May 20th, 2022 - (Reuters) - Researchers have discovered just how the antacid famotidine, commonly sold as Pepcid by a Johnson & Johnson unit, was able to help alleviate COVID-19 symptoms in clinical trials. In studies in mice, they found that famotidine stimulates the vagus nerve, which controls the immune system and other involuntary body functions. When the vagus nerve is stimulated, it can send out signals ...

May 20th, 2022 - (Reuters) - When people cannot maintain a safe distance to avoid the spread of COVID-19, a newly designed desktop "air curtain" can block aerosols in exhaled air, researchers found. Air-curtains - artificially created streams of moving air - are often used to protect patients in operating rooms. At Nagoya University in Japan, researchers tested their new desktop device by simulating a blood col...

May 20th, 2022 - (Reuters) - Vaccination after infection with SARS-CoV-2 may contribute to a reduction in the burden of long COVID symptoms in the population, a new study suggests. Researchers tracked 6,729 volunteers ages 18 to 69, who got two shots of either AstraZeneca's viral vector vaccine or an mRNA vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna after recovering from an infection with the coronavirus and who rep...

May 20th, 2022 - (Reuters) - A chain of events possibly triggered by unrecognized infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus could be causing the mysterious cases of severe hepatitis reported in hundreds of young children around the world, researchers suggest. Children with COVID-19 are at significantly increased risk for liver dysfunction afterward, according to a report posted on Saturday on medRxiv ahead of p...

May 20th, 2022 - LONDON (Reuters) - The European health regulator on Thursday endorsed the use of AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine, Vaxzevria, as a booster. The recommendation, made by a committee of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), encompasses adults who have either been previously vaccinated by Vaxzevria or an mRNA vaccine, such as the ones made by Pfizer and BioNTech or Moderna. The recommendation comes weeks...

May 19th, 2022 - DAKAR/ACCRA (Reuters) - It's noisy inside the Mamprobi clinic in Accra as kids clamber over their mothers while they wait to get their measles vaccines. Outside, an area reserved for COVID-19 shots is empty. A health worker leans back in his chair and scrolls on a tablet. One woman, waiting to get her daughter inoculated, is fully aware of the dangers of measles: the high fever, the rash, the r...

May 19th, 2022 - SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Health authorities in Shanghai faced "huge" pressure to keep China's most populous city free of COVID-19 as residents were counting down the days until June 1 when their lockdown is set to end after almost two months of isolation. The commercial hub of 25 million achieved a fourth consecutive day without any new infections in the community, holding on to its prized ...

May 19th, 2022 - (Reuters) - The U.S. National Institutes of Health is in talks with Pfizer Inc about studying whether a longer course of the drugmaker's COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid is needed to prevent infection recurrence, top U.S. infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday. "We're going to be planning what studies we're going to be doing relatively soon, within the next few days...

May 19th, 2022 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Health officials are considering extending the eligibility for a second COVID-19 vaccine booster dose to people under 50 amid a steady rise in cases, with the United States seeing a threefold increase over the past month. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration had in late March authorized a second booster dose of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech SE vaccines for people aged ...

May 18th, 2022 - (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has decided not to authorize the antidepressant fluvoxamine to treat COVID-19, saying that the data has not shown the drug to be an effective therapeutic for fighting the virus. "Based on the review of available scientific evidence, the FDA has determined that the data are insufficient to conclude that fluvoxamine may be effective in the treatme...

May 18th, 2022 - KYIV (Reuters) - The World Health Organization's Europe chief sounded the alarm on Tuesday about healthcare provision in Ukraine during the war with Russia and called for an investigation into more than 200 attacks on the healthcare system. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said every third patient had problems with access to medicines, one in five in the conflict zone needed psycho...

May 18th, 2022 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Use of Pfizer Inc's COVID-19 oral antiviral treatment Paxlovid has jumped 315% over the past four weeks, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday. Nearly 115,000 courses of the pills were dispensed during the first week of May, a senior health official said. The White House said last month it was aiming to expand access to treatments like Paxlovid ...

May 17th, 2022 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Results of the COVI-PRONE trial do not support prone positioning for awake non-intubated COVID-19 patients with acute respiratory distress. However, the effect size for the primary outcome (intubation) was "imprecise and does not exclude a clinically important benefit," the study team says in JAMA. The COVI-PRONE trial enrolled 400 adult COVID patients who were not i...

May 17th, 2022 - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's "Kill Bill" restaurant operator prevailed in a court case on Monday that declared Tokyo's now defunct COVID-19 infection curbs were illegal. The orders, enacted in the capital during various states of emergency, included shortened operating hours and a ban on alcohol sales, though there was a compensating government subsidy. Businesses that didn't comply were subject t...

May 17th, 2022 - SEOUL (Reuters) - Standing tall in bright red hazmat suits, five North Korean health workers stride towards an ambulance to do battle with a COVID-19 outbreak that - in the presumed absence of vaccines - the country is using antibiotics and home remedies to treat. The isolated state is one of only two countries yet to begin a vaccination campaign and, until last week, had insisted it was COVID-...

May 17th, 2022 - (Reuters) - Valneva lost nearly a fifth of its value on Monday after the French drugmaker said its COVID-19 vaccine agreement with the European Commission was likely to be scrapped and it might have to rethink its financial guidance. Valneva said the European Commission (EC) had informed the company of its intent to terminate an advance purchase agreement for its COVID vaccine, Europe's only ca...

May 16th, 2022 - NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Expanding Medicare coverage of telemedicine during the COVID pandemic led to an increase in utilization, particularly among people living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods, a new analysis shows. Federal law has historically restricted Medicare reimbursement for telehealth to designated rural areas and certain medical facilities. But when COVID hit, the Centers ...

May 16th, 2022 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House is preparing for a scenario in which Congress fails to approve President Joe Biden's request for additional COVID funds by reviewing old contracts to see if there is any money it can "claw back," the president's top COVID adviser said on Thursday. The United States is still in a pandemic and continues to face an evolving coronavirus despite making strides ...

May 16th, 2022 - SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's admission that it is battling an "explosive" COVID-19 outbreak has raised concerns that the virus could devastate a country with an under-resourced health system, limited testing capabilities, and no vaccine programme. The isolated North confirmed on Thursday its first COVID-19 infections since the pandemic emerged more than two years ago, shifting to the "maximu...

May 16th, 2022 - TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan plans to extend up to $100 million in aid to developing countries in the Indo-Pacific region to help them better battle the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday. Hayashi made the comment to reporters on the sidelines of a Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers meeting in Germany, where discussion focused mostly on Russia's invasion of Ukrai...