Asthma patients less likely to die from COVID-19

A new study has suggested that asthma patients may be less likely to die from COVID-19. Researchers at a Boston healthcare system studied 562 asthma patients with COVID-19 and 2,686 similarly-aged COVID-19 patients without asthma.

The two groups were hospitalized at similar rates (18% to 21%) and had similar need for mechanical ventilation (3% in the asthma group vs 4%). But the asthma patients were 70% less likely to die from the virus, researchers reported. None of the 44 patients with severe asthma died.

The exact reason behind this is not yet known, the researchers are attributing this partially to medicines used to treat Asthma.

"Although the factors underlying these findings are not yet known, important considerations include: possible biologic mechanisms ... and possible protective effects of asthma medications (such as corticosteroids)," the researchers said in a report posted on Monday on medRxiv ahead of peer review.

Meanwhile, a new test is proving to be better at identifying coronavirus infections

Becton Dickenson and Co's BD Veritor System for rapid detection of the novel coronavirus is better than gold standard RT-PCR lab tests at distinguishing between infectious and non-infectious virus in swab samples obtained within a week of symptom onset, according to a new study.

One drawback of the RT-PCR (real-time polymerase chain reaction) is that patients can test positive even after they are no longer infectious, because the tests detect small amounts of viral RNA that most likely represent infected cells that have died.

Newer "antigen-based" tests look for viral proteins instead of RNA. The antigen-based approach could potentially "be used to identify and isolate contagious individuals more effectively than current RNA-based (RT-PCR) testing," coauthor Celine Roger-Dalbert of BD Life Sciences told Reuters.

"Although it may not replace RNA-based testing, because we still need to identify anyone who was infected in order to trace the spread of the virus, it should help make isolation more efficient and effective as a public health intervention used to slow down the spread of COVID-19," she added.

(With Reuters input)