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📆 20 Dec 2024 📰 Study: 6% of US adults have long COVID 🗞️ CIDRAP

Two new studies paint a comprehensive picture of current long COVID cases in the United States, and both suggest the condition limits daily activities for a significant proportion of those affected.

In Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report researchers used data collected from the 2023 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a large, population-based cross-sectional survey of US adults, to assess the prevalence of long COVID. Survey participants were asked about their sex, age, previous COVID-19 illness, current long COVID, and whether they experienced significant activity limitation due to long COVID. In total 6.4% of those surveyed said they were currently experiencing long COVID. Of those, 1 in 5, or 19.8%, said their symptoms caused significant limitations when carrying out daily activities.

... The 2024 long COVID research index classified 20% of participants with known prior SARS-CoV-2 infection and 4% of those without known prior SARS-CoV-2 infection as having likely long COVID (vs 21% and 5%, respectively, in the 2023 index) and 39% of participants with known prior SARS-CoV-2 infection as having possible long COVID, according to new research published in JAMA. A total of 13,647 participants (11,743 with known SARS-CoV-2 infection and 1,904 without) were included in the analysis, which was part of the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER-Adult) study. The average age was 45, and 73% of participants were female. The study builds on the 2023 index, and updates the long COVID index with information from 4,000 more participants and expanded symptom questionnaires. The 39% of participants with possible long COVID is a new category added this year, the authors said. This new category can help guide future prospective studies of the condition, they added.

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📆 19 Dec 2024 📰 Researchers say Australia’s first mRNA vaccine candidate could address COVID ‘immune imprinting’ 🗞️ Biotech Dispatch

The scientists behind Australia's first locally developed mRNA COVID-19 vaccine candidate have published a preclinical study demonstrating the vaccine's potential to overcome the issue of ‘immune imprinting.'

Immune imprinting occurs when exposure to one virus strain - acquired by way of either vaccination or viral infection - starts to limit immunity against new virus variants.

Led by the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS) in collaboration with the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), the researchers focused on tackling immune imprinting by testing a vaccine designed to encode the proteins on the surface of the receptor-binding domain.

In mice, the researchers tested their mRNA 'membrane-anchored receptor-binding domain' (mRNA RBD-TM) vaccine against other COVID vaccines by looking at third-dose immune responses to Omicron variants.

The study showed the mRNA RBD-TM vaccine induced a significantly stronger antibody response than older vaccines.

The corresponding author, Professor Colin Pouton from MIPS, said that to protect ageing and vulnerable populations from future infections by evasive mutants, next-generation COVID-19 vaccines must overcome the immune imprinting problem.

"The concept of immune imprinting is not a new one - the same phenomenon occurs with influenza, and there is now mounting evidence of widespread imprinting attributed to exposure to ancestral COVID-19 strains," said Professor Pouton.

"To address this, we developed an alternative platform designed to target SARS-CoV-2 virus mutations in the tip of the 'spike', otherwise known as the receptor binding domain. We found that, when administered as a third-dose booster following two doses of ancestral vaccine (in mice), our vaccine was able to effectively induce new variant-specific antibodies, making it a promising next-generation candidate to protect against new and emerging COVID-19 strains."

First author, Dr Harry Al-Wassiti, said the new study could help pave the way for developing a new, refined, and homegrown vaccine to protect against COVID-19.

"Another advantage to the mRNA RBD-TM vaccine is that, because it's about a quarter of the size of its whole-spike equivalents, it could be effective at lower doses, therefore making it more tolerable. Its smaller mRNA size also means it can be more stable at higher storage temperatures, a feature important for future mRNA vaccines," said Dr Al- Wassiti.

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📆 04 Dec 2024 📰 Pain Identified as Dominant Symptom in Long COVID

New research shows that pain—a common complaint of individuals experiencing long-term symptoms from the COVID-19 virus—may actually be the most prevalent and severe symptom reported in those with long COVID. An observational study (JRSM Open 2024 Aug 28. doi.org/10.1177/20542704241274292) led by the UCL (University College London) Institute of Health Informatics and the Department of Primary Care and Population Health at UCL in collaboration with the software developer, Living With Ltd., analyzed data from more than 1,000 users in England and Wales of a symptom-recording app between November 2020 and March 2022. Pain was the most common complaint, reported by 26.5% of participants, and included headache, joint pain and stomach pain. Patients on average reported the intensity of their pain increasing each month by 3.3%.

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📆 02 Dec 2024 📰Long COVID is taking a toll on Australians — and the economy 🗞️ Crikey

Among the current generation of kids, many are growing up with their mother or father confined to bed or confined to bed themselves. According to a study by ANU, long COVID is hitting up to an estimated 20% of Australians three months after they contracted COVID — mostly women, but also men and children. In the current COVID wave, that means a lot of people coming down sick for a long time.

Long COVID is keeping people from their jobs and their lives, and as COVID cases continue, it is unclear whether the rate of new long COVID cases is increasing faster than the old cases recover.

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The effect can be seen clearly in the US where disability has risen very quickly since 2020 amid low vaccination rates and rampant infectious spread.

The pattern is less visible in Australian data, as the next chart shows. Here, the share of people claiming to be unable to work thanks to disability is affected a lot by changes in the relative rates of the JobSeeker payment and the disability support pension. But we see a general uptrend in people who are unable to work because of disability, which is not what we would expect in a time of low unemployment. The signal is particularly strong in people aged 35-44 — prime working years.

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The Burnet Institute is one of the leading Australian organisations studying long COVID. Its recent study argues that long COVID is caused by viruses persisting in the body. This is one of the two basic theories, the other being the “hit-and-run” theory, where the virus is gone but some key system, probably immunological in nature, is disturbed.

The Burnet Institute’s argument of viral persistence has some support. A French team has recently teased some brand new findings — as yet unpublished — saying they know where the virus has been hiding. The research group, from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, have found SARS-nCov-2 hiding in a special type of immune cell called megakaryocytes. These cells produce the little clotting factors in blood called platelets and — the French team says — can seed the virus into the platelets. If that leads to problems with blood flow, it could explain many of the problems in long COVID, including fatigue and brain fog.

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📆 09 Nov 2024 📰 AI Tool Reveals Long COVID May Affect 23% of People 🗞️ Neuroscience News

Summary: A new AI tool identified long COVID in 22.8% of patients, a much higher rate than previously diagnosed. By analyzing extensive health records from nearly 300,000 patients, the algorithm identifies long COVID by distinguishing symptoms linked specifically to SARS-CoV-2 infection rather than pre-existing conditions.

While earlier diagnostic studies have suggested that 7 percent of the population suffers from long COVID, a new AI tool developed by Mass General Brigham revealed a much higher 22.8 percent, according to the study.

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📆 07 Nov 2024 📰 Did COVID Lockdowns Drive a Flu Strain to Extinction?

In 2020, nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) aimed at controlling COVID-19—such as lockdowns, mandated social distancing, masking, and travel bans—significantly disrupted influenza transmission and evolution. As a result, global cases of seasonal flu, including A subtypes H1N1 and H3N2 and B subtypes Victoria and Yamagata, saw a dramatic decline.

In this study, Zhiyuan Chen and colleagues investigated how these changes affected the spread, distribution, and evolutionary dynamics of seasonal influenza lineages. Using a phylodynamic approach, the researchers combined epidemiological, genetic, and international travel data from before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the onset of the pandemic led to a shift in the intensity and structure of international influenza transmission.

Although influenza cases significantly dropped globally during the pandemic’s peak, in South Asia and West Asia, regions that had relatively fewer pandemic restrictions, the circulation of influenza A and influenza B/Victoria lineages, respectively, continued. That circulation served as important evolutionary sources, or “phylogenetic trunk locations,” of influenza viruses during the pandemic period.

By March 2023, as global air traffic resumed, the circulation of influenza lineages returned to pre-pandemic levels, highlighting the virus’ resilience to long-term disruption and its reliance on global air travel patterns to spread. Notably, however, the findings also show that the influenza B/Yamagata lineage appears to have disappeared since the start of the pandemic, suggesting that the lineage may have since gone extinct.

“The study by Chen et al. further reinforces that nonpharmaceutical interventions can be incredibly effective in disrupting viral transmission, pathogen diversity, and antigenic evolution, and are arguably more effective than vaccine efforts alone,” write Pejman Rohani and Justin Bahl in a related Perspective.

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📆 21 Oct 2024 📰 Indian population sees 30 per cent rise in antinuclear antibody positivity flollowing-COVID-19 infection 🗞️ India Economic Times

Antinuclear antibodies (ANA) are proteins produced by the immune system that mistakenly target the body’s own cells. While the immune system typically protects against infections, ANA positivity can lead to tissue damage and result in autoimmune diseases. Conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and thyroid disorders are often associated with ANA positivity and can cause symptoms like inflammation, joint pain, and fatigue. The presence of ANA serves as a key marker for healthcare professionals in diagnosing and monitoring autoimmune disorders.

The prevalence of ANA positivity substantially increased post-COVID. In 2019, the total ANA-positive cases stood at 39.3 per cent, while in 2022, it surged to 69.6 per cent. Females were found to have more positivity compared to males; however, this trend was similar to pre-COVID. The highest rate of ANA positivity was observed in individuals aged 31-45 years, followed by those aged 46-60 years. Individuals over 60 years consistently maintained high positivity rates in both the pre- and post-COVID periods. There was a notable 9 per cent increase in the nuclear homogeneous pattern, often linked to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis, in 2022 compared to 2019.

Commenting on the study, Dr Alap Christy, Vice President & Scientific Business Head – Clinical Chemistry, Global Reference Laboratory, Metropolis Healthcare Limited, said, “The sharp rise in ANA positivity post-COVID is linked to the immune system’s intensified response to the virus. In some cases, this heightened immune activity causes the body to mistakenly attack its own tissues, triggering or worsening autoimmune diseases. Clinicians have increasingly observed a surge in autoimmune conditions following the pandemic, with research indicating that the body’s immune response to COVID-19 may be a key factor..."

The antinuclear antibody (ANA) test is recognised as one of the gold standard screening tools for diagnosing autoimmune diseases. However, ANA is just the starting point—once positive, it can be followed by a range of advanced tests such as ELISA and ImmunoBlot to confirm the diagnosis and understand the specific autoimmune condition.

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📆 17 Oct 2024 📰 Covid XEC's most common symptom 'severely impacts daily functioning' 🗞️ SurreyLive

A doctor has warned that Covid XEC’s most common symptom severely impacts the daily functioning of patients it affects. There is growing concern about the impact of Covid XEC as the variant spreads through the UK population.

As a result, medical experts are beginning to issue warnings to patients as to what to look out for with the new variant.

Dr Snieguole Geige from the It’s Me and You Clinic said that the most common symptom is “insistent and persistent fatigue”.

She explained: “From my clinical perspective, the most common symptom we’re observing is an intense and persistent fatigue that seems to linger longer than with previous variants.

“This isn’t just the typical tiredness; patients report an overwhelming sense of exhaustion, often likened to post-viral fatigue syndrome. This can severely impact daily functioning, even after other symptoms subside.”

On the most serious symptom, Dr Geige warned: “The most serious symptom, however, is the potential for sudden, acute respiratory failure in individuals who may have previously only experienced mild to moderate symptoms.”

Dr Geige said this made XEC “particularly dangerous” which meant that “patients can deteriorate quickly”. Another factor in XEC’s spread was that it had what she described as an “unpredictable trajectory”.

By this, she meant: “Someone can appear to be recovering and suddenly face a rapid decline, often due to microvascular complications in the lungs, leading to severe oxygen deprivation.”

Dr Geige isn’t the only expert to have expressed concern about Covid XEC, but so far others have said there isn’t reason to panic.

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📆 07 Oct 2024 📰 Long COVID symptoms prevalent among healthcare workers 🗞️ King's College London

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, and University College London has found that 33.6% of surveyed healthcare workers in England report symptoms consistent with post-COVID syndrome (PCS), more commonly known as Long COVID. Yet only 7.4% of respondents reported that they have received a formal diagnosis.

The research is part of the wider long-term NHS CHECK study that is tracking the mental and physical health of NHS staff throughout and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Other research by NHS CHECK has included healthcare workers’ experiences of support services, prevalence of mental health problems, moral injury, and suicidal thoughts.

The study used the NICE definition of Long COVID, which includes symptoms like fatigue, cognitive difficulties, and anxiety for 12 weeks or more after they've had COVID.

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📆 02 Oct 2024 📰 It feels like everyone has a blocked nose and cough at the moment - expert explains why 🗞️ Gloucestershire Live

It’s been a particularly dreary start to autumn this year, with some cold and wet weather for much of the UK in the last few weeks signalling that summer is well and truly behind us. Not only this but it feels like most of us have been experiencing some form of illness at the moment, with blocked noses and coughing rife.

Although it is more than four years since the start of the Covid pandemic, the UK is still seeing many cases of coronavirus. The most up-to-date data from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows that in the week up September 18 there were 2,213 recorded cases of Covid in England.

This is an increase of 530 compared to the week prior - or 31.5 percent. At the same time, health experts have warned that the new XEC strain of Covid, which was first found in Germany, is highly contagious.

It is thought this strain, of which 82 cases have been confirmed in the UK, could become dominant in the coming weeks. So this could be to blame for all the nasty symptoms going around at the moment.

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📆 02 Oct 2024 📰 GP says new XEC Covid variant is 'wiping people out' and 'expected to become most dominant' 🗞️ Birmingham Live

A GP in England has said the new XEC Covid variant is 'becoming more prevalent' with patients reporting feeling 'wiped out'. Dr Helen Wall said GPs are seeing a rise in illnesses as the new XEC coronavirus variant spreads.

XEC is a recombinant variant, which occurs when two existing strains combine. XEC is formed from the KP.3.3 and KS. 1.1 strains, with genetic links to omicron, a variant initially spotted in South Africa in 2021 and known for its high contagion levels and reduced severity compared to earlier SARS-CoV-2 strains.

However Dr Wall said the latest strain is 'expected to become the most dominant'. The Greater Manchester GP has also witnessed patients reporting stronger symptoms than some of the previous variants, such as exhaustion, which 'seem to be really wiping people out'.

"We could well be seeing the new Covid variant in practice," said Dr Wall. "At the moment, it seems to be a bit more flu-like than previous iterations of Covid, with a high temperature, a cough, aching body, headache. Some of the symptoms in the past were more cough and cold symptoms, but at the moment, Covid does seem to be wiping people out.”

One of the main difficulties for doctors right now, according to the Bolton health worker, is that a lot of symptoms blend with a host of illnesses that often rise when the weather starts to turn colder and children go back to school. "Whether it's Covid versus flu is hard to separate," she said. "People who have the flu tend to be extremely unwell.

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📆 01 October 2024 📰 3 Things to Know About XEC, the Latest COVID Strain 🗞️ Yale Medicine

So far, XEC is responsible for 5.7% of COVID infections in the U.S.—making it the fifth most prevalent strain here, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate at the end of September. “One reason for the concern is that XEC has moved quickly enough to outpace the growth of all other SARS-CoV-2 variants in a few areas in Europe,” says Scott Roberts, MD, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist. “The rate of infections from XEC they're seeing in some countries rose pretty quickly compared to previous variants in those same places.” By the end of September, XEC had been detected in at least 25 states in the U.S., he adds.

Dr. Roberts discussed three things that everyone should know about the XEC strain.

One distinguishing factor is that XEC is a recombinant strain—a hybrid resulting from a merger and rearrangement of two pre-existing COVID subvariants: Omicron sublineages KP.3.3 (a descendant of the FLiRT variants) and KS.1.1. Such a merger can occur when one person is infected with two different strains. “So, instead of this slow marching along—one mutation at a time—that we’ve been seeing with the SARS-CoV-2 variants, this has the potential to create a big jump, because it combines full segments of two genomes into one new genome,” says Dr. Roberts. But a “big jump” remains to be seen and is still probably unlikely, he adds.

Another difference is that the XEC strain has at least one new mutation beyond those two strains in its spike protein, although how this might affect a person who is infected isn’t clear at this point. But Omicron and its subvariants have generally caused milder disease than strains that surfaced early in the pandemic, such as Alpha and Delta—and the symptoms haven’t changed, Dr. Roberts says.

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📆 25 Sep 2024 📰 What it's really like to have Covid right now as 'distinctive' XEC variant symptoms spread 🗞️ Manchester Evening News

A new Covid-19 variant is spreading globally and has already shown signs of transmitting quicker than previous strains, according to researchers.

And many people are now sharing anecdotally that they are coming down in droves with Covid-like illnesses, with some choosing to test and discovering positive results.

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📆 24 Sep 2024 📰 Here’s what doctors want you to know about new COVID variant 🗞️ Pennilive

According to what data shows from Outbreak.info, XEC appears to be a hybrid of Omicron subvariants KS.1.1 and KP.3.3., where KP.3.3. is an off-shoot of KP.3, which is one of the FLiRT variants that circulated this summer.

“Like every SARS-CoV-2 variant that appears—and will appear, in perpetuity—the spread is related to evolution of the virus to develop new mutations that allow it get around some of the immunity engendered by prior infections and vaccinations,” Infectious disease expert Amesh A. Adalja, M.D., senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said to Prevention.

The updated COVID-19 vaccine, which is now available, was formulated based on the KP.2 strain of the virus. Even though the KP.2 is related to XEC, there’s a great deal of differences between the two.

“It’s unclear how the updated vaccine will fare against this variant,” Dr. Adalja said. “But, based on the biological characteristics of XEC, it is not likely to be a good match and will not provide durable protection against infection.”

Dr. Adalja also stressed that the vaccine will still “protect high-risk individuals against severe disease.”

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📆 September 20, 2024

Detections of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater are still high nationally, according to CDC tacking. The highest levels remain in the West, followed by the Midwest and the South. However, all regions show downward trends. The latest data from WastewaterSCAN, a national wastewater monitoring system based at Stanford University in partnership with Emory University, show that detections are still high nationally and in the Midwest, with no significant up or down trend over the past 3 weeks.

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📆 08 July 2024 📰 People risk 'Covid roulette' in summer wave with FLiRT symptoms 'worst yet' 🗞️ Los Angeles Times

There are no signs at this point that the latest coronavirus variants are producing more severe illness, either nationally or in California.

But some doctors say this latest COVID rise challenges a long-held myth: Although new COVID infections are often mild compared with a first brush with the disease, they still can cause severe illness. Even if someone doesn’t need to visit the emergency room or be hospitalized, people sometimes describe agonizing symptoms.

“The dogma is that every time you get COVID, it’s milder. But I think we need to keep our minds open to the possibility that some people have worse symptoms,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UC San Francisco infectious diseases expert.

Each time you get COVID, he said, is “kind of like playing COVID roulette.”

Since everyone’s experience with COVID is different and influenced by a number of factors, it’s difficult to quantify how many are experiencing more acute symptoms now compared with previous infections. But anecdotally, including on social media sites, people are expressing shock at how sick they’ve become from the latest subvariants, which have been collectively nicknamed FLiRT.

“I’ve had COVID a few times but this is the worst I’ve had it,” wrote one person on Reddit. The person reported recurring fever, being so congested they couldn’t breathe out of their nose, “terrible sinus pressure and headache ... and I can’t stand up for too long without feeling like I’m about to pass out.”

“Previously COVID just felt like the common cold, but this strain is [wreaking] havoc,” the person wrote. “I don’t like to complain like this, but I’m shocked at how much it’s taking me out.”

Another person wrote that their “throat feels like razor blades” and that they feel like they’re “in living misery.”

“I have so much phlegm, but it hurts so bad to cough because my throat is on literal fire!!” the person wrote. “This is my 4th time having Covid and I swear I feel like this is the worst it’s ever been!!”

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📆 18 Sep 2024 📰 Covid sufferers 'never been this sick' as they detail symptoms amid new XEC strain 🗞️ Manchester Evening News

On social media, people who have tested positive for Covid in recent weeks have been describing their symptoms, with some claiming they have 'never been this sick'. Feeling weak, struggling to move and suffering from a fever are among the symptoms that Covid patients have detailed.

On X, formerly Twitter, one person, who tested positive for Covid on September 11 after avoiding it for three years, said: "This new variant is taking no prisoners. I’ve never been this sick in my entire life." Another said Covid had left them "completely weak" and "unable to move for multiple days".

A third person echoed the sentiment saying they struggled to walk after testing positive for the virus. "I tested positive for Covid on Wednesday," they wrote. "Yesterday, I woke up with an achy back. Today I cannot walk. Read that again. I CANNOT WALK. Of the five times I’ve had Covid, this was never a symptom. We are in for a long winter with these mutations."

Another person who said Covid was "kicking my a*s" described being "the most sick I’ve been in years" two days after their positive test. They added: "Must be a super strain."

Feeling weak and achey were common symptoms among people saying they had tested positive, while others reported feeling feverish or suffering headaches.

"Last night felt achy and couldn't get warm, tested positive," one person wrote. "Couldn't sleep at all last night. Woke up with a splitting headache, no fever, but my body feels like one big bruise." Another said: "My lungs are suffering. I am weak and I hurt all over. Covid positive."