Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses 3 million amid surge in new infections

Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe.

Worldwide COVID-19 deaths are rising once again, especially in Brazil and India. Health officials blame more infectious variants that were first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, along with public fatigue with lockdowns and other restrictions.

According to a Reuters tally, it took more than a year for the global coronavirus death toll to reach 2 million. The next 1 million deaths were added in about three months.

Brazil is leading the world in the daily average number of new deaths reported and accounts for one in every four deaths worldwide each day, according to a Reuters analysis.

The World Health Organization acknowledged the nation's dire condition due to coronavirus, saying the country is in a very critical condition with an overwhelmed healthcare system.

"Indeed there is a very serious situation going on in Brazil right now, where we have a number of states in critical condition," WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove told a briefing last Thursday, adding that many hospital intensive care units are more than 90% full.

India reported a record rise in COVID-19 infections on Monday, becoming the second nation after the United States to post more than 100,000 new cases in a day.

India's worst-affected state, Maharashtra on Monday began shutting shopping malls, cinemas, bars, restaurants, and places of worship, as hospitals are being overrun by patients.

The European region, which includes 51 countries, has the highest total number of deaths at nearly 1.1 million.

Five European countries including the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Italy and Germany constitute about 60% of Europe's total coronavirus-related deaths.

The United States has the highest number of deaths of any country at the world at 555,000 and accounts for about 19% of all deaths due to COVID-19 in the world. Cases have risen for the last three weeks but health officials believe the nation's rapid vaccination campaign may prevent a rise in deaths. A third of the population has received at least one dose of a vaccine.

At least 370.3 million people or nearly 4.75% of the global population have received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine by Sunday, according to latest figures from research and data provider firm Our World in Data.

However, the World Health Organization is urging countries to donate more doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines to help meet vaccination targets for the most vulnerable in poorer countries.

-reuters

WHO joins Europe, Merck in recommending against ivermectin for COVID-19

ZURICH -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday recommended against using generic anti-parasite drug ivermectin in patients with COVID-19 except for clinical trials, because of a lack of data demonstrating its benefits.

The recommendation follows the European Medicines Agency's warning last week against the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also recommended it not be used for COVID-19.

Officials in the Bolivian city of Trinidad launched a campaign in May last year to give out free doses of ivermectin to combat the coronavirus, although the South American country's health ministry noted the lack of evidence for it as a treatment.

Ivermectin tablets have been approved for treating some worm infestations and for veterinary use in animals for parasites. Merck, an ivermectin manufacturer, has also said its analysis did not support the drug's safety and efficacy for COVID-19.

"This applies to patients with COVID-19 of any disease severity," Janet Diaz, a top WHO official for clinical care response, told reporters of the WHO recommendation, saying it was "based on very low certainty of evidence" that ivermectin helps.

The WHO's review was based on a survey of 16 trials of ivermectin involving 2,400 people, including those comparing it with hydroxychloroquine, an older malaria medicine that has been discredited as a COVID-19 treatment. There were very few placebo-controlled studies of ivermectin.

"We certainly need more data in order to make informed decisions," said Bram Rochwerg, an associate professor at Canada's McMaster University and a co-chair of the WHO panel that reviewed ivermectin.

He said the data available was sparse and likely based on chance, though he said "high quality, trustworthy trials" were still merited.

"We did see an increase in adverse effects in patients that were randomized to ivermectin," he said, citing gastrointestinal upsets and headaches.

Worldwide, he said, there are 66 trials of ivermectin registered, with 60,000 participants, so more data on its impact on the pandemic could be coming.

"We are fighting this overuse of unproven therapies -- especially some of these repurposed drugs -- in various parts of world without evidence of efficacy," Diaz said. "There can be more harm than any good." 

-reuters

COVID-19 is a 'controllable pandemic': WHO

GENEVA, Switzerland — The new coronavirus outbreak "is a controllable pandemic" if countries step up measures to tackle it, the head of the World Health Organization said Thursday.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus acknowledged Wednesday that the global outbreak of the new coronavirus could now be considered a pandemic—a disease actively spreading globally.


But he told diplomats in Geneva that describing the outbreak as a pandemic should not mean that countries give up the fight to stop it spreading further.

"This is a controllable pandemic," he said, according to a statement of his remarks.

"We are deeply concerned that some countries are not approaching this threat with the level of political commitment needed to control it.

"The idea that countries should shift from containment to mitigation is wrong and dangerous," he stressed.

More than 4,500 people have died, according to an AFP tally, while the WHO said some 125,000 cases had been reported from 118 countries and territories.

"To save lives we must reduce transmission," Tedros insisted.

"That means finding and isolating as many cases as possible and quarantining their closest contacts," he said, urging states to test every suspected case of COVID-19 in a bid to slow transmission.

"Even if you cannot stop transmission, you can slow it down and protect health facilities, old age homes and other vital areas—but only if you test all suspected cases."

The majority of cases have been in China, where the outbreak emerged in December, but major hotspots have also emerged in South Korea, Iran and Italy.

Together, those four countries account for more than 90 percent of all reported cases, according to the WHO.

'Robust surveillance' 

The pandemic has disrupted cultural and sporting events around the world as authorities try to prevent large gatherings.

Tedros said countries needed to find the right balance between protecting health and preventing social and economic disruption.

However, "containment" needed to remain the central pillar in any plan to tackle the spread, he said.

"You can't fight a virus if you don’t know where it is. That means robust surveillance to find, isolate, test and treat every case, to break the chains of transmission."

Tedros urged unaffected countries to prepare their health facilities, and pressed all states to innovate and share any new ways to prevent infections and minimise the impact of the outbreak.

More than $440 million (390 million euros) has been pledged towards the WHO's strategic preparedness and response plan, he added.

Agence France-Presse

Human form of ‘mad cow’ disease detectable in skin – study

Abnormal proteins involved in the brain-destroying Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) – a human form of “mad cow” disease – are detectable in the skin, raising new concerns about the virus’ transmission, researchers said on Wednesday.

According to the report in the journal Science Translational Medicine, while it is highly unlikely that the fast-moving and fatal disease could be spread by casual contact, since the prions in the skin are at levels 1,000-100,000 times lower than in the brain, the discovery means CJD could be spread through common surgeries that do not involve the brain.


“It is well known that CJD is transmissible via surgical or medical procedures involving prion-infected brain tissue,” said lead author Wen-Quan Zou, associate professor of pathology and neurology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

“Our finding of infectious prions in skin is important since it not only raises concerns about the potential for disease transmission via common surgeries not involving the brain, but also suggests that skin biopsies and autopsies may enhance pre-mortem and post-mortem CJD diagnosis,” he added.

Only biopsies, spinal taps or autopsies can tell for sure if a patient is stricken with the rare, degenerative brain disorder which affects one in a million people per year worldwide.

Patients develop tiny sponge-like holes in their brains, and experience sudden memory and vision problems, behavioral changes, and poor coordination.

There is no cure for CJD and most people who are diagnosed rapidly deteriorate, and die within a year.

The study was based on skin samples from 38 patients, who died from the disease.

Prion levels were measured using a new, highly sensitive test.

Research using lab mice showed that these skin prions are indeed infectious, and capable of causing disease.

But more research is needed to better understand the risks.

“The level of prion infectivity detected in CJD skin was surprisingly significant, but still much lower than that in CJD brains,” said co-author Qingzhong Kong, associate professor of pathology and neurology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

“Prion transmission risk from surgical instruments contaminated by skin prions should be much lower than that of instruments contaminated by brain tissue,” he also said.

The findings may also assist in diagnosing the condition less invasively, whether before or after death.

“Using the skin instead of brain tissue for post-mortem diagnosis could be particularly helpful in cultures that discourage brain autopsy, such as China and India,” Zou said.

“These countries have the largest populations with the greatest number of patients, but brain autopsy is often not performed,” he added.

The disease leapt into public awareness decades ago when people in Britain were diagnosed with a type of CJD after eating meat from diseased cattle.

The European Union ordered a worldwide embargo on British beef and its derivatives in 1996, then lifted it three years later.

The World Health Organization said there have been 224 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from October 1996 to March 2011, mainly in Britain.             /kga

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net