Dr. Stuart Weiss: COVID-19 Update Wednesday 2-September-2020
Dr. Stuart Weiss, FACEP, FAAP, CBCP
September 2, 2020
Today’s topics: Fecal spread of SARS-CoV-2, Antibody persistence in Iceland
| Poop may play a role in CoViD-19 transmission Yesterday, a study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that looked at a small outbreak in an apartment building in China. The hypothesis was that sewage pipes may play a part of some transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. There was a previous study a few months ago that also looked at this mechanism. In this study, they looked at three families with infected people who lived right under each other and shared sewage pipes. In the study, they did sampling of 9 infected patients, 193 other people and 24 building staff members. They also sampled public areas of the building and released tracer gas into the bathroom as a surrogate for viral aerosols. Of the three families studied, one family had traveled to Wuhan, the other two families had no travel history. The two families with no travel history had later disease onset than the first family. They found that the locations of the positive environmental samples and the timing of infections were consistent with vertical spread of the virus through sewage pipes. There were no positive environmental samples in elevators or other public areas of the building. The limitation of this study was that they didn’t actually look at the water seals on the toilets to see if they were dried out allowing sewer gas to seep into the bathrooms. The other limitation has to do with US toilets being different than Chinese toilets. The takeaway is that this is the second article that pointed to fecal transmission of virus through sewage pipes. We know that there is live virus in fecal material. So make sure your plumbing is in good working order if you live in an apartment building. Antibody response in Iceland An interesting study came out today looking at antibody levels in Iceland. Iceland has done an amazing job of controlling the virus infection and has pretty much eliminated CoViD-19 from their country through careful public health initiatives. They have a very robust contract tracing and isolation program. In this study, they measured antibody levels in 30,576 people up to 4 months after they were sick. They found that for 91% of the people had antibodies to the virus and maintained antibody level for the four months of the study. This is not the first study to hypothesize that antibodies remain for four months after infection. The issue is that we don’t know how long they last and if they remain at a high enough level to prevent reinfection. We have seen several case reports within the last few weeks of reinfection after 4-6 months. More study is needed. Be well and take care of yourself. We will get through this together.–Dr. Stu |
COVID-19 HEADLINES FOR TODAY
| Coronavirus update for September 2, 2020 World Wide Updates Covid-19 cases in Europe “almost back” to March levels, EU health body says Nearly 570,000 health care workers across the Americas have had Covid-19, PAHO says A travel company canceled trips to a Greek resort due to coronavirus spike First confirmed case of Covid-19 at Moria refugee camp in Greece 3 soccer players test positive for Covid-19 at French team Paris Saint-Germain Pope Francis holds first public audience since March India reports almost 79,000 new Covid-19 cases, more than 1,000 new deaths in a day China will resume international flights to and from Beijing starting on Thursday Scotland and Wales see rise of imported cases in travelers arriving from Greece Hong Kong relaxes some Covid-19 restrictions as new cases fall Nearly 200 people indicted for clashes over face mask requirement in South Korea The pandemic has pushed Australia into recession for the first time in nearly 30 years South Korean pastor apologizes after more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases linked to his church Night curfew to be imposed in Havana for first time as coronavirus cases surge again Mexico’s total Covid-19 cases top 600,000 Soccer star Neymar tests positive fro coronavirus after trip to Ibiza Ex-Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi isolating at home after testing positive for coronavirus Turkey seeing second peak of Covid-19 outbreak, health minister says Madrid president says most returning schoolchildren likely to contract Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic will widen gender poverty gap, says United Nations Total Cases Worldwide: 26,093,876 Total Deaths Worldwide: 864,564 Total Recovered: 18,340,747 US Updates US stocks open higher CDC documents say states should prepare to distribute Covid-19 vaccines as soon as late October Illinois seeing a rise in positivity rates in most of its regions, governor says The US will not participate in an international vaccine effort because the initiative is tied to the World Health Organization and China, says the White House Iowa State University will no longer have spectators at season opener football game Art Basel cancels Miami Beach show set for December due to the pandemic Minnesota health department reports Covid-19 death linked to Sturgis bike rally National Institutes of Health awards $129 million to help speed up Covid-19 testing Colorado governor announces partnership to provide free internet for students in the state James Madison University will have online learning for at least a month following Covid-19 uptick Miami University in Ohio reports a more than 100% increase in Covid-19 cases compared to previous week A National Institutes of Health panel says doctors should not treat convalescent plasma as a standard of care for Covid-19 until more studies have been done Auburn University reported more than 500 Covid-19 cases last week New York has reported an infection rate under 1% for 26 days Common steroids reduce deaths among critically ill Covid-19 patients, new analysis confirms Ford will cut 1,400 salaried jobs and offer early retirement Public trust around coronavirus vaccines is dropping quickly, researcher says World’s largest movie theater chain will reopen another 140 theaters by Friday Iowa has the highest rate of Covid-19 cases in the US ADP employment figures disappoint as government report looms Covid-19 cases in US children have increased 17% over two weeks, report says Fauci calls for a full-court press on Covid-19 ahead of flu season Coronavirus symptoms can last much longer than initially thought, experts say More than 25,000 coronavirus cases in 37 states reported at colleges and universities US medical supply shortage plaguing more than just tests for COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak linked to Maine wedding grows, more then 100 infected so far Trump sets up fight with Congress over plan to cut dues to WHO immediately Total US cases: 6,289,582 Total US deaths: 189,650 Total Recovered: 3,530,747 Total Tested in US: 78,996,632 Total cases in CA: 719,066 Total deaths in CA: 13,233 Total cases in TX: 648,875 Total deaths in TX: 13,063 Total cases in FL: 633,442 Total deaths in FL: 11,503 Total cases in NY: 468,191 Total deaths in NY: 33,047 Contact us |
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