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Showing posts with label Flu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Flu. Show all posts

Tuesday, 4 August 2020

Lifesaving 90-minute coronavirus tests to be rolled out to millions of Britons NEXT WEEK

MILLIONS of people in the UK could soon have access to two revolutionary new coronavirus tests.

By MELANIE KAIDAN
The tests, described as “transformative”, provide results within 90 minutes and will start being distributed next week. The development means a large majority of people could soon be tested in airports, offices, schools, pubs and restaurants.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night defined the plans as “lifesaving”.

The news comes as the Government is seeking to put an end to the pandemic without the need for a second strict nationwide lockdown that would damage the economy even more.
Both tests will initially be rolled out in the NHS and care homes, and over the next few months, they will be available to the rest of the population.
The new tests will be provided routinely to people who show no symptoms, as opposed to only being available to patients who suspect they might be infected.
Life-saving 90-minute coronavirus tests to be rolled out to millions of Britons
Life-saving 90-minute coronavirus tests to be rolled out to millions of Britons (Image: Getty)
The news brings fresh hopes that local outbreaks will be spotted before they get out of control, eliminating the need for local lockdowns.
The tests can also diagnose a flu even if the patient does not have Covid-19.
This means the spread of both viral diseases will be tracked, allowing for rapid action from health authorities who would put in place flu jab operations.
Ministers seek to avoid a flu wave this winter that would add even more pressure to the health services.
The new tests will be provided routinely to people who show no symptoms
The new tests will be provided routinely to people who show no symptoms (Image: Getty)
One of the tests, named the LamPORE, uses a simple saliva sample, rather than the current uncomfortable nose and throat swab method.
Professor Andrew Beggs, a genetics expert at the University of Birmingham, who has been trialling the LamPORE test, defined it as “transformational”.
He said: “A rapid test which works off saliva and gives you a result in a maximum of two hours is enormously powerful.
“It's definitely an advance on the tools we have at the moment.”
The vital importance of social distancing
The vital importance of social distancing (Image: Express)
The other method is called DNANudge and it will be introduced next month.
It uses swab tests more rapidly as it does no need to be sent to a laboratory for analysis.
Current tests can take 24 hours to four days to deliver results.
The firms developing the tests did not reveal the price but said it is a similar price to or cheaper than current tests.
Tests already available are around £18 privately but cheaper to the NHS.
Mr Hancock described the tests as “life-saving innovations”.
Swab test
LamPORE uses a simple saliva sample, rather than the current uncomfortable nose and throat swab method (Image: Ge
He said: “Mllions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly.
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as Covid-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others.”
The Government has the capacity to test 220,000 people a day but ministers want to ramp this up to 500,000 by autumn.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “The news of quicker tests is encouraging and should mean we have a further weapon in our armoury to defeat the virus.”
Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Having the ability to rapidly test and report the results will help the NHS and other care providers with the challenge of continuing to restart routine services, plan for winter and deal with a potential second surge in Covid-19.”

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'Life saving' 90-minute tests for coronavirus and flu to be rolled out from next week

Tests for coronavirus and flu that can provide results in 90 minutes are to be rolled out across hospitals, care homes and laboratories from next week.
EVENING STANDARD
Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the breakthrough as "life-saving" and said the "on-the-spot" tests will help prevent the spread of Covid-19 this winter.
The Department of Health said that the "rapid" swab and DNA tests will help clinicians and NHS Test and Trace staff distinguish between coronavirus and other seasonal illnesses.
This could prevent patients from unnecessarily self-isolating for an illness that is not Covid-19.
Nearly half a million new LamPORE swab tests will be available from next week across adult care settings and laboratories. Millions more of the tests, supplied by Oxford Nanopore, are set to be rolled out later in the year.
Meanwhile, thousands of DNA test machines, which have already been used in eight London hospitals and can analyse nose swabs, will be rolled out across NHS hospitals from September.
“Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will provide on-the-spot results in under 90 minutes, helping us to break chains of transmission quickly," said Mr Hancock.
The DNA and swab tests aim to help clinicians differentiate between coronavirus and other seasonal illnesses (AP)
“The fact these tests can detect flu as well as Covid-19 will be hugely beneficial as we head into winter, so patients can follow the right advice to protect themselves and others.
“I am hugely grateful for the excellent work done by DnaNudge and Oxford Nanopore to push forward these life-saving innovations in coronavirus testing.”
Some 5,000 machines, supplied by DnaNudge, will provide 5.8 million tests in the coming months, said the Department of Health.
NHS launches ‘Let’s Get Back’ campaign to encourage testing through NHS Test and Trace
Professor Chris Toumazou, co-founder of DnaNudge and founder of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London, said: “The DnaNudge team worked with incredible speed and skill during the peak of the pandemic to deliver this highly accurate, rapid Covid-19 test, which requires absolutely no laboratory or pipettes and can be deployed anywhere with a direct sample-to-result in around just over an hour.”
Gordon Sanghera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore, said: “LamPORE has the potential to deliver a highly effective and, crucially, accessible global testing solution, not only for Covid-19 but for a range of other pathogens.”
The new tests were announced hours after the DHSC was forced to deny that it had abandoned its pledge to regularly test care home residents through the summer.
According to a leaked memo from the Government’s adult social care testing director, seen by the Sunday Times, Professor Jane Cummings wrote to local authority leaders to inform them that “previously advised timelines for rolling out regular testing in care homes” were being altered because of “unexpected delays”.
Regular testing of residents and staff was meant to have started on July 6 but will now be pushed back until September 7 for older people and those with dementia, the PA news agency understands.
A DHSC spokeswoman confirmed there were issues with “asymptomatic re-testing”.
Additional reporting by PA Media.
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Thursday, 12 March 2020

Influenza kills more people than coronavirus so everyone is overreacting, right? Wrong — and here’s why





‘This is additive, not in place of. Yes, the flu kills thousands of people every year, but we’re going to have more deaths’

Published: March 11, 2020 at 8:57 p.m. ET
By Quentin Fottrell

Some cite influenza as a reason not to be worried about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but health professionals say that comparison misses some very important points. On Wednesday, WHO declared it a pandemic.

 MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto



Coronavirus. It’s just like the flu, isn’t it?
Hundreds of thousands of people die of the flu every year, some say, and people need to calm down about coronavirus, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization Wednesday.


Everyone should wash their hands for 20 seconds, elbow bump, stop buying face masks because they don’t protect against the virus, note that airplane air is filtered 20 to 30 times an hour, avoid cruise ships, and just relax.
That appears to be the accumulated advice of exasperated Americans on Twitter and Facebook FB, -4.46% who despair at the long lines at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods AMZN, -3.75% (where people apparently have been stocking up on oat milk), and the panic buying and empty shelves at Costco COST, -3.86%. “Toilet paper is golden in an apocalypse,” one customer told MYNorthwest.com They’re overreacting, right? Not quite.
‘This is additive, not in place of. Yes, the flu kills thousands of people every year, but we’re going to have more deaths.’
— Amesh Adalja, Infectious Diseases Society of America
On Tuesday, President Trump echoed the sentiments of his secretary of housing and urban development on Twitter TWTR, -8.77% on Monday, noting that “last year 37,000 Americans died” from the flu: “Nothing is shut down, life & the economy go on.” On Wednesday, the president announced that he was “marshaling the full power of the federal government” by suspending all travel from Europe to the U.S. for one month.
As this dramatic change-of-heart illustrates, we have still a lot to learn about the novel coronavirus and that alone should be enough to motivate communities to work together to slow its progress. Studies suggest the differences between the flu and coronavirus are more nuanced than some people suggest.
In fact, health professionals point out important distinctions between COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and other viruses. They don’t advise mass hysteria, obviously, but nor do they believe doing nothing and/or going about your business as usual is a smart move either.
There is no vaccine for COVID-19 and it could take many months or years to get one to market, and, unlike the influenza viruses for which there are several vaccines, humans have not built up an immunity over multiple generations. What’s worse, doctors fear the virus will mutate.
The first known person was reported to have contracted the virus on Dec. 1 in China. Today, it’s spread to nearly 100 countries. Experts advise changing your behavior to limit its spread. Public officials in New York have said people should avoid taking mass transit, if possible. Italy has effectively quarantined its entire population. Israel has closed its land borders.
Of course, there are similarities between influenza and COVID-19. Both viruses are untreatable with antibiotics, and they have almost identical symptoms — fever, coughing, night sweats, aching bones, tiredness and, in more severe cases of both viruses, nausea and even diarrhea. They can be spread by touching your face, coughing and sneezing.
But doctors say their differences are just as varied. “It’s a little simple to think the novel coronavirus is just like flu,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security and a spokesman for the Infectious Diseases Society of America, told MarketWatch.
“We don’t want another flu,” he said. “This is additive, not in place of. Yes, the flu kills thousands of people every year, but we’re going to have more deaths.”
There are reported to be some 1 billion influenza infections worldwide each year, with up to 45 million cases in the U.S. per year, tens of thousands of U.S. deaths, and 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide.
Seasonal flu has a fatality rate of less than 1%. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases on Capitol Hill, estimates that the fatality rate of flu is closer to 0.1%. But even accounting for the mild, yet undiagnosed cases of COVID-19, he said Wednesday, it would still make it “roughly 10 times more lethal than the seasonal flu.”

Another reason not to compare the two viruses: Influenza has likely been around for more than 2,000 years. Scientists say the “novel influenza A viruses” in humans lead to a pandemic approximately once every 40 years. But, again, flu vaccines exist. “The flu has been with us since the birth of modern medicine,” said Adalja.
Flu has likely been around for 2,000 years. This coronavirus is three months old and, as yet, there is no vaccine.
Hippocrates of Kos, the Greek physician who was born around 460 BC, mentioned what we now know as the modern influenza virus in his writings, some historians say. He called it the “Fever of Perinthus.” Others wonder whether this was flu, another illness, or a combination of illnesses.
“In 1173 and 1500, two other influenza outbreaks were described, though in scant detail. The name ‘influenza’ originated in the 15th century in Italy, from an epidemic attributed to the ‘influence of the stars,’” which, according to historical documents, “raged across Europe and perhaps in Asia and Africa,” a 2016 paper in the Journal of Preventive Medicine and Hygiene reported.
“Scholars and historians debate whether influenza was already present in the New World or whether it was carried by contaminated pigs transported on ships,” it added. “Some Aztec texts speak of a ’pestilential catarrh’ outbreak in 1450-1456 in an area now corresponding to Mexico, but these manuscripts are difficult to interpret correctly and this hypothesis seems controversial.”
What has all this got to do with COVID-19? There is an advantage to coming down with a virus that has been around for hundreds, if not a couple of thousand, years. Humans, ideally, will have built up more natural defenses to fight it.
Complicating matters: influenza and COVID-19 come from different virus families, and COVID-19 is brand new. “There are four other strains of the coronavirus, but the attack rate of this virus is relatively high as there is no immunity to it,” Adalja said.
To put that in perspective: In 2017–18, the worst flu season on record in the U.S. outside of a pandemic, approximately 80,000 Americans died. The four other coronavirus strains that already exist are responsible for around 25% of our common colds, Adalja added.
“But it doesn’t seem like there is cross-immunity with this coronavirus as there are with the other coronaviruses,” he added. In other words, the natural defense systems in our body that help us ward off flu are unlikely to apply here.
Luis Ostrosky, a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said humans have a “herd immunity” to flu. “When there are enough people in the community who are immune it protects people who are not immune.” That is the case with flu, but not with COVID-19. Ostrosky said this is especially critical when no vaccines or therapeutic treatments for a virus.
“Both can be spread from person to person through droplets in the air from an infected person coughing, sneezing or talking,” Lisa Maragakis, senior director of infection prevention at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, wrote. Based on the estimated distance viruses travel, scientists recommend “social distancing” of at least six feet in enclosed public spaces.

In the meantime, the virus continues to spread, likely helped by people who have mild symptoms or who are asymptomatic. Worldwide, there were 125,865 COVID-19 cases and 4,615 deaths as of Wednesday evening; about 67,017 people have recovered, according to data published by the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering. The U.S. has 1,281 confirmed cases, and has recorded at least 37 deaths.

Neither the flu nor COVID-19 viruses is treatable with antibiotics, and the two illnesses have roughly identical symptoms.

 MarketWatch photo illustration/iStockphoto

While estimates of coronavirus fatality rates vary, they remain far higher than those for the flu. COVID-19 has a fatality rate of 3.4%, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said earlier this month. That’s more than previous estimates of between 1.4% and 2%, although some observers say his analysis was a blunt interpretation of incomplete data, and were probably skewed by a higher death rate in China.

COVID-19 rates may fall closer to those of the flu, assuming many more people are infected. JAMA recently released this paper analyzing data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on 72,314 COVID-19 cases in mainland China last month, the largest such sample of this kind. The sample’s overall case-fatality rate was 2.3%, in line with the earlier estimates.
‘As coronavirus spreads it threatens to put a much greater burden on health systems than flu does.’
— Antigone Barton, ScienceSpeaks
Fatality rates also varied dramatically depending on the age of the individual. No deaths occurred in those 9 and younger, but cases in those aged 70 to 79 carried an 8% fatality rate, and those aged 80 years and older had a fatality rate of 14.8%. The rate was 49% among critical cases, and elevated among those with pre-existing conditions, to between 5.6% and 10.3%, depending on the condition.
Other differences between coronavirus and flu lie in what we don’t know. Adults with the flu, which has an average incubation period of two days, can infect others 24 hours before symptoms develop and 5 to 7 days after becoming sick. Novel coronavirus has a median incubation period of 5.1 days, longer than that other human coronaviruses (3 days) that cause the common cold.

On Wednesday, WHO said coronavirus has become a pandemic. WHO had characterized the illness late last year as a series of epidemics. An epidemic is a disease that infects regions or a community., such as the 1918-19 “Spanish flu” or, one of the most extreme pandemics ever recorded, the Black Death from 1347 to 1351.
The agency said the number of cases outside China has increased tenfold and the number of countries affected has tripled. “We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths and the number of affected countries climb even higher. WHO has been assessing this outbreak around the clock,” Tedros told reporters. “And we’re deeply concerned. Most by the alarming levels of spread and severity. And by the alarming levels of inaction.”
Coronavirus appears to be transmitted with ease to around 2.3 people by each person infected in the community, said Antigone Barton, editor of ScienceSpeaks, a medical website. Drug companies and the medical community, she said, are scrambling to come up with a vaccine before more people die, and health services are overwhelmed with sick people showing up at their doors.
The potential demand for hospital beds, ventilators, masks and medications, and the pressure all of this would put on staff worries her. “Because there’s no proven therapy or vaccine; as coronavirus spreads,” Barton said, “it threatens to put a much greater burden on health systems than flu does, and greater than most or many are prepared for.”

How COVID-19 is transmitted

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coronavirus-vs-the-flu-its-just-like-other-viruses-and-we-should-go-about-our-normal-business-right-wrong-heres-why-2020-03-09?

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