In vaccinated patients with “breakthrough” Covid-19 infections the disease may not affect the lungs as much as in unvaccinated patients, new data from India suggests.
Doctors there studied 205 adults with confirmed COVID-19, more than half under age 50.
Among those studied, 14% were fully vaccinated, 15% were partially vaccinated, and the rest were unvaccinated.
All had computed tomography (CT) scans of their lungs. Researchers scored each of the five lobes of each lung on a scale ranging from 0 for no virus involvement of the lobe, to 5, which meant more than 75% of the lobe was affected.
Out of a possible 25, the average lung CT severity score was 0 in fully vaccinated patients, 4 in partially vaccinated patients, and 11 in the unvaccinated group, according to a report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review.
At the same time, the number of U.S. adolescents and young adults who screened positive for depression and suicide risk increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study suggests.
Researchers examined electronic health records from 68,699 people ages 12 to 21, who received primary care at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The proportion of youth screening positive for depressive symptoms increased from 5% between June and December 2019 to 6.2% in the same months during 2020.
The proportion who screened positive for suicide risk climbed from 6.1% to 7.1% over this same period.
“School closures and disruptions of routines, social isolation, concerns about family members’ health, financial stresses, political turmoil and high-profile examples of racial injustice may all have played a role,” said coauthor Stephanie Mayne of the University of Pennsylvania.
(Reuters)
