pandemic Archives

SARS-CoV-2 in water: A surveillance tool for infected populations

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ARS-CoV-2 in environmental waters and its elimination in sewage treatment plants.

The presence of land-derived bacteria in the marine environment is an indicator of wastewater contamination and of human health at a population level. However, the survival of human viral pathogens in the marine environment and their use as indicators is poorly understood. Dr Helena Galvão of the University of Algarve, Portugal, investigated the survival of SARS-CoV-2 in environmental waters and […]

Resilience, scepticism, and mRNA: The story of Katalin Karikó

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Katalin Karikó mRNA vaccines for COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic presented the world’s governments and health organisations with a vaccination challenge on a scale it had never experienced before. Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines were critical in the production and distribution of affordable vaccines across the globe. Katalin Karikó’s 40 years of research into mRNA was the cornerstone of what made this possible. In this interview, we find […]

Who will care for the mental healthcare professionals? A wake-up call from the Netherlands

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Mental healthcare workers are trained to deal with mental health problems, but that doesn’t mean they are immune themselves.

The COVID-19 pandemic taught us many lessons; one is that mental healthcare workers are not immune to the ravages of mental health problems. The pandemic put them under considerable stress in ways unimaginable before; many are still feeling it. Dr Anneloes van den Broek and Dr Lars de Vroege, senior researchers and clinical psychologists in mental healthcare in the Netherlands, […]

Post-pandemic suicide trends in Japan

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Professor Masahito Fushimi researches the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in Japan, warning other medical health professionals that suicide rates among women may rise in the future

While health authorities have measured the impact of COVID-19 in terms of infections and deaths, less attention has been given to the mental illness the pandemic has left in its wake. One leading researcher in suicide prevention, Professor Masahito Fushimi, a psychiatrist at the Akita University Health Centre in Akita, Japan, has uncovered a worrying trend in suicidal behaviour sparked […]

Is monoclonal antibody therapy effective and achievable in hospitals with limited resources?

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Dr Nikhitha Mantri researched the use of MAT treatments for COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms at an inner-city hospital with limited resources in the Bronx

Monoclonal antibody therapy (MAT) is a way of treating COVID-19 for people who have tested positive, have mild to moderate symptoms, and are at high risk of developing more serious symptoms and complications. Although there are already studies showing promising results, the number of patients in the US, especially ethnic minorities, who have so far received MAT is small. Dr […]

A solution-focused project to address the challenges of COVID-19 restrictions on children and young people

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Dr Darren Sharpe studied the various impacts that the COVID-19 restrictions had on children and young people in Zambia and Sierra Leone, providing them with basic goods as well as studying their wellbeing

Apart from the severe health complications, the Coronavirus pandemic has posed other significant challenges to our society: loss of economic stability, social isolation, and deterioration of mental health are among some of them. Arguably one of the most affected demographics are the vulnerable and the young. Children and young people (CYP) living with physical and mental disabilities, especially in low- […]

Covid-19 highlights the importance of defibrillation in in-hospital resuscitation

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Many aspects of the healthcare system have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the response to cardiac arrests both outside and within hospitals. Early recognition of cardiopulmonary arrest, early defibrillation when indicated, and early advanced life support (ALS) are some of the common practices that fall under in-hospital resuscitation. John A. Stewart, an independent researcher and retired […]

Digital transformation for higher education post COVID-19

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The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) across the world to migrate to online environments, with differing degrees of difficulty and success. Lloyd George Waller of the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, argues that success depends on HEIs’ digital readiness which is in turn an outcome of their digital transformation strategic framework. In a forthcoming […]

COVID-19 and its variants:
How N95 (hi-fi) masks can protect us

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Devabhaktuni Srikrishna reviews how high quality masks would reduce the inter-household spread of COVID-19.

One of the defining issues of the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to prevent its spread is inter-household transmission. Among the many policies and guidelines implemented, masks have been one of the most important and are now required wearing in the public spaces of many countries. But what if the masks we currently wear aren’t good enough? Researcher Devabhaktuni Srikrishna models […]

Tracking how SARS-CoV-2 mutates around the world during COVID-19 pandemic

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The COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing global health crisis caused by the SARS-CoV-2 strain of coronavirus. The SARS-CoV-2 virus mutates as it spreads, and monitoring these mutations and their distribution could provide information relevant for the treatment and control of the disease. Santiago Justo Arévalo (Ricardo Palma University, Peru) and his colleagues have analysed the progress of several mutations across […]