Category Archives: Genetic Medicine

As many people yearn to return to some form of normalcy, states are beginning to consider what the reopening of nonessential businesses should look like. In his daily press briefing Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.) said a crucial first step for reopening is widespread COVID-19 testing which New York State currently lacks.

On that same day, Dr. Augustine M.K. Choi, Weill Cornell Dean, announced a new initiative to begin antibody testing employees of Weill Cornell.

Current testing efforts across the state are focused on detecting those with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but in order to begin reopening businesses people must be tested for previous exposure to the virus.

The current diagnostic used to test patients suspected of having COVID-19 at WCM is a real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, an effective and relatively fast method to detect genetic material. It can be used to detect the RNA present in the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

PCR is the gold standard because its such a highly sensitive and specific test and can deliver reliable and accurate diagnosis in as fast as 2-5 hours. Compared to other available platforms its much faster and more accurate, said Dr. Melissa Cushing, pathology, in Chois update.

However, as institutions begin to test for people who were exposed to the virus and recovered, another method is required antibody testing. Instead of testing for the genetic material of the virus itself, antibody tests search for the antibodies that the body creates in response to COVID-19. These antibodies are formed between three and 15 days after experiencing symptoms, according to Cushing.

As of April 17, testing was made available for New York Presbyterian staff that tested positive for COVID-19 or had a COVID-19-like illness and returned to work.

WCM plans to make more testing available to its staff, as it works to increase its testing capabilities. Cushing predicted that this public testing is at least several weeks away. Experiencing the brunt of statewide shortages of certain materials, WCM also requires access to reagents and more high output platforms to increase its testing capabilities.

We need to really scale up with the amount of reagents we have with our current tests. Then we are really looking to some of the commercial labs to provide the large, high frequency platforms that we already use in our labs so that the process can be much more automated, Cushing said. That is our goal to be testing as many people that need to be tested in our city.

In order to address the testing insufficiencies on a statewide level, the governor issued an executive order on April 17 that directs all public and private labs capable of conducting virology testing to coordinate with the State Department of Health to prioritize coronavirus testing.

The testing and tracing is the guideposts through this. As we are working our way through the next several months the testing, which is informing us as to who can go back to work helping us isolate people, its about testing, Cuomo said in his daily briefing on April 17. Testing is a totally new challenge. Nobody has done this and what we need to do on testing.

According to Cuomo, the lack of infrastructure to facilitate widespread testing mirrors the earlier lack of coordination between hospitals, which the Surge and Flex initiative addressed the initiative coordinated the distribution of scarce medical supplies between public and private hospitals across the state.

Besides the lack of infrastructure, another impasse to wide scale testing is the availability of the materials specifically chemical reagents necessary to run the tests.

Currently, this order will not affect the labs on Cornells Ithaca campus.

Cornell University is not offering any human testing for COVID-19 on campus at this point. We will always follow all state/federal government regulations as appropriate, John Carberry, a University spokesperson, wrote in a statement to The Sun.

Cornell is affiliated with two of the 301 laboratories and hospitals capable of performing viral testing the Allyn B Ley Clinical Laboratory housed in Cornell Health and the Hospital for Special Surgery Dept of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in New York City.

Initially, 28 laboratories with clinical laboratory permits from the state health department and experience in molecular-based virology could conduct testing. However, this system is unable to meet the demand for the widespread testing needed to reopen New York State.

We dont have a testing system that can do this volume, or that can be ramped up to do this volume. We dont have a public health testing system, its de minimis if you look at what our government department of health have, Cuomo said.

The state has begun its efforts to perform antibody tests on 3,000 individuals to better understand what percentage of the population is currently immune to the virus. The plan is being supported financially by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who pledged more than $10 million to create a test and trace program.

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As Cuomo Issues New Executive Order, Weill Cornell Medicine Ramps Up COVID-19 Testing - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

WESTFIELD, N.J., April 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Congress made welcomed legislative attempts in the past to increase medical discovery such as enacting the Orphan Drug and Translational Research Acts, but they are very limited in scope; and the same holds true with, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Administration's new rules regarding relaxation of regulations to enter clinical trials in national emergency situations.

The good news is that the pandemic and associated national pandemic fear generated by COVID-19 has created a general awareness and wake-up call for the urgent need to significantly reduce the barriers for volunteers to enter promising clinical studies. But there is no practical doable, effective and speedy way yet offered except that proposed in Dr. DeFelice's book that physicians be permitted to volunteer for clinical research studies much more easily than others. Who would object? More potential therapies would be tested and, pari passu, more breakthrough therapies and cures discovered. He then coined the term, "doctornauts", to describe such altruistic physicians.

In his first book, Drug Discovery: The Pending Crisis, published in 1972, physician Stephen L. DeFelice, the founder of FIM, The Foundation for Innovation in Medicine in 1976, correctly predicted that there would be fewer cures in the near future. Ask yourself, "When was the last cure?" The reason? Medical discovery of new therapies can only be discovered in clinical studies. Penicillin and insulin were discovered when administered to patients with bacterial infections or diabetes. For a variety of reasons, such as the thalidomide tragedy, we became excessively concerned with safety, including the exaggerated dangers to volunteers in clinical research but puzzlingly ignoring the value of this critical step. As a result, we established highly costly and risk-averse ponderous rules and regulations which, unnoticed, eliminated our huge reservoir of creative, underfunded physicians and scientists as well as our major research institutions such as our pharmaceutical companies.

This message went unnoticed until Dr. DeFelice met with the physician and then Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, who, as a previous researcher, quickly understood the concept and circulated a draft of the Doctornaut Act. Unfortunately, it met with little interest.

But, to repeat, COVID-19 has sparked a dramatic cultural wake-up call to the fundamental role of clinical research in attacking disease. This awakening is fueled by the alarming reality that the only remedy that we had in our medical armamentarium was quarantine; and, due to genetic bioengineering, we can expect more lethal viral and also bacterial pandemics in the near future. One core message is that speed is the key and doctornauts provide that.

To immediately and legally establish doctornauts, FIM proposes a path that the FDA Commissioner and physician, Stephen Hahn, already has authority to implement. He, with a single stroke of his pen, can issue a simple addition to already established regulations which regulatory language is described in the FIM proposal. It creates a Two-Tier system with Institutional Review Boards or IRBs, committees which oversee clinical trials, to help the already swamped FDA created by a single virus. The educational FIM proposal deals with the history and rationale regarding physician volunteers or doctornauts which can be helpful to spur the Commissioner to action.

Now consider the following: if the doctornaut or physician volunteer venture is successful, dramatic medical advances discovered in them can also be readily applied to children with diseases and disabilities. And finally, it will substantially help in reducing health care costs within the near term.

For more information about Dr. DeFelice and FIM, please contact Patricia Park at fimdefelice@aol.com or 908- 233- 2448.

https://fimdefelice.org/covid-19-and-beyond-presents-an-historic-opportunity-for-the-fda-commissioner-to-create-a-two-tier-system-to-accelerate-the-discovery-of-cures-and-breakthrough-therapies-for-diseases-and-disabilities

View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/covid-19-and-beyond-how-fda-commissioner-hahn-can-immediately-speed-up-medical-discovery-with-a-simple-stroke-of-his-pen-by-creating-a-two-tier-system-301046448.html

SOURCE The Foundation for Innovation in Medicine (FIM)

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COVID-19 And Beyond: How FDA Commissioner Hahn Can Immediately Speed-Up Medical Discovery With A Simple Stroke Of His Pen By Creating A Two-Tier...

Dr. ukasz Rbalski (pictured) from Gdask University is the first in Poland to obtain the full genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, isolated directly from a Polish patient. Adam Warawa/PAP

The full DNA sequence of the coronavirus virus has been taken from an infected patient after being isolated by scientists at Gdask University.

By unravelling the genetic sequence, the researchers can learn a variety of crucial information about the disease, such as how the virus deceives the human body, weakening its immune system.

A fragment of the genetic sequence of the coronavirus fully isolated by Dr. Rbalski.Adam Warawa/PAP

Other clues include COVID-19s evolutionary and geographic origins, how it found itself in Poland and how it has changed since the outbreak in China.

Team leader Dr. ukasz Rbalski at the Gdask University and Medical Academys joint Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology said: Genetic material must meet many qualitative and quantitative standards in order to be decoded.

The data obtained will allow scientists from around the world to consider Poland in their research related to the epidemiology of COVID-19 disease.Public domain

In the case of viruses whose genetic material is single-stranded RNA, methods are used to multiply the amount of genetic material.

Normally, this has been done by replicating viral particles in laboratories. Nowadays, thanks to achievements in the field of molecular biology, a shorter pathway can be used without the need for virus culture.

By unravelling the genetic sequence, the researchers can learn a variety of crucial information about the disease, such as how the virus deceives the human body, weakening its immune system.Adam Warawa/PAP

The equipment used to decode coronavirus was previously used during the Ebola epidemic.

Dr. Rbalski used the latest generation of sequencers from Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which have bioinformatic protocols that limit the risk of results distortion.

Dr. Rbalskis research is published in the global GISAID database.Uniwersytet Gdaski

The GISAID database is the biggest resource of DNA sequences worldwide scientists have already uploaded over 5,000 of them and now the collection includes one from a Polish patient.

The University Clinical Centre in Gdasks Hematology Laboratory is currently carrying out further sequencing of viruses from Polish patients.

Dr. Rbalski used the latest generation of sequencers from Oxford Nanopore Technologies, which have bioinformatic protocols that limit the risk of results distortion.Adam Warawa/PAP

The next package of data will be sent to GISAID within the next few days.

The research has been published in the international GISAID database so that it can be widely used for research on vaccines and medicine for the coronavirus.

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Gdask scientist makes crucial headway in understanding killer virus by isolating COVID-19 DNA from infected patient - The First News

The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women is by Dr Sharon Moalem (male); a neuroscientist and evolutionary biologist. Its a fascinating, unexpected and thought-provoking argument that the simple fact of having two X chromosomes, instead of one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, is the secret to womens underappreciated success in the game of life.

Dr Sharon Moalem is a science author.

A quick refresher on chromosomes: among the 23 pairs of chromosomes X-shaped twists of DNA that are the encyclopaedia of us found in every human cell, are two sex chromosomes. In genetic females, these two sex chromosomes are both an X chromosome. In genetic males, one is an X chromosome and one is a Y chromosome.

We inherit one sex chromosome from our father and one from our mother; genetic females inherit one X sex chromosome from each parent, and genetic males inherit an X sex chromosome from the mother, and a Y sex chromosome from their father.

The X chromosome is the genetic powerhouse of the sex chromosomes, containing more than 1000 genes that orchestrate a huge number of vital cellular processes. In contrast, the Y chromosome is a stunted thing that only carries about 70 genes, most of which are involved in the production of sperm.

In genetic females, only one of their two X chromosomes is needed, so the second X chromosome is deactivated or silenced when that person is merely a bundle of cells in the uterus. The silenced X chromosome gets condensed down into a bit of cellular debris called a Barr body.

For a long time, that second, silenced X chromosome was assumed to be dead. But it turns out that second X chromosome in the cells of genetic females is actually a genetic back-up plan, helping the cell and the person to survive by throwing a genetic lifeline when things get tough. Far from being inert, about 23 per cent of those thousand or so genes on the silenced X chromosome are still active.

Dr Sharon Moalem on women having an extra X chromosome: Its like having two toolboxes. One toolbox may have a broken hammer, so you use the hammer from the second box."Credit:Getty Images

Moalem argues that this back-up set of genes gives women a significant survival advantage, as evidenced by the fact that women consistently outlive men, even in times of hardship.

Having the use of two X chromosomes makes females more genetically diverse, and the ability to rely on that diverse genetic knowledge is why females always come out on top, he writes.

This advantage is particularly evident with the immune system. Moalem recalls his time tending to HIV-positive children at an orphanage in Bangkok, and his observation that the HIV-positive boys were consistently more likely to get sick with opportunistic infections than the HIV-positive girls.

Credit:

He goes on to note that HIV-positive men are also more likely than HIV-positive women to develop tuberculosis and pneumonia, while HIV-positive women tend to have higher immune-cell counts a sign of immunological strength in the early stages of HIV infection than men do.

The X chromosome carries a large number of genes involved in immune system functioning. Moalem argues that because women have two copies of the X chromosome, they are able to produce a more diverse and effective population of immune cells than if they relied on the immune genes of only one X chromosome, as men do.

But there is a price for that more aggressive immune response; sometimes it goes overboard and starts overreacting to benign things, such as our own cells. This is the phenomenon of autoimmunity, and it disproportionally affects women.

If a microbe is the wolf, and its dressing up like Grandma, better trying to kill Grandma every once in a while than to risk being fooled by a wolf dressed like Grandma, he explains.

Having two X chromosomes also offers an unparalleled advantage if it happens that a gene on one of those chromosomes is dangerously mutated.

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Say you inherit a malfunctioning gene on the X chromosome from your mother that might be associated with developmental problems. If you also have inherited an X chromosome from your father that carries a functional copy of that gene, you have a back-up, an understudy, for that faulty gene. But if you inherit a Y chromosome from your father, youre stuck with the faulty one.

This is why so-called X-linked intellectual disabilities almost entirely affect genetic males; more than 100 genes associated with intellectual disabilities have been found on the X chromosome.

Moalem also highlights a problem that numerous female authors before him have also drawn attention to: that medical science and medicine still view women as being biologically the same as men. That persistent ignorance one might even call it wilful denialism has had some devastating consequences.

Women with autoimmune conditions have long had their symptoms dismissed or trivialised by the medical establishment, which was working on the assumption that these diseases were equally prevalent in men and women.

Not that that lack of understanding has slowed females down too much. As Moalem points out, theres only one way to judge the winner in the genetic battle of the sexes: The real test of ones mettle is being able to survive the challenges of life, he writes. So, who is left standing at the end of life?

Thats right. Women.

Bianca Nogrady is the editor of The Best Australian Science Writing 2019 (NewSouth).

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Immunity and our DNA: Why women are the stronger sex - The Age

For a few years now, scientists at Washington University have been working on techniques to turn stem cells into pancreatic beta cells as a way of addressing insulin shortages in diabetics. After some promising recent strides, the team is now reporting another exciting breakthrough, combining this technique with the CRISPR gene-editing tool to reverse the disease in mice.

The pancreas contains what are known as beta cells, which secrete insulin as a way of tempering spikes in blood-sugar levels. But in those with diabetes, these beta cells either die off or dont function as they should, which means sufferers have to rely on diet and or regular insulin injections to manage their blood-sugar levels instead.

One of the ways scientists are working to replenish these stocks of pancreatic beta cells is by making them out of human stem cells, which are versatile, blank slate-like cells that can mature into almost any type of cell in the human body. The Washington University team has operated at the vanguard of this technology with a number of key breakthroughs, most recently with a cell implantation technique that functionally cured mice with diabetes.

The researchers are continuing to press ahead in search of new and improved methods, and this led them to the CRISPR gene-editing system, which itself has shown real promise as a tool to treat diabetes. The hope was that CRISPR could be used to correct genetic defects leading to diabetes, combining with the stem cell therapy to produce even more effective results.

As a proof of concept, the scientists took skin cells from a patient with a rare genetic type of diabetes called Wolfram syndrome, which develops during childhood and typically involves multiple insulin injections each day. These skin cells were converted into induced pluripotent stem cells, which were in turn converted into insulin-secreting beta cells. But as an additional step, CRISPR was used to correct a genetic mutation that causes Wolfram syndrome.

These edited beta cells were then pitted against non-edited beta cells from the same batch in test tube experiments and in mice with a severe type of diabetes. The edited cells proved more efficient at secreting insulin and when implanted under the skin in mice, reportedly caused the diabetes to quickly disappear. The rodents that received the unedited beta cells remained diabetic.

This is the first time CRISPR has been used to fix a patients diabetes-causing genetic defect and successfully reverse diabetes, said co-senior investigator Jeffrey R. Millman. For this study, we used cells from a patient with Wolfram syndrome because, conceptually, we knew it would be easier to correct a defect caused by a single gene. But we see this as a stepping stone toward applying gene therapy to a broader population of patients with diabetes.

The researchers are now continuing to work on improving the beta cell production technique, which in the future could involve cells taken form the blood or even urine, rather than the skin. They believe that further down the track this therapy could prove useful in treating both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, by correcting mutations that arise from genetic and environmental factors, and possibly be used to treat other conditions, as well.

We basically were able to use these cells to cure the problem, making normal beta cells by correcting this mutation, said co-senior investigator Fumihiko Urano. Its a proof of concept demonstrating that correcting gene defects that cause or contribute to diabetes in this case, in the Wolfram syndrome gene we can make beta cells that more effectively control blood sugar. Its also possible that by correcting the genetic defects in these cells, we may correct other problems Wolfram syndrome patients experience, such as visual impairment and neurodegeneration.

The research was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Source: Washington University

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CRISPR combines with stem cell therapy to reverse diabetes in mice - New Atlas

Ethiopia pardons more than 4,000 prisoners to help prevent coronavirus spread

Germany to start first coronavirus vaccine trial

By DW

German Health Minister Jens Spahn has announced the first clinical trials of a coronavirus vaccine. The Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), the regulatory authority which helps develop and authorizes vaccines in Germany, has given the go-ahead for the first clinical trial of BNT162b1, a vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. It was developed by cancer researcher and immunologist Ugur Sahin and his team at pharmaceutical company BioNTech, and is based on their prior research into cancer immunology. Sahin previously taught at the University of Mainz before becoming the CEO of BioNTech. In a joint conference call on Wednesday with researchers from the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Sahin said BNT162b1 constitutes a so-called RNA vaccine. He explained that innocuous genetic information of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is transferred into human cells with the help of lipid nanoparticles, a non-viral gene delivery system. The cells then transform this genetic information into a protein, which should stimulate the bodys immune reaction to the novel coronavrius.

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Webinar on COVID-19 and Mental Health: Interview with Dr. Seble Frehywot

By Liben Eabisa | TADIAS

Dr. Seble Frehywot, an Associate Professor of Global Health & Health Policy at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and her colleague Dr. Yianna Vovides from Georgetown University will host an online forum next week on April 30th focusing on the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on mental health. Dr. Seble who is also the Director of Global Health Equity On-Line Learning at George Washington University told Tadias that the virtual conference titled Peoples Webinar: Addressing COVID-19 By Addressing Mental Health is open to the public and available for viewing worldwide. Read more

CDC director warns second wave of coronavirus is likely to be even more devastating

By The Washington Post

Even as states move ahead with plans to reopen their economies, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Tuesday that a second wave of the novel coronavirus will be far more dire because it is likely to coincide with the start of flu season. Theres a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through, CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview with The Washington Post. And when Ive said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they dont understand what I meanWere going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time, he said. Having two simultaneous respiratory outbreaks would put unimaginable strain on the health-care system, he said. The first wave of covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has already killed more than 42,000 people across the country. It has overwhelmed hospitals and revealed gaping shortages in test kits, ventilators and protective equipment for health-care workers.

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Americans at World Health Organization transmitted real-time information about coronavirus to Trump administration

By The Washington Post

More than a dozen U.S. researchers, physicians and public health experts, many of them from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were working full time at the Geneva headquarters of the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus emerged late last year and transmitted real-time information about its discovery and spread in China to the Trump administration, according to U.S. and international officials. A number of CDC staff members are regularly detailed to work at the WHO in Geneva as part of a rotation that has operated for years. Senior Trump-appointed health officials also consulted regularly at the highest levels with the WHO as the crisis unfolded, the officials said. The presence of so many U.S. officials undercuts President Trumps assertion that the WHOs failure to communicate the extent of the threat, born of a desire to protect China, is largely responsible for the rapid spread of the virus in the United States. Read more

In Ethiopia, Dire Dawa Emerges as Newest Coronavirus Hot Spot

By Africa News

The case count as of April 20 had reached 111 according to health minister Lia Tadesses update for today. Ethiopia crossed the 100 mark over the weekend. All three cases recorded over the last 24-hours were recorded in the chartered city of Dire Dawa with patients between the ages of 11 18. Two of them had travel history from Djibouti. Till date, Ethiopia has 90 patients in treatment centers. The death toll is still at three with 16 recoveries. A patient is in intensive care. Read more

COVID-19: Interview with Dr. Tsion Firew, an Ethiopian Doctor on the Frontline in NYC

Dr. Tsion Firew is Doctor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Professor at Columbia University. She is also Special Advisor to the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia. (Courtesy photo)

By Liben Eabisa

In New York City, which has now become the global epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, working as a medical professional means literally going to a war zone, says physician Tsion Firew, a Doctor of Emergency Medicine and Assistant Professor at Columbia University, who has just recovered from COVID-19 and returned to work a few days ago. Indeed the statistics coming out of New York are simply shocking with the state recording a sharp increase in death toll this months surpassing 10,000 and growing. According to The New York Times: The numbers brought into clearer focus the staggering toll the virus has already taken on the largest city in the United States, where deserted streets are haunted by the near-constant howl of ambulance sirens. Far more people have died in New York City, on a per-capita basis, than in Italy the hardest-hit country in Europe. At the heart of the solution both in the U.S. and around the world is more testing and adhering to social distancing rules until such time as a proper treatment and vaccine is discovered, says Dr. Tsion, who is also a Special Advisor to the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia. Dr. Tsion adds that at this moment we all as humanity have one enemy: the virus. And whats going to win the fight is solidarity. Listen to the interview

Ethiopia Opens Aid Transport Hub to Fight Covid-19

By AFP

Ethiopia and the United Nations on Tuesday opened a humanitarian transport hub at Addis Ababa airport to move supplies and aid workers across Africa to fight coronavirus. The arrangement, which relies on cargo services provided by Ethiopian Airlines, could also partially offset heavy losses Africas largest carrier is sustaining because of the pandemic. An initial shipment of 3 000 cubic metres of supplies most of it personal protective equipment for health workers will be distributed within the next week, said Steven Were Omamo, Ethiopia country director for the World Food Programme (WFP). This is a really important platform in the response to Covid-19, because what it does is it allows us to move with speed and efficiency to respond to the needs as they are unfolding, Omamo said, referring to the disease caused by the coronavirus. The Addis gateway is one of eight global humanitarian hubs set up to facilitate movement of aid to fight Covid-19, according to WFP.

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Covid-19: Ethiopia to buy life insurance for health workers

By TESFA-ALEM TEKLE | AFP

The Ethiopian government is due to buy life insurance for health professionals in direct contact with Covid-19 patients. Health minister Lia Tadesse said on Tuesday that the government last week reached an agreement with the Ethiopian Insurance Corporation but did not disclose the value of the cover. The two sides are expected to sign an agreement this week to effect the insurance grant. According to the ministry, the life insurance grant is aimed at encouraging health experts who are the most vulnerable to the deadly coronavirus. Members of the Rapid Response Team will also benefit.

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U.N. says Saudi deportations of Ethiopian migrants risks spreading coronavirus

By Reuters

The United Nations said on Monday that deportations of illegal migrant workers by Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia risked spreading the coronavirus and it urged Riyadh to suspend the practice for the time being.

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Ethiopias capital launches door-to-door Covid-19 screening

Getty Images

By TESFA-ALEM TEKLE | AFP

Ethiopias capital, Addis Ababa is due to begin a door-to-door mass Covid-19 screening across the city, Addis Ababa city administration has announced. City deputy Mayor, Takele Uma, on Saturday told local journalists that the mass screening and testing programme will be started Monday (April 13) first in districts which are identified as potentially most vulnerable to the spread of the highly infectious coronavirus. The aggressive city-wide screening measure intends to identify Covid-19 infected patients and thereby to arrest a potential virus spread within communities. He said, the mass screening will eventually be carried out in all 117 districts, locally known as woredas, of the city, which is home to an estimated 7 million inhabitants. According to the Mayor, the door-to-door mass Covid-19 screening will be conducted by more than 1,200 retired health professionals, who responded to governments call on the retired to join the national fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

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Worldwide deaths from the coronavirus hit 100,000

By The Associated Press

The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus has hit 100,000, according to the running tally kept by Johns Hopkins University. The sad milestone comes as Christians around the globe mark a Good Friday unlike any other in front of computer screens instead of in church pews. Meanwhile, some countries are tiptoeing toward reopening segments of their battered economies. Public health officials are warning people against violating the social distancing rules over Easter and allowing the virus to flare up again. Authorities are using roadblocks and other means to discourage travel.

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Ethiopia COVID-19 Response Team: Interview with Mike Endale

By Liben Eabisa | TADIAS

A network of technology professionals from the Ethiopian Diaspora known as the Ethiopia COVID-19 Response Team has been assisting the Ethiopian Ministry of Health since the nations first Coronavirus case was confirmed on March 13th. The COVID-19 Response Team has since grown into an army of more than a thousand volunteers. Mike Endale, a software developer based in Washington, D.C., is the main person behind the launch of this project. Read more

Ethiopia eyes replicating Chinas successes in applying traditional medicine to contain COVID-19

By CGTN Africa

The Ethiopian government on Thursday expressed its keen interest to replicate Chinas positive experience in terms of effectively applying traditional Chinese medicine to successfully contain the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the East African country.

This came after high-level officials from the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MoIT) as well as the Ethiopian Ministry of Health (MoH) held a video conference with Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners and researchers on ways of applying the TCM therapy towards controlling the spread of coronavirus pandemic in the country, the MoIT disclosed in a statement issued on Thursday.

China, in particular, has agreed to provide to Ethiopia the two types of Chinese traditional medicines that the country applied to successfully treat the first two stages of the novel coronavirus, a statement from the Ethiopian Ministry of Innovation and Technology read.

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WHO Director Slams Racist Comments About COVID-19 Vaccine Testing

The Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has angrily condemned recent comments made by scientists suggesting that a vaccine for COVID-19 should be tested in Africa as racist and a hangover from the colonial mentality. (Photo: WHO)

By BBC

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has condemned as racist the comments by two French doctors who suggested a vaccine for the coronavirus could be tested in Africa.

Africa cant and wont be a testing ground for any vaccine, said Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The doctors remarks during a TV debate sparked outrage, and they were accused of treating Africans like human guinea pigs.

One of them later issued an apology.

When asked about the doctors suggestion during the WHOs coronavirus briefing, Dr Tedros became visibly angry, calling it a hangover from the colonial mentality.

It was a disgrace, appalling, to hear during the 21st Century, to hear from scientists, that kind of remark. We condemn this in the strongest terms possible, and we assure you that this will not happen, he said.

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Ethiopia declares state of emergency to curb spread of COVID-19

By Reuters

Ethiopias prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, on Wednesday declared a state of emergency in the country to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus, his office said on Twitter. Considering the gravity of the #COVID19, the government of Ethiopia has enacted a State of Emergency, Abiys office said.

Ethiopia virus cases hit 52, 9-month-old baby infected

By TESFA-ALEM TEKLE | AFP

Ethiopia on Tuesday reported eight new Covid-19 cases, the highest number recorded so far in one day since the country confirmed its first virus case on March 12. Among the new patients that tested positive for the virus were a 9-month-old infant and his mother who had travelled to Dubai recently. During the past 24 hours, we have done laboratory tests for a total of 264 people and eight out of them have been diagnosed with coronavirus, raising the total confirmed number of Covid-19 patients in Ethiopia to 52, said Health Minister Dr Lia Tadese. According to the Minister, seven of the newly confirmed patients had travel histories to various countries. They have been under forced-quarantine in different designated hotels in the capital, Addis Ababa. Five of the new patients including the 9-month-old baby and the mother came from Dubai while the two others came from Thailand and the United Kingdom, she said

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The coronavirus is infecting and killing black Americans at an alarmingly high rate

By The Washington Post

As the novel coronavirus sweeps across the United States, it appears to be infecting and killing black Americans at a disproportionately high rate, according to a Washington Post analysis of early data from jurisdictions across the country. The emerging stark racial disparity led the surgeon general Tuesday to acknowledge in personal terms the increased risk for African Americans amid growing demands that public-health officials release more data on the race of those who are sick, hospitalized and dying of a contagion that has killed more than 12,000 people in the United States. A Post analysis of what data is available and census demographics shows that counties that are majority-black have three times the rate of infections and almost six times the rate of deaths as counties where white residents are in the majority.

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In China, Wuhans lockdown officially ends after 11 weeks

After 11 weeks or 76 days Wuhans lockdown is officially over. On Wednesday, Chinese authorities allowed residents to travel in and out of the besieged city where the coronavirus outbreak was first reported in December. Many remnants of the months-long lockdown, however, remain. Wuhans 11 million residents will be able to leave only after receiving official authorization that they are healthy and havent recently been in contact with a coronavirus patient. To do so, the Chinese government is making use of its mandatory smartphone application that, along with other government surveillance, tracks the movement and health status of every person.

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U.S. hospitals facing severe shortages of equipment and staff, watchdog says

By The Washington Post

As the official U.S. death toll approached 10,000, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome M. Adams warned that this will be the hardest and saddest week of most Americans lives.

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Ethio-American Tech Company PhantomALERT Offers Free App to Track & Map COVID-19 Outbreak

By Tadias Staff

PhantomALERT, a Washington D.C.-based technology company announced, that its offering a free application service to track, report and map COVID-19 outbreak hotspots in real time. In a recent letter to the DC government as well as the Ethiopian Embassy in the U.S. the Ethiopian-American owned business, which was launched in 2007, explained that over the past few days, they have redesigned their application to be a dedicated coronavirus mapping, reporting and tracking application. The letter to the Ethiopian Embassy, shared with Tadias, noted that PhantomALERTs technology will enable the Ethiopian government (and all other countries across the world) to locate symptomatic patients, provide medical assistance and alert communities of hotspots for the purpose of slowing down the spread of the Coronavirus.

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2nd COVID-19 death confirmed in Ethiopia

By Dr. Lia Tadesse (Minister, Ministry of Health, Ethiopia)

It is with great sadness that I announce the second death of a patient from #COVID19 in Ethiopia. The patient was admitted on April 2nd and was under strict medical follow up in the Intensive Care Unit. My sincere condolences to the family and loved ones.

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The Next Coronavirus Test Will Tell You If You Are Now Immune. And Its Fast.

People line up in their cars at the COVID-19 testing area at Roseland Community Hospital on April 3, 2020, in Chicago. (E. Jason Wambsgans / Chicago Tribune)

By Chicago Tribune

A new, different type of coronavirus test is coming that will help significantly in the fight to quell the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors and scientists say. The first so-called serology test, which detects antibodies to the virus rather than the virus itself, was given emergency approval Thursday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. And several more are nearly ready, said Dr. Elizabeth McNally, director of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Center for Genetic Medicine.

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Your Safety is Our Priority: How Ethiopian Airlines is Navigating the Global Virus Crisis

By Tadias Staff

Lately Ethiopian Airlines has been busy delivering much-needed medical supplies across Africa and emerging at the forefront of the continents fight against the coronavirus pandemic even as it has suspended most of its international passenger flights.

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Ethiopia races to bolster ventilator stockpile for coronavirus fight

By AFP

Ethiopias government like others in Africa is confronting a stark ventilator shortage that could hobble its COVID-19 response. In a country of more than 100 million people, just 54 ventilators out of around 450 total had been set aside for COVID-19 patients as of this week, said Yakob Seman, director general of medical services at the health ministry.

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