flu

experts explain why obesity “helps” coronavirus

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– Has long been known that overweight people have lowered immunity, says head of the Department of endocrinology of the medical faculty Russian national research medical University. N. And. Pirogov Tatiana Demidova. Research and practice show that in these patients increases the risk of atherosclerosis sharply increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart failure. Increased risk of endocrinological, oncological diseases, joint diseases, psychological disorders.

Epidemic COVID has added another item to the list of high threats to people who are overweight. It turned out that when infected with coronavirus patients with obesity more often require hospitalization, fall into the ICU, on the ventilator (artificial lung ventilation). Alas, is growing and the risk of death.

– If the original messages from China on the most severe cases COVID it was mainly about the older people with severe chronic diseases, according to the latest data from Europe and USA the risk group includes people with obesity – says Tatiana Demidova.

FACTS AND FIGURES

In what diseases most often develop complications due to coronavirus

90% of patients admitted with severe COVID-19 US hospitals, were the following comorbidities:

– hypertension — 49.7%,and

– obesity or 48.3%,

– chronic lung disease — 34,6%,

– diabetes type 2 diabetes was 28.3%,

– cardiovascular disease — 27,8%.

Thus, obesity is second among the States in which CouId be severe.

CORONAVIRUS, INFLUENZA, AND HIV, “LIKE” ADIPOSE TISSUE

Visceral adipose tissue, that is, one that is in the abdomen, is, in fact, highly individual body, experts explain. This body affects the immune, endocrine system and metabolism in the body as a whole.

– People who are overweight fat cells are much larger. So, is synthesized in much more of various hormones and inflammatory cells. Among them, including interleukin-6, interleukin-1, tumor necrosis factor, and others, – says Tatiana Demidova. Often in the body, there is a creeping inflammation.

At the same time observed that many viral infections and especially COVID-19 amplify the effects cytokines and lead to the extension of the generalization of inflammation. “It was proved that adipose tissue serves as a reservoir for some viruses, such as influenza, HIV and cytomegalovirus. Also, according to the latest data, it can be activated and coronavirus,” adds Demidov.

INSULATION NEEDS TO BE LONGER?

Studies have shown one more feature of coronavirus. As it turned out, he is able to spread rapidly in adipose tissue surrounding internal organs – lungs, liver, kidneys, heart, etc. because Of this, developing severe damage to these vital organs and people with excess weight, excess amount of adipose tissue increases the risk of death from multiple organ failure.

There is evidence that such patients are also unable to stay longer carriers of the virus, require longer hospital stay and isolation, said Tatyana Demidova.

AFTER INFECTION — DIABETES

There is evidence and that not less than one-third of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in China, European countries and the United States, the infection resulted in damage of the pancreas. This was confirmed by elevated enzymes amylase and lipase, and glucose levels in the blood plasma.

– This is a very disturbing circumstance. Since we talking about high risk of developing diabetes type 2 diabetes in people with the original obesity after recovery from infection, says Dr. Demidov.

It is not excluded that after the break the pace of the epidemic COVID, we will see a worldwide surge in the incidence of diabetes, experts say.

So now, when the opportunity walks, sports, seasonal ripe fruits and vegetables rich in fiber, doctors suggest the obese individuals to exert their maximum effort for getting rid of really dangerous extra pounds.

By the WAY

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MEANWHILE

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Spain’s oldest woman healed from Covid-19

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AOn March 4th, María Branyas celebrated her 113th birthday. However, the woman from the small Catalan town of Olot is not only the oldest woman in Spain. She also survived a coronavirus infection a few weeks after her birthday; several neighbors had died of it in their retirement home. At first she was scared, but now she is fine, María Branyas told the Spanish press.

She was born in 1907 to Spanish parents in San Francisco and came to Spain in 1915; on the crossing her father died on the high seas. In 1918 she survived the Spanish flu, later the Spanish civil war.

“My mother is a very strong and positive woman,” wrote her youngest daughter on Twitter. Since her birthday in March, she could only keep in touch by phone because her mother was in quarantine. Her mother never smoked and didn’t do much exercise, apart from going for regular walks, her 76-year-old daughter reported. She was mentally fit, even if her eyes and hearing caused problems. A bladder infection had made her aware of her infection, which otherwise showed no worse symptoms. Branyas was not allowed to leave her room, which only nurses in protective clothing had access to. “The people here in the old people’s home are very friendly, very attentive,” said Branyas of the Efe news agency. She also looks back with gratitude on her life: she has three children, eleven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

In Spain, it is believed that more than 17,000 residents of old people’s homes have died as a result of Covid-19. Since little is tested in homes, reliable figures are missing. According to the Ministry of Health in Madrid, more than 27,000 people were killed by Wednesday. Before María Branyas, two other women aged 101 and 107 in Spain had survived a corona infection.

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Doctors compared mortality of COVID and other infections

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On the page of the doctor and TV presenter Alexander Myasnikov interesting information about the situation with infectious diseases in the world was published on the social network. And in particular that rotavirus infection causes hundreds of thousands of deaths per year in the world. Is the familiar and familiar rotavirus more dangerous than the coronavirus? “KP»Understands together with the immunologist, expert in public health and international health care, candidate of medical sciences Nikolay Kryuchkov.

– Of course, in addition to COVID-19, there are many other dangerous diseases in the world and these are not necessarily infectious diseases. Let me remind you that mortality from cardiovascular diseases is in the first place, also high mortality is associated with oncological diseases, in particular, lung cancer, and, of course, infectious diseases are also often the cause of death. However, the threat of rotavirus infection today is greatly exaggerated, said Nikolai Kryuchkov.

How many people die from rotavirus?

According to pessimistic estimates provided by the World Health Organization, around the world in 2013, 215 thousand children under the age of five died from rotavirus infection. According to other data obtained in international studies, this is 122 thousand deaths in 2013.

– The situation since 2013 in terms of mortality from rotavirus infection has not changed much. I think here we can talk about 200 thousand deaths per year among children under five years of age. Half of the world’s deaths occur in five countries: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Angola and Congo– emphasizes the immunologist Nikolai Kryuchkov. – In the media you can often find information that up to a third of deaths of children under five are caused by rotavirus. This is not true! The fact is that among all deaths of children under five years of age in the world, mortality from diarrhea accounts for about 8%, but among these 8% of deaths from diarrhea – from 25% to 30% are attributable to rotavirus. That is, it turns out about 200 thousand deaths of children under five years of age per year in the world, while more than 6 million children under five die in the world per year.

On the page of the doctor and TV presenter Alexander Myasnikov on the social network, interesting information was published on the situation with infectious diseasesPhoto: Ivan PROKHOROV

Is rotavirus disease relevant for Russia?

If you consider Europeyy region to which Russia, then the figures for mortality from diarrhea are lower than in developing countries. Mortality from diarrhea among children under five in Europe is 4% – 5% of all childhood deaths. About a quarter of them are rotavirus.

In Russia, according to WHO estimates, in 2013, 52 children under the age of five died from rotavirus infection, which is 0.3% of all other deaths of children under five years of age. Rotavirus infection is not the most common cause of death among children, and even more so among adults (the latter rarely die from rotavirus, so all statistics are data on the death of children – approx. Ed.).

– Rotavirus is a problem primarily in poor countries with a warm climate. For Russia, this is also a problem, but to a much lesser extent, ”said Nikolai Kryuchkov, a doctor. – It is important to emphasize that effective and safe rotavirus vaccines exist.

The incidence of rotavirus infection after the introduction of vaccination has decreased many times. In Russia, universal vaccination against rotavirus is not carried out, but, despite this, mortality is low, given that it is clear how to help such patients. The main thing here is replenishment of lost fluid and symptomatic therapy. Given these two factors — the availability of a vaccine and the development of affordable treatment — mortality from rotavirus is very low even among children from zero to five years old, not to mention adults. Among adults, these are isolated cases.

Who is worse: rotavirus or coronavirus?

According to epidemiologists, mortality (taking into account the number of deaths from the number of episodes of the disease) of rotavirus infection in the world is from 0.05% to 0.09%. This is comparable to mortality from seasonal flu. Yes, in the poorest countries it can reach up to 2%. However, in this case, only moderate to severe episodes are taken into account, and not all cases of rotavirus infection.

“With coronavirus infection, according to my most optimistic forecasts, the mortality rate in the world will be 2%,” says Nikolay Kryuchkov. – Let me remind you that now the mortality rate from COVID-19 in Russia is about 4%. AT Germany – 3.5%, and this is one of the best examples in Europe. Of course, a lot depends on how the data are kept and analyzed, but even though there are probably unaccounted cases, the mortality from coronavirus infection is much higher than the mortality from rotavirus. And the epidemic of coronavirus infection is still far from over.

“It is also important to understand that we are having a coronavirus pandemic, and the situation with rotavirus is under control.” The number of deaths from coronavirus is now growing, due to the fact that there is an increase in cases of infection. The daily increase in new cases of coronavirus infection in the world is more than 5%, and in Russia today it is more than 8%. Therefore, it is obvious that the situation with rotavirus is stable, and the coronavirus pandemic for us is not known how it will end. The coronavirus infection pandemic continues to grow, it is important to understand this, ”Nikolay Kryuchkov emphasized in a conversation with“ KP ”. – When we talk about the number of deaths from rotavirus, 200 thousand people a year around the world among children under five years of age are deaths that happened in a year! As we know, the coronavirus epidemic lasts about four months. This is significantly less than a year.


The daily increase in new cases of coronavirus infection in the world is more than 5%, and in Russia today it is more than 8% Photo: Ivan MAKEEV

The daily increase in new cases of coronavirus infection in the world is more than 5%, and in Russia today it is more than 8%Photo: Ivan MAKEEV

How many deaths from coronavirus infection will be in a year (given that, according to the data of May 3, 243,922 people died in the world – approx. Ed.)? Yes, there are other dangerous infections in the world, but many of them can be protected. This is Hepatitis B, and pneumococcal infection, tetanus, and so on. And Dr. Myasnikov rightly points out the need for widespread vaccination against the most dangerous and common infections. Unfortunately, there are no vaccines from COVID-19 yet, they will be ready by the spring of next year at best.

Also, an important difference between the course of rotavirus infection and coronavirus infection: hospitalization with rotavirus disease in developed countries is very rare. All necessary treatment conditions can be provided at home. With coronavirus, the patient often needs active therapy, which can only be provided in a specialized medical institution.

SPECIFICALLY

Dr. Myasnikov gives such statistics on mortality from infections (in the world for a year)

Measles (there is a vaccine) – 140 thousand deaths per year

Pneumococcus (there is a vaccine) – 2 -2.5 million deaths per year

Hepatitis B (there is a vaccine) – 650 thousand deaths per year

Tetanus (there is a vaccine) – 89 thousand deaths per year

Cervical cancer (there is a vaccine) – 250 thousand deaths per year

Tuberculosis (there is a vaccine) – 1.5 million deaths per year

Influenza (there is a vaccine) – 650 thousand-1 million deaths per year

Coronavirus (no vaccine) – 244 thousand deaths from the beginning of the spread

Coronavirus: myths and reality.The farther the coronavirus, the more truth and speculation around it. We tried to deal with the main myths about the Covid-19 pandemic

BTW

Virologist Vitaliy Zverev: the coronavirus is now with us forever. Like the flu or the common cold

Academician of RAS, Head Vitaliy Zverev, Chair of Microbiology, Virology, Immunology, Sechenov University, commented on why the coronavirus should not be afraid (details)

Is it possible to get sick with coronavirus twice, is it transmitted through water, and how do you understand that you are asymptomatic?

We collected the most common questions of Russians and asked them to leading scientists (details)

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Intelligence services of five Western intelligence declassified dossiers about Wuhan’s secret laboratory

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Chinese scientists knew about the dangers of bats before the outbreak of coronavirus

A dossier prepared by the intelligence agencies of the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which is described by the Australian publication, says that the Chinese authorities were hiding the news about the virus. At the same time, no convincing evidence of the “man-made” nature of the appearance of Sovid-19 is given in this dossier.

However, the published material sheds some light not only on the actions of Beijing, but also on the work of Chinese virologists. In particular, the dossier talks about the activities of the famous Chinese scientist in the field of virology Shi Zhengli.

“In Wuhan, in the Chinese province of Hubei, not far from the now infamous Wuhan market, Dr. Shi and her team work on highly secure equipment in Level 3 and Level 4 biological containment laboratories, studying deadly coronaviruses obtained from bats,” the Australian publication retells. report of five intelligence services.

“At least one of the approximately 50 virus samples found in Dr. Shea’s laboratory is 96 percent genetically compatible with Covid-19. When Dr. Shea heard the news of an outbreak of a new virus that looked like pneumonia, she began to worry about sleepless nights – was her lab to blame for this outbreak? ”

After these initial fears, Dr. Shea became convinced that the genetic sequence of Covid-19 did not match any of the viruses studied in her laboratory.

“Nevertheless,” the Daily Telegraph continues in Sydney, “given the scale of lies, deliberate obfuscation and the angry refusal of the People’s Republic of China to allow any investigation into the causes of the outbreak, international intelligence agencies are currently closely monitoring her laboratory.”

The position of the Australian government is that the virus most likely arose on the Wuhan market in the open air, but there is a small – five percent – chance that it could accidentally “leak” from the laboratory.

The American position, judging by reports that appeared in recent days, is that the virus most likely leaked from the laboratory, but it could also appear in the market where wild animals are traded and where other diseases occurred, including bird flu H5N1 and SARS .

The material also refers to a study conducted in 2013 by a group of scientists (including Dr. Shi), during which feces of horseshoe bats were collected in caves in the Chinese province of Yunnan. Later, a virus was detected in these samples, 96.2% identical to SARS-CoV 2, the virus that caused Covid-19.

The research dossier also refers to the work done by the team for the synthesis of SARS-like coronaviruses to analyze whether they can be transmitted from bats to other mammals. This means that scientists have modified parts of the virus to check whether it is transmitted to various species.

Their study, conducted in November 2015 with the University of North Carolina, concluded that a virus similar to SARS can be transmitted directly from bats to humans, and there is no cure that could help.

The study recognizes the incredible danger of the work that the researchers did: “The potential for preparing for future outbreaks and mitigating their effects must be correlated with the risk of more dangerous pathogens.”

A few years later, in March 2019, Dr. Shih and her team published a review entitled “Bat Coronaviruses in China” in the medical journal Viruses, where they stated that “they seek to predict the occurrence of foci of the virus and their interspecific transmission potential.” The authors spoke of “the urgent need to study bat coronaviruses in China to understand their ability to cause another outbreak.”

Chinese scientists predicted in their material: “It is very likely that future coronovirus outbreaks like SARS or MERS will come from bats, and there is an increased likelihood that this will happen in China.”

While foreign intelligence agencies are figuring out whether the Wuhan laboratory is responsible for the outbreak of coronavirus, Dr. Shi does not pause in his studies, which, she claims, are more important than ever to prevent a pandemic. She plans to lead a national project on systemic selection of viruses in bat caves. It is estimated that there are more than 5,000 strains of coronaviruses “pending detection in bats around the world.”

“Bat-borne coronaviruses will cause new outbreaks,” says Dr. Shea in Scientific American. “We must find them before they find us.”

By the way, Dr. Shi, director of the Center for New Infectious Diseases of the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, spent three months in 2006 as an invited scientist in Australia, where she worked at the Organization for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIRO).

Dr. Shi’s protégé, Peng Zhou, currently managing the bat viral infection and immunity project at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, spent three years in the bio isolation facility of the Australian Animal Health Laboratory in 2011-2014. During this time, Dr. Zhou arranged for the transportation of live wild bats from Queensland to a laboratory in Victoria, where they were euthanized for autopsy and testing for deadly viruses.

For the United States, in October 2014, Americans withdrew funding for controversial experiments that make pathogens more powerful or can spread dangerous viruses, fearing that this could lead to a global pandemic.

Controversy has erupted in the scientific community – whether it is worth developing such viruses to anticipate and prevent a pandemic if a virus leak can also cause a pandemic. There were also serious concerns about the lack of adequate security measures at the Wuhan Institute of Virology when dealing with deadly viruses.

The “closed, but not secret” dispatch dated January 19, 2018, which was made available to The Washington Post, showed that scientists and diplomats from the US embassy in Beijing visited the laboratory and sent warnings to Washington about inadequate security practices and weak points of control in studies of coronaviruses in bats.

“During their interaction with scientists from the laboratory of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, they noted that in the new laboratory there is a serious shortage of properly trained technical specialists and researchers necessary for the safe management of this laboratory with a high level of protection,” the report said.

The scientific consensus, the Australian The Daily Telegraph continues, is that the virus came from the wet market. But the other day, an American intelligence agency first confirmed that the US intelligence committee is investigating whether COVID-19 was the result of an accident in a Wuhan laboratory.

Acting Director of the National Intelligence Office Richard Grenell said the virus was not created in the laboratory: “The entire intelligence community constantly provides critical support to US politicians and those who respond to the COVID-19 virus that originated in China. The intelligence community also agrees with the wide scientific consensus that the Covid-19 virus has not been created by humans or genetically modified … The intelligence community will continue to carefully review emerging information and intelligence to determine if the outbreak started as a result of contact with infected animals or whether it happened as a result of accident in a laboratory in Wuhan. “

Despite Richard Grenell’s statement and consensus among scientists that the virus was not created in the laboratory, the dossier referenced by The Daily Telegraph mentions a study alleging that the virus was created.

Scientists from South China University of Technology published a study on February 6, which concluded that “the killer coronavirus probably came from a laboratory in Wuhan. It may be necessary to increase safety in high-risk biohazard laboratories. ” This study was soon withdrawn because it “was not supported by direct evidence,” according to the author Botao Syano, the dossier says.

Not insisting on the credibility of the above study, the Australian publication mentions that it was included in the government dossier prepared in the framework of the case against China.

A document received by an Australian newspaper said that they “concealed and destroyed evidence” and that the Chinese authorities deliberately hid the coronavirus, silencing the doctors who spoke out on this subject, destroying evidence from the Wuhan laboratory and refusing to provide samples of live viruses to international scientists, working on a vaccine.

Of all the doctors, activists, journalists and scientists who reportedly disappeared after speaking out about the coronavirus or criticizing the actions of the Chinese authorities, not a single case, according to the Australian newspaper, is more intriguing and disturbing than the case with Huang Yang Lin.

This researcher from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to rumors walking in Chinese social networks, was the first to be diagnosed with a patient with coronavirus (that is, she became a “zero patient”). Then reports of her disappearance appeared, and her biography and image were removed from the website of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Although the institute denied on February 16 that she was a null patient and said that the researcher was alive and well, since then no evidence has been provided.

As early as December 31, Chinese authorities began censoring news about the virus in search engines, removing queries such as SARS Variations, Wuhan Seafood Market, and Wuhan Unknown Pneumonia. On January 1, without any investigation into the origin of the virus, the seafood market in Wuhan was closed and disinfected.

A little later, on January 3, the National Health Commission ordered the Wuhan pneumonia samples to be transferred to specially authorized testing facilities or destroyed, while at the same time ordering to ban publications on an unknown disease.

Doctors who dared to speak out about the new virus were detained and convicted. Authorities called on citizens “not to invent rumors, not to spread rumors and not to believe rumors.” The Global Times reported on January 2 that police in Wuhan arrested 8 people who spread rumors of a local outbreak of unidentified pneumonia. ” These messages were intended to silence doctors who may have been prepared to speak up. Thus, the truth about the outbreak in China was kept secret, the Australian newspaper sums up.

“Despite the evidence of transmission of the virus from person to person from the beginning of December, the PRC authorities denied this until January 20,” the dossier prepared by the security services said. – The World Health Organization did the same. However, officials in Taiwan have expressed concern as early as December 31, and experts in Hong Kong on January 4. ”

See also: The Chinese warned of a viral danger a year ago: why they were ignored

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Five skin problems that may be a symptom of coronavirus | NEWS.am Medicine

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Coronavirus infection can be manifested not only by coughing, fever and shortness of breath, but also by dermatological symptoms, and scientists are not the first to talk about this.

Recently, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has expanded the “official” list of symptoms of coronavirus, including skin problems. The scientists called the variety of symptoms a sign that the new coronavirus has wide variability, unpredictability in its ability to affect individual patients.

“If any of the following 5 warning signs appears on your skin, it could mean that you are in danger,” said Dr. Ebbing Lautenbach of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Together with colleagues, the scientist identified a number of deratological signs of possible infection:

  • tingling sensation throughout the body,
  • red rash, spots that resemble hives,
  • a burning sensation of the skin, flaming areas on it,
  • increased skin sensitivity
  • itching

According to scientists, patients with coronavirus infection who experienced skin problems were described as unusual – discomfort was extremely strong, painful. For example, their skin sensitivity was so aggravated that the pain arose due to contacts with the most harmless things, for example, when covering a sheet. Also, the patients experienced symptoms similar to electric shock, burns.

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Academician Zverev spoke about the created quick vaccine against coronavirus

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“Antibodies can protect patients who have been ill for 2-3 years”

– Vitaly Vasilyevich, as we already know, the exit from the regime of self-isolation should be gradual. Scientists and authorities are developing an appropriate roadmap. Have an understanding of what it will be?

– Exit from isolation will not mean that on May 11 we will all go outside. The exit will be gradual. Based on the experience of other countries, probably, first of all, it is necessary to establish the education of children, especially high school students. This is a contingent that practically does not get coronavirus. For younger schoolchildren, so that they remain under supervision after school, one must probably organize a system of summer school camps – an extension.

Another priority: it is necessary to establish a normal patient care system. I’m not talking about infected people for whom isolation will continue, but there are people with chronic diseases who have spent a month and a half in self-isolation and have not added to their health. Their problems did not go anywhere, but only worsened, because apart from the lack of walks, they did not receive routine medical care for a long time.

I think in the first days we will open parks – not for mass walks, but for individual walks. It will be necessary to somehow organize an exit on the street of elderly people. Maybe it’s worth allotting certain hours, days for this, so that they can walk.

– Which small business representatives will be the first to start working?

– First of all, it would be advisable to start the work of small shops where people can buy something from clothes, household goods, because people live not only with food.

– All these measures to weaken the regime will occur throughout Russia immediately?

– All that I have listed is for Moscow. In other regions, it may not be possible to do this yet, because the epidemic, where they later connected to self-isolation, is now in full swing. On the other hand, there are many cities and regions where people do not live as crowded as in megacities, so there the process of overcoming self-isolation, if it was introduced there at all, will be even faster and easier than ours.

– When going out into the street, should healthy people use any protective equipment?

– We will be required to wear masks. But this must be done with meaning. For example, on a street where people are dispersed and the possibility of infection is small, wearing them is pointless. Moreover, in children and the elderly due to the constant wearing of masks, breathing difficulties may occur. This ultimately only hurts. Therefore, it is advisable to hide behind masks from the virus only in the subway, in stores, in a word, only where there is a crowd of people.

– Is it worth wearing silicone gloves, which for many have already become a mandatory attribute of the wardrobe?

– They do not make much sense, because the virus most actively spreads by airborne droplets.

– Do you need to drink some drugs or bury them in your nose?

– It is possible that prophylactic drugs that will maintain the immune system at a high enough level should be drunk, but all these immunomodulators should be prescribed by a doctor. After all, every vitamin, I’m not talking about antiviral agents that promote the release of interferon, have their own form and play a role in the biochemical cycles of the body. Their excess, as well as a lack, can have its side effects.

– There are people with strong innate immunity. Are they guaranteed protection against COVID-19?

– It is known that the most protected from coronavirus are children, with the exception of those who have an impaired immune system. Their sufficiently strong innate immunity, which they inherited from their parents, is helped by the so-called thymus gland (it works actively until about 5 years). In this gland, the former stem cells coming from the bone marrow into the immune system are converted to T-lymphocytes that can fight infections.

Once in the children’s body, the genome of the virus is powerless before ideal protection, as, indeed, in the body of young people. But over the years, innate immunity in a person weakens a little. If the body by this time is still weakened by diseases and bad habits, it becomes more accessible to the effects of infection. It is known that when SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (it causes COVID-19 – Auth.) Enters the body, it encodes several proteins in the body with a weakened immune system that affect the innate immune response system.

– The second wave of COVID-19, according to Chinese scientists, is waiting for us in November …

– I do not think that in its strength it will be the same wave as now. Still, a certain percentage of people have already been ill, and after a few months, provided that everyone behaves correctly, we will get only a slight increase in the incidence. We need to understand that COVID-19 will stay with us forever, like the flu, like HIV, like viral hepatitis. Destroying it completely will not be easy. The whole world has been fighting smallpox for 20 (!) Years, measles and polio have not yet been defeated …

– What will contribute to the increase in the incidence in the autumn period – a decrease in temperature?

– In the autumn-winter period there is an increase in all viral diseases. And this is due not only to temperature. There is a whole range of factors. This is a lack of vitamin D in the body due to a decrease in sunny days, and a large crowding of people who returned after the holidays.

– By November, we will not have a vaccine against COVID-19. What will we defend ourselves with?

– Many countries in the situation of the unpreparedness of specific vaccines for the epidemic of a disease use the so-called “quick vaccines”. They stimulate the innate natural response of the body to any pathogen and cope with it in a few days. Protection is short-term, but almost one hundred percent.

– In our country there is a “quick vaccine”, which is produced on an industrial scale?

– Our institute at one time created such a tool, it successfully passed all clinical trials, but then, with the change of a higher management, the work was slowed down. Now we have remembered her again, clinicians have already begun her trial, she received support at the RAS, but we are unlikely to have time to provide her with Muscovites for the upcoming fall season.

“What is it based on?”

– These are special proteins of four bacteria, the so-called pathogen-associated molecular complexes. They provide the synthesis of protective cytokine molecules with a strong anti-inflammatory effect. When introduced into the body, such a vaccine blocks the development of the virus and protects cells from it.

– Is it injected intramuscularly?

– There are two options for administration – subcutaneously and in the form of nasal drops.

– How many days did she protect the body after administration?

– For each kind of disease, it has its own application scheme. For example, against acute respiratory viral infections, we add drops to the nasopharynx not once, but during a certain period, for example, within two weeks with a certain interval. You know, there are very often sick children who cannot even take planned vaccination activities because of constant coughing and snot. So, with our vaccine, we kept the kids from colds for a year and, against the background of vaccination with a fast vaccine, made routine vaccinations against other infections.

Now the big problem is nosocomial viral infections. The patient undergoes a unique operation, and then he dies from pneumonia … If such people are given a “quick vaccine”, then we can protect them from concomitant infections. It also makes sense to use such a vaccine if the person has contacted the patient and is afraid to get sick.

– And if he still managed to “catch” the pathogenic virus, but the disease has not yet manifested itself?

– Even if I “caught”, the vaccine’s effectiveness will be lower, but it will still be. By the way, now for such an emergency effect on the skin or mucous membrane in the nasopharynx with our vaccine, we are developing its variety in the form of a spray. Squirted in the throat before a trip on transport, before work, and – forward.

– If you say that by the fall your quick vaccine will not be available for Muscovites yet, what should be protected?

– I think other institutions have begun to develop similar tools. Maybe someone will put their production on stream faster than us. And so I would recommend to lead a healthy lifestyle, to observe sanitary rules: try not to contact with a large number of people, still keep a social distance.

– By the way, something with the coronavirus completely forgot about the flu. But autumn is a time when everyone is vaccinated precisely from this infectious disease. So you need to get vaccinated against flu this year?

– Of course! Because he has not gone anywhere.

– But no one says anything about him, as if he weren’t …

– It’s just that this year it is not enough, the isolation regime helped many to avoid not only infection with coronavirus, but also other respiratory infections. Although a month ago in the US, data were published on 35-40 thousand deaths from influenza.

– Do you have such data for Russia?

– It should be, but so far no one is publishing them.

– Theoretically, a flu vaccine can at least partially protect against COVID-19 coronavirus?

– Any vaccine to some extent can stimulate one or another type of immunity, but no one can say how much the influenza vaccine will be effective against coronavirus.

– Scientists have already clarified the question of concern to many about secondary infection with coronavirus?

– There is no one recorded repeated case of COVID-19. Only a few cases are described when the virus did not disappear from the body for a long time after recovery, and then gave a second round of the disease with all the previous symptoms. But how often and with whom this can happen, we do not know yet. Basically, the cured people no longer became ill, because they formed antibodies to this virus.

– And for how long will the immunity of patients who have been ill remain, can I say now?

– As far as I know, antibodies to SARS after people had SARS did not disappear for 10 years, to MERS – 5 years. To even older types of coronaviruses, immunity lasted for a year or a little more. How much the desired titer (frequency) of antibodies to COVID-19 will be retained is not yet known. If we assume that this will be 2-3 years, then we can hope that in 3-4 years we will transfer this infection from life-threatening to the category of ordinary SARS.

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Australian scientists have revealed the mechanism of action of Arbidol on coronavirus SARS-CoV-2

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Studies of structural and molecular dynamics have shown that Arbidol interacts with S (spike) SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein and inhibits its structural changes, which are a key step in the attachment and convergence of the virus with human cells. Arbidol interacts with S-protein via hydrogen and Van der Waals bonds, disrupting its structure and blocking functional activity. Moreover, this mechanism of action of Arbidol has already been described for the influenza virus, which shows structural similarities in the binding regions of hemagglutinin (the surface protein of the influenza virus) and S-protein of coronavirus, therefore Arbidol is active against SARS-CoV-2 infections.

The work was published in the highly rated journal International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents (Q1).

Source https://www.infox.ru/news/277/234982-avstralijskie-ucenye-raskryli-mehanizm-dejstvia-arbidola-na-koronavirus-sars-cov-2

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Academician Briko calls coronavirus a “collective disease” and a threat to Russia’s national security

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“Non-core doctors have no skills in sorting patients, experience with personal protective equipment”

He announced the latest data on the characteristics of this infection. Thus, the lethality of COVID-19 was approximately 3 times lower than that of SARS and 10 times lower than that of MERS. But when evaluating the virus, the contagiousness index is also important. And it turned out to be quite high for coronavirus – 2-4 percent, that is, when one person can infect 2-4 people around (for comparison, the level of contagiousness of seasonal flu is about 1.5). In addition, in two days, the current coronavirus can produce several times more pathogenic particles in human lungs than the SARS virus.

According to the academician, COVID-19 is very dangerous for its long incubation period: “For 48 hours it does not produce interferons to start the immune system. Moreover, he had a very long infectious period after the patient recovered. What is the reason for this – we have not yet found out. ”

Separately, Briko touched on the mechanism of transmission of the virus from person to person: the pathogen attaches to cell receptors not only in the respiratory tract, but also in the kidneys, esophagus, and this determines the multiplicity of transmission mechanisms: airborne, fecal-oral, and contact.

The chief epidemiologist noted and completely new data obtained by doctors. For example, COVID-19 very actively affects people with a tendency to inflammatory diseases, as well as prone to thrombosis.

But the infection spread curve nevertheless declined. As of April 29, in Russia, the growth of infected people was only 5.9%, compared with 20%, which was observed two weeks ago.

Of the countries that have already freed themselves from coronavirus infection, and from which Russia would have to adopt useful experience, Briko singled out Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, and, of course, China. Although the situation in Russia is not so bad, we are still in 8th place in the world in the number of registered infections.

“In general,” Briko summed up, “I would call coronavirus a disease of organized groups: military units, monasteries, construction companies, nursing homes<...> “The percentage of infection with this infection is very high among doctors, – about 20% of cases are people in white coats.”

One of the factors leading to such a high rate of infections among physicians, the academician noted the practice of attracting non-specialists to work in infectious disease clinics: “They do not have the skills to sort patients, they have no experience in personal protective equipment …”

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Tests for antibodies to coronavirus by Moscow doctors gave a striking result

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A small educational program. With a viral infection in the blood, a person first develops antibodies of class M (IgM), but their concentration drops quite quickly, and their detection indicates an active viral process in the body. Following them appear antibodies G (IgG), which remain in the body for a long time and subsequently can form immunity to the virus or pathogen. In cases with a new coronavirus, the appearance of immunity is still in doubt, but there is hope. In the meantime, the presence of antibodies in the blood suggests that the patient’s plasma can be used as an ambulance for patients (in Moscow, plasma from donors has already begun, and the doctors call the first results of treatment with it encouraging).

Today, for the detection of antibodies to the new coronavirus, Roszdravnadzor approved one rapid test and one test system. Nevertheless, it is reported that at least several options for rapid tests (Chinese, Dutch and Singaporean production) have been used, which are used in our country so far for conducting not very large-scale studies (according to the law, in a pandemic, it is permissible to use them on the basis of a certificate from a country- manufacturer).

So, in the Central Administrative District, 167 polyclinic doctors underwent testing, most of whom are constantly working with a covert at the CT center and home care service. As the chief infectious disease specialist of the Central Administrative District, Ilya Akinfeev, in his social network, not a single physician found antibodies to the new coronavirus. “Within 5 hours, we were able to go around all our branches and check all employees for the presence of antibodies to the new coronavirus using rapid tests made in the Netherlands. A very interesting, I would even say, unexpected result – all lack IgG. That is, there are no traces of the disease, or the presence of the disease at the moment. Although everyone flaunted that we had already transferred this virus in December and we are not afraid of anything. To trust these tests and what accuracy they have is too early to say. Perhaps a more accurate result will be if you examine not blood, but plasma, there are always more antibodies in the blood serum, ”says Ilya Akinfeev.

Experts confirm that it is difficult to trust these express tests today. As a result, tests can produce both false positive and false negative results. Both are bad. False positives create the illusion of the presence of immunity and make a person less cautious in quarantine, which increases the risk of infection. “A person will relax and stop observing safety measures, and if he falls ill, everyone will gasp: how come he has antibodies!” – says anesthetist-resuscitator Alexei Filatov.

A false negative result also does not exclude the presence of immunity. By the way, the US Food and Drug Safety Administration (FDA) has not approved a single (!) Test system for detecting antibodies to coronavirus in the United States, and the FDA is one of the most respected agencies in the world. In addition, WHO does not recommend the use of such tests for diagnostic purposes, but only for epidemiological studies of the massive distribution of coronavirus.

However, even accurate results about the presence of antibodies to the new coronavirus in the blood also mean nothing. “The presence of antibodies in the test is a moot point,” says pediatrician Alexei Sukharev. “There are many subtypes of coronaviruses; a test may show cross-immunity.”

However, the most unpleasant thing in this situation is different: it is not known whether patients with the disease will develop a stable immunity to infection. If not, then there is another, very unpleasant scenario: it is possible that a person re-infected with the virus with antibodies can go according to a much more severe scenario than the first.

“Having antibodies is not always good, sometimes they can destroy the body instead of protection,” says Ilya Akinfeev. – There is such a phenomenon – the phenomenon of antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Roughly speaking, the body produces antibodies against the causative agent, and upon repeated contact with the virus they do not protect, but rather contribute to its rapid spread and hyperpathological immune response. This phenomenon is observed mainly with viral infections, a classic example is dengue fever. The first time a person is sick with it with fever and aching muscles, it produces antibodies. But if a person falls ill again, then a reaction develops with hemorrhagic phenomena and severe consequences. “

The ADE effect, says Pavel Nefedov, a specialist in microbiology, is also observed in other viral infections – HIV, rabies, even flu (the severity of the phenomenon for each pathogen is different), as well as in infectious peritonitis in cats caused by one of the representatives of coronaviruses (it develops in cats that already had antibodies after previously asymptomatic coronavirus infection). “Vaccination can also contribute to the development of ADE. Including, therefore, we still have not seen a vaccine against HIV, a really working vaccine against influenza, and much more. And the creation of a vaccine against a new coronavirus will most likely also be of some difficulty if it also has this property, that is, theoretically, its administration can only increase the possibility of complicating the course of the infection, ”Nefedov said.

In this regard, experts have a question: what effect then can the patient recover from? There is no exact answer to it yet, doctors act on the touch.

See the photo essay on the topic:

“Entrance to the dirty zone”: alarming shots from 31 hospitals

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The risk of the second wave

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I.In the fight against Covid-19, a stage victory seems to have been achieved. The measures many countries have implemented to curb the spread of Covid-19 have had an impact. The number of new infections has decreased, and the easing of the existing restrictions appears to many as the next necessary step. However, in the discussion about such loosening, there is always a warning about a phenomenon that is referred to as the “second wave” – and that should be avoided if possible.

The basic logic of the second wave of a pandemic is not difficult to understand: the dynamics of the disease depend on how many newly infected people are infected by an infected person on average. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), this infection rate has recently risen again – to 1.0. According to the RKI statistics published on Monday evening, every infected person is now infecting another person. This means that the number of new cases is no longer falling as easily as in the past few days. At the beginning of March the index was still at 3, on April 8 at 1.3, most recently it had dropped to 0.9 – each with a certain fluctuation range.

The number of infections is determined, on the one hand, by how many contacts an infected person has with other people while they are contagious. At the same time, it depends on the likelihood that such contact will lead to infection. And finally, this number is determined by the immunity already existing in the population. So if the contact rate increases globally as a result of the relaxation of the contact-reducing measures and the likelihood of contagion cannot be reduced at the same time when infected and healthy people meet, for example by using a mask, the number of newly infected people will increase again – unless that Immunity in the population is already high enough.

Up and down the case numbers

So much for general epidemiology. Scientists around the world agree that the immunity is currently far from sufficient to put an end to the Covid 19 pandemic by means of “herd immunity”, however detailed their estimates may be. The necessary value of around 60 percent does not seem to have even come close to being achieved, even in regions that are badly affected. In Gangelt, a German Covid-19 hotspot, scientists from the University of Bonn found around 15 percent of the antibodies tested by Hendrik Streeck – although it was not yet possible to conclusively clarify whether the tests were also for antibodies to corona viruses other than Sars-CoV-2 react. So what happens if the population has not yet reached herd immunity and

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