Coronavirus Tidbits #268 Oct 22, 2023

Study finds serotonin reduction causes long COVID symptoms

Patients with long COVID—the long-term symptoms like brain fog, fatigue, or memory loss in the months or years following COVID-19—can exhibit a reduction in circulating levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, according to new research published today in Cell.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-serotonin-reduction-covid-symptoms.html?

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Germicidal UV lights could be producing indoor air pollutants, study finds

Many efforts to reduce transmission of diseases like COVID-19 and the flu have focused on measures such as masking and isolation, but another useful approach is reducing the load of airborne pathogens through filtration or germicidal ultraviolet light. Conventional UV sources can be harmful to eyes and skin, but newer sources that emit at a different wavelength, 222 nanometers, are considered safe.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-germicidal-uv-indoor-air-pollutants.html?

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Pfizer Paxlovid price gouging

Pfizer said yesterday that its list price for a 5-day course of Paxlovid once the government supply runs out and the private market takes over will be $1,390 before rebates and other discounts to insurers and pharmacy-benefit managers, Reuters reported. For comparison, the US government paid $530 for a course of Paxlovid, which it has made available to Americans at no cost through the end of the year. The company said the drug will be free for Medicare and Medicaid recipients through 2024, as well as for underinsured and uninsured people through 2028.

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Teasing out a potential tie between long Covid and menopause

STAT

All through the pandemic, women have been reporting period disturbances after a Covid infection or after a Covid vaccination. But research specifically on long Covid and menopause is scarce, and mostly preliminary. Traci Kurtzer, a gynecologist and menopause specialist at the Northwestern Medicine Center for Sexual Medicine and Menopause, has been piecing this story together, writes STAT’s Annalisa Merelli. 

“I’ve been experiencing absolutely a change in the number of women I’m seeing with earlier menopausal symptoms, and the severity of symptoms being quite a bit more intense than it used to be,” she said. In one 42-year-old patient diagnosed with menopause, lab results found markers for autoimmune disease and Epstein-Barr virus. “I think that this is long Covid,” said Kurtzer. Read more. 

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CDC study: People with HIV have elevated COVID reinfection rate

A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-led study finds that people with HIV (PWH) have higher COVID-19 reinfection rates than those without HIV (PWOH).

6.7% vs 5.2% reinfection rate

The study, published yesterday in Emerging Infectious Diseases, involved 453,587 adults in Chicago infected with SARS-CoV-2 from their first infection through May 2022. The investigators matched COVID-19 test results and vaccination data to Chicago's Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/cdc-study-people-hiv-have-elevated-covid-reinfection-rate

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Risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome 6 times higher after COVID infection, study suggests

A new study from Israel ties COVID-19 infection to an increased risk of a diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) within 6 weeks, while mRNA vaccination was linked to a decreased risk of the rare but serious autoimmune disease. The study was published today in Neurology.

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/risk-guillain-barre-syndrome-6-times-higher-after-covid-infection-study-suggests

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Smell loss from COVID fades quickly with help of Ensitrelvir

The antiviral drug ensitrelvir eases both smell and taste loss and is one of the few COVID-19 drugs available to people not at high risk of grave illness.

Nature  Mariana Lenharo

New clinical-trial data suggest that an antiviral pill called ensitrelvir shortens the duration of two unpleasant symptoms of COVID-19: loss of smell and taste. The medication is among the first to alleviate these effects and, unlike other COVID-19 treatments, is not reserved only for people at high risk of severe illness.

Early in the pandemic, roughly 40–50% of people with COVID-19 experienced impaired smell or taste¹. The antiviral drug molnupiravir speeds recovery of these senses², but generally only the most vulnerable people can take it.

That is not true for ensitrelvir. In Japan, where it received emergency approval last year, the drug is available to individuals with mild to moderate symptoms, regardless of their risk factors. Its developer, Shionogi in Osaka, Japan, is continuing to conduct clinical trials of the drug, which has not yet been approved outside Japan.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03244-7

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Does SARS-CoV-2 infection have urological effects?

Research published in the Journal of Internal Medicine indicates that SARS-CoV-2 infection may worsen lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) in men.

The study included 17,986 men receiving medication for LUTS within the public health care system of Hong Kong in 2021–2022, half of whom had SARS-CoV-2 infection. The group with SARS-CoV-2 had significantly higher rates of retention of urine (4.55% versus 0.86%); blood in the urine (1.36% versus 0.41%); clinical urinary tract infection (4.31% versus 1.49%); bacteria in the urine (9.02% versus 1.97%); and addition of 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, which are drugs prescribed for enlarged prostate. (0.50% versus 0.02%). These urological manifestations occurred regardless of COVID-19 severity.

The findings might relate to the presence of certain proteins targeted by SARS-CoV-2 that are known to be expressed in the prostate.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-sars-cov-infection-urological-effects.html

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Long Covid Brain Symptoms and PET scan:

The diffuse inflammation of the brain in symptomatic people with #LongCovid by PET scans, with matched controls, and correlation with their blood inflammatory biomarkershttps://t.co/LGoxF3KyQX @MBVanElzakker @MGHMartinos @HannahFBues pic.twitter.com/bWWRysMfAu

— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) October 21, 2023

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Other:

Flu Activity 66% Lower Than This Time in 2022

Walgreens 2023-2024 Walgreens Flu Index update but 34% higher when looking at pre-pandemic seasons. Highest activity is in Texas, LA, Al, FL.

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Yellow Jack’s Potential Return to the American South

https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMp2308420  or

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-potential-yellow-fever.html?

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Genetic changes to avian influenza viruses

have led to spread among many wild species, creating an uncontrollable global outbreak. The strain currently circulating worldwide, an extremely deadly form of the H5N1 subtype, has become increasingly infectious to wild birds. The strain emerged in Europe in 2020, and has spread to an unprecedented number of countries.

In 2020, the rate of spread among wild birds was three times faster than that in farmed poultry, because of mutations that allowed the virus to adapt to diverse species.

“What was once very clearly a poultry pathogen has now become an animal-health issue much more broadly,”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03256-3