8 thoughts on “Pandemic News Thread – February 18 – 24, 2024”

  1. Leaky blood–brain barrier in long-COVID-associated brain fog
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-024-01577-8
    Chris Greene Ruairi Connolly Matthew Campbell 22 February 2024

    Long COVID has remained an on-going public health issue in the years following the global pandemic. Here, we report blood–brain barrier disruption in patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection and brain fog, and patients presenting with long COVID, brain fog and cognitive decline, compared to those with long COVID without any neurological symptoms.

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  2. A deadly viral illness is exploding in West Africa. Researchers are scrambling to figure out why
    https://www.science.org/content/article/deadly-viral-illness-exploding-west-africa-researchers-are-scrambling-figure-out-why
    Leslie Roberts 22 Feb 2024

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    Although about 80% of Lassa virus infections are mild or asymptomatic, 15% to 20% of cases of severe disease are fatal—a number that can reach 70% in some places and in some epidemics. “That’s up there with Ebola,” says virologist Robert Garry of the Tulane University School of Medicine.

    Lassa fever kills far more people than Ebola does—10,000 or more a year, some researchers suspect, although no one knows for sure.

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    A record-shattering epidemic in 2018 in Nigeria, the hardest hit country, put Lassa fever on the map, prompting both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Nigerian government to declare a public health emergency. Confirmed cases, which numbered roughly 25 to 100 in previous outbreak years, reached 633, and 171 people died, including 45 health care workers.

    Cases in Nigeria have continued to climb each year since then. Infections still surge in the dry season, which runs from about December to May, but since 2018 have been occurring year-round. Most worrisome, cases are popping up outside the four known endemic countries: Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia.

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    Family clusters occur, too. In 2022, for example, a man returned to the United Kingdom from a trip to Mali and was hospitalized with what was later confirmed to be Lassa fever. He passed the virus on to his wife and child, and the child died. Infectious virus can persist in the body and semen for months after recovery, posing a long-term transmission risk.

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  5. COVID-19 vaccines and adverse events of special interest: A multinational Global Vaccine Data Network (GVDN) cohort study of 99 million vaccinated individuals
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X24001270
    Faksova et al. 12 February 2024

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    In this study including more than 99 million people vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, the risk up to 42 days after vaccination was generally similar to the background risk for the majority of outcomes; however, a few potential safety signals were identified. We observed potential safety signals for GBS and CVST [Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis] after the first dose of ChAdOx1 based on more than 12 million doses administered.

    Overall, studies of the vector-based vaccines such as the ChAdOx1 [adenovirus vaccine], have observed a higher incidence of GBS [Guillane Barre Disease] after vaccination compared with the background incidence; whereas, most studies of the mRNA vaccines, such as BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273, have not observed increases of GBS [15], [24], [14], [25], [26], [27].

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    Comment: I was never a fan of the adenovirus vaccine. The mRNA vaccines are safer. Still glad I got both available mRNA vaccines, several times, and will get them again if allowed.

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