Infectious Diseases News

• Steps to Boost Your Facility's Capacity Before COVID-19 Surge Hits A physician leader and a health workforce expert offer recommendations in preparing for an expected rise in COVID-19 cases. Knowledge about local trends in infection rates is key to preparedness.
  Medscape Medical News, March 29, 2020
• Survey Shows Just How Dire PPE Shortages Are at Many Hospitals Only 12% of facilities surveyed have received supplies from the Strategic National Stockpile, researchers from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology report.
  Medscape Medical News, March 29, 2020
• COVID-19: Telemedicine Gets Real, Real Fast Across Neurology In the face of COVID-19, neurologists working in stroke, epilepsy, dementia, and other subspecialties are tasked with a quick pivot from in-office patient visits to a new era of online consultations.
  Medscape Medical News, March 28, 2020
• COVID-19 Daily: Ventilator Rationing, Fast-Turnaround Tests These are the coronavirus stories you need to know about today.
  Medscape Medical News, March 28, 2020
• HHS Investigating Complaints Over Ventilator Rationing in Disabled Advocates say that ventilator plans discriminate against people with mental and physical disabilities.
  Medscape Medical News, March 28, 2020
• FDA Approves Test That Can Detect Coronavirus in Minutes The US Food and Drug Administration granted the approval under its Emergency Use Authorization. Abbott said it will start distribution next week and will ramp up manufacturing to 50,000 tests per day.
  Reuters Health Information, March 28, 2020
• FDA OKs Emergency Use of Convalescent Plasma for COVID-19 Patients As the number of US patients infected with COVID-19 continues to rise, the FDA is facilitating access to COVID-19 convalescent plasma for use in patients with serious or life-threatening infections.
  Medscape Medical News, March 28, 2020
• High Anxiety in America Over COVID-19 Survey results show COVID-19 is affecting many Americans' mental health, which is not surprising. But one expert warns that if the pandemic goes on much longer anxiety levels could become much worse.
  Medscape Medical News, March 28, 2020
• Coronavirus Social: Patient Questions, Daily Dispatch, Infographics Here are some of the top-trending COVID-19 topics dominating the social media conversation among clinicians.
  Medscape Medical News, March 28, 2020
• COVID-19 Daily: A Hospitalist's Advice, Fighting an 'Infodemic' These are the coronavirus stories you need to know about today.
  Medscape Medical News, March 27, 2020
• Physicians Pessimistic Despite Increased COVID-19 Test Kits Physicians were concerned about the safety of their loved ones and themselves and pessimistic about how those outside of the medical community will respond to the pandemic, according to a survey.
  Medscape Medical News, March 27, 2020
• Physicians Seek to Reassure Amid Hydroxychloroquine Shortage Concerns over shortages have prompted the American College of Rheumatology and othe groups to send a joint statement to President Trump and the nation's governors asking for continued availability.
  Medscape Medical News, March 27, 2020
• Guideline Highlights Safety During Autopsy in Suspected COVID-19 Cases The UK's Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) has released new guidelines that emphasize risk reduction during postmortem examinations of individuals suspected of having COVID-19.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• Mass Testing Explains Germany's Relatively Low Death Rate From Coronavirus - Virologist Germany's relatively low rate of deaths so far from coronavirus is largely due to the high number of tests being carried out in the country
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• Australia Enters 4,000 Healthcare Workers in Trial for Coronavirus Vaccine Thousands of Australian healthcare workers will begin a trial to see if a century-old vaccine for tuberculosis can fight off the new coronavirus, researchers said.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• Italian Scientists Investigate Possible Earlier Emergence of Coronavirus Italian researchers are looking at whether a higher than usual number of cases of severe pneumonia and flu in Lombardy in the last quarter of 2019 may be a signal that the new coronavirus might have spread beyond China earlier than previously thought.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• Africa's Window to Contain Coronavirus Narrowing - WHO About half of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa still have a "narrowing" opportunity to curb the spread of coronavirus in the local population, the regional head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• How Many Americans Have Coronavirus? New Reuters Poll Might Offer a Hint The official count of coronavirus infections in the United States sits at about 70,000 cases, but a chronic shortage of tests means only a fraction of the people infected are being counted.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• In Europe, Tech Battle Against Coronavirus Clashes With Privacy Culture Governments across Europe are turning to technology to track the spread of the coronavirus and monitor people under quarantine.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020
• COVID-19's Sexual Health Repercussions Put Most Vulnerable at Risk The social and economic disruption underway as the COVID-19 pandemic rages is likely to have negative consequences for sexual and reproductive health worldwide, but lessons can be learned from past epidemics to help prepare for these changes, according to two experts on outbreaks and reproductive health.
  Reuters Health Information, March 26, 2020