Can Coverscan Help COVID-19 Survivors?

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors and hospitals were overburdened from patients suffering from the immediate, acute effects of the virus. But as time went on, it turned out that even the patients who survived-or had mild symptoms and didn't require hospitalization-weren't fully recovered.

Understanding the Long-Term Impacts of COVID-19 in Survivors.

In mid-March 2020, as the novel coronavirus started making its way through the United States, Fiona Lowenstein (they/their) became ill. At that point, there was not yet any public health guidance on social distancing and wearing masks, and certainly no routine or readily accessible testing for COVID-19. Lowenstein was still interacting with others in person, and even led a yoga class. But when they became sick and were hospitalized, they were tested for SARS-CoV2 and received a positive diagnosis.

Rural Health Care for Coronavirus Requires Collaboration, Creativity.

Before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) started sweeping across the United States, it began on the coasts. The first known case was reported in a county just outside of Seattle, WA, with other cases quickly cropping up in California and in the greater New York City region. As the virus lingered on the periphery of the country, doctors and physicians working in inland, rural communities worried about what might happen if the virus hit their homes.

The Unknown Human Health Legacy of Nuclear Weapons Testing.

For nearly half a century, the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a fierce battle although no shots were actually fired. Starting in the 1940s, both started developing their arsenal of nuclear weapons, in preparation for an all-out nuclear war. The U.S. government primarily used a patch of land in Nye, NV, that was formerly a military base, to conduct their tests. It was flat with few animals nearby. It seemed far from civilization and wasn't adjacent to any water streams, which the government thought would minimize the spread of contamination that would be generated from the above-ground blasts. In other words, the site seemed to be perfect.

How Precision Medicine Might Better Serve Downwinders.

Despite the advances in developing nuclear weapons and other technologies, not much is known about the long-term effects of radiation on human health. In a world where nuclear energy could help curb carbon emissions, it almost seems paradoxical that its possible long-term risks and impacts to human health are still poorly understood. While researchers have investigated the effects of acute radiation in the aftermath of nuclear incidents such as Chernobyl, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima, more needs to be done to understand the impacts of long-term and low-dose nuclear radiation. Studying the downwinders from the Nevada Test Site could offer one window to investigate those myriad effects.

Technologies for Primary Health Care Help Meet Global Goals.

Access to health care has long been considered to be a human right. It was formally declared in 1946 when the heads of states wrote the constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO). But more than 70 years after the fact, the global community still has yet to achieve it.

Toward Better Treatment for Women's Reproductive Health: New Devices, Nanoparticles, and Even Robotic Sperm May Hold the Key to Preventing a Range of Health Conditions.

Although women and men share many similar health challenges throughout their lifetimes, women are not necessarily healthier. Some conditions that only women experience-such as pregnancy, ovarian cancer, or the abnormal growth of the uterus called endometriosis- can become great health risks. HIV, AIDS, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are also serious medical and social issues for women worldwide. And because a woman's reproductive system is complex and delicate-which makes it particularly vulnerable to dysfunction or disease-finding ways to treat conditions that take root in the reproductive tract often prove challenging.

Staying in Motion After a Stroke: A Growing Number of Technologies Can Provide a Range of Options to Help Stroke Survivors Get Moving Again.

After suffering a stroke-perhaps a blood clot gets lodged in the brain or a blood vessel near the brain bursts-a person may suddenly not be able to hear, talk, or see. He or she might have trouble walking or exhibit a speech impediment. In fact, one of the greatest challenges of treating patients affected by stroke is that it's a heterogeneous condition, says Joel Stein, a physiatrist specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Columbia University and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City (Figure 1). "It can affect any area of the brain," he explains. "There are large and small strokes. There are strokes that bleed into the brain, or block blood vessels, so it's reasonable to believe that the recovery and treatment may not be the same for all these types of strokes."

Grappling with the Health Consequences of Floods: Hurricanes, Monsoons, and Heavy Rains Have Researchers Studying How to Prevent the Diseases That Often Follow.

In early September 2017, when the rains from Hurricane Harvey finally subsided in Houston, Texas, Seth Pedersen loaded up his pickup truck with sample collection kits, waders, rubber boots, buckets, and a small aluminum fishing boat. On that particular day, Pedersen, a second-year graduate student in environmental engineering at Rice University, was-along with a fellow graduate student-on a mission to test the water in homes flooded by Hurricane Harvey. He was looking specifically for E. coli bacteria, chemicals, heavy metals, and other pathogens (Figure 1).

Carbon Monoxide, Repurposed: Researchers Are Developing Myriad Ways to Deliver CO to Treat Sickle Cell Anemia, Lung Disease, and More.

In the 16th century, Paracelsus-the father of modern toxicology-wrote that "all things are poison and nothing is without poison; the dose alone makes a thing not poison." While it's conceivable that too much of a good thing, such as water or oxygen, could be fatal, the opposite-that smaller quantities of a bad thing might be beneficial-may be harder to believe. But four centuries after Paracelsus shared this idea, two researchers decided to apply the more counterintuitive notion of Paracelsus' dogma for a notoriously toxic chemical: carbon monoxide (CO).

Toward Better Management for Asthma: From Smart Inhalers to Injections to Wearables, Researchers Are Finding New Ways to Improve Asthma Treatment.

Although asthma has been around since Hippocrates' time, more people are being diagnosed with the disease than ever before. Over the last 20 years, the global burden of asthma has increased by almost 30%, as more than 235 million people-most of them children-cope with the breathlessness and wheezing characteristic of the disease. In particular, cases have spiked in China and India, where pollution is reported to sometimes be deadly. Researchers with the Health Effects Institute, a Boston-based nonprofit that studies the health effects of pollution, recently reported that air pollution in India and China alone contributed to more than half of the four million deaths worldwide due to air pollution in 2015.

Testing the Waters: From Moringa Seeds to Fruit Peels, Researchers Are Seeking Out New Ways to Clean Up the World?s Drinking Water.

Water on Earth-in our oceans, rivers, lakes, and wetlands-might seem plentiful, but water that is clean and safe enough to drink actually isn't so abundant. Nearly one in ten people still lacks access to safe water worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. In some of the world's most remote and impoverished communities, people live with no taps, showers, flushing toilets, or nearby springs, making it difficult to keep water supplies safe from bacteria, chemicals, and particulates. Moreover, access to clean drinking water isn't just a problem in the developing world; groundwater in developed countries is typically used far more quickly than it is being replenished. As the world population rises, growing numbers of thirsty people could exacerbate already-scant resources.