treatment

COVID Roundup: Excess Mortality, Long COVID Prevalence and Treatment, and mRNA Vaccine Safety

Excess Mortality1

Approximately 18.2 million individuals worldwide may have died because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a systematic analysis. This is more than 3 times the number of reported deaths, 5.94 million.

Researchers examined all-cause mortality reports of 191 countries and 252 subnational unities for selected countries between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021.

The results indicate that the global all-age rate of excess mortality was 120.3 (113.1-129.3) deaths per 100,000 people. An excess mortality rate exceeding 300 deaths per 100,00 people was observed in 21 countries. South Asia, north Africa and the Middle East, and eastern Europe were among the regions with the highest number of excess deaths due to COVID-19.

The highest numbers of estimated cumulative excess deaths at the country level were in India (4.07 million; 3.71-4.36), United States (1.13 million; 1.08-1.18), Russia (1.07 million; 1.06-1.08), Mexico (798,000; 741,000-867,000), Brazil (792,000; 730,000-847,000), Indonesia (736,000; 594,000-955,000), and Pakistan (664,000; 498,000-847,000). The highest excess mortality rate among these countries was in Russia (374.6 deaths per 100,000; 369.7-378.4) and Mexico (325.1 per 100,000; 301.6-353.3).

Exercise for Post-COVID Symptoms2

Exercise may treat long-COVID-associated depression and diabetes, according to results of a recent study.

Researchers hypothesized that exercise could address the chronic psychological stress, immune system dysregulation, and hyperinflammation that contributes to the development of long-term, COVID-related symptoms.

“We know that long COVID causes depression, and we know that it can increase blood glucose levels to the point where people can develop diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition common among people with type 1 diabetes,” study author Candida Rebello, PhD, noted in a press release. “Exercise can help. Exercise takes care of the inflammation that leads to elevated blood glucose and the development and progression of diabetes and clinical depression.”

Prevalence of Long COVID Symptoms3

Approximately one third of individuals previously infected with COVID-19 report 1 or more symptoms 6 to 12 months after infection, according to the preliminary results of a nationwide cross-sectional study.

Included were 152,880 individuals aged 15 years or older from Denmark who were tested for COVID-19 infection by a reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test from September 2020 to April 2021. All participants completed follow-up questionnaires about symptoms, diagnoses, general health, demographics, and lifestyle at 6, 9 or 12 months after testing.

The results indicated that 29.6% of individuals who tested positive (61,002 of 152,880) experienced at least 1 post-acute symptom. Concentration difficulties, memory issues, mental or physical exhaustion, or sleep problems were reported in 53.1% of the test-positive group, compared with 11.5% of the test-negative group. The test-positive group had more new diagnoses of anxiety or depression.

The test-positive group also had elevated risks for 18 of 21 physical symptoms at follow-up. The largest risk differences were for dysosmia, dysgeusia, fatigue/exhaustion, dyspnea, and reduced strength in arms/legs.

This study has not yet been peer reviewed.

Safety of mRNA Vaccines4

The majority of adverse events following vaccination against COVID-19 with an mRNA vaccine were mild and short in duration, according to results of an observational study.

Researchers utilized the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and v-safe to examine the safety of mRNA vaccination during the first 6 months of vaccine rollout, from December 14, 2020, to June 14, 2021.

A total of 298 million doses of mRNA vaccines were administered throughout the study period, and a total of 340,522 adverse events were reported through VAERS. Of the VAERS reports, 92.1% were non-serious, 6.6% were serious, and 1.3% were deaths.

More than half of the 7,914,583 v-safe participants reported local and systemic reactogenicity, with more frequent reports occurring after dose 2. Injection-site pain, fatigue, and headache were among the commonly reported events 0 to 7 days after vaccination. Reactogenicity was most frequently reported the day following vaccination. 

 

—Leigh Precopio

 

References:

  1. Wang H, Paulson KR, Pease SA; COVID-19 Excess Mortality Collaborators. Estimating excess mortality due to the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic analysis of COVID-19-rellatted mortality, 2020-21. Lancet. Published online March 10, 2022. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02796-3
  2. Exercise may treat long covid-induced diabetes, depression. News release. Pennington Biomedical Research Center; March 11, 2022. Accessed March 14, 2022. https://www.pbrc.edu/news/media/2022/long-covid-and-exercise.aspx
  3. Sørensen AIV, Spiliopoulos L, Bager P, et al. Post-acute symptoms, new onset diagnoses and health problems 6 to 12 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection: a nationwide questionnaire study in the adult Danish population. medRxi. Published online February 28, 2022. doi:10.1101/2022.02.27.22271328
  4. Rosenblum HG, Gee J, Liu R, et al. Safety of mRNA vaccines administered during the initial 6 months of the US COVID-19 vaccination programme: an observational study of reports of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and v-safe. Lancet Infect Dis. Published online March 7, 2022. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00054-8