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 Higher estrogen levels tied to lower COVID death risk
A new study strengthens suspicions that the female hormone estrogen
protects against death from COVID-19.
Researchers in Sweden studied 14,685 older women with COVID-19, all
of whom were past menopause, during which estrogen levels decline
dramatically. Seventeen percent were taking estrogen supplements to
relieve menopausal symptoms.
After adjusting for other risk factors, women getting extra estrogen
had a 53% lower risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to untreated
women, the researchers reported on Monday in BMJ Open. Observational
studies such as this one cannot prove higher estrogen levels are
protective. Furthermore, the women were infected before vaccines
were available, said Dr. Malin Sund of Umea University.
"Vaccination has clearly been shown to protect from COVID-19 related
mortality and the potential added value from estrogen (in vaccinated
women) cannot be estimated from this data," Sund said. The idea that
estrogen might be protective in hospitalized COVID-19 patients is
now being tested more rigorously in a randomized controlled trial at
Tulane University.
Antacid shows promise against COVID-19 symptoms
In non-hospitalized, unvaccinated adults with mild-to-moderate
COVID-19, treatment with a high dose of the antacid drug famotidine
helped speed resolution of symptoms and inflammation in a small
randomized controlled trial.
Roughly half of those in the 55-patient trial took famotidine - the
main ingredient in Johnson & Johnson's widely used over-the-counter
Pepsid heartburn drug - three times a day for two weeks. The others
took a dummy pill. Patients in the famotidine group had faster
resolution of 14 of 16 symptoms assessed in the study, including
loss of smell and taste, difficulty breathing and abdominal pain.
Famotidine treatment also led to faster improvements in markers of
inflammation without any detrimental effects on patients' immune
responses, the researchers reported in the journal Gut. About a
third of the study's participants were Black and a quarter Hispanic.
"We hope that the data we are sharing with this study guide future
trials that are necessary to confirm famotidine as a treatment for
patients with COVID-19," study leader Dr. Tobias Janowitz of
Northwell Health and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory said in a news
release.
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U.S. may have overestimated COVID-19 hospitalizations
U.S. statistics likely overestimate how many patients have been
hospitalized for COVID-19, according to a new study.
At 60 hospitals near Boston, Pittsburgh and Chicago, researchers
manually reviewed the charts of a random sample of 1,123 patients
with confirmed coronavirus infections hospitalized between March
2020 and August 2021.
Roughly 1-in-4 patients "actually were admitted for
a different problem and should not have been included" in data
analytics calculations of the severity of COVID-19, said Dr. Shawn
Murphy of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. Patients were
more likely to have been admitted specifically for COVID-19 when
local infection rates were high, his team reported on Tuesday on
medRxiv ahead of peer review. When infection rates were low last
summer, up to half the patients were hospitalized for other reasons,
with SARS-CoV-2 infection found coincidentally on mandatory testing.
The researchers were able to identify indicators in patients' charts
that admissions were actually due to COVID-19, such as whether
doctors ordered lab tests related to inflammation.
"This study highlights an important weakness in COVID-19 reporting,
which might have implications on intensive care utilization, cost
analysis, resource planning, and research," said Jeffrey Klann, also
of Mass General. Adding the identified indicators to data analytics
software "could help mitigate these problems."
For a graphic on vaccines in development: https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/VACCINE-TRACKER/xegpbqnlovq/
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
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