Coronavirus Disease PHGKB|Home|PHGKB

Coronavirus Disease PHGKB|Home|PHGKB

 Spotlight

Assessment of Specimen Pooling to Conserve SARS CoV-2 Testing Resources
B Abdalhamid et al, MEDRXIV, April 6, 2020

Parameters affecting the optimal pool size of 5 specimens were: prevalence rate of 5%, a lower limit of detection of 1 to 3 RNA copies per microliter, sensitivity and specificity of 100%, two-stage pooling algorithm, and a range of pool sizes of 3 to 10 samples.

Google Searches Can Help Us Find Emerging Covid-19 Outbreaks
NY Times, April 5, 2020

While there does seem to be important information about Covid-19 prevalence in search data, we have to use great care in building models based on this data and learn from past attempts that tried to use this data to measure the geographic spread of different diseases.

Systematic review and critical appraisal of prediction models for diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19 infection
L Wynants, MEDRXIV, April 5, 2020

Most reported predictors of severe prognosis in infected patients included age, sex, features derived from CT, C-reactive protein, lactic dehydrogenase, and lymphocyte count. Estimated C-index estimates for the prediction models ranged from 0.73 to 0.81. All studies were rated at high risk of bias, mostly because of non-representative selection of control patients.

The mystery of why the coronavirus kills some young people
S Gupta, CNN, April 6, 2020

So, what could be behind it? Scientists and researchers wonder if the answer could lie in our genes and are beginning to try and understand what differentiates people who get mild cases from those who die. One possibility is a gene variation in the ACE2 gene. ACE2 is an enzyme that attaches to the outer surface of cells in the lungs, as well as the heart.