StemCell Therapy

Junk food and what it has to do with COVID-19 deaths.

Thecoronavirushas killed 60,000 people living in the United States as of this past Wednesday, 29 April, and quickly. Though most of the more than1-Mknown to be infected do not become seriously ill and many do not show symptoms those who are hardest hit often suffer rapid declines.

As scientists struggle to understand the overall effect of the virus and how to best address it, there are certain established truths that we can not afford to take for granted when it comes to protecting our health going forward.

A Key truth, and I have been writing about it in this column for at least 10 yrs, is the kind, quality and quantity of our food is essential to the quality of our health.

Young people who are obese are at particular risk and that overall obesity may be one of the most important predictors of severe coronavirus illness. That is no small matter in a nation where more than 67% of adults and about 33% of children and our youth are obese.

The findings are particularly frightening for Blacks and other people of color, who account for adisproportionate amount of obesityin the United States and are tragically proving to make up adisproportionate shareof COVID-19 deaths.

As the casualties rise it is important to note that there are many complex factors fueling obesity in Black communities. But some are easily addressed, such as the daily junk food marketingaimed at them.

University of San Diego Professor Aarti Ivanic, who studies the intersection ofrace and food marketing, found that many companies target their advertising of unhealthy fast food and junk food to Black and Hispanic populations, while promoting more healthy food choices to affluent White consumers.

Her work is supported bya report released last yearby the Council on Black Health and the University of Connecticut Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity that found restaurants, food, and beverage companies often target Black and Hispanic consumers for their least nutritious products, primarily fast-food, candy, soda/sugary drinks, and snacks.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has recognized the dangers of this targeted marketing and haswarned thatthat junk food advertising is so detrimental to the health of all young people, Black and Hispanic youth in particular that it should be sharply limited.

Jennifer Harris, senior research advisor at the Rudd Center, says these companies targeting youth in communities of color with their junk food advertising should be held responsible for putting their profits over young peoples health and even their lives.

Folks in the public health nutrition world are hopeful that this pandemic shines a spotlight on the tragic consequences of the health disparities created by inequalities in our food systems, she said.

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Healthhas issued guidancesaying it is imperative for governments to promote policy and environmental changes that make healthy foods more accessible and decrease the availability and marketing of unhealthful foods.

The people that eat that way are walking a Death Walk daily.

It should not take a pandemic to cure Americans of their complacency on this issue. After all, it is no secret that diet-related chronic disease has been on the rise in the US for decades and now impacts about 50% of all American adults, or more than 100-M people, according to the USDepartment of Health and Human Services (HHS)

The Death March of this disease through our nations chronically ill population should be a wake-up call for all Americans.

Food quality, food access, food marketing and food choices are not casual concerns. They are proving to be matters of life and death

Eat healthy, Be healthy, Live lively

Have a healthy day, Keep the Faith!

adults, black, coronavirus, death, diabetic, food, health, HHS, Hispanic, junk, life, obese, youth

Paul A. Ebeling, polymath, excels in diverse fields of knowledge. Pattern Recognition Analyst in Equities, Commodities and Foreign Exchange and author of The Red Roadmasters Technical Report on the US Major Market Indices, a highly regarded, weekly financial market letter, he is also a philosopher, issuing insights on a wide range of subjects to a following of over 250,000 cohorts. An international audience of opinion makers, business leaders, and global organizations recognizes Ebeling as an expert.

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CDC Sites High Levels of Obesity and Diabetes in Coronavirus Victims - Live Trading News

Introduction:

Fastingduring the holy month of Ramadhan is ordained for all healthy Muslim adults.People who are exempted includes children, pregnant or breastfeeding women, theelderly and anyone who might get themselves ill by fasting. Often people askwhether a diabetic patient can observe fasting. In fact, most of them canobserve fasting safely during Ramadhan, No wonder about 80 percent of 120million Muslims with diabetes all over the world undertake fasting duringRamadhan.

What happens to sugars during Fasting: During a fast, at about eight hours after your last meal, your body starts to use energy stores to keep your blood glucose (sugar) levels normal. For most people this is not harmful, but if you have diabetes, your body cannot use the glucose as well as it should. With diabetes especially if you take certain tablets or insulin you are at risk of hypoglycemia (low blood glucose levels). Ramadhan fasting not only alters the timings of meals but it may also disturb sleeping patterns and hormonal rhythms, all of which can affect a persons metabolic state.

What are the benefits of fasting: Fasting during Ramadhan can also be beneficial. It may provide an opportunity to reduce caloric intake, facilitate weight loss, and smoking cessation. It may help to strengthen the therapeutic alliance between patient and physician, and provide an opportunity to improve diabetes management, with a focus on self-care and the regulation of medication and meal timing.

What are the challenges of Fasting: In people with complicated diabetes it may cause hypoglycemia (decrease in blood glucose level), hyperglycemia (increase in blood glucose levels), dehydration and diabetes ketoacidosis. During fasting time, patients may suffer from hypoglycemia due to lack of glucose while after evening people might encounter increased glucose levels due to excessive intake of food.

What is Pre-Ramadhan counselling: Many people with diabetes can safely keep fast during Ramadhan after discussion with their doctor. However this decision may vary from person to person based upon his/her physical condition, HbA1c, concurrent complications, age, and type of antidiabetic medications etc. It is always advisable to consult your physician well in advance (at least 2-3 months before Ramadhan) to discuss a plan about lifestyle modification, diet and medication accordingly. This is called Pre-Ramadhan counselling which unfortunately is unheard of in our setting.

Which diabetic patients should avoid fasting: People with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM). There is some evidence to suggest that, as long as they are otherwise stable and healthy, they can do so safely. However, strict medical supervision and focused education is essential. Pregnant women with diabetes (especially those on insulin) are stratified as very high risk and are advised not to fast. Fasting is also not advisable to patients with following issues e.g. Frequent low and high sugars (so called brittle diabetes); hypoglycemia unawareness (patient does not perceive symptoms of low sugars; history of diabetic ketoacidosis or severe hypoglycemic episode during the past three months; Hospital admission for very high blood or low blood glucose during the past three months; Very poor control of diabetes (high HbA1c) or presence of complications of diabetes such as problems with kidneys, heart and eyes; Chronic kidney disease patients especially those on dialysis .Lastly any acute illness during this period prevents a person to fast.

Which diabetic patients can undertake fasting: Well controlled type 2 diabetic patients on diet therapy or on any of these drug classes viz; metformin, second generation sulphonylureas, Incretin mimetics, glitazones, SGLT2 inhibitors and on single dose insulin can undergo fasting safely.

What dietary alterations can I make: Keep sensible portions in mind and follow the same guidelines for healthy eating that you do the rest of the year with an emphasis on whole grains, lean sources of meat, fish and poultry, small amounts of heart healthy fats and limit added sugars. The meals should be varied and should not consist of only dates, sweet drinks and fried rice.Meals should include extra fiber, which is found in whole grains, legumes, vegetables, salads, and fruits. Fiber helps to avoid constipation. There should be low intake of salt especially with pickles and salted sauces. Suhoor meal should contain a balance of whole grains, apple, nuts, legumes (complex carbohydrates) as well as some protein (lean meat) to help slow the digestion and help the feeling of fullness last as long as possible into the day. Try to take Suhoor meal a little late. (of course within stipulated time) to spread out you energy intake more evenly.

Traditionallythe fast is ended (Iftaar) with the eating of dates and drinking water. Limitintake of dates to 1-2 each evening. Simple carbohydrates like bread cereals,rice or pasta can be taken. Chose water as your main drink. and take plenty ofwater and sugar free beverages throughout the evening, While I agree that theIftaar meal is a celebration time, but aim is not to overeat.

Avoidcaffeine beverages as they can be dehydrating. Limit the amount of ladoos,jalebi and barfi. Avoid energy dense foods like samosas, pakodas, parantas,purees, ghee, margarines and butter. Limit the amount of oil in cooking to 2tablespoons for a four-person dish. Here is an example of a healthy Ramadhanplate eg 1 cup of vegetables, 2 cups of whole grain rice, a cup ofbeans/lentils/peas, a small portion (4 oz) of lean protein. Add one small sliceof watermelon, 2 dates and one glass of low fat milk.

Can I go for exercise during fasting: Avoid moderate to highly vigorous exercise However, patients can continue with their routine morning walks and time spent during Taraweeh prayers should be counted as part of exercise activity.

What about alterations in anti-diabetic medications: Individualization of anti diabetic treatment options is the proper approach .Consult your doctor for changes in medications schedule and alteration in insulin regimes. In fact your previous years successful Ramadhan experience is a useful guide for changes in drug regimens. Oral drugs that are safe include Metformin, Glipizide, Gliclazide, Glitazones, DPP4 inhibitors, Incretin mimetics, SGLT2 inhibitors, Rapid acting insulin analogues are preferred due to less chances of low sugar and minimal post meal sugar spikes. Premixed insulin [50/50} is a good option in patients who are on two doses of insulin.

Can I do fingerprick sugar tests during fasting: Self monitoring of sugars can be done at home. It does not amount to breaking a fast, Ideally it should be done multiple times a day, However you can do it Pre-Suhoor and Pre-Iftaar and whenever symptoms of low sugar are felt.

At what level of sugars I may have to break my fast: A fast will have to be ended if glucose levels fall too low (usually less than70mg/dl ) or if it shoots up to more than 300mg/dl . For low sugars about 15 grams of carbohydrate can be taken to raise glucose levels to normal. Carbohydrates can be taken in the form of 4 glucose tablets, or fruit juice or candy. Wait for 15 minutes and recheck sugar level again and adjust the medications accordingly. For high sugars apart from increasing the doses of medications, a doctors consultation is a must before one continues with fasting. Remember high sugars can lead to dehydration and changes in mental status.

Do I need to go for a Post Ramadhan follow up: A follow up meeting with your doctor is advisable to assess how you handled fasting and to discuss medication readjustments. Lastly remember Eid- ul Fitr is not the time of overindulgence. May the blessings of Ramadhan be on all of us and may Allah grant our prayers and fasts, Ramadhan Kareem!

Dr Mohammad Hayat Bhat is Consultant Endocrinologist at Govt Superspeciality Hospital, GMC, Srinagar

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Diabetes and Ramadan: Frequently asked questions - Greater Kashmir

AstraZeneca has begun a global trial to assess whether one of its diabetes medicines could be repurposed for Covid-19 patients at risk of serious complications such as organ failure.

The Cambridge-headquartered company is working with Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute to explore the potential of the drug dapagliflozin, sold as Farxiga, in reducing the risk of disease progression, clinical complications and death for patients with cardiovascular, metabolic or kidney problems.

Poorer outcomes have been recorded for such patients who have been hospitalised with Covid-19.

Mene Pangalos, executive vice president, biopharmaceuticals R&D, said: AstraZeneca is committed to finding new solutions to fight Covid-19 by investigating the application of our new and existing medicines.

With the Phase III DARE-19 trial, we aim to test whether Farxiga can prevent serious complications such as organ failure in those patients with pre-existing health conditions, a critical goal when treating Covid-19.

The design of the randomised, double-blind global trial is supported by extensive data on the protective effect of Farxiga in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, chronic kidney disease or type 2 diabetes.

Mikhail N Kosiborod, a cardiologist at Saint Lukes Mid America Heart Institute, and vice president of research at Saint Luke's Health System, is the principal investigator of the DARE-19 trial.

He said: Dapagliflozin has demonstrated cardio and renal protective benefits and improved outcomes in high-risk patients with type-2 diabetes, heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, and chronic kidney disease.

Patients with Covid-19 and underlying cardiometabolic disease appear to be at the highest risk of morbid complications.

Through DARE-19, we hope to decrease the severity of illness, and prevent cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney decompensation, which are common in patients with COVID-19.

The trial is open for enrolment in the US and other European countries with a high Covid-19 burden and aims to recruit approximately 900 patients.

AstraZeneca also began a clinical trial in record time of its blood cancer drug Calquence (acalabrutinib) to assess its effectiveness at decreasing inflammation and reducing the severity of Covid-19 induced respiratory distress in severely ill patients.

The company is also working on new antibody therapies, which it hopes to trial in three to five months.

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Link:
AstraZeneca launches trial to assess whether diabetes medicine can be repurposed for Covid-19 patients - Cambridge Independent

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Americans have been presented with a series of harrowing portraits of a health care system thrown into chaos. First, there were the awful hypotheticals sketched by epidemiologists: hospitals overwhelmed, halls crammed with the desperately sick, doctors forced to decide whose lives were most worth saving. Then came the real-life chaos as the wave of infections began to crest in hot spots like New York City: nurses breaking down over trying to treat dozens of dying patients at once; corpses being forklifted into refrigerated trucks and buried in mass graves.

With evidence mounting that daily deaths are trending downward in some of the hardest-hit locations, theres reason to hope that the worst is nearing its end. But were only just beginning to see the presence of a second, quieter crisis roiling our health care system, an economic disaster brought on by anti-COVID measures that has pushed untold numbers of doctors and practices to the brink of insolvency.

The hospitals bearing the brunt of Americas COVID-19 treatment have had to deal with several types of shortages over the last month: manpower, test kits, protective equipment. Whats been less of a struggle is money. The federal government has committed huge sums of money to ensure hospitals are adequately reimbursed for every COVID patient they treat. Meanwhile, the rest of the nations hospitals have felt the financial squeeze, as they sit mostly idle following a mad scramble to prepare for the possibility they were about to become COVID triage centers. According to first-quarter GDP numbers released yesterday, cratering spending in the health care industry accounted for nearly half of the economys 4.8 percent GDP shrinkage.

Take Michigan. In the early days of the coronavirus crisis, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer moved fast to shore up the states COVID readiness. Among the steps she took: a March 20 executive order temporarily postponing all non-essential medical procedures. As Detroit began to develop into a major coronavirus hotspot, Whitmers aggressiveness seemed prescient. As the weeks dragged on, however, some of the hospitals in more lightly affected areas began to sound the alarm that they were bleeding out financially.

Yesterday, the CEO of Hillsdale Hospital, a small-town hospital in southern Michigan, penned a letter to Whitmer laying out the dire situation: If elective surgeries were not allowed to resume, many of the states rural hospitals would likely be forced to shut down permanently within just a few months.

That CEO, JJ Hodshire, told The Dispatch that the loss of elective surgeries was starving his hospital of one of the few profitable services on an already tight balance sheet. As a small hospital, Hillsdale Hospital lacks substantial bargaining power and thus is largely at the mercy of the procedure rates stipulated by insurance providers even in good times. This means it relies on elective procedures like joint replacements to stay in the black.

We operate on a shoestring budget, he said. We have struggled like the rest of rural American health care. Weve had some losses year after year, but we understand the importance as a community need, as a not-for-profit hospital, that we need to engage in this, because we know that if theres no local hospital, people die. When your hospitals close, access to care is now limited to a 30, 40, 50 minute drive. And when youre talking about heart attacks, youre talking about strokes, every minute counts.

When Whitmers order first came out, Hodshire said, his hospital scrambled to make a plan to prepare for a possible COVID spike, and also to weather a lengthy loss of revenuea plan that meant laying off 15 percent of the hospitals workforce. That number has now grown to 20 percent, and will grow higher if elective surgeries do not resume. Even if they were to resume right away, the hospital would still be looking at about a $10 million hole in its budget, which federal aid has defrayed only partially.

Its going to have grave consequences for many hospitals around Michigan, because we cannot dip that far into our cash reserves to sustain the model without significant mass layoffs beyond the ones Ive already done, Hodshire said. When you think of Hillsdale, its not shopping malls and great cuisine and those type of things. Its very difficult to recruit physicians to this community. And so if I go shredding their contracts and laying off physicians, its counterproductive to our operations, because those physicians will leave. And then I wont be able to have physicians here to engage in the activity.

As the crisis has dragged on without COVID cases spiking in his area, Hodshire said he has had a hard time justifying the freeze to people clamoring for the banned surgeries who cant afford to wait.

We get calls all the time: When are you starting them up? We need to do thismy insurance is ready to run out, because I lost my job and its only good to the end of the month. Can I get that surgery? he said. Well, no, sorry. Why? The governor said we cant. But I heard you have no COVID patients, you have one. Yep, thats true.

Its hard to explain that when someone needs care.

If small hospitals have it bad, many private practices have it even worse. The coronavirus crisis has put a near-total freeze on Americas use of preventative medicine. Some states have closed dentist offices, and where they are open, people often opt to cancel appointments rather than venture into an office and risk virus infection. Same with well-care visits to family practitioners.

Number one, nobodys coming to the office, Dr. Helen Barold, a private-practice cardiologist in Bethesda, Maryland, told The Dispatch. Were probably 20 percent of what we were at the mostprobably less than that. None of the private practice doctors are taking a salary that I know of. Were all just not taking salary at all.

Instead of her ordinary work, Dr. Barold has found herself transformed into a remote aide to help her regular patients navigate the coronavirus crisiswork that now occupies the bulk of her time but is largely unpaid. Making matters worse is the fact that the CARES Act set aside no special dispensation for private practices like hersto qualify for government assistance, she has been forced to dive into the same depleted PPP loan program serving millions of other small businesses in America. She applied for a loan last week, but has yet to hear anything back.

You know, Im a doctor. I dont know anything about that kind of stuff. Nobody said to us, You should be applying for this immediately, she said. I called my congressperson yesterday Theyre like, Yeah, we cant help you. But they did listen to me cry for 20 minutes about the fact that, of all the people, Shake Shack, Harvard, Mercedes, they do not need this. I feel like we need a TBA: Tiny Business Administration.

If Congress replenishes the PPP fund and Dr. Barolds loan goes through, it will buy her a couple months grace: the loan rules permit her to put the money intended to pay her own salary toward her practices lease instead. If it doesnt, shell be faced with an impossible choice: spending down her own life savings just to get her staff through a couple more uncertain months or closing up shop on the practice that has been the pride of her career.

You know, I talked to my lawyer yesterday: Hey, what if I go bankrupt? she said. Is my house going to go? If I decide Im going to go bankrupt, and I cant pay my lease anymore, and Ive got to give my practice uphow much can they take from me?

This is a practice I built myself. I started from scratch, I started from zero patients. I walked in, I opened the door one day and said, I am here. And, you know, I saved so many lives! And its just gone to shit.

Photograph by Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Portland Press Herald/Getty Images.

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Our Other Looming Health Care Disaster - The Dispatch

Hannah Gibson -Apr 30, 2020 / 6:00 am | Story:298702

Photo: Contributed

This is a friendly reminder to call your doctor, get seen and start treatment for whatever ailment, lump, bump, injury or illness youre currently experiencing.

With COVID-19 dominating our news, social media, conversations and thoughts, its unsurprising that we might be thinking of little else. However, your health remains a top priority, regardless of your COVID status.

With so much attention on the pandemic, its understandable that you might have not noticed changes to your health, if youre not experiencing a cough, shortness of breath or fever. Or, you may be anxious about visiting a doctor or hospital for fear of contracting the disease or taking up valuable resources.

My message to you is this; let your doctor be the one to judge your health situation. Almost all family practices are available for appointments in some form; whether thats a telephone or in-person consultation. By sharing your concerns with your physician, they can decide what the best course of action is. It may well be that they advise you to sit tight, but they can at least offer guidance and support for at home measures.

However, your doctor may decide that a referral is necessary, or further tests or scans. In medicine, it is always better to catch things early, and referring you for tests or a second opinion can be vital in getting information about your condition while its still possible to provide effective treatment.

B.C.s chief medical officer, Bonnie Henry, has urged citizens not to ignore urgent medical matters during this time. She also advised parents to continue with their childrens vaccination schedule, at a time where vaccinations have never been more important for safeguarding against infectious disease.

B.C. has actually seen a reduction in the number of visits to the ER since the pandemic has begun. On one hand, this is positive; perhaps people are only coming to the ER when they really need it, rather than using it as a walk-in clinic. However, there is a worrying alternative; that people are too scared to come in, and their health will bear the consequences of that.

So, please take this as a reminder to check in on your, and your familys, health. Is there something that has been bothering you? Have you had all tests and scans that were booked in for you? When was the last time you saw your particular specialist? Is your child up to date with vaccinations?

For any further advice or support, please get in touch with your family medical practice by phone, as they are in the best position to help you. Stay safe and be well!

Hannah Gibson -Apr 16, 2020 / 11:00 am | Story:297398

Photo: Contributed

Boredom eating, stress baking and closed gyms can lead to what people are calling the Quarantine 15 weight gained from our time in isolation.

While I dont want to add another anxiety to an already growing list, your physical health should remain a top priority during isolation.

Although worrying about weight gain isnt helpful or effective, taking steps to look after yourself will boost your mental health as well as keeping weight gain at bay.

Ive put together some ideas to help you keep your mind and body in peak condition during this time.

Identify why

Why is it that you keep going to the fridge or cupboard for more snacks? It is likely boredom, which is understandable. The solution is to keep your mind and body busy; call a friend, do a puzzle or read a book.

If youre still struggling, try snacking on something very low in calories, like celery or carrots. Itll keep your mouth and hands busy and wont be contributing to any weight gain!

Keep track

Use an app like MyFitnessPal to track your calorie intake as accurately as possible. Most of the time, seeing how our calories stack up during the day is enough to put us off eating more than we need.

You can also look at the vitamins and nutrients of what youre eating, and adjust accordingly. The chances are, theres vitamins or fibre that youre missing out on, so you can focus on increasing foods that are rich in these.

Exercise where you can

With closed gyms, parks and outdoor spaces, finding a way to exercise right now can be challenging. The good news is that there are lots of online courses and apps that offer at home workouts, ranging from a good old fashioned HIIT session to at-home ballroom dance or burlesque.

Many companies are offering reductions on courses, or free sample sessions, so make the most of whats out there. This may be the time to find a new passion.

Go low

When grocery shopping and cooking, aim to use low fat and sugar foods, such as dairy, spreads, salad dressings and oil. If the unhealthy snacks arent in the cupboard, you wont be able to eat on them!

Think before you eat

Ask yourself; am I eating this because Im hungry, because Im bored or because its in front of me? If its the latter two, stop.

Suggest a game or a walk to break up the mindless munching, or have a glass of water instead.

Check your mental health

Take time to check in on your mental health.

With your routine out of whack, food, sleep and exercise taking a turn for the worse, financial and work struggles and kids out of school, this is a difficult time for us all.

Its important to cut yourself some slack; this is a stressful time and if chocolate or the odd glass of wine helps you relax, go for it! Its all about finding a balance between healthy living and enjoying life, and only you know whats right for you and your body.

Hannah Gibson -Apr 6, 2020 / 11:00 am | Story:296497

Photo: Iz zy/Unsplash

Many of you may be anxious, stressed or upset with everything going on in the world right now.

Whether you suffer from mental-health issues or not, it is perfectly understandable to be experiencing heightened senses of emotion during such a turbulent time.

I have compiled a list of ideas I think can go some way to helping alleviate the feelings of anxiety and upset right now.

Id love to hear your thoughts on it, or if you have any further ideas that may help others.

Seek Help

Its important to remember that help is still out there for you to access, no matter what issues youre facing. With all the attention on COVID, it can be easy to forget about other health concerns, including your mental health.

Most family practices are still open, with an emphasis on telephone consults or even through online portals. If you have a health query, dont hesitate to seek help. Let your doctor be the one to decide if its a priority.

Seeking help for mental-health support is more important than ever. Kelownas Crisis Response line is still running, and is available to listen whatever you wish to talk about.

CMHA Kelowna is also open, and can signpost you in the direction of further care.

Another great resource is http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca.

Give Help

One of the most amazing feelings is being able to help others, and theres no time like the present. If you are able to, providing help and support in your community is an invaluable use of your time.

Whether its getting groceries for elderly neighbours, or offering childcare support to frontline workers, youll get a huge boost for your own sense of wellbeing by helping those around you.

If youre at risk yourself, you can help from your home by offering your phone number to people who are in self-isolation, so that they can call and have a chat to alleviate the time alone.

Limit News

In a time of 24-hour news on the TV, shared news articles on your social media and news apps on your phone, the influx of information can be incessant.

I find it helpful to limit the amount of news I see in a day; too much and the state of the world can become overwhelmingly stressful.

Create Routine

Most of us have seen a big change in our routines, with working from home or having the kids off school. As creatures of habit, we crave a sense of structure, and so creating a routine for your days will help alleviate the feeling of uncertainty.

Set alarms, have your meals at appointed times, and allocate set breaks from work or schooling. Make sure youre getting showered and dressed properly in the morning; it may seem silly if youre not going out, but the process of getting ready and feeling smart will help your productivity levels no end.

Self Care

Now is an excellent time to focus on your self care.

This means something different for everyone, but the essence is finding something that relaxes you and occupies your mind.

This could be:

Whatever works for you, incorporate it into your daily routine. Along with self care for your mental wellbeing, make sure youre looking after your physical health too.

Eating well, exercising, hydrating and getting enough sleep are all really important in keeping your body and mind healthy.

Connect with Others

If you didnt use video calls before, now is the time to get stuck in. Ive been able to connect with my family back in the U.K. far more than I normally would over the last month, as people are realizing the power of video calls.

Weve done pub quizzes, had long chats about life, played games and seen each others living spaces far more than ever, and despite social distancing I feel more connected than ever to some of my closest friends.

Acknowledge Emotions

Despite all these measures, youre likely to still feel anxious or down from time to time, and thats OK. Talk about how youre feeling with a friend or family member, or on the crisis line.

The chances are, they are feeling the same, and shared emotions are much easier to deal with than facing it on your own. If you feel like crying, let it out. Ive cried a lot in the last few weeks, and every time Ive felt a release of emotion that then lets me get on with my day and put those feelings behind me.

Whatever your situation, I hope you and your friends and family are keeping safe and well during this time. Remember to seek help and give help where you can, and most importantly, stay home to slow the spread.

Hannah Gibson -Mar 19, 2020 / 6:00 am | Story:279469

Photo: Contributed

Forty-five per cent of Canadians regularly take health products, such as vitamins, minerals or herbal remedies.

With annual sales at an estimated $1.4 billion in Canada, I ask:

A recentUniversity of Toronto study looked into the evidence supporting the use of supplements, such as vitamins, minerals and fish oils. Specifically, the study looked at the effect on the risk of heart-related illness.

It foundthere was no significant effect from taking supplements.Supplements dont help to prevent cardiovascular disease, and they come at a cost.

I take a look at the main vitamins and nutrients, and how you can ensure youre getting enough without paying excessively for the benefits.

The government only recommends a few supplements, depending on age. Vitamin D is recommended for all Canadians, because most of us are deficient due to a lack of sun exposure.

Vitamin D helps regulate the amount of calcium and phosphate in the body, and is needed to keep bones, muscles and teeth healthy.

Being deficient in vitamin D can lead to rickets in children, which is a type of bone deformity. In adults, it can cause a condition called osteomalacia, which is a softening of the bones.

During summer, we should be able to get all the vitamin D we need from sunlight. However, as most Canadians are deficient in this vitamin, taking an oral supplement is a good idea.

Vitamin A and C are also recommended for children aged six months to five years old. Vitamin A helps your bodys natural defences, including keeping skin healthy, while vitamin C also helps maintain healthy skin, bone and blood vessels.

Eating a balanced diet full of fruit, vegetables and dairy (or alternatives fortified with vitamins), should ensure that you get all the vitamin A and C needed.

The recommendation to supplement childrens diets is due to the fact that more vitamin A and C are needed for growth and development.

Women trying for a baby, or in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, are recommended to take folic acid. This nutrient is important in the development of the brain and spinal cord in Fetuses.

Aside from pregnancy, there is no clinical need or benefit to taking folic acid, so it isnt recommended for anyone outside this category.

Other nutrients, such as calcium and iron, are also marketed by pharmaceutical companies as being essential to your health and well being.

While this is true calcium building strong bones, muscles and teeth, and iron essential for carrying oxygen around the body we should be reaching our daily targets if we eat a healthy, balanced diet.

Good sources of iron include meat, liver, beans, nuts, whole grains and green vegetables.

Women need more iron than men due to having periods and losing blood each month. Signs of iron deficiency anemia include feeling tired, out of breath or weak.

If you believe you may be deficient, go to your family doctor to get your blood levels checked.

Taking iron supplements without medical supervision isnt advised; iron can cause nasty side effects.

Calcium is also found in similar foods, as well as dairy products (or fortified alternatives). Taking too much calcium, in the form of supplements, can cause stomach pain and diarrhea, so again is not recommended without a physicians advice.

A few years ago, I challenged myself to eat the Daily Dozen a checklist of 12 types of food that you should incorporate into your diet each day.

I downloaded the app (Dr. Gregers Daily Dozen) and aimed to tick off all the food groups by the end of the day.

This is a great way of making sure youre getting all the right vitamins and nutrients to stay fit and healthy!

The list is as follows:

Download the app, or read of Dr. Gregers book, How Not to Die. Its a really informative read about how to use diet and exercise to prevent all the top causes of death.

Get in touch in the comments below, or via email, if you have any questions about supplements or how to reach your daily targets.

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It's not all about COVID-19 - Health and Happiness - Castanet.net

By David Williams, CNN

(CNN) -- A North Carolina family's pug may be the first dog in the United States to test positive for coronavirus, according to researchers.

Three members of the McLean family -- Sam McLean, wife Heather and their son, Ben -- contracted Covid-19 last month. Sydney McLean, the couple's daughter, was the only family member to never show any symptoms.

The family found out their dog, Winston, tested positive for the virus too after they participated in a Duke University study about Covid-19 aimed at trying to find potential treatments and vaccines. As part of the study, members of the family under go weekly nasal swabs and give blood samples.

Chris Woods, the principal investigator of the study, said researchers have also been collecting samples from family pets to see how coronavirus spreads in households. Researchers did not use the commercial tests that are in high demand around the world to test the animals.

Although they haven't tested many pets, Winston's sample is the only one that's come back positive. He is believed to be the first dog in the country to test positive for the virus, according to the university.

"His (Winston's) amount of virus that we detected was very low, suggesting that he would not be a likely mechanism or vector of transmission of virus to either other animals or to, to humans in these households," Woods said.

Sam McLean, a researcher and emergency room doctor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was the first member of the family to get sick, his wife Heather McLean said. He had treated Covid-19 patients before he got sick.

Winston did show some minor symptoms while his family was also sick.

"He had a small cough for a day or two right in the peak when all of us were sick and he didn't eat his breakfast one morning," Ben McLean told CNN. "But we didn't have any concrete, like, super alarming illnesses where we're like, 'we need to take him to the vet. He's like really sick.'"

Woods said researchers don't know if coronavirus made Winston sick, or if he had an unrelated ailment.

The McLeans have another dog and a cat, whose tests were negative.

Winston tends to lick things and likes to spend more time around his family, Heather McLean said. Their cat is more aloof, and their older pug likes to sleep most of the time.

"Winston is much more affectionate and we hold them all the time," she told CNN. "So if any of the animals were to have a positive viral test, it would be him."

Federal officials announced last week that two cats tested positive for the novel coronavirus in New York.

Eight lions and tigers tested positive for Covid-19 at the Bronx Zoo, but the big cats are all doing well, according to a news release.

Two dogs under quarantine in Hong Kong also tested positive for the virus, according to officials there.

Experts have stressed that there is no evidence that pets play a part in transmitting coronavirus.

"I would not change our, our behaviors with our household animals at this point. They're really an important part of our ongoing mental health as we continue to participate in our social distancing to combat the pandemic," Woods said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, said in a press briefing last week that "there is no evidence whatsoever that we've seen, from an epidemiological standpoint, that pets can be transmitters within the household."

William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, said that it is extremely rare for a virus to jump from an animal to a human.

He said the first case in the Covid-19 pandemic was believed to have come from a market in Wuhan, China, but it has spread around the world through human-to-human contact.

"We still don't think this is common and we certainly don't think it's a major route of transmission in either direction," Schaffner said. "It's not common for people to give it to their pets, nor has it been demonstrated ever that anyone's ever gotten this virus from a pet."

Schaffner said it would be a good idea for people who are sick to social distance themselves from their pets, as well as their family members. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made similar recommendations.

Heather McLean said that her family is now out of quarantine and are cleared to go back to work. Her husband has volunteered to work in a special Covid-19 unit in the emergency room, because he thinks he'll be at less risk than colleagues who haven't been infected.

Heather McLean and Ben McLean hope to be able to donate plasma, so their antibodies can help patients.

"We are feeling very grateful that we have the opportunity to participate in this research study," she said. "We are really hopeful that we can donate plasma to be able to help other patients."

She said Winston is also doing well. He is getting lots of walks, and enjoying following his family around the house to keep an eye on what they're doing.

CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the dog owners' last name.

The-CNN-Wire & 2018 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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A pug in North Carolina may be the first dog in US to test positive for coronavirus - WDJT

The Miami County Health Department is asking residents to complete a survey that should shed more light on how many people in the region are experiencing symptoms related to COVID-19.

Health officials plan to use the results to seek out residents who are currently symptomatic. Those who volunteer to be tested will be able to utilize a new drive-through community sampling clinic set to be established locally by the Miami County Health Department.

A link to the survey can be found on the Miami County Health Departments Facebook page.

This survey is not intended to replace medical care or advice from a medical professional, the health department clarified.

Christena Beer, a disease investigator at the Miami County Health Department, outlined the details of the project in an email to local governmental leaders and health partners Friday, April 24, and the survey was pushed out to the public on Monday, April 27.

We have partnered with the University of Kansas Medical Center Department of Preventative Medicine and Public Health, utilizing their expertise to create and launch a self-reporting survey to residents of Miami County, Beer said.

She added that the plan is to push out the survey through multiple avenues, including social media, websites, school districts and local media.

The survey, which is recommended to be completed for each member of the household, can be filled out in about five minutes, Beer said. It will ask a few questions about the respondents demographic background, current health status, potential COVID-19 symptoms and profession. If the respondent is currently symptomatic, it will also ask if they would like to be tested. If the respondent indicates interest in testing, further demographic information is collected for the purposes of pre-filling laboratory requisitions for more efficient service at the testing site, and if selected, that person will be contacted with a location and time for testing.

Based on the potential need acquired from the survey, we are working on securing supplies to have the ability to test anywhere from 200 to 500 Miami County residents who meet criteria for testing at Kansas Health and Environmental Laboratories, Beer said. We have the ability to oversample certain groups (i.e. profession, geographic location etc.) to ensure that the sample is both representative and meaningful in data collection for the county in its entirety, and we also have the ability to randomize the sample. Once we have more demographic information, as well as number of respondents currently symptomatic, we can better narrow down our sample group(s) based on need.

Dr. Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), recently stated during a press conference that a rate of five tests per 1,000 persons is needed to really understand whats happening in a certain area.

Beer said Miami Countys rate of testing, as of April 24, is 5.14 per 1,000 persons.

Our rate of testing is not necessarily concerning compared to Kansas counties who have nowhere near the testing availability that Miami County has, but increasing our testing capacity will provide data that gives more information about the prevalence of the virus in our county, and it will also identify people who are infected so case investigation and contact tracing can be completed to minimize potential exposures within the community, Beer said. Increased testing will also provide information on hospital capacities, measure the effectiveness of the interventions, and assist in making data-driven decisions when determining our plan to ease restrictions and the phases that will be recommended to reopen.

A specific location for the drive-through testing clinic has not yet been finalized, but Beer said it will be in Paola at a location that will have the layout and specifications to accommodate drive-through testing.

Depending on the results of the survey, Beer said two to four additional clinics may be set up on future dates if enough residents who are symptomatic volunteer to be tested.

The test will be at no cost to the individual being tested, as we are sending specimens to KHEL, Beer said.

She added that Olathe Health and Miami County Medical Center have offered to support the mission and will provide staff and supplies to assist in the specimen collection and courier service to KHEL.

Sheriff Frank Kelly and Emergency Management Coordinator Mark Whelan have offered to help secure a site, traffic and security needs, as well as provide other needed equipment for the number of people invited.

We all have been compounded by the immensity of the unknowns, and if we knew more about the prevalence of COVID-19, we can remarkably improve our resource allocation, Beer said. Furthermore, in conjunction with Governor Kellys guidance, we can collaboratively make decisions about where, when and how we can safely reopen parts of our economy.

Miami County has had five confirmed cases of COVID-19, with the only active case being a resident in their 30s who was added to the report Saturday, April 25.

The health department reported that multiple close contacts of the individual have been identified and contacted with further instruction and monitoring for any symptoms.

Although the case investigation is still ongoing, no specific exposure has been identified at this time, and it will be classified as a local transmission, the department reported.

The other four cases involving Miami County residents have already recovered.

The department reported that 188 Miami County residents have been tested.

Kansas has 3,328 confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in 75 counties that have resulted in 496 hospitalizations and 120 deaths as of 8 a.m. Monday, April 27, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE).

KDHE reported the state has logged 23,839 negative tests. Wyandotte County has the most cases at 573, followed by Ford County, 516; Johnson County, 440; Seward County, 349; Sedgwick County, 339; Leavenworth County, 184; Finney County, 175; Lyon County, 147; and Shawnee County, 105.

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COVID-19 testing to be ramped up in Miami County - Miami County Republic

SALT LAKE CITY A Cedar Hills man who prosecutors say has been fraudulently marketing silver products as a cure for the new coronavirus, has been ordered by a federal judge to stop selling those items.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Barlow issued a temporary restraining order against Gordon Pedersen, 60, and his companies, My Doctor Suggests LLC and GP Silver LLC. The injunction comes on the heels of a civil complaint filed Monday in Salt Lake City against Pedersen by U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber.

The civil complaint alleges that the defendants are fraudulently promoting and selling various silver products for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19, according to a statement from Hubers office. The defendants have made a wide variety of false and misleading claims touting silver products as a preventative for COVID-19, including that having silver in the bloodstream will usher any coronavirus out of the body and that it has been proven that alkaline structured silver will destroy all forms of viruses, (and) it will protect people from the coronavirus.

Pedersen and his companies have promoted silver products as a treatment for various diseases, including arthritis, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia since about 2014, the civil complaint states. These items are marketed under various names such as Silver Solution, Silver Gel, Silver Soap and Silver Lozenge.

In early 2020, Pedersen and My Doctor Suggests started contending that the silver products also cured COVID-19, according to court documents.

Gordon Pedersen falsely claims that My Doctor Suggests silver products can destroy coronavirus, and remove it from the body, assuring the user will never get COVID-19, the complaint states.

In his online sales pitches, Pedersen refers to himself as a doctor and often gives his sales pitch in a white coat with a stethoscope around his shoulders, creating the appearance of a treating physician, even though ... Pedersen does not hold a doctor of medicine degree, and is not licensed as a medical provider in the state of Utah, the complaint alleges.

According to the Silver Health Institute website: Dr. Pedersen holds four doctors degrees. He has a doctorate of naturopathic medicine. He has a Ph.D. from the toxicology program at Utah State University, where he also has Ph.D. degrees in immunology and biology. He is board certified in anti-aging and regenerative medicine and also holds a masters degree in cardiac rehabilitation and wellness.

Defendants are creating a false sense of security that may cause consumers to avoid conventional medical treatment and to ignore travel restrictions and social distancing that slow the spread of COVID-19.Court documents

In one of his YouTube videos promoting a silver hand sanitizer, Pedersen says he is going to go out and shake hands with people, doctors, patients, people who are infected possibly with the flu ... and Im going to have a confidence level that I have protection, court documents state.

In a podcast interview in March, Pedersen claimed, If you have the silver in you, when the virus arrives, the silver can isolate and eliminate that virus, the complaint states. In the same podcast, Pedersen said he could freely travel and was even going on a cruise ship, but was confident he would not catch COVID-19 because of his products.

Prosecutors noted in court documents that the list prices on the My Doctor Suggests website range up to $299.95 for a gallon of the silver solution, a mix of water, sodium bicarbonate commonly known as baking soda and extract from silver wire the companys self-described flagship product.

Prosecutors further noted, There is no recognized cure for COVID-19, and no drug product has been proven safe and effective for the prevention, treatment or cure of COVID-19.

Even Pedersen knows silver products are not a proven cure or treatment for COVID-19, the complaint states. They are also aware that they cannot legally promote My Doctor Suggests silver products for the prevention and/or treatment of COVID-19, and distribute them in interstate commerce. Indeed, defendant Pedersen has stated that, We are not a cure for the coronavirus there is none, and acknowledged that he does not actually know whether the products kill coronavirus.

Prosecutors described Pedersens actions as reckless and harmful to consumers, the complaint says.

Defendants are creating a false sense of security that may cause consumers to avoid conventional medical treatment and to ignore travel restrictions and social distancing that slow the spread of COVID-19, court documents state.

A federal court also froze all of Pedersens and his companies assets on Wednesday.

Even in a time of great uncertainty, there are at least two unchanging realities. There are those who would unlawfully exploit our vulnerabilities, and there are those who will hold such parties accountable, Huber said in a prepared statement. COVID-19 is a dangerous disease, and American consumers must have accurate and reliable information as they make important health decisions.

In issuing the restraining orders, Barlow wrote, There is good cause to believe that immediate and irreparable harm will result from defendants ongoing violations unless they are forced to stop, and that any harm a temporary restraining may cause to Pedersens businesses is greatly outweighed by the threat to the health and safety of individuals relying on defendants products and the representations regarding those products and to the public generally.

A hearing on the preliminary injunction is scheduled for May 12. As of Wednesday afternoon, the My Doctor Suggests website was offline.

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Judge orders Utahn to stop touting silver products as COVID-19 cure - KSL.com

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 28, 2020) As the coronavirus lockdown presses on, the impact that it is having on children and families is undeniable. However, the impact varies greatly depending on each child and their familys situation. Children of health care workers, for example, may see their parents less and worry more about them when theyre at work. For younger children, this may be their first time hearing about hospitals, illness and death, which can lead to difficult conversations. Knowing their grandparents are more susceptible can lead to more stress and anxiety. As sports seasons, proms and graduations are canceled, and kids have prolonged separation from friends and extended family, it can be even more difficult to bolster morale, particularly as many parents face financial uncertainty.

We know that children do best on some kind of routine. Many parents stepped up like champions in the beginning in of the COVID-19 crisis; They started managing schoolwork, developing creative projects and planning activities. For the first few weeks, many parents felt that they could manage this arrangement. But as the lockdown has continued for weeks with no official end in sight, many parents have wavered. School is hard under the best of circumstances and kids may find it harder to concentrate at home. Schools, daycares and extended family are key for many families to be able to function, and it becomes harder and harder to manage that routine, especially when parents must also work from home or may be facing financial pressures or losses.

But kids are resilient. We can help our kids through this. Weve learned from other natural disasters that in the long-term, most kids will recover. Most of the challenges are kids are facing are likely temporary. With every challenge our kids face, we have an opportunity to support them and to teach them resiliency.

What can we do to support our kids?

Finally, take care of yourself and reach out for help when you need it for your child or yourself. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Parents need to remember to take care of themselves to be able to continue to support their kids. Many people in your community may be able to offer emotional support or help you find resources to help your family manage current challenges.

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In the Face of an Unprecedented Crisis, Kids Can Bounce Back - UKNow

A high fever is considered one of the symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused the novel coronavirus. However, a new study of New York patients published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that two-thirds of the seriously ill patients did not have a fever. The study also found several commonalities among the previous medical conditions the patients had.

The study was published on Wednesday and studied 5,700 patients hospitalized in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County at hospitals in the Northwell Health system between March 1 and April 4. The most common conditions among the patients were hypertension, obesity and diabetes. Just over half of the patients suffered from hypertension, and 41.7% suffered from obesity. Just over 33% percent had diabetes.

"The most surprising finding to me was that two-thirds of the patients who were seriously ill with an active infection did not have a fever," senior researcher Karina Davidson, M.D., told KTRK-TV. Fever is usually the first symptom doctors check for, but Davidson said some of the sickest patients in the study did not exhibit a high fever. "This is a puzzling infection," she added. "Different people have different symptoms, some of them mild, some of those severe."

Davidson noted that studies of COVID-19 are showing it is more that a lung disease. "It is going to have not just short-term effects that are deleterious on many target organs, but we may be looking at an infection that has long-term consequences," she explained.

Of the patients included in the study, 553 died. As of April 4, 1,151 patients needed mechanical ventilation, and 282 of those died, while 831 were still in the hospital. Men were more likely to die than women in every age group studied. More patients with diabetes developed acute kidney injury compared to those without.

A fever higher than the typical 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit is one of the symptoms of the coronavirus, but experts told CNN patients should not be fixated on a specific number. A person is not usually considered feverish until their temperature hits 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

"There are many misconceptions about fever," Dr. John Williams, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, explained to CNN. "We all actually go up and down quite a bit during the day as much as half of a degree or a degree," he said, adding that for many, "99.0 degrees or 99.5 degrees Fahrenheit is not a fever."

Infectious disease expert Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, also explained that taking your temperature early in the morning is not a good idea. "Our temperature is not the same during the day. If you take it at eight o'clock in the morning, it may be normal," Schaffner said. "One of the most common presentations of fever is that your temperature goes up in the late afternoon and early evening. It's a common way that viruses produce fever."

Other symptoms of COVID-19 include shortness of breath, dry cough, chills and body aches, sudden confusion, pink eye, digestive problems, loss of smell and taste, fatigue and headache, sore throat or congestion. Symptoms can appear between two to 14 days after exposure to the coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Doctors Puzzled by Report Claiming Two-Thirds of 'Seriously Ill' COVID-19 Patients Didn't Have Fever - PopCulture.com

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases the agency run by Anthony Fauci has launched the first randomized, controlled trial of remdesivir, enlisting about 1,060 patients worldwide. The agency released data from the trial on April 29 that shows the drug shortens time to recovery. Those taking it in the trial recovered after an average of 11 days, compared with an average of 15 days for participants who were given a placebo.

Two Chinese trials were halted this month because of a lack of enrollment, purportedly due to a lack of patients with Covid-19 as Chinas outbreak wanes. Results from a trial in more severe Covid-19 patients were published on April 29 in The Lancet, and did not show statistically significant clinical benefits.

Outside of the trials, Gilead is still allowing patients to access the intravenous drug via a compassionate use program. Its donating 1.5 million doses enough to treat more than 140,000 patients for use in clinical trials and compassionate use programs.

Approved in Japan in 2014 to treat the flu, Fujifilms antiviral brand name Avigan never hit the market because of concerns it could cause birth defects. Its now being tested against the coronavirus in Japan and the U.S. The Japanese government is also stockpiling 2 million treatment courses of the drug, betting that it will be effective because it disrupts the process by which the coronavirus, and related viruses, replicate.

Fujifilm launched a Phase III clinical trial in Japan on March 31 to assess favipiravirs safety and efficacy. The company did not provide any further details on the trials design or duration.

The company also started a Phase II trial this month for about 50 patients at three Boston-area hospitals, including Brigham and Womens Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center.

Zhang Xinmin, an official at Chinas science and technology ministry, told the China Daily last month that favipiravir produced encouraging results in clinical trials of 340 patients in Wuhan and Shenzhen.

First approved by the FDA in 2010 to treat rheumatoid arthritis, Roches drug marketed as Actemra blocks a type of severe inflammation, called a cytokine storm, seen in the lungs of some coronavirus patients. Studies from China have shown that neutralizing cytokine storms helps to reduce deaths in severe cases of Covid-19. Last month, China approved the use of Actemra to treat Covid-19, but clinical trials of the drug are continuing.

Results from an open-label trial in France showed improved outcomes for people taking the drug who had moderate or severe Covid-19 pneumonia. The trial compared 65 participants randomly assigned to receive tocilizumab and 64 who were given standard care.

Roche is sponsoring a Phase III trial of 330 hospitalized patients with severe Covid-19 pneumonia in the U.S. and Europe. It will evaluate the efficacy and safety of tocilizumab compared with a placebo in combination with standard treatment. A Roche spokesperson said the results could be released in early summer.

The National Cancer Institute of Naples has enrolled 2,111 people across Italy in a Phase II single-arm trial which means that every patient will receive tocilizumab, and there is no control group. The researcher leading the trial told POLITICO that results are expected in the next three weeks.

At least four other trials are ongoing at hospitals across China, Roche said, but they are not placebo-controlled. Results from one of those studies, which involved 21 patients, showed improved clinical outcomes. The findings were published on April 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Approved by the FDA to treat rheumatoid arthritis, this Eli Lilly drug a.k.a. Olumiant was identified as a potential coronavirus treatment by a U.K.-based artificial intelligence system. Lilly initially expressed caution about using baricitinib in Covid-19 patients because it suppresses the immune system, according to The New York Times, but eventually agreed to test the medication because doctors had started using it off-label. The drug company is working with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study baricitinib as part of a placebo-controlled trial in the U.S., Europe and Asia that also includes Gileads remdesivir. Data on baricitinib is expected in the next two months, according to Lilly.

AstraZenecas drug, also known as Calquence, is approved to creat a pair of blood cancers: chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma. Now its being eyed as a treatment for coronavirus patients in the grip of cytokine storms. The drug company said last week that it will undertake a randomized, controlled trial of Calquence. NIH Director Francis Collins said this week that he was surprised by the early clinical data, but he also said hell wait for the trial results before drawing any conclusions about the drugs usefulness.

Convalescent plasma is a decades-old treatment that involves giving sick patients the antibody-rich blood plasma of people who have recovered from the same illness. The approach has a mixed track record, but its being tried again with the coronavirus as is a treatment known as hyperimmune globulin, which is derived from convalescent plasma and also contains high levels of antibodies.

New Jersey-based Hackensack University Medical Center is running a Phase IIa study with 55 participants to determine the best dosing for convalescent plasma treatment.

Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands is recruiting 426 patients for a Phase II trial to compare convalescent plasma with the standard of care.

Nine hospitals in Spain will enroll 278 hospitalized patients with Covid-19 to compare convalescent plasma with the standard of care.

The FDA is also helping to coordinate a study of hyperimmune globulin that will be conducted by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Hospitals in China have used corticosteroids in an attempt to tamp down inflammation in coronavirus patients, but its not yet clear whether this strategy is effective, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has warned against using the drugs to treat Covid-19, because patients with the MERS coronavirus or flu who were given steroids were more likely to die than those didnt get the drugs. Still, there are multiple trials now testing various steroids against the coronavirus.

A U.K. government-funded study of 5,262 Covid-19 patients at 167 sites that began in March is testing four different treatments, including a low dose of the steroid dexamethasone.

Scientists in South Korea are recruiting 144 people to investigate whether the steroid ciclesonide alone or in combination with hydroxychloroquine could help patients with mild Covid-19.

The malaria drugs have been at the center of a media storm, after President Donald Trump and his allies began aggressively promoting them as coronavirus treatments despite a lack of data. Pharmaceutical companies have donated millions of doses to the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile, and almost 100 clinical trials have sprung up since the FDA issued an emergency use authorization in early April to distribute the both drugs to coronavirus patients.

At least one clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine was halted because the drug caused life-threatening cardiac side effects a risk long known to doctors who use the drug to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.

The NIHs National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is helping to conduct a blinded, placebo-controlled Phase III trial to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine in 510 adults hospitalized with Covid-19. The trial began enrolling patients in Tennessee on April 2, and will extend to 44 sites nationwide. A spokesperson for Vanderbilt University Medical Center said results will come in a couple of months.

The University of Minnesota is conducting a Phase III trial in 3,000 participants to determine if hydroxychloroquine can help prevent or treat Covid-19. Results are expected about two weeks after the trial is fully enrolled, a university spokesperson said.

Trials at the University of Utah and Intermountain Medical Center in Utah are comparing hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in 300 patients hospitalized with Covid-19. The timing of its results depends on how quickly researchers can enroll participants, said Dr. Samuel Brown, Intermountains director of pulmonary and critical care research.

Three hospitals in New Jersey are conducting a 160-person randomized trial that will compare hydroxychloroquine alone and in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin to a control group that receives standard care for the first six days. After that point, any patients with symptoms of the coronavirus will receive the malaria drug.

The University of Pennsylvania is conducting a three-part trial that includes a randomized, controlled study of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for home-bound coronavirus patients; a randomized trial testing different doses of the drug in hospitalized patients; and a randomized, controlled trial of low doses of hydroxychloroquine as a preventative treatment for health care workers.

It took just 63 days from the time the company started designing its vaccine to launch the first clinical trial, a rapid pace made possible in part by Modernas use of genetic material called messenger RNA. When that mRNA is injected into a patient, it directs cells to make a protein found on the coronavirus and stimulates the production of antibodies.

No mRNA vaccine for any disease has yet won approval, but the technique has tantalized public health experts because churning out doses using this technology would be cheaper and easier than making traditional vaccines. The U.S. governments Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority has pledged up to $483 million to accelerate the Moderna vaccines path to FDA approval.

In March, the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle began enrolling patients in a Phase I safety trial. Emory University in Atlanta is also enrolling patients in the trial, which is aiming for a total of 45 participants across the two sites. Participants will receive two shots of the experimental vaccine approximately one month apart and will be followed for about one year.

Moderna is already ramping up production of the vaccine for a potential Phase II trial that could begin as early as June. A Phase III trial could begin next fall. If the early data is promising, the company says it could churn out enough doses by next fall to vaccinate health care workers and other priority groups.

This experimental vaccine, developed in China, was created to combat Ebola. It uses an inactivated version of a virus that causes the common cold to carry a gene that causes cells to make a protein found on the coronavirus with the goal of sparking an immune response. Phase I testing began last month in China, and CanSino and the Beijing institute have enrolled almost 300 people with Covid-19. Based on preliminary data, the company says it plans to launch a Phase II placebo-controlled trial with 500 participants.

Johnson & Johnson is working with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on a vaccine that uses an inactivated version of the common-cold virus to carry genetic material into cells. That material prompts the body to pump out proteins found in the coronavirus in the hopes of drawing an immune response. The company expects to kick off human studies by September at the latest. If the vaccine works, J&J says the first batches could be available for emergency use in early 2021.

The two companies one American, one German are partnering on an mRNA coronavirus vaccine. This week, German regulators approved a Phase I/II trial of the vaccine; its first stage will enroll 200 people. Pfizer is paying BioNTech $185 million upfront as part of the collaboration, and the companies said they have the potential to supply millions of doses by the end of 2020 if the vaccine is promising, and scale up to produce hundreds of millions of doses in 2021.

This experimental vaccine combines Sanofi technology that produces a protein found in the coronavirus, which aims to trigger an immune response, with an adjuvant made by GlaxoSmithKline designed to heighten that immune response. The companies plan to begin Phase I trials of their vaccine in the second half of the year, and if the results look good, a vaccine could be available by the second half of 2021. Phase I clinical trials are expected to initiate in the second half of 2020 and, if successful, a vaccine could be available by the second half of 2021.

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The drugs and treatments that could stop Covid-19 - POLITICO

Nicole Junkermann, international entrepreneur and investor, and the founder of NJF Holdings explains how AI technology can help win the fight against Coronavirus and transform the future of healthcare.

Coronavirus has pushed healthcare systems to their limits and pushed researchers to rapidly search for solutions. Now is the time to turn to technology and ensure that cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and health informatics are part of our pandemic response.

From predictive care to precision health testing, many clinicians and hospitals are already using AI to improve day-to-day care. Health AI has become increasingly sophisticated and efficient, and a new wave of investment and research in the wake of the coronavirus crisis could spur even more innovation.

Numerous tech companies, universities, and researchers are stepping up to apply AI technology to pandemic response. Already, Microsoft, Google, and several small start-ups such as BlueDot and OWKIN are tapping into the immense power of combining human teams with machines in order to combat the pandemic.

The solution to COVID-19 is not likely going to come from one person, one company or one country, said Peter Lee, corporate vice president for microsoft healthcare. This is a global issue, and it will be a global effort to solve it.

The most successful interventions will come from human-machine collaboration but we must take great care to implement AI technologies with a clear understanding of how they will interface with people working on the frontlines of the coronavirus crisis.

The Power of Human-Machine teams

More than 7,000 miles away from Wuhan, China, an AI warning system developed by Toronto start-up BlueDot was among the first in the world to identify the emerging risk from COVID-19. In a report by Forbes How AI may prevent the next coronavirus outbreak, BlueDots AI system constantly scans through 100,000 official and mass media sources in 65 languages each day in order to detect outbreaks in real-time. And on the last day of December 2019, the system alerted one of BlueDots human employees to a potential pneumonia-like outbreak in Chinas Hubei province.

That employee was able to recognise parallels to the 2002 SARS outbreak and pursue further modelling of the disease, which led BlueDot to publish the first scientific paper on COVID-19, accurately predicting its global spread.

While diseases spread fast, knowledge can spread even faster, said BlueDot in a blog post. The company argues that traditional disease surveillance, which relies primarily on people, takes a great deal of time and often results in public health officials missing relevant warnings or receiving crucial information when its too late.

Researchers are building AI systems to augment not replace human expertise and capabilities, allowing for more informed healthcare responses and decisions.

At Stanford Universitys Institute for Human-Centered AI, researchers and clinicians are already developing AI-based methods to help hospitals manage the flood of COVID-19 patients. Dr Ron Li, clinical assistant professor at Stanford Medicine, is exploring how to use machine learning to identify patients who will need intensive care before the patients condition deteriorates. Lis team is working to apply an existing machine learning model on patient deterioration to coronavirus patients. The goal is to roll this technology out allowing the decisions taken by hospital clinicians to be augmented by reliable data that is generated with AI.

The benefit of having a machine learning model is that it learns very quickly. It can learn over thousands or hundreds of thousands of patients, whereas as a clinician I can only learn from the limited patient population I see, said Li during Stanfords virtual conference on COVID-19 and AI. Also, it can do things at scale some things that humans cant do.

Stanford professor Binbin Chen is using AI to help develop a COVID-19 vaccine. According to Stanford, Chens team uses AI to examine fragments of SARS-CoV-2 to determine how they might apply to COVID-19 vaccines. By combining immunology principles and machine learning tools, the team can predict immunogenic components of a virus that help scientists get closer to determining what components to include in that viruss vaccine.

Microsoft is also pioneering human-machine teams and announced the launch of its C3.ai Digital Transformation Institute, which will bring together scientists, academics, and private companies to explore AI techniques to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.

In these difficult times, we need now more than ever to join our forces with scholars, innovators, and industry experts to propose solutions to complex problems. I am convinced that digital, data science, and AI are a key answer, said Gwenalle Avice-Huet, executive vice president of ENGIE, an energy company that is part of the new partnership.

AI technology to prepare for the next crisis

The application of AI tools reaches far beyond one virus. As we fight coronavirus, we must also look beyond the current crisis and recognise the great potential this technology has for the future of healthcare.

In the field of neuroscience, Googles DeepMind Health is using machine learning to develop algorithms that mimic the human brain. DeepMind Health also created a mobile medical assistant, which helps doctors and nurses spot serious kidney conditions earlier and helps clinicians deliver better care to patients with acute kidney injuries or sepsis.

Patient care can be improved, and healthcare costs reduced, through the use of digital tools, said DeepMind. Together, they form the foundation for a transformative advance in medicine, helping to move from reactive to preventative models of care.

As technology improves and as investment increases, it becomes clear that AI has the potential to transform healthcare across the board. In order to tackle the biggest challenges facing medicine and public health, we must continue equipping researchers, data scientists, and clinicians with powerful AI tools, as well as improve our implementation of human-machine collaborations in the real-world. These powerful AI tools arent replacing human knowledge or decision-making, but rather giving healthcare professionals more information and models to tackle coronavirus. We must recognise the great potential of AI technology to improve not only our response to this pandemic, but also the future of healthcare in general.

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How AI can help win the fight against Coronavirus - Med-Tech Innovation

1. What are the symptoms ofCOVID-19 infection

Symptoms of COVID-19 vary in severity from having no symptoms at all (being asymptomatic) to having fever, cough, sore throat, general weakness and fatigue and muscular pain and in the most severe cases, severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis and septic shock, all potentially leading to death. Reports show that clinical deterioration can occur rapidly, often during the second week of disease.

Recently, anosmia loss of the sense of smell (and in some cases the loss of the sense of taste) have been reported as a symptom of a COVID-19 infection. There is already evidence from South Korea, China and Italy that patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection have developed anosmia/hyposmia, in some cases in the absence of any other symptoms.

Elderlypeople above 70 years of age and thosewith underlying health conditions (e.g.hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease and cancer) areconsidered to be more at risk of developing severe symptoms. Men in these groups also appear to be at a slightly higher risk than females.

See links to national guidelines on the treatment of patients with serious and life threatening conditions during COVID-19 under external resources

Children make up a very small proportion of reported COVID-19 cases, with about 1% of all cases reported being under 10 years, and 4% aged 10-19 years. Children appear as likely to be infected as adults, but they have a much lower risk than adults of developing symptoms or severe disease. There is still some uncertainty about the extent to which asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic children transmit disease.

There is limited scientific evidence on the severity of illness in pregnant women after COVID-19 infection. It seems that pregnant women appear to experience similar clinical manifestations asnon-pregnantwomen who have progressed to COVID-19 pneumonia and to date (as of 25 March), there have been no maternal deaths, no pregnancy losses and only one stillbirth reported. No current evidence suggests that infection with COVID-19 during pregnancy has a negative effect on the foetus. At present, there is no evidence of transmission of COVID-19 from mother to baby during pregnancy and only one confirmed COVID-19 neonatal case has been reported to date.

ECDC will continue to monitor the emerging scientific literature on this question, and suggests that all pregnant women follow the same general precautions for the prevention of COVID-19, including regular handwashing, avoiding individuals who are sick, and self-isolating in case of any symptoms, while consulting a healthcare provider by telephone for advice.

There is no specific treatment or vaccine for this disease.

Healthcare providers are mostly using a symptomatic approach, meaning they treat the symptoms rather than target the virus, and provide supportive care (e.g. oxygen therapy, fluid management) for infected persons, which can be highly effective.

In severe and critically ill patients, a number of drugs are being tried to target the virus, but the use of these need to be more carefully assessed in randomised controlled trials. Several clinical trials are ongoing to assess their effectiveness but results are not yet available.

As this is a new virus, no vaccine is currently available. Although work on a vaccine has already started by several research groups and pharmaceutical companies worldwide, it may be many months or even more than a year before a vaccine has been tested and is ready for use in humans.

Current advice for testing depends on the stage of the outbreak in the country or area where you live. Testing approaches will be adapted to the situation at national and local level. National authorities may decide to test only subgroups of suspected cases based on the national capacity to test, the availability of necessary equipment for testing, the level of community transmission of COVID-19, or other criteria.

As a resource conscious approach, ECDC has suggested that national authorities may consider prioritising testing in the following groups:

More here:
Q & A on COVID-19 What is COVID-19? Why should the virus be closely - EU News

Let's face it. There is no perfectly safe way for America to come out of its lockdown. None of the expected panaceas a treatment or a vaccine are in sight. Meanwhile, America is nowhere close to having South Korea's mass testing capacity that allowed that country to "flatten its curve." Worse, the longer America stays hunkered down, the more the goal of herd immunity (even if it were possible) becomes elusive because not enough people are getting exposed and developing resistance to the virus.

Yet the economic devastation from the lockdown is becoming more intolerable, with not just livelihoods but lives on the line.

So what should America do besides praying for a summer miracle? Start thinking of the answer not as a binary choice between "lockdown" or "liberation." We need more targeted approaches to contain high-risk activities and protect high-risk populations while giving ordinary Americans more not less freedom to figure out when and how they want to return to work and some semblance of normal life.

The lockdown was originally imposed because the pandemic caught America by surprise and hospitals were simply not equipped to cope with the onslaught. America already has more than 1,000,000 infected cases and 56,000 dead.

This "achievement" has come at a hefty price. About 27 million Americans have filed for unemployment, basically wiping out all the job gains since the Great Recession. And economic output is down a stunning 30 percent. Clearly, things can't go on this way too much longer before the economic pain becomes intolerable.

Yet, notes Avik Roy, president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP), every major plan to phase out the lockdown relies on some combination of either a vaccine, a cure, and mass testing. But given that corona is a virus, there is no guarantee that a vaccine will ever emerge and if it does it will probably take a year-and-a-half. A treatment is more likely but is still months away. Meanwhile, America is performing less than 200,000 tests every day and the White House in its much-hyped announcement on Monday promised to ramp that up to only 267,000 by the end of May. Just to get to South Korea's level will require 1,000,000 tests daily not to mention tracing all the contacts of those who test positive and putting them in quarantine. The Harvard Safra Center for Ethics' bipartisan "Roadmap to Pandemic Resilience," co-authored by Nobel laureate Paul Romer, wants five million tests per day by early June and 20 million tests per day before August to perform repeated screening of the population to catch any secondary outbreaks. That would be terrific but seems like wishful thinking right now. As for herd immunity, it's uncertain how long immunity after exposure lasts so it's unclear population-wide immunity can even be achieved.

Yet Americans can't hide forever in their homes. In fact, several more months of a blanket lockdown and we may pile economic catastrophe on top of a health catastrophe. So what should America do?

The first and paramount thing is to prevent health-care facilities hospitals and nursing homes from becoming superspreaders themselves. Even in the absence of a pandemic, patients pick up 1.7 million infections in American hospitals annually and 99,000 of them die.

Writer Jonathan Tepper, founder of Variant Perception, points out in a deeply researched article that in Wuhan, the original epicenter of the disease in China, around 41 percent of the first 138 patients diagnosed in one hospital contracted the virus in the hospital itself. Likewise, one reason why Italy's Lombardy region might have been worse hit than neighboring Veneto was that Lombardy transported 65 percent people who tested positive into hospitals compared to 20 percent in Veneto, exposing the virus to the entire chain of health-care workers, from ambulance drivers to paramedics to doctors. A group of Lombardy doctors wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine, "[H]ospitals might be main COVID-19 carriers."

As for America, it is too early to find reliable stats about coronavirus infections generated from hospitals here but a Wall Street Journal investigation found that nursing homes in just 35 states accounted for 10,783 deaths or over 20 percent of all U.S. fatalities. Data from five European countries shows that nursing care homes account for 42 percent to 57 percent of all coronavirus fatalities.

Meanwhile, in Canada's largest two provinces, Ontario and Quebec, elderly patients in nursing homes make up about three-quarters of all the deaths from COVID-19.

Preventing health-care facilities from becoming the gasoline on the coronavirus flames has implications both for patient care and providers. On the patient end, it is vital to emphasize non-hospital settings for less severe cases and fashioning coronavirus-dedicated hospitals for the more severe ones like South Korea did nation-wide and some hospitals have come around to doing in America.

On the provider end, America must race to procure protective gear masks, gowns, glasses for frontline staff because shortages compromise not only their safety but their patients' too. Similarly, until America can build ubiquitous testing capacity, it will have to prioritize testing medical staff. It is less important to chase down asymptomatic carriers, celebrated-writer-cum-surgeon Atul Gawande points out. South Korea didn't.

Meanwhile, hospitals also need to beef up their hygienic practices and embrace a "checklist" that Gawande has long been crusading for. This simple and powerful idea, which has resulted in a stunning drop of hospital infections when tried, would involve creating a coronavirus-appropriate protocol of hygiene washing hands, disinfecting the patient before touching, wearing masks and gowns and then having physicians attest that they have adhered to every item on it by check-marking each one before interacting with patients.

In addition to this focus on hospitals, any reopening plan has to beware of other super-spreading venues such as mass transit and super-spreading events such as games, concerts, and campaigns.

Furthermore, around 78 percent of the coronavirus deaths are concentrated in those over 65. Indeed, there is a 22-fold difference in the death rate between the 25-54 year and over 65 cohort, with children facing very few deaths. Yet the "flattening the curve" playbook via blanket lockdowns treats everyone as if they are equally affected.

But given the differential impact, Roy recommends a strategy that allows young people to get back to normal life as much as safely possible. This means reopening schools and lifting stay-at-home orders for all but the elderly or those with underlying conditions that make them more susceptible.

Of course, the young and the old are not sealed off populations. Indeed, most young people have high-risk individuals such as elderly relatives among their close circle of loved ones. So there is no denying there will be an all-around increase in risk for everyone after reopening.

However, some increase in risk might be worth taking given that if the economy decays beyond a point, it'll eat into the country's medical capacity to fight the disease not to mention hand costly rescue packages to affected workers.

Also, whatever the downside of the lockdown, its one very great advantage is that it vastly accelerated the national learning curve on radical social distancing and other precautions. That means that even if the lockdown is relaxed, few people will go back to their pre-coronavirus lifestyle. COVID-19-preventative practices have become part of the national fabric. So it is not pollyannish to believe that this, combined with greater precautions against super-spreaders, will diminish the toll from any follow-up outbreaks compared to the initial one.

Rolling back the lockdown will also give businesses the freedom to come up with innovative adaptive strategies. Essential businesses that were allowed to remain open have found all kinds of ways to enhance consumer safety plexiglass spit barriers at grocery store check out counters, disinfecting every cart. There is every reason to believe that "inessential" businesses will do the same when given the chance.

Coronavirus is a cruel microbe. But we will have to find more clever ways of fighting it than mass captivity.

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While Singapore had initially done very well in managing its imported cases and community transmission, it may have in the words of former diplomat Bilahari Kausikan dropped the ball, said Dr Jeremy Lim, medical doctor and co-founder of AMiLi, the regions first microbiome bank and sequencing service.

Dr Lim was one of the panellists in a webinar titled The COVID-19 Crisis: Through Medical, Economic and Legal Lenses.

The webinar was held by the Workers Partys Youth Wing last Sunday (26 April) via video conferencing app Zoom.

Classifying the Governments approach in fighting COVID-19 in a battleground divided into three fronts namely imported cases, community spread and the migrant worker dormitories clusters Dr Lim said that Singapore has been doing very well in the first two fronts.

Singapore, he said, has done all the right things with curbing imported cases through very aggressive testing, large and complex contact tracing, and marrying public health intervention with economic or financial assurance.

The move, he said, has ensured that Chinese tourists would be more forthcoming, knowing that their financials would be taken care of in terms of testing and treatment.

Dr Lim, a board member of non-governmental organisation HealthServe which provides affordable medical care and social assistance to migrant workers said that the current situation at the migrant worker dormitories, however, may have been a cognitive blindspot on the Governments part.

I would not say that the Government overlooked vulnerabilities when it comes to the foreign worker dorms, but it underestimated the velocity and the severity of COVID-19 racing like wildfire, said the former Ministry of Health senior consultant.

The Government, noted Dr Lim, had focused on Singaporeans, and instead issued directives and guidance to dorm operators and employers without setting realistic expectations as to how much they could do in terms of social distancing at the dorms.

Highlighting the astronomical rise of confirmed cases of COVID-19 presently from the fewer than 1,000 cases recorded on 1 April, Dr Lim cautioned that the numbers will be[come] harder and harder to interpret, as the definition of what a COVID-19 positive case is changing due to constraints in testing.

There is a limit to how much complexity and how much sophistication a system can take before we are overwhelmed by this complexity and that has been the major challenge when it comes to the dormitories, he said. Let us have accountability after the crisis and offer constructive feedback at this point.

Dr Lim, who is also theco-director of LIGHT, the global health institute for the NUS School of Public Health, said that the Governments broad strategy has been trying to balance keeping the economy and society functioning as normal as possible while driving public health and various preventative medicine interventions.

Singapore, he said, has been progressively ramping up healthcare capabilities and freeing up bed in public hospitals and developing facilities in places such as Singapore Expo and Changi Exhibition Centre.

Touching on the situation at the migrant worker dormitories again, Dr Lim said that the Government is currently doing everything possible to manage what appears to be Singapores largest humanitarian and public health crisis to date.

The Government is making up its playbook as we go along, he said.

Dr Lim added that he has never seen the Government looking so vulnerable.

But thats actually a good thing, because it opens up the opportunities for private sectors and NGOs to be much more participating in the overall dynamic, he said.

While Dr Lim is confident that Singapore will survive the COVID-19 crisis, subsequent waves of infection seem inevitable due to the Republics porosity as a global transport hub.

At some point, even if we manage the community spread, even if we manage the [migrant] worker dormitories, there will be imported cases, he warned.

Original post:
Dr Jeremy Lim on dorms cluster: S'pore "did all the right things" with imported cases, community transmission but underestimated...

Gosselies, Belgium, 29April 2020 BONE THERAPEUTICS(Euronext Brussels and Paris: BOTHE), the bone cell therapy company addressing high unmet medical needs in orthopaedics and bone diseases, today announces that it secured EUR 11.0 million financing. The financing will be used to advance both of its key assets, ALLOB and JTA-004, through late stage clinical development. The financing operation consists of EUR4.75million bridge loans, EUR 1,26 million in equity private placement (immediate conversion of CBs) by existing shareholders and, on an as-needed basis, a EUR4.99million in private placement of convertible bonds (CBs). The bridge loans are still subject to obtaining a credit assurance, which is pending regulatory approvals expected in May 2020.

This current financing will allow us to continue the strong progress of the late stage development of our innovative treatment solutions. It will additionally provide support for our wider activity during the measures taken by international governments to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic, said Miguel Forte, MD, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Bone Therapeutics. This support results from the potential of our allogeneic cell therapy platform and enriched protein solution to transform the lives of patients with debilitating bone conditions. We will continue our preparations for when the sites selected for the approved clinical studies with ALLOB and JTA-004 can resume their normal operations on a country per country basis.

We are delighted by the continued support we have received from our current and reference shareholders, including SFPI and S.R.I.W. Their commitment is instrumental for the development of our innovative products, said Jean-Luc Vandebroek, Chief Financial Officer of Bone Therapeutics. The present fundraise allows us to retrieve funds on an as-needed basis rather than an immediate important dilution of a traditional share issuance. Conforming to our financing strategy, we will continue to explore funding options to further strengthen our cash position and to ensure a successful completion of the upcoming clinical trials.

Subject to the completion of the current financing operation, supporting the companys further development and strengthen its balance sheet, Bone Therapeutics expects to have a runway into Q1 2021. The secured 11.0 million financing combines:

Bone Therapeutics intends to pursue a capital raise when favorable market conditions are met. Existing shareholders have already taken a pre-commitment to participate.

The specific terms of the CBs can be found in theInvestor sectionof Bone Therapeutics website.

[1] The Company may at any time stop the program without penalty.

About Bone Therapeutics

Bone Therapeutics is a leading biotech company focused on the development of innovative products to address high unmet needs in orthopedics and bone diseases. The Company has a broad, diversified portfolio of bone cell therapies and an innovative biological product in later-stage clinical development, which target markets with large unmet medical needs and limited innovation.

Bone Therapeutics is developing an off-the-shelf protein solution, JTA-004, which is entering Phase III development for the treatment of pain in knee osteoarthritis. Positive Phase IIb efficacy results in patients with knee osteoarthritis showed a statistically significant improvement in pain relief compared to a leading viscosupplement. The clinical trial application (CTA) for the pivotal Phase III program has been approved by the relevant authorities allowing the start of the study.

Bone Therapeutics other core technology is based on its cutting-edge allogeneic cell therapy platform (ALLOB) which can be stored at the point of use in the hospital, and uses a unique, proprietary approach to bone regeneration, which turns undifferentiated stem cells from healthy donors into bone-forming cells. These cells can be administered via a minimally invasive procedure, avoiding the need for invasive surgery, and are produced via a proprietary, scalable cutting-edge manufacturing process. Following the CTA approval by the Belgian regulatory authority, the Company is ready to start the Phase IIb clinical trial with ALLOB in patients with difficult tibial fractures, using its optimized production process.

The ALLOB platform technology has multiple applications and will continue to be evaluated in other indications including spinal fusion, osteotomy and maxillofacial and dental applications.

Bone Therapeutics cell therapy products are manufactured to the highest GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) standards and are protected by a broad IP (Intellectual Property) portfolio covering ten patent families as well as knowhow. The Company is based in the BioPark in Gosselies, Belgium. Further information is available at http://www.bonetherapeutics.com.

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Bone Therapeutics secures EUR 11.0 million financing - PharmiWeb.com

In the 21st century, the search for methods of treating noncommunicable diseases, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes are amongthe top priorities. Prevention and treatment of these diseases include changing and controlling lifestyle, diet, and the use of pharmaceuticals.

Despite the progress in medicine and pharmacology (developing new solutions for correcting metabolism) and biotechnologies, new effective approaches are still on demand in treating obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

Researchers note that adipose tissue is one of the key players in the development of obesity and diabetes. Adipose tissue is classified both by anatomical location and by function (white and brown fat). So, the main functions of white adipose tissue are to save energy in the form of lipids, and it also has an endocrine function the secretion of hormones, growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, etc.

The function of brown adipose tissue is to generate heat during adaptive thermogenesis (the process of generating heat in response to cold stimulation). In humans, unlike rodents (laboratory animals most widely used in medical experiments, including modeling of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes), brown adipose tissue is present in significant numbers only in newborns and infants. Recently, the existence of active thermogenic adipose tissue in adults has been shown, but this adipose tissue differs from classical brown adipose tissue in several aspects (development, morphology, gene expression, adipokine production, etc.). This adipose tissue is called brown.

All types of adipocytes (cells that make up adipose tissue mainly) arise from adipose stem cells during differentiation. Currently, the question of the origin of brown adipocytes (from the same stem cell as white adipocytes, or from the same stem cell as brown adipocytes, or from its own stem cell), as well as the ability of white adipose tissue to differentiate into brown adipose tissue.

The ability to control the formation of new adipose tissue, turn white adipose tissue into brown one, or determine the direction of adipocyte stem cell differentiation into a specific subtype is an attractive goal for the development of new pharmacological substances for the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

In addition to the search for new pharmacological substances designed to control the functions of adipose tissue or various other biochemical aspects of energy homeostasis, it is also important to study the role of water in human health, metabolism and the pathogenesis of various diseases. Water is the most abundant chemical substance on Earth and makes up the largest mass fraction in living organisms as a percentage. Water is also a universal solvent in which the basic biochemical processes of living organisms occur.

An important component of a healthy diet is drinking water instead of sugar and soda. So, the modulation of the biological and physico-chemical properties of water is also a promising opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the treatment of said diseases.

Dr. Larisa Litvinova, Ph.D. in Medicine, Head of the Immunology and Cell Biotechnologies Laboratory says,One of the focuses of modern medicine is the development of deuterium-containing drugs. Another direction relates to the role of the D/H ratio of isotopology and its change in water, which will be used as an adjuvant in the treatment of cancer. A different D/H ratio manifests itself in the form of a kinetic isotope effect, which is characterized by a change in the rates of biotransformation and excretion of drugs. Moreover, methodological approaches to the quality control of medicines based on isotopology of water could reduce the toxic load on the body.

IKBFU Scientists Larisa Litvinova and Maria Wulf were conducting the research in cooperation with colleagues from Moscow and Kiev and the goal of the research was to find out whether deuterium is engaged in the differentiation of adipose tissue stem cells regulation. Adipogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells was chosen as an in vitro model, where the efficiency of the formation of mature fat cells from precursor cells in media with different deuterium contents were evaluated.

The data on the effect of various concentrations of deuterium on the efficiency and direction (formation of brown/beige or white adipocytes) of differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in an in vitro model system were obtained in the study. Naturally for the possible practical application of these results, additional studies are needed that would allow a more detailed description of the molecular mechanisms of the influence of various concentrations of deuterium at the cellular level, as well as studies at the body level.

The results of the study are published in the article The influence of deuterium on the effectiveness and type of adipogenic differentiation of stem cells of human adipose tissue in vitro in theScientific Reportsjournal.

The results can serve as the basis for the development of new approaches in the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, by regulating the differentiation of fat stem cells and adipocyte functions.

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Scientists from Universities in Russia and Ukraine Collaborate to Research on New Approaches to Treat Obesity and Diabetes - QS WOW News

Global Autologous Cell Therapy Market Size, Status and Forecast 2020-2027

The Autologous Cell Therapy Market report provides a valuable source of insightful data for business strategists. It provides the industry overview with growth analysis and historical & futuristic cost, revenue, demand and supply data (as applicable). The research analysts provide an elaborate description of the value chain and its distributor analysis. This market study provides comprehensive data which enhances the understanding, scope and application of this report.

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The report presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market. Top Companies in the Global Autologous Cell Therapy Market:

Pharmicell Co., Inc., Caladrius Biosciences, Inc., BioTime, Inc., U.S. Stem Cell, Inc., BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, Regeneus Ltd., Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., Vericel Corporation, Fibrocell Science, Inc., TxCell SA, TiGenix NV and others.

Global Autologous Cell Therapy Market Split by Product Type and Applications:

This report segments the global Autologous Cell Therapy market on the basis of Types are:

Bone Marrow

Epidermis

On the basis of Application, the Global Autologous Cell Therapy market is segmented into:

Neurology

Orthopedics

Cancer

Wound Healing

CVD

Autoimmune

Others

Regional Analysis For Autologous Cell Therapy Market:

North America (United States, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)

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Influence of the Autologous Cell Therapy Market Report:

-Comprehensive assessment of all opportunities and risk in the Autologous Cell Therapy market.-Detailed study of business strategies for growth of the Autologous Cell Therapy market-leading players.-Conclusive study about the growth plot of Autologous Cell Therapy market for forthcoming years.-In-depth understanding of Autologous Cell Therapy market-particular drivers, constraints and major micro markets.-Favourable impression inside vital technological and market latest trends striking the Autologous Cell Therapy market.

What are the market factors that are explained in the report?

-Key Strategic Developments: The study also includes the key strategic developments of the market, comprising R&D, new product launch, M&A, agreements, collaborations, partnerships, joint ventures, and regional growth of the leading competitors operating in the market on a global and regional scale.

-Key Market Features: The report evaluated key market features, including revenue, price, capacity, capacity utilization rate, gross, production, production rate, consumption, import/export, supply/demand, cost, market share, CAGR, and gross margin. In addition, the study offers a comprehensive study of the key market dynamics and their latest trends, along with pertinent market segments and sub-segments.

-Analytical Tools: The Global Autologous Cell Therapy Market report includes the accurately studied and assessed data of the key industry players and their scope in the market by means of a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis, SWOT analysis, feasibility study, and investment return analysis have been used to analyze the growth of the key players operating in the market.

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Autologous Cell Therapy Market Global Research and Clinical Survey Report 2020 to 2027 - Cole of Duty

This Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) industry report provides comprehensive analysis as follows Market segments and sub-segments, Market size, Market trends and flow, Major Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Analysis, Drivers and Opportunities, Competitive scene, Product Specification and Major Types Analysis, Supply and demand, Regional Production Market Analysis, Regional Market Performance and Market Share. The Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) market research report covers effectiveness and summary of the marketing research. These results can be employed to make improvements in the business. The report helps to save a large amount of time and money that may get spend on marketing.

Get ExclusiveSample Copy of This Report Herehttps://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-placental-stem-cells-pscs-market

Placentalstem cells(PSCS) market is expected to gain market growth in the forecast period of 2020 to 2027. Data Bridge Market Research analyses the market to growing at a CAGR of 10.25% in the above-mentioned forecast period. Increasing awareness regarding the benefits associates with the preservation of placental derived stem cells will boost the growth of the market.

The major players covered in theplacental stem cells (PSCS) marketreport areCBR Systems, Inc, Cordlife India, Cryo-Cell International, Inc., ESPERITE N.V., LifeCell International Pvt. Ltd., StemCyte India Therapeutics Pvt. Ltd, PerkinElmer Inc, Global Cord Blood Corporation., Smart Cells International Ltd., Vita 34, among other domestic and global players. Market share data is available for Global, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America separately.DBMR analysts understand competitive strengths and provide competitive analysis for each competitor separately.

Market Analysis and Insights of Global Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) Market

Adoption of advances and novel technologies that will lead to the storage and preservation of stem cells, technological advancement in the field of biotechnology, introduction of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation system and growing number of diseases which will helps in accelerating the growth of the placental stem cells (PSCS) market in the forecast period of 2020-2027. Surging number of applications from emerging economies along with rising awareness among the people will further boost many opportunities that will led to the growth of the placental stem cells (PSCS) market in the above mentioned forecast period.

Increasing operation costs along with stringent regulatory framework will likely to hamper the growth of the placental stem cells (PSCS) market in the above mentioned forecast period. Social and ethical issues will be the biggest challenge in the growth of the market.

Thisplacental stem cells(PSCS) market report provides details of new recent developments, trade regulations, import export analysis, production analysis, value chain optimization, market share, impact of domestic and localised market players, analyses opportunities in terms of emerging revenue pockets, changes in market regulations, strategic market growth analysis, market size, category market growths, application niches and dominance, product approvals, product launches, geographic expansions, technological innovations in the market. To gain more info on placental stem cells (PSCS) market contactData Bridge Market Researchfor anAnalyst Brief, our team will help you take an informed market decision to achieve market growth.

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Global Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) Market Scope and Market Size

Placental stemcells(PSCS) market is segmented on the basis of service type and application. The growth amongst these segments will help you analyse meagre growth segments in the industries, and provide the users with valuable market overview and market insights to help them in making strategic decisions for identification of core market applications.

Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) Market Country Level Analysis

Placental stemcells(PSCS) market is analysed and market size insights and trends are provided by country, service type and application as referenced above.

The countries covered in the placental stem cells (PSCS) market report are U.S., Canada and Mexico in North America, Germany, France, U.K., Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Russia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Rest of Europe in Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the Asia-Pacific (APAC), Saudi Arabia, U.A.E, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Rest of Middle East and Africa (MEA) as a part of Middle East and Africa (MEA), Brazil, Argentina and Rest of South America as part of South America.

North America dominates the bone marrow-derived stem cells (BMSCS) market due to the increasing stem cell procedure along with preferences of private stem cell banking over public and surging network of stem cell banking services.

The country section of the placental stem cells (PSCS) market report also provides individual market impacting factors and changes in regulation in the market domestically that impacts the current and future trends of the market. Data points such as consumption volumes, production sites and volumes, import export analysis, price trend analysis, cost of raw materials, down-stream and upstream value chain analysis are some of the major pointers used to forecast the market scenario for individual countries. Also, presence and availability of global brands and their challenges faced due to large or scarce competition from local and domestic brands, impact of domestic tariffs and trade routes are considered while providing forecast analysis of the country data.

Healthcare Infrastructure growth Installed base and New Technology Penetration

Placental stem cells (PSCS) market also provides you with detailed market analysis for every country growth in healthcare expenditure for capital equipments, installed base of different kind of products for placental stem cells (PSCS) market, impact of technology using life line curves and changes in healthcare regulatory scenarios and their impact on the placental stem cells (PSCS) market. The data is available for historic period 2010 to 2018.

Competitive Landscape and Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) Market Share Analysis

Placental stem cells (PSCS) market competitive landscape provides details by competitor. Details included are company overview, company financials, revenue generated, market potential, investment in research and development, new market initiatives, global presence, production sites and facilities, production capacities, company strengths and weaknesses, product launch, product width and breadth, application dominance. The above data points provided are only related to the companies focus related to placental stem cells (PSCS) market.

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Placental Stem Cells (PSCS) Market is Prospering With Healthy CAGR in 2020. Leading Players are Cryo-Cell International, Inc., ESPERITE NV, LifeCell...

Core Materials Market report provide the COVID19 Outbreak Impact analysis of key factors influencing the growth of the market size (Production, Value and Consumption). This Core Materials industry splits the breakdown (data status 2014-2019 and Six years forecast 2020-2026), by manufacturers, region, type and application. This study also analyses the Core Materials market Status, Market Share, Growth Rate, Future Trends, Market Drivers, Opportunities and Challenges, Risks and Entry Barriers, Sales Channels, Distributors and Porters Five Forces Analysis.

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On the basis of type, the core materials market is segmented into:

On the basis of end-use industry, the core materials market is segmented into:

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Asia-Pacific (Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and Australia)

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What are the areas of major investment by the players in the market?

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How the Core Materials Market has witnessed Substantial Growth in recent years? - Latest Herald