Scientists have revealed that secondary bacterial infection in the lung was very common in people with "Covid-19", affecting nearly half of the patients who need mechanical ventilation support.
By applying machine learning to medical record data, scientists at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine found that hitherto poorly understood secondary bacterial pneumonia (pneumonia) was the leading driver of death in COVID-19 patients, exceeding Even death rates from the viral infection itself.
The scientists also found evidence that COVID-19 does not cause the "cytokine storm" that was often thought to cause death.
“Our study highlights the importance of aggressively preventing, researching, and treating secondary bacterial pneumonia in critically ill and inflammatory patients,” said lead researcher Dr. severe acute respiratory syndrome, including those with COVID-19.
The researchers found that nearly half of the "Covid-19" patients develop secondary bacterial pneumonia associated with a ventilator.
“Those who recovered from secondary pneumonia were more likely to survive, while those whose pneumonia was not treated were more likely to die,” Singer added. “Our data suggests that the death rate associated with the virus itself is relatively low, but so are other factors that occur during ICU stays, such as secondary bacterial pneumonia, make up for that."
Singer pointed out that the results of the study also refute the cytokine storm theory, saying that "the term" cytokine storm "means severe inflammation that leads to organ failure in the lungs, kidneys, brain and other organs. And if this is true, then if the cytokine storm lies behind the length of stay that we see "In patients with COVID-19, we would expect to see frequent transitions to states characterized by multi-organ failure. This is not what we have seen."
The study analyzed 585 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Northwestern Memorial Hospital with severe pneumonia and respiratory failure, and 190 of them had "Covid-19". The scientists developed a new machine learning approach called CarpeDiem, which groups ICU patients' days similar to clinical cases based on electronic health record data.
This new approach allowed research on how complications such as bacterial pneumonia affect the course of the disease.
These patients or their designees agreed to enroll in the Successful Clinical Response to Pneumonia Treatment Study (SCRIPT), an observational trial to identify new biomarkers and therapies for patients with severe pneumonia.
As part of the SCRIPT study, experts from ICU physicians used the latest analysis of lung samples collected as part of clinical care to diagnose and evaluate secondary pneumonia cases.
“Applying machine learning and artificial intelligence to clinical data can be used to develop better ways to treat diseases like COVID-19 and to help ICU physicians manage disease,” said study co-first author Dr. Catherine Gao, MD, a pulmonary and critical care medicine physician at Northwestern Feinberg University. These patients."
Study co-author Dr. Richard Wunderink, who leads the successful clinical response in the Center for Pneumonia Treatment Systems Biology at Northwestern University, continued, "Bacterial infection of the lung as a contributor to death in COVID-19 patients has been underestimated because most centers have not looked for it." Or you only look at outcomes in terms of the presence or absence of a super bacterial infection, not whether or not the treatment is appropriate.”
The next step in the research will be to use molecular data from the study samples and combine it with machine learning approaches to understand why some patients are still treated for pneumonia and others are not.
Has China really turned the page of the new crown?
On the 5th, the World Health Organization announced the lifting of the global health emergency in response to the new crown epidemic, ending this highest level of alert. At the same time, the World Health Organization also reiterated that the new coronavirus has neither been eradicated nor rendered less aggressive.
As for the situation in China, Le Monde's Beijing correspondent Frédéric Lemaître wrote on Friday that most of China's new crown restrictions have been lifted, and the Chinese authorities are proud of their own epidemic management. However, Chinese authorities continue to filter and even censor all information about the exact origin of the virus.
Lemaitre said that the Chinese feel that the new crown has completely turned the page. Now is the time for the Chinese authorities to be complacent: The People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of China, wrote without humility that in the past three years, major and decisive victories in epidemic prevention and control have been achieved, creating a miracle in the history of human civilization: a country with a large population has successfully stepped out of the the epidemic.
China appears less prepared than ever to question the policies it implements. But in fact, China continues to filter and even censor any information on the exact origin of the virus or any investigation.
According to data China sent to the World Health Organization, between January 4, 2020 and May 3, 2023, the new crown may have infected nearly 100 million Chinese and killed 120,961 people. Of particular note during this forty-month period is December 2022, when China officially announced 85 million infections and nearly 50,000 deaths.
In February of this year, the "New York Times" cited four scientific studies saying that the death toll from the new crown in China may be between 1 million and 1.5 million.
Lemaitre said China may not be done with the coronavirus. The latest statistics released by the authorities are the data of Thursday, April 27. According to the data of that day, 6,752 people in China tested positive for nucleic acid, far exceeding the 2,661 cases of the previous Thursday. But Chinese authorities have refused to say there is a "second wave" of the outbreak.
Lemaitre also emphasized that at a time when the term "new crown zero policy" is gradually disappearing from the official vocabulary, China released the suspects arrested in February 2020 for announcing the Wuhan epidemic on social media last weekend. Citizen reporter Fang Bin. Fang Bin appears to have been sentenced to three years in prison for "picking quarrels and provoking trouble".
However, citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, who was sentenced to four years in prison at the end of 2020 for the same reason, was not released and she remains in prison. She began a hunger strike shortly after her arrest, and her relatives have repeatedly expressed concerns about her physical and mental health.
A "Japanese diet" may help treat fatty liver disease! 3 foods that have proven effective!
Following the Japanese dietary pattern can help people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) slow its progression.
If the condition progresses to cirrhosis and scarring (fibrosis), it can lead to liver failure and life-threatening complications.
NAFLD is used to describe a group of conditions that are caused by a buildup of fat in the liver. It is commonly seen in people who are overweight or obese and is often related to diet. But a new study finds that eating foods popular in Japan, such as rice, miso soup and soy products, can slow the progression of the condition.
The study authors tracked the diet and disease progression of 136 people with NAFLD undergoing treatment at Osaka Metropolitan University Hospital in Japan.
Each individual's diet was scored according to their adherence to the 12-component Japanese Diet Index (mJDI12).
Higher mJDII12 scores have been associated with slowing the progression of cirrhosis.
Here are 12 foods and food groups in the Japanese diet:
1. Rice.
2. Miso soup.
3. Pickles.
4. Soy products.
5. Green and yellow vegetables.
6. Fruits.
7. Seafood.
8. Mushrooms.
9. Seaweed.
10. Green tea.
11. Coffee.
12. Beef.
Three foods have been shown to have the most important suppression of the development of cirrhosis: soybeans, seafood and seaweed.
The effect of the diet on muscle mass was also tracked, and the researchers found that those who ate more soy products built a greater level of muscle along with lower rates of fibrosis development.
The study is published in MDPI.
Tags:
health