FDA authorizes at-home COVID-19 test collection kit, plus more top stories in infectious disease
The FDA recently authorized the first at-home test collection kit for COVID-19. It was the top story in infectious disease last week.
Another top story was about new COVID-19 treatment guidelines from the NIH for health care providers.
Read these and more of last week’s top stories in infectious disease below:
FDA authorizes first at-home test collection kit for COVID-19
The FDA authorized the first COVID-19 diagnostic test with a home collection option, reissuing an emergency use authorization that permits LabCorp to test nasal swab samples self-collected by patients at home using the company’s Pixel test kits. Read more.
NIH releases COVID-19 guidance for health care providers
A panel of American physicians, statisticians and other experts has developed NIH treatment guidelines for COVID-19 that are intended for health care providers. The guidelines will be updated as more data emerge throughout the course of the pandemic. Read more.
High-dose chloroquine trial for COVID-19 halted due to increased fatality rates
An international group of researchers terminated a phase 2b trial evaluating a higher chloroquine dose as a treatment for patients with COVID-19 after observing increased safety hazards and fatality rates. Read more.
Physicians address ‘increasing concern’ about effects of COVID-19 among PLWH
In response to increasing concern about the ways in which infection with COVID-19 will affect people living with HIV (PLWH), physicians from the University of Maryland, Baltimore and Arizona Liver Health have launched the Coronavirus Under Research Exclusion, or CURE, HIV-COVID registry for physicians to report cases of COVID-19 in PLWH. The goals of the registry are to understand the natural history of COVID-19 in PLWH, examine the impact of treatments that are given and share the findings with providers throughout the world to increase the medical community’s understanding of COVID-19. Read more.
IDSA: COVID-19 in rural America will be a ‘long, sustained outbreak’
In mid-March, before schools in the state closed to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, more than 400 people gathered for a birthday party in a rural Nebraska town, one with a population of less than 1,000. Many people from neighboring towns and communities attended the party. Read more.