scholarly journals A SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE TIME COURSE TO DEVELOP TREATMENTS FOR COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Binh T. Ngo ◽  
Marc S. Rendell
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Time Course ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hospitalized Patients ◽  
World Health ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Link Type ◽  
Vaccine Trials ◽  
The World ◽  
Google Search

ABSTRACTBackgroundThe spread of COVID-19 from Wuhan in China throughout the world has been alarmingly rapid. Epidemiologic techniques succeeded in containing the disease in China, but efforts were not as successful in the rest of the world, particularly the United States where there have been 2,079,592 confirmed cases with 115,484 deaths as of June 15, 2020. Projections are for continued new infections and deaths if no effective treatments can be activated over the next six months. We performed a systematic review to determine the potential time course for development of treatments and vaccines focusing on availability in the last half of 2020.MethodsPublicationsOur search was performed during the week of June 15, 2020 We reviewed up to date information from several sources to identify potential treatments for COVID-19: We used the Reagan-Udall Expanded Access Navigator COVID-19 Treatment Hub to track the efforts of companies to develop treatments. We then used the results to search for publications identified treatments on pubmed.gov and on medRxiv, the preprint server. We further used a targeted Google search to find announcements of trial results.Clinical TrialsWe searched for all investigational trials begun in the first quarter of 2020, with cut off on April 1, using several different sources: (A) covid-trials.org, then validated results on (B) clinicaltrials.gov and the (C) World Health Organization’s International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (WHO ICTRP). We focused on trials which were completed or currently recruiting for patients, reasoning that the timeline to arrive at treatments by the end of the year would require completion within the next 6 months. We excluded studies which were clearly observational, with no randomization, control or comparison group. We further set a cutoff of 100 for numbers of subjects since smaller trial size could lack statistical power to establish superiority of the intervention over the control condition.ResultsPublished DataWe found 43 publications reporting findings on 1 classes of agents. There were 12 publications related to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ),11 on tocilizumab, 4 publications related to remdesivir, four on lopanovir/ritonavir (LPV/R), four on interferons, two on favipiravir, two on convalescent plasma, one on meplazumab, one on corticosteroids, one on famotidine, and one on ivermectin. Of these, only 16 were randomized or active control studies; the rest were retrospective observational. Only two publications dealt with outpatient care, the rest all in hospitalized patients.Clinical TrialsWe found 409 trials meeting our minimum requirement of 100 subjects which were recruiting or completed. The WHO has launched the Solidarity megatrial performed in over 100 countries actively comparing HCQ, lopanovir/ritonavir (LPV/R) alone and in combination with interferon beta-1, and remdesivir. That trial is scheduled to complete enrollment in the first quarter of 2021. In addition, we found 46 trials of HCQ, 11 trials of LPV/R and 8 trials of interferons. There were 18 ongoing trials of antiviral agents, 24 immune modulator trials, 9 vaccine trials, and 62 trials of other agents. We excluded a large number of trials of Chinese traditional medications, reasoning that there was insufficient clinical experience with these agents outside China to offer these treatments to the rest of the world. Forty four trials were hoping to complete enrollment by the end of the second quarter of 2020. Of these, only 9 were conducted on outpatients. A few vaccine trials are hoping to complete Phase 3 enrollment by the end of the third quarter, but a prolonged follow-up of patients will likely be required.ConclusionRemdesivir and tocilizumab have now been granted emergency authorization in many countries for treatment of hospitalized patients. However, the disease is propagated primarily by infected ambulatory individuals. There are only a few randomized controlled studies in outpatients which can be expected to yield results in time to impact on the continuing spread of the epidemic in 2020. It will be necessary for public health authorities to make hard decisions with limited data. The choices will be hardest in dealing with potential early release of vaccines.

scholarly journals Coronavirus Treatments: What Drugs Might Work Against COVID-19?

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 1934578X2094544
Author(s):  
Mohammed Bourhia ◽  
Fatima Ez-Zahra Amrati ◽  
Riaz Ullah ◽  
Ali S. Alqahtani ◽  
Dalila Bousta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
World Health ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Therapeutic Effects ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The World ◽  
Containment Measures ◽  
Health Organization

The World Health Organization declared the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-coronavirus (CoV)-2 virus outbreak as a pandemic on May 27, 2020. Since then, more than 5 488 825 cases across the world have been recorded at the time of revising this article. Governments around the world have imposed serious containment measures, meanwhile, the healthcare system is overburdened due to large increases in COVID-19 cases. However, no specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 virus drugs or vaccines have yet been shown to be effective to fight this causative virus of acute infectious pneumonia. The current review was conducted to look for potential natural and synthesized drugs for the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Previously published data in journals, textbooks, periodicals, websites, and sources, including data about the treatment of human coronavirus with natural and synthesized drugs, were taken from the online bibliographical databases. The results showed that syndic drugs approved for other human diseases have been used to improve the symptoms of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2. Several clinical trials across the world evidenced beneficial effects of natural and synthesized drugs in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infections. On the other hand, many studies have provided a deep understanding of the therapeutic effects of conventional and traditional medicine in identifying naturally occurring drugs effective against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Both natural and synthesized drugs should come together to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other potential emerging dangerous viral diseases since they have shown promising findings in clinical trials conducted with COVID-19 patients.

scholarly journals Impact of COVID-19 on clinical trials and clinical research: A systematic review

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 878-887
Author(s):  
Brijesh Sathian ◽  
Mohammad Asim ◽  
Indrajit Banerjee ◽  
Ana Beatriz Pizarro ◽  
Bedanta Roy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Clinical Research ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sudden Onset ◽  
World Health ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact

Background: The World Health Organization has reported more than 31,186,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), including 962,343 deaths, worldwide as on September 21, 2020. The current COVID-19 pandemic is affecting clinical research activities in most parts of the world. The focus on developing  a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 and the treatment of COVID-19 is, in fact, disrupting many upcoming and/or ongoing clinical trials on other diseases around the globe. On March 18, 2020, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an updated guideline for the conduct of clinical trials during the current health emergency situation. The potential challenges, such as social distancing and quarantines, result in study participants’ inaccessibility and trial personnel for in-person scheduled study visits and/or follow-up. Due to the sudden onset and wide-spread impact of COVID-19, its influence on the management of clinical trials and research necessitates urgent attention. Therefore, our systematic review of the literature aims to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the conduction of clinical trials and research. The search for the relevant articles for review included the keywords "COVID-19” AND "clinical trial" in PubMed, MEDLINE, Embase, Google scholar and Google electronic databases. Key findings include: delaying subject enrollment and operational gaps in most ongoing clinical trials, which in turn has a negative impact on trial programmes and data integrity. Globally, most sites conducting clinical trials other than COVID-19 are experiencing a delay in timelines and a complete halt of operations in lieu of this pandemic, thus affecting clinical research outcomes.

Infodemiological patterns in searching medication errors: relationship with risk management and shift work (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Fabbian ◽  
Emanuele Di Simone ◽  
Sara Dionisi ◽  
Noemi Giannetta ◽  
Luigi De Gennaro ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Shift Work ◽  
Medication Errors ◽  
Medical Errors ◽  
World Health ◽  
Noncommunicable Diseases ◽  
Western World ◽  
The World ◽  
Google Search

BACKGROUND Western world health care systems have been trying to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in order to respond properly to the aging of the population and the epidemic of noncommunicable diseases. Errors in drugs administration is an actual important issue due to different causes. OBJECTIVE Aim of this study is to measure interest in online seeking medical errors information online related to interest in risk management and shift work. METHODS We investigated Google Trends® for popular search relating to medical errors, risk management and shift work. Relative search volumes (RSVs) were evaluated for the period November 2008-November 2018 all around the world. A comparison between RSV curves related to medical errors, risk management and shift work was carried out. Then we compared world to Italian search. RESULTS RSVs were persistently higher for risk management than for medication errors during the study period (mean RSVs 74 vs. 51%) and RSVs were stably higher for medical errors than shift work during the study period (mean RSVs 51 vs 23%). In Italy, RSVs were much lower than the rest of the world, and RSVs for medication errors during the study period were negligible. Mean RSVs for risk management and shift work were 3 and 25%, respectively. RSVs related to medication errors and clinical risk management were correlated (r=0.520, p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Google search query volumes related to medication errors, risk management and shift work are different. RSVs for risk management are higher, are correlated with medication errors, and the relationship with shift work appears to be even worse, by analyzing the entire world. In Italy such a relationship completely disappears, suggesting that it needs to be emphasized by health care authorities.

The Ethics of COVID-19 Vaccine Passports

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Joseph Meaney ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
World Health ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Divided Society ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

COVID-19 vaccine passports run the risk of creating a divided society where social privileges or restrictions based on “fitness” lead to discrimination based on immunization status. Individuals have a strong right to be free of coercion to take a COVID-19 vaccine, and we should be very leery of further invasion of private medical decisions. These concerns are shared both internationally and in the United States, and the World Health Organization, the Biden administration, and many US governors oppose COVID-19 vaccine credentials. In addition, regulations for COVID-19 vaccine credentials face practical barriers, including lack of access globally, especially among the poor; and lack of scientific data on the efficacy of these vaccines.

(Mis)Information on Digital Platforms: Lessons from Twitter and Sina Weibo in the COVID-19 Pandemic (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Kreps
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
World Health ◽  
Sina Weibo ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Relative Prevalence

BACKGROUND Misinformation about COVID-19 has presented challenges to public health authorities during pandemics. Understanding the prevalence and type of misinformation across contexts offers a way to understand the discourse around COVID-19 while informing potential countermeasures. OBJECTIVE The aim of the study was to study COVID-19 content on two prominent microblogging platform, Twitter, based in the United States, and Sina Weibo, based in China, and compare the content and relative prevalence of misinformation to better understand public discourse of public health issues across social media and cultural contexts. METHODS A total of 3,579,575 posts were scraped from both Weibo and Twitter, focusing on content from January 30th, 2020, when the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and February 6th, 2020. A 1% random sample of tweets that contained both the English keywords “coronavirus” and “covid-19” and the equivalent Chinese characters was extracted and analyzed based on changes in the frequencies of keywords and hashtags. Misinformation on each platform was compared by manually coding and comparing posts using the World Health Organization fact-check page to adjudicate accuracy of content. RESULTS Both platforms posted about the outbreak and transmission but posts on Sina Weibo were less likely to reference controversial topics such as the World Health Organization and death and more likely to cite themes of resisting, fighting, and cheering against the coronavirus. Misinformation constituted 1.1% of Twitter content and 0.3% of Weibo content. CONCLUSIONS Quantitative and qualitative analysis of content on both platforms points to cross-platform differences in public discourse surrounding the pandemic and informs potential countermeasures for online misinformation.

scholarly journals Coronavirus Disease 2019 Occupational Considerations for Surgeons: A Review Article

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-41
Author(s):  
Seyed Hesamaddin Banihashemi ◽  
Ahmadreza Karimi ◽  
Hasti Nikourazm ◽  
Behnaz Bahmanyar ◽  
Dariush Hooshyar
Keyword(s):  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
World Health Organization ◽  
Medical Staff ◽  
Review Article ◽  
World Health ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
And Control

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 virus and its associated disease, called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), first appeared in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and quickly spread around the world. Coronavirus was officially named COVID-19 by the World Health Organization and was recognized as a pandemic due to its rapid spread worldwide. Based on the published data, it is hoped to provide a source for later studies and to help prevent and control the contagious COVID-19 and its characteristics, and considerations that surgeons and medical staff must observe during the epidemic.

scholarly journals The efficacy and safety of interferons for the treatment of patients with COVID-19: protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Afsaneh Noormandi ◽  
Mohammad Fathalipour ◽  
Reza Daryabeygi-Khotbehsara ◽  
Soheil Hassanipour
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Clinical Trials ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
World Health ◽  
Controlled Trials ◽  
Efficacy And Safety ◽  
Global Pandemic ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Time Of Administration

Background and objective: COVID-19 has since been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), infecting millions worldwide. The use of Interferon (INF) subtypes previously examined in the treatment of SARS and MERS is also being initiated in some clinical trials. Although different clinical trials were evaluated IFNs in the treatment of COVID-19, their efficacy and safety remain unknown. Therefore, this study aims to systematically assess IFNs efficacy and safety in treating patients with COVID-19. Methods: The protocol has been registered in the PROSPERO International Prospective Register (CRD42020200643) on 24 July 2020. This protocol has been arranged according to the PRISMA-P (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Protocols) 2015 checklist. Discussion: Due to lack of approved medication for the covid-19 treatment and also various mutations of this virus, evaluated the efficacy and safety of medications by various studies could help for finding treatments with high effectiveness. IFNs are one of the medications that have been administered in covid-19 infection.  Moreover, the best time of administration and dose of this medication was unknown. Although meta-analysis is a potent source for assessing the accuracy of subjects, heterogeneity of articles is a potent limitation of our work.

scholarly journals Quality Evaluation of Ethambutol Hydrochloride Tablet Batches Available in Governmental Health Facilities of Jimma Town, Southwest Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Meseret Yirdaw ◽  
Belachew Umeta ◽  
Yimer Mokennen
Keyword(s):  
World Health Organization ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Facilities ◽  
World Health ◽  
Southwest Ethiopia ◽  
Weight Variation ◽  
The World ◽  
Storage Area ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Jimma Town

Background. The availability of poor-quality drugs on the drug market might favor the ineffectiveness of the drug and/antimicrobial resistance. Aim. To evaluate the quality of similar batches of ethambutol hydrochloride tablets available in different governmental health facilities of Jimma town, southwest Ethiopia. Methods. The World Health Organization checklist was used to inspect the storage area of health facilities and check medicines for the sign of counterfeit. The test was conducted as per the United States Pharmacopeia on six similar batches of ethambutol hydrochloride sampled from different governmental health facilities. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20, and one-way ANOVA was used for comparing the dissolution profile and weight variation of batches. Results. Three health facilities did not comply with the storage area specifications for pharmaceuticals. No batches have shown any sign of counterfeit. All of the tablet batches tested complied with USP specifications for weight variation, percentage purity, and dissolution test. Conclusions and Recommendation. The entire tablet batches complied with the World Health Organization specification for packaging and labelling of pharmaceuticals. All tablet batches complied with the test for weight variation, purity of drug substance, and dissolution. Since some health facilities did not comply with at least one specification for storage of pharmaceuticals, regulatory agencies and stack holders are advised to inspect the health facilities to ensure appropriate storage of pharmaceuticals in health facilities.

scholarly journals Cluster analysis of the origins of the new influenza A(H1N1) virus

2009 ◽  
Vol 14 (21) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Solovyov ◽  
G Palacios ◽  
T Briese ◽  
W I Lipkin ◽  
R Rabadan
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Influenza A ◽  
H1n1 Virus ◽  
Swine Influenza ◽  
The United States ◽  
Influenza Viruses ◽  
World Health ◽  
Influenza A H1n1 ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization

In March and April 2009, a new strain of influenza A(H1N1) virus has been isolated in Mexico and the United States. Since the initial reports more than 10,000 cases have been reported to the World Health Organization, all around the world. Several hundred isolates have already been sequenced and deposited in public databases. We have studied the genetics of the new strain and identified its closest relatives through a cluster analysis approach. We show that the new virus combines genetic information related to different swine influenza viruses. Segments PB2, PB1, PA, HA, NP and NS are related to swine H1N2 and H3N2 influenza viruses isolated in North America. Segments NA and M are related to swine influenza viruses isolated in Eurasia.

Annual Summary of Vital Statistics—1976

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 60 (6) ◽  
pp. 797-804
Author(s):  
Myron E. Wegman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
United Nations ◽  
The United States ◽  
Vital Statistics ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Statistics ◽  
The World ◽  
States Data ◽  
International Data ◽  
Health Organization

Data for this article, as in previous reports,1 are drawn principally from the Monthly Vital Statistics Report,2-5 published by the National Center for Health Statistics. The international data come from the Demographic Yearbook6 and the quarterly Population and Vital Statistics Report,7 both published by the Statistical Office of the United Nations, and the World Health Statistics Report,8 published by the World Health Organization. All the United States data for 1976 are estimates by place of occurrence based upon a 10% sample of material received in state offices between two dates, one month apart, regardless of when the event occurred. Experience has shown that for the country as a whole the estimate is very close to the subsequent final figures.

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