News & Updates

Amid movement restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, home gardening activities appear to help improve mental resilience among people, especially in the domains of emotional regulation, confidence, and positive thinking, according to a recent Singapore study.

A territory-wide retrospective cohort study by the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has found that stroke is the third strongest predictor of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) mortality, after advancing age and renal disease, while Parkinson’s disease (PD) was the second strongest predictor of death after advancing age during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003.

Treatment with icosapent ethyl did not reduce the rate of hospitalization or mortality among patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection, according to results of the PREPARE IT-2* trial presented at AHA 2021.

Rapid antigen detection testing (RADT) may improve diagnosis of acute bacterial pharyngitis in the community by providing quicker yet comparably sensitive results as throat culture, according to a local study.

Receipt of a booster dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine is tied to a reduced risk of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, according to results of a study from Israel.

Children with asthma who are infected with SARS-CoV-2 virus are at an increased risk of hospitalization, especially those whose asthma is poorly controlled, compared with children without asthma, according to data from the EAVE II* study.

The threat of Omicron is real, with scientists working at breakneck speed to better understand its virulence and potential ability to evade currently approved vaccines.

With the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is clear that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will be with us for a long time. A media roundtable organized by Roche Malaysia recently discussed the various ways in which vulnerable patient populations can cope with living in a world where vaccinations alone may not be sufficient.