There is a new drug for COVID-19. But these are not the only new discoveries of scientists

Scientists are still studying different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how to combat it. Several studies have recently been carried out shedding new light on the spread of the coronavirus and on additional risk factors. A well-known cure for angioedema was also found to help fight the disease.

1. There is ongoing research into the coronavirus around the world, regarding its spread and risk factors that increase the likelihood of getting sick
2. Doctors are also working on studying the possibility of fighting the virus with a variety of drugs, including well-known ones
3. Reuters Agency informs about the latest research by doctors from the USA and Germany on COVID-19
4. Check your health. Just answer these questions
5. More important information can be found on the TvoiLokony home page

According to a recent study by doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, patients infected with the Omikron variant infect others for as long as patients infected with the earlier variants. The study was conducted on a small group.

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Patients with Omikron infect for six days

Scientists took blood samples from 56 newly diagnosed patients, including 37 with Delta infections and 19 with Omicron infections. They all had light infection, with flu-like symptoms. None of the patients were hospitalized. Regardless of which variant they were infected with, and whether they had been vaccinated or had a booster dose, study participants demonstrated active virus for an average of about six days after the onset of symptoms.. Only one in four people infected for more than eight days.

“While it is not known exactly how much live virus is needed to spread the disease to others, we assume that people with mild COVID-19 infection can infect for an average of six days and sometimes longer” — said Dr. Amy Barczak of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, quoted by the Reuters Agency. »Decisions on isolation and masking should take this information into account, regardless of variant or prior vaccination» — she added.

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Icatibant – a drug that can weaken the virus

Scientists from the Technical University of Munich presented the new possibilities of a drug to combat angioedema. They described their findings in the Journal of Molecular Medicine.

In their research, they proved that icatibant — a drug marketed by the Japanese company Takeda Pharmaceutical — blocks a protein called bradykinin b2 receptor, which, together with another protein, the coronavirus uses as a ‘gateway to infection’. When scientists analyzed nasal cells obtained from newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients, they found elevated levels of the bradykinin b2 receptor, prompting them to wonder if blocking this protein with icatibant could protect airway lining cells from coronavirus.

They checked it out. «To our surprise, icatibant successfully reduced the effect of the virus by over 90 percent. and protected cultured human airway cells from cell death after infection with SARS-CoV-2 ″ — said Adam Chaker from the Technical University of Munich.

In test-tube experiments, multiple dosing of icatibant did not completely stop the coronavirus infection, but did reduce the severity of it. More tests are planned — this time on high-risk patients, testing the potential of using icatibant as an additional treatment in the early stages of infection.

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Heart defects increase the risk of death

Scientists say that People born with heart defects who become ill with COVID-19 and have it severe enough to require hospitalization are at greater risk of becoming critically ill or killed. This is evidenced by the results of a study that compared 421 patients with heart disease hospitalized for COVID-19 against over 235. patients with a properly functioning heart.

The researchers also considered other risk factors in patients. It turned out that people with congenital heart disease were 40 percent. more often admitted to the intensive care unit, by 80 percent. they required mechanical ventilation more often and died twice as often during hospitalization compared with patients in the control group. The study report was published in the journal Circulation.

“People with heart defects should be encouraged to receive vaccines and booster doses, and to continue with additional preventive measures, such as wearing masks and physical distance” — said the head of the study, quoted by the Reuters Agency — Karrie Downing from the US government agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we were wondering why switching our thinking and acting to slow life is a real challenge? Why is listening to your needs so important? What will it do for us? You will hear about it below.

Also read:

1. Long-term effects of COVID-19. They last for months [INFOGRAPHIC]
2. Who is dying from the Omikron variant? The latest data from Poland and the USA
3. In this country, the COVID-19 pandemic has only just begun. “People are dying on the floor”