COVID-19 Articles

Coronavirus Press Release

Allergy has published the second key paper on coronavirus disease, COVID-19.

Again the long term collaboration and know-how enabled this paper this time particularly aiming to help the doctors in daily patient care. The same team has published the first 140 cases of community acquired COVID disease and identified the reasons for severity almost 5 weeks ago. Prof. Akdis from SIAF and Prof. Gao from Wuhan act as senior authors of the new paper. Prof. Gao was working in Davos, Switzerland, but was called back to Wuhan when the outbreak became a public health problem. He is one of the proud doctors who had fought in the ward for two months for the success against coronavirus in Wuhan which decreased the number of new cases from 5000s per day to only a few per day. Prof Akdis says, “we aimed to describe, in this paper, the various clinical presentations of this disease by deeply examining eleven representative cases of its eleven faces. Clinical manifestations range from asymptomatic cases to patients with mild and severe symptoms, with or without pneumonia.”

Particularly, asymptomatic virus carriers and patients who clinically fully heal, but still carry the virus and may infect others represent two key groups to fully control the spread of the disease. Cases with pre-existing lung condition such as chronic obstructive lung disease and patients who develop secondary bacterial pneumonia represent the most severe cases. Patients with preexisting allergic diseases such as rhinitis, neurodermitis and urticaria did not develop a severe disease. The authors and many worldwide top scientists think that all different clinical characteristics of COVID-19 should be taken into consideration to identify patients for the efficient containment of the pandemic and to develop novel prevention and treatment strategies.

You can read the article here.
Allergy has published the first key paper on the coronavirus disease.
Wuhan University, Departments of Allergology, Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Radiology published together with the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) the clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected by Wuhan Corona Virus (COVID-19) (here). The article appeared online today in Allergy, the official Journal of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. As of today, globally, 75,204 cases were confirmed, including 74,280 cases in China and 924 cases outside of China. 2006 patients have died from now officially named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus -2 infection.

The study reports randomly selected and community acquired 140 hospitalized COVID-19 cases. Male female ratio was 1:1 and median age was 57. None of the cases were related to Huanan wet market of wild animals. They were diagnosed by PCR test for the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus -2 (SARS-CoV-2). Main symptoms at admission were fever (91.7%), cough (75.0%), fatigue (75.0%), gastrointestinal symptoms (39.6%) and chest tightness or dyspnea (36.7%).

Hypertension (30.0%) and diabetes mellitus (12.1%) were the most common comorbidities. Since many of the severe virus infections take place in asthma and COPD patients, investigation of asthma, allergies and COPD were specifically focused. Interestingly, asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, food allergy were not reported by any of the patients and COPD was only in 1.4 % of the patients. Asthma prevalence is 4.2 %, allergic rhinitis is 9.7 % and COPD is 13.7 % in the same age group in China, suggesting that Coronavirus pneumonia is not specifically selecting these patients. In addition, active smokers were only 1.4% of the COVID-19 cases which is the habit of 27.3 % of the individuals in China.

As a rapid diagnosis criteria before virus-specific tests are finalized, which may suggest immediate isolation of the patients, lymphopenia (75.4%) and eosinopenia (52.9%) were observed in patients. 58 of the 140 patients (41.4%) were severely affected in their lungs. Severe cases were elder patients, with more comorbidities, and with higher levels of acute phase reactants, CRP, procalcitonin and D-Dimer.

Editor in Chief of Allergy, Prof. Dr. Cezmi Akdis the Director of the Swiss Institute of Allergy and Asthma Research (SIAF) comments that this study reports the cases as detailed and as up to date as possible, which will be helpful to isolate the patients early enough to avoid the dissemination of the epidemics. Sharing detailed patient information as fast as possible with the public and scientific community will certainly help to inform the doctors to be prepared for early and rapid diagnosis of the suspected cases, taking the measures for patient isolation and identification of the severe cases.

The authors acknowledge all of the healthcare professionals, who helped and took care of the patients with COVID-19 for their great effort and their selfless dedication in the medical operation against SARS-CoV-2.

Cezmi Akdis
akdisac@siaf.uzh.ch

Obituary COVID-19

We dedicate this Issue of Allergy to the countless healthcare professionals who are putting their lives at risk every day in midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Sadly, many doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals have passed away, particularly during the early days of the pandemic when there was limited personal protection equipment and missing awareness of the highly contagious nature of the virus. COVID-19 has claimed the life of a large number of healthcare professionals, many are listed in our website and named in this picture. We would like that science and solidarity in the world prevails forever and that a scientific approach is always taken in any such threats to humanity.
Obituary for Healthcare workers lost to COVID-19

Articles

A compendium answering 150 questions on COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2
Riggioni et al.

Clinical characteristics of 140 patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China
Zhang et al.

Eleven faces of coronavirus disease 2019
Dong et al.

Intranasal corticosteroids in allergic rhinitis in COVID-19 infected patients: An ARIA-EAACI statement
Bousqet et al.

Distinct characteristics of COVID-19 patients with initial rRT-PCR-positive and rRT-PCR-negative results for SARS-CoV-2
Zhang et al.

COVID-19 in a designated infectious diseases hospital outside Hubei Province, China
Cai et al.

Handling of allergen immunotherapy in the COVID-19 pandemic: An ARIA-EAACI statement
Klimek et al.

Asthma and COVID-19: is asthma a risk factor for severe outcomes?
Johnston

Is BCG vaccination affecting the spread and severity of COVID-19?
Ozdemir et al.

Advanced forecasting of SARS-CoV-2-related deaths in Italy, Germany, Spain, and New York State
Sotgui et al.

Is global BCG vaccination-induced trained immunity relevant to the progression of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?
Gursel et al.

COVID-19, chronic inflammatory respiratory diseases and eosinophils – Observations from reported clinical case series
Jesenak et al.

Immune response to SARS‐CoV‐2 and mechanisms of immunopathological changes in COVID‐19
Azkur et al.

Managing ocular allergy in the time of COVID-19
Leonardi et al.

SARS-CoV-2 immunogenicity at the crossroads
Karamloo et al.

COVID-19 Clinical trials: quality matters more than quantity
Bonini et al.

Allergy and asthma in children and adolescents during the COVID outbreak: what we know and how we could prevent allergy and asthma flares?
Licari et al.

Considerations on Biologicals for Patients with allergic disease in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: an EAACI Statement
Vultaggio et al.

Distribution of ACE2, CD147, CD26 and other SARS-CoV-2 associated molecules in tissues and immune cells in health and in asthma, COPD, obesity, hypertension, and COVID-19 risk factors
Radzikowska et al.

COVID-19 pandemic: Practical considerations on the organization of an allergy clinic – an EAACI/ARIA Position Paper
Pfaar et al.

Clinical characteristics of 182 pediatric COVID-19 patients with different severities and allergic status
Du et al.

Diagnosis and management of the drug hypersensitivity reactions in Coronavirus disease 19
Gelincik et al.

Eosinopenia is associated with greater severity in patients with coronavirus disease 2019
Zhao et al.

COVID-19 in a patient with severe asthma treated with Omalizumab
Lommatzsch et al.

Is asthma protective against COVID-19?
Farsi et al.

Low prevalence of bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease among intensive care unit patients with COVID-19
Avdeev et al.

Junior Members Corner

EAACI JMs come from all corners of the globe, and have been making significant contributions to the field of allergy. Read about some of their accolades here!

The compendium answering 150 questions on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a JMA-Allergy collaboration

The collaboration between the JMA and Allergy has been invigorated, particularly since Prof. Cezmi A. Akdis became the Editor-in-Chief. The latest joint effort, which included a total of 42 scientists and physicians, has yielded a timely compendium answering 150 questions on SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19. The article is structured in questions formulated by JMs and answers provided by senior EAACI members and experts in the field and supported by more than 300 references. The article represents a fruitful sharing of knowledge between young and senior clinicians and scientists, outlining a complete and practical overview regarding SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 and allergic diseases. Specifically, the main areas covered include immunology, virology, diagnosis, treatments, clinical trials, drug discovery, vaccine development, management of patients with allergic disease and asthma, and epidemiology. The article, recently accepted for publication in Allergy, can be downloaded here.

EAACI Annual Congress 2020 goes digital

The EAACI Annual Congress 2020 was fully digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While staying safe at home, we had the opportunity to attend to high-quality scientific talks including keynotes, state-of-the-art and industry symposia, and oral and poster presentations.

Most of the congress scientific content can be accessed, by those who had registered, through the EAACI Digital Congress 2020 platform for 6 months by clicking here.

For all of those who were not registered, the content will be available in the upcoming weeks in the form of thematic packages and can be purchased at the EAACI Media Library.

The aim of the EAACI congress is to share the latest scientific and medical advances in allergy. Do not miss the opportunity to still join the digital EAACI Annual Congress 2020!

Best regards,
The JMA

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