Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 07.12.2020
COVID-19: Early Treatment With Zinc Plus Low-dose Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin Reduced Hospitalizations
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Martin Scholz
Heinrich-Heine-University
Düsseldorf, Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Primary care physicians should have options available to effectively treat newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients in the outpatient setting to avoid severe COVID-19 progression, hospitalizations, and mortality. Already since the beginning of the pandemic different early treatment options were evaluated. My co-authors, Dr. Zelenko, Dr. Derwand, and myself were keen to confirm retrospectively the observed evidence for beneficial early treatment effects of an already applied triple therapy in combination with a risk stratification approach. The defined risk stratification allowed to differentiate between patients at low and high risk for disease progression and guided treatment decisions.
Dr. Meyers[/caption]
Craig Meyers, PhD
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Pennsylvania State College of Medicine
Hershey, PA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: As nasal and oral cavities are major points of entry and transmission for human coronaviruses our team of physicians and scientists (Craig Meyers, Janice Milici, Samina Alam, David Quillen, David Goldenberg and Rena Kass of Penn State College of Medicine and Richard Robison of Brigham Young University) were interested in testing common over-the-counter oral antiseptics and mouthwashes for their efficacy to inactivate infectious human coronavirus, which is structurally similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. While we wait for a vaccine for COVID-19 to be developed, methods to reduce transmission are needed. We chose products that are readily available and often already part of people’s daily routines.
Dr. Profeta[/caption]
Paola Profeta, PhD
Professor of Public Economics, Department of Social and Political Sciences
Bocconi University
Director, Msc Politics and Policy Analysis, Bocconi University
Coordinator, Dondena Gender Initiative, Dondena Research Center
President, European Public Choice Society
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: We interview more than 20000 men and women in 8 OECD countries in two periods during the lockdown.
Using two waves from 8 OECD countries, we find that women are more likely to perceive the pandemic as a very serious health problem, to agree with restraining measures and to comply with public health rules, such as using facemasks. This gender differences are less strong for married individuals and for individuals who have been directly exposed to COVID, for instance by knowing someone who was infected.
Dr. Jimenez[/caption]
Monik Carmen Jimenez, Sc.D
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Brigham and Women's Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We wanted to get a comprehensive picture of the epidemiology of COVID-19 in carceral facilities that included jails and was not restricted solely to prisons. We utilized publicly available data collected in Massachusetts, pursuant to a court order. These data included prison and jail systems and were used to calculate rates of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and testing rates among incarcerated individuals. We were also able to compare those to changes in the population size within each system.
Dr. Amy Kennedy, M.D., M.S
Clinician-Researcher Fellow, General Internal Medicine
University of Pittsburgh
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: UPMC uses a nucleic acid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2 and specimen collection is done with a nasopharyngeal swab by trained clinicians. The health system developed its COVID-19 test in early March 2020 in anticipation of the tremendous need for diagnostic capabilities.
My colleagues and I worked with the Wolff Center at UPMC — the health system’s quality care and improvement center — to review the results of more than 30,000 COVID-19 tests performed on adult patients who received care through one of UPMC’s 40 academic, community and specialty hospitals, or 700 doctors’ offices and outpatient sites in Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland. The tests were performed between March 3 and May 3, 2020. Of those tests, 485 were repeated at least once. 
Dr. Heald-Sargent[/caption]
Taylor Heald-Sargent, M.D., Ph.D.
Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital
Chicago
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Given the ongoing debate around the ability of children to transmit SARS-CoV-2, we noticed that our clinical data could address one of the prevalent assumptions. Some people postulated that the reason children have less severe infections with SARS-CoV-2 is because they are not able to replicate virus as much as adults and therefore may not transmit as readily. 
Dr. Ghaffari[/caption]
Abdi Ghaffari, Ph.D.
Associate Professor (adjunct)
Dept. of Pathology and Molecular Medicine
Queen’s University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: SARS-CoV-2 virus has infected millions and changed our way of life by placing nearly 3 billion people under lockdown or some form of physical isolation. In the absence of a vaccine or reliable treatment, diagnostic testing must be a pillar of public health policy to control further spread of the virus and to guide gradual removal of lockdown measures.
COVID-19 antibody diagnostic tests are being increasingly used to assess the protective immunity status in the population. There are over 100 different COVID-19 antibody tests developed by companies worldwide in an effort to address this need. However, companies’ reported performance data are not always in line with the actual performance of these diagnostic tests in the real-world. In this work, we conducted a systemic review of independent studies (sponsored by academic or government institutions) that aimed to validate the performance of currently available COVID-19 antibody tests on the market. 
Samia Arshad[/caption]
Samia Arshad, MPH
Epidemiologist II
Infectious Disease
Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI
I would like to start off by saying: We need to keep partisanship out of science. During this pandemic, we hope we can stick to science and help save lives with purposeful data driven facts.
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial and immunomodulatory agent has demonstrated antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2. We are in an acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 25% of the world’s cases occurring in the United States. Currently there is no known therapy or vaccine for treatment of SARS-CoV-2, highlighting the urgency around identifying effective therapies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the role of hydroxychloroquine therapy alone and in combination with azithromycin in hospitalized patients positive for COVID-19. ![MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Herman Anne Service de Dermatologie Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc Avenue Hippocrate, 10 1200 Bruxelle MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, several cases of acro-located lesions (on foot or hands) suggestive of chilblains have been reported and were possibly related to COVID-19. We wanted to determine if chilblains, observed in many patients recently referred to our department, are indicative of COVID-19. MedicalResearch.com: Would you briefly explain what is meant by chilblains? Response: Chilblains are frequent cold induced inflammatory lesions. Chilblains are typically seen in winter and occur after repeated exposure to cold temperatures. Clinical presentation includes erythema and swelling on toes and/or digits followed by red-purple macules or patches. However, given the large number of patients affected, and the exceptionally high outdoor temperatures for the spring season over the past month and at the time of case-observation, cold-exposure seemed unlikely. These lesions were, therefore, suspected to be associated with COVID-19. However, to date, no study has proven a pathological link between these lesions and COVID-19. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: In our series of 31 patients who recently developed chilblains, negative nasopharyngeal swabs and the absence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 blood immunoglobulin (Ig)M and IgG antibodies in all patients included in your study suggested that these patients had not been infected with COVID-19. These lesions appeared not to be directly related to COVID-19. MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? Response: One hypothesis points to an indirect consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic due to imposed community containment and lockdown measures. Indeed, all patients in this study had either been working from home or were home-schooled since the beginning of containment measures in Belgium (March 11, 2020) or were temporarily unemployed. As a result of containment measures, the majority (64.5%) of patients reported a decrease in their physical activity and significantly more time spent in sedentary positions in front of screens. Most of the patients declared that they remained barefoot or in socks most of the day. All these lifestyle changes can be considered as risk factors for developing chilblains. Therefore, it seems plausible that containment, through its collateral effects, may induce chilblains. Interestingly also, the mean BMI of the patients included was relatively low, suggesting that thin people may be more at risk of developing chilblains. MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work? Response: During the current pandemic, several reports have suggested a possible link between cutaneous manifestations including aural lesions such as chilblains, and COVID-19, however, only few patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR and no serologic tests were performed. Therefore, reliable testings (RT-PCR and serologic testing) are essential to confirm a potential association with COVID-19. Citation: Herman A, Peeters C, Verroken A, et al. Evaluation of Chilblains as a Manifestation of the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Dermatol. Published online June 25, 2020. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2020.2368 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/2767774 [subscribe] Last Modified: [last-modified] The information on MedicalResearch.com is provided for educational purposes only, and is in no way intended to diagnose, cure, or treat any medical or other condition. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health and ask your doctor any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. In addition to all other limitations and disclaimers in this agreement, service provider and its third party providers disclaim any liability or loss in connection with the content provided on this website.](https://medicalresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/chilblain-example-dermnet-nz.jpg)
Dr. Blume[/caption]
Dr. Christine Blume PhD
Centre for Chronobiology
Psychiatric Hospital of the University of Basel
Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences
Basel
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: In modern societies, human rest-activity rhythms and sleep are between the often-conflicting poles of external social time (e.g., work hours and leisure activities) and an individual’s internal biological time. This can lead to so-called “social jetlag”, which has repeatedly been associated with detrimental health effects. With the restrictions to control the pandemic, social timing relaxed as people many started working from home and public life came to a standstill. In an online survey with 435 respondents, we investigated the effects of the phase with the strictest COVID-19 restrictions on the relationship between social and biological rhythms as well as sleep during a six-week period (mid-March until end of April 2020) in three European societies (Austria, Germany, Switzerland).