In The Lancet, Kathy Leung and colleagues report their assessment of the transmissibility and severity of COVID-19 during the first wave in four cities and ten provinces in China outside Hubei. The study estimated the instantaneous reproduction number in the selected locations decreased substantially after non-pharmaceutical control measures were implemented on Jan 23, 2020, and has since remained lower than 1. The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in these locations was mainly driven by imported ca...

AbstractThe recent outbreak of COVID-19 in Mainland China was characterized by a distinctive subexponential increase of confirmed cases during the early phase of the epidemic, contrasting an initial exponential growth expected for an unconstrained outbreak. We show that this effect can be explained as a direct consequence of containment policies that effectively deplete the susceptible population. To this end, we introduce a parsimonious model that captures both, quarantine of symptomatic inf...

In the worst cases of Covid-19, the virus not only attacks and destroys tissue in the lungs but also triggers an overreaction of the immune system, creating dangerous levels of inflammation. Many of these patients are left unable to breathe on their own, and some die in hospital intensive care units, or at home.

For others with milder Covid cases, a hospital stay might end without the need for artificial ventilation, and they go home after being treated for pneumonia. Many more are...

This video shows a creative and easy way to store your personal N95 mask to avoid contamination from or to other people.You just need a plastic recipient labelled with your name!
Extracted from a LinkedIn post from Rick Cristancho

Medtronic plc the global leader in medical technology, announced the 30th March it is publicly sharing the design specifications for the Puritan Bennett™ 560 (PB 560) to enable participants across industries to evaluate options for rapid ventilator manufacturing to help doctors and patients dealing with COVID-19. This decision is consistent with the recent FDA Guidance and in accordance with the public health and medical response of governmental agencies globally.


Introduced in 201...

OxyGEN is an emergency device designed to be built by anyone around the world. However, at planetary scales, the availability of tools, materials and industrial facilities varies from place to place.


There are 2 different versions of OxyGEN. The maker version "OxyGEN-M" and the industrial version "OxyGEN-IP":

OxyGEN-M is designed for makers and can be built using common tools and no special machinery or materials are needed. 

OxyGEN-IP is the version f...

Castor Launches COVID-19 Research and Monitoring Platform and Supports More Than 100 COVID-19 Studies across 10 Countries Worldwide

Castor, a health-tech company that enables medical researchers to capture machine readable data to optimize medical decision making, announced the launch of its global COVID-19 monitoring and research platform to facilitate the rapid deployment of trials to test Coronavirus vaccines and COVID-19 treatments. After offering free access to their platform for ...

Dirty air increases risk of respiratory problems that can be fatal for coronavirus patients.



Air pollution is linked to significantly higher rates of death in people with Covid-19, according to analysis.




The work shows that even a tiny, single-unit increase in particle pollution levels in the years before the pandemic is associated with a 15% increase in the death rate. The research, done in the US, calculates that slightly cleaner air in Manhattan in the pas...

Medtronic plc  the global leader in medical technology, announced the 30th March it is publicly sharing the design specifications for the Puritan Bennett™ 560 (PB 560) to enable participants across industries to evaluate options for rapid ventilator manufacturing to help doctors and patients dealing with COVID-19. This decision is consistent with the recent FDA Guidance and in accordance with the public health and medical response of governmental agencies globally.

Introduced in 2010, ...

AbstractWe identified seasonal human coronaviruses, influenza viruses and rhinoviruses in exhaled breath and coughs of children and adults with acute respiratory illness. Surgical face masks significantly reduced detection of influenza virus RNA in respiratory droplets and coronavirus RNA in aerosols, with a trend toward reduced detection of coronavirus RNA in respiratory droplets. Our results indicate that surgical face masks could prevent transmission of human coronaviruses and influenza vi...

White and his colleagues at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit wondered whether widely available drugs could help protect the doctors and nurses from coronavirus disease. They have designed a trial in which 40,000 doctors and nurses in Asia, Africa, and Europe will prophylactically receive chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine, two old drugs against malaria. White hopes the trial will start this month, but its launch has been “incredibly difficult because of bureaucratic proce...