Lifeboat Foundation

The high demand on medical devices and personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 crisis left millions of health care professionals unprotected in the middle of this situation, as governments around the world were not prepared for such pandemic. The three-dimensional printing (3DP) community, from universities to 3DP enthusiasts with printers at home, was there to support hospitals from day 1 on this demand by providing PPE and other medical supplies (e.g., face shields and valves for respiratory machines). This editorial covers the importance of 3DP in the fight against COVID-19 and how this can be used to tackle potential pandemics and support the supply chain.

After a series of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, the capital city of Hubei province (China), the Chinese health authorities announced in January 2020 that a novel coronavirus, officially known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV)-2, was responsible for these cases.¹ SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), was not detected before the recent pandemic and has been known to be genetically similar to SARS-CoV.¹ The COVID-19 is transmitted mainly through contact with an infected individual, through droplets that are produced when the patient coughs or sneezes or through droplets from the saliva or nasal cavity.^1,2 To avoid transmission, it is very important to implement individual hygiene measures and especially the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, the lack of PPE and other key resources during the COVID-19 crisis has been a constant problem, leaving many health care professionals across the world unprotected.

Dealing with a pandemic, such as COVID-19, is an unprecedented situation in this modern globalized word, which has created extraordinary emergency that is particularly affecting the supply chain.³ The supply chain disruptions, in combination with the enormous needs for medical devices and protective health care material, have created the need of new initiatives and the use of emerging technologies such as three-dimensional printing (3DP) to come forward and support the health care professionals and supply chain.

The 19 hospitalized patients from a single nursing home had tested positive for the virus in April.

All were older than age 64 and had chronic health conditions such as hypertension, dementia, heart disease, diabetes and lung diseases. Their age and health issues are considered risk factors for severe COVID-19.

The patients received either one or two intravenous doses of itolizumab along with the standard treatments used in Cuba at the time. Those included antiviral drugs, antibiotics, chloroquine, interferon, and blood thinners. Only two patients required oxygen therapy after the first dose, and all but one were discharged from the hospital in 14 days.

N”(Reuters) — An antibody drug already being used against the coronavirus in Cuba decreased the risk of intensive care admission and death among nursing home residents with moderate COVID-19, according to a small study conducted in the island nation.

Continue reading “Antibody drug lowers risk of death in elderly COVID-19 patients: Cuban study” »

New research supported by the National Institutes of Health delineates how two relatively common variations in a gene called KIF3A are responsible for an impaired skin barrier that allows increased water loss from the skin, promoting the development of atopic dermatitis, commonly known as eczema. This finding could lead to genetic tests that empower parents and physicians to take steps to potentially protect vulnerable infants from developing atopic dermatitis and additional allergic diseases.

Atopic dermatitis is an inflammatory skin condition that affects up to 20% of children in developed countries. This chronic disease is characterized by dry, thickened and intensely itchy skin, particularly in skin folds. People with eczema are more susceptible to bacterial, viral and fungal skin infections and frequently develop additional allergic diseases such as asthma.

KIF3A is a gene that codes for a protein involved in generating signals from the outside to the inside of a cell, part of a complex sensory apparatus. Previously, scientists had identified an association between two genetic variations in KIF3A and asthma in children who also had eczema. In the new study, the researchers found that these variations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), changed parts of the KIF3A gene to a form that can regulate, through a process called methylation, the rate at which a gene is transcribed into the blueprint for protein production. The investigators confirmed that skin and nasal-lining cells from people with the KIF3A SNP variants had more methylation and contained fewer blueprints for the KIF3A protein than cells in which KIF3A lacked the SNPs. In addition, the researchers demonstrated that people with the SNP-created regulating sites had higher levels of water loss from the skin.

Headed to the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover, the pioneering helicopter is powered up for the first time in interplanetary space as part of a systems check.

NASAs Ingenuity Mars Helicopter received a checkout and recharge of its power system on Friday, August 7, one week into its near seven-month journey to Mars with the Perseverance rover. This marks the first time the helicopter has been powered up and its batteries have been charged in the space environment.

During the eight-hour operation, the performance of the rotorcraft’s six lithium-ion batteries was analyzed as the team brought their charge level up to 35%. The project has determined a low charge state is optimal for battery health during the cruise to Mars.

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing health problem, but new research suggests it is not only caused by the overuse of antibiotics. It’s also caused by pollution.

Using a process known as genomic analysis, University of Georgia scientists found a strong correlation between antibiotic resistance and heavy metal contamination in an environment.

Jesse C. Thomas IV, an alumnus of the College of Public Health and the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory, found commonalities in soils contaminated with heavy metals on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site near Aiken, South Carolina.

Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that recognizes hand gestures by combining skin-like electronics with computer vision.

The recognition of human hand gestures by AI systems has been a valuable development over the last decade and has been adopted in high-precision surgical robots, health monitoring equipment and in gaming systems.

AI gesture recognition systems that were initially visual-only have been improved upon by integrating inputs from wearable sensors, an approach known as ‘data fusion’. The wearable sensors recreate the skin’s sensing ability, one of which is known as ‘somatosensory’.

The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes severe respiratory tract infections in humans (COVID-19), has become a global health concern. Currently, several vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 are in clinical trials but approval of these vaccines is likely to take a long time before they are available for public use. In a previous report, the importance of passive immunity and how immunoglobulin (Ig)G collected from recovered coronavirus patients could help in the protection against COVID-19 and boost the immune system of new patients was reported. Passive immunity by immunoglobulin transfer is a concept employed by most mammals and bovine IgG has a role to play in human therapy. IgG is one of the major components of the immunological activity found in cow’s milk and colostrum. Heterologous transfer of passive immunity associated with the consumption of bovine immune milk by humans has been investigated for decades for its immunological activity against infections. This short review focuses on passive immunity and how microfiltered raw immune milk or colostrum collected from cows vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 could provide short-term protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans and could be used as an option until a vaccine becomes commercially available.

Currently, different academic institutions and pharmaceutical companies worldwide have started programs to develop and test vaccine candidates against SARS-CoV-2 in clinical trials. An S-glycoprotein-based vaccine is a promising approach that has attracted the attention of scientists, since S-glycoprotein can be directly recognized by the host’s immune system. For the first coronavirus (SARS-CoV-1), which was identified in Guangdong province, China, in November 2002, different vaccines were developed and tested in animal models. Some of these vaccines prevented animal infection after challenge with SARS-CoV-1. Kapadia et al. showed that neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-1 could be detected in sera from mice immunized with S-glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-1 (10, 11).

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Welcome to the United States Air Force. Learn about great opportunities for enlisted airmen, officers and health care professionals.

COSTA MESA, Calif. – Health experts say around half of American adults are overweight or obese. While excessive body weight is linked to a number of serious health conditions, including diabetes and heart disease, a new study reveals it can also reduce blood flow to the brain. Researchers warn this can put overweight individuals at great risk for Alzheimer’s disease.

The study examines brain blood flow in 17,721 adults between 18 and 94. To do this, researchers use a brain imaging technique known as single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).

SPECT is a technique in which doctors inject a radioactive tracer into a patient’s blood and then use a special camera to look at the flow of blood. Participants were then split into five categories: underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese, and morbidly obese — to examine blood flow in each of their brains. The brain scan data reveals lower blood flow across virtually all brain regions as body weight increases.