, said sporting events and practices may be a factor in the county age data. Some of the increase could also be related to the early effects of a few schools starting classes last week. But that is probably not the main source of the increase, because many area schools started Monday, and it is likely too early to see the impact of that. Shacham said the numbers for younger groups may have also been lowered somewhat earlier in the pandemic by the fact that testing was especially prioritized for older, more vulnerable individuals. Missouri reported 1,426 new cas...

The coronavirus may infect anyone, young or old, but older men are up to twice as likely to become severely sick and to die as women of the same age. Why? The first study to look at immune response by sex has turned up a clue: Men produce a weaker immune response to the virus than do women, the researchers concluded. The findings, published on Wednesday in Nature, suggest that men, particularly those over age 60, may need to depend more on vaccines to protect against the infection. “Natural infection is clearly failing” to spark adequate immune responses in men, said Akiko Iwasaki, an immunologist at Yale University who led the work. The results are consistent with what’s known about sex differences following various challenges to the immune system. Women mount faster and stronger i...