Water in hemodialysis: Since the last two decades a new purity grade was strongly recommended - defined as highly chemically purified with low microbial content. Carlo Boccato and colleagues provide the quality management guide in their textbook "Water and Dialysis Fluids".

An international team of scientists have identified antibodies that neutralize omicron and other SARS-CoV-2 variants. These antibodies target areas of the virus spike protein that remain essentially unchanged as the viruses mutate.

EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has issued advice on the use of Paxlovid (PF-07321332 and ritonavir) for the treatment of COVID-19. The medicine, which is not yet authorised in the EU, can be used to treat adults with COVID-19 who do not require supplemental oxygen and who are at increased risk of progressing to severe disease. Paxlovid should be administered as soon as possible after diagnosis of COVID-19 and within 5 days of the start of symptoms. The two active substances of the medicine, PF-07321332 and ritonavir, which are available as separate tablets, should be taken together twice a day for 5 days.

BOSTON – A team of scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has conducted one of the first comparisons of how effectively each of the three COVID-19 vaccines authorized or approved in the United States stimulates a protective immune response against the virus. This study, published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, also includes an analysis of data from several other studies on how well each vaccine guards against breakthrough cases of COVID-19, or infections that occur in people who have received the inoculations.

Vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus have been made possible by an unprecedented worldwide collaboration. But medications against Covid-19 have as yet seen only partial success. With the support of the Bavarian Research Foundation, a Munich research team has developed a protein which has reliably prevented infection by the virus and its variants in cell culture tests.

In experiments using saliva samples from COVID-19 patients, the gum, which contains the ACE2 protein, neutralized the virus, according to research led by University of Pennsylvania scientists.

Much like an overexploited ecosystem, the increasingly polarized political landscape in the United States — and much of the world — is experiencing a catastrophic loss of diversity that threatens the resilience not only of democracy, but also of society, according to a series of new studies that examine political polarization as a collection of complex ever-evolving systems.

In the first head-to-head comparison of the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, researchers examined the electronic health records of veterans who had received each vaccine. Both vaccines were highly effective in preventing COVID-19 outcomes such as documented infection, hospitalization, and death.