154 CMAAO CORONA FACTS and MYTH Round the
globe
Dr K Aggarwal
President CMAAO
With inputs from Dr Monica Vasudev
976: Good news: So far,
no documented outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. has been traced to a dental
office notes the American Dental Association.
977: July 6 by Annals of Internal Medicine: For
the SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay, sensitivity and specificity were 0.976 and 0.988 respectively, when the test was performed at
least 14 days after symptom onset. For tests done earlier, however, sensitivity
was lower. IgG levels remained high during follow-up, up to 58 days. Levels of
antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 were related to the risk for acute respiratory
distress syndrome, with an increase of 62% for every twofold increase in IgG.
Among the 11,066 patients who received a NAAT, 457 had repeatedly negative
results. In serum samples obtained from 18 of these patients, six who were
COVID-19 case-patients and 12 who were non-COVID-19 controls, five of six in
the former group and none of 12 in the latter group had antibodies detected (P=0.001). The
authors concluded that antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 can indicate infection when
measured 14 or more days after symptom onset, are associated with clinical
severity, and can provide diagnostic support when patients have negative
results on NAAT but COVID-19 is still suspected.
978: An
inexpensive two-drug regimen of sofosbuvir plus daclatasvir taken
for 14 days significantly reduced time to recovery from COVID-19 and improved
survival in people hospitalized with sever e disease, research from an
open-label Iranian study led by Andrew Hill, PhD, from the University of
Liverpool, United Kingdom shows.
979: A recent study of two hospitals in
Wuhan, China, found that the highest aerosol concentration was in a bathroom,
although it noted that it was a temporary, single-toilet room with no
ventilation. The study also found that sanitization and ventilation effectively
limited the virus’s concentration in aerosols. Another recent study that
analyzed samples from patients hospitalized with COVID-19 found that attempts
to isolate the virus from stool samples were never successful, and that
existing fragments were not infectious.
The flush is a one-time
event, and any direct plume is from a person’s own feces; if the virus was
present, that person would already be infected. Our own fecal plume poses no
risk to us,
980: If an
unmasked interaction within six feet lasts under 15 minutes and doesn’t include
coughing or sneezing, the transmission risk is still low.
981: Music
might be playing, causing people to lean in and speak to each other.
982: Alcohol
can make people relax and forget about distancing, and when there’s singing,
breaths are forcibly ejected into the air. In many of these settings, masks
might not be required and might not be worn, further encouraging the spread.
983: And before you leave, use your foot, elbow (if
possible), or a paper towel to open the door, and once outside, spray your
hands with a sanitizer.
984:
--
Bodies stressed by severe COVID-19 could produce abnormally high blood
sugar levels, even in people without diagnosed diabetes. And that appears
tied to a doubling of the odds of dying from COVID-19, Chinese researchers
report. High blood sugar (glucose) levels, measured at the time of admission to
the hospital, were also linked to more severe disease and complications,
according to researchers led by Dr. Yang Jin, of the Union Hospital and Tongji
Medical College, in Wuhan, China. Wuhan was the originating epicenter of the
global pandemic of COVID-19. [ July
10 in the journal Diabetologia.
985: Even
if the virus were to land on food that you ate, there’s no evidence that
swallowing the virus leads to infection. It needs to be transmitted to the
respiratory system – into the nose, sinuses or lungs.
