1- Monday Infectious Disease News – 11th October

1 – Molnupiravir, an Oral Antiviral Treatment for COVID-19

• Easily distributed oral antivirals are urgently needed to treat coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19), prevent progression to severe illness, and block transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).
• This study reports the results of a Phase 2a trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, and antiviral efficacy of molnupiravir in the treatment of COVID-19.
• Molnupiravir is the first oral, direct-acting antiviral shown to be highly effective at reducing nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 infectious virus and viral RNA and has a favorable safety and tolerability profile.

Source: NIH

2 – Covid-19: Molnupiravir reduces risk of hospital admission or death by 50% in patients at risk, MSD reports

• The antiviral drug molnupiravir reduced the risk of admission to hospital or death by around 50% in non-hospitalised adults who had mild to moderate covid-19 and were at risk of poor outcomes, Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) has reported.
• The company said in a press release that 7.3% of patients (28 of 385) who received molnupiravir as part of the phase III trial and 14.1% of patients taking placebo (53 of 377) either were admitted to hospital or had died by day 29 after randomisation.
• At day 29 no deaths were reported in the molnupiravir group, while eight were reported in the placebo group.

Source: BMJ

3 – Myocarditis and Pericarditis After Vaccination for COVID-19

• Rare cases of cardiac inflammation following SARS-CoV-2 vaccination have been reported.
• This study reviewed the clinical records of vaccine recipients to identify cases of postvaccination myocarditis or pericarditis.
• Two distinct self-limited syndromes, myocarditis and pericarditis, were observed after COVID-19 vaccination.
• Myocarditis developed rapidly in younger patients, mostly after the second vaccination. Pericarditis affected older patients later, after either the first or second dose.
• Some vaccines are associated with myocarditis, including mRNA vaccines, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported a possible association between COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and myocarditis, primarily in younger male individuals within a few days after the second vaccination, at an incidence of about 4.8 cases per 1 million.
• This study shows a similar pattern, although at higher incidence, suggesting vaccine adverse event underreporting. Additionally, pericarditis may be more common than myocarditis among older patients.

Source: JAMA Network

4- Patient Adherence to Hemoglobin A1c Testing Recommendations in Telemedicine and In-Office Cohorts During COVID-19

• Telemedicine can reduce unnecessary health care utilization, disease management and travel costs, and the financial impact of patient no-shows.
• Telemedicine may also improve the patient-clinician experience, wait times, medication adherence, and overall satisfaction.
• However, telemedicine quality of care is not well studied.
• National organizations recommend universal screening for prediabetes and diabetes; in this study, they used a national reporting measure to compare adherence to diabetes screening between in-person and telemedicine encounters during COVID-19.

Source: JAMA Network

5 – Assessment of Allergic and Anaphylactic Reactions to mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines With Confirmatory Testing in a US Regional Health System

• As of May 2021, more than 32 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the United States, resulting in more than 615 000 deaths.
• Anaphylactic reactions associated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been reported.
• This study aims to characterize the immunologic mechanisms underlying allergic reactions to these vaccines.
• Based on this case series, women and those with a history of allergic reactions appear at have an elevated risk of mRNA vaccine allergy.
• Immunological testing suggests non–IgE-mediated immune responses to PEG may be responsible in most individuals.

Source: JAMA Network

6 – Association of Children’s Physical Activity and Screen Time With Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• Children’s physical activity and screen time are likely suboptimal during the COVID-19 pandemic, which may influence their current and future mental health.
• This study aims to describe the association of physical activity and screen time with mental health among US children during the pandemic.
• This cross-sectional survey was conducted from October 22 to November 2, 2020, among 547 parents of children aged 6 to 10 years and 535 parent-child dyads with children and adolescents (hereinafter referred to as children) aged 11 to 17 years and matched down to 500 children per cohort using US Census–based sampling frames.
• In this cross-sectional survey study, more physical activity and less screen time were associated with better mental health for children, accounting for pandemic stressors.
• Children engaged in suboptimal amounts of physical activity and screen time, making this a potentially important target for intervention.

Source: JAMA Network

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