COVID-19

The surge in RSV cases following the COVID-19 pandemic may have been, in part, caused by increased testing and changes to the RSV genome, according to a Northwestern Medicine study published in Nature Communications.

Scientists have developed a machine-learning approach to track the evolution of the COVID-19 virus and potentially others, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

U.S. adults with certain socio-demographic and clinical characteristics may have weaker antibody responses to COVID-19 vaccination, according to a recent study published in Nature Communications.

Testing performance of rapid antigen tests for SARS-CoV-2 improved for both asymptomatic and symptomatic patients after testing multiple times in 48-hour intervals, according to findings published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Secondary bacterial pneumonia that did not resolve was a key driver of death in patients with COVID-19, according to a recent study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

A new Northwestern Medicine study shows antibodies generated by prior vaccinations or infections can actually “hurt” subsequent COVID-19 booster shots.

Northwestern Medicine investigators continue to study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on health outcomes and society, from maternal vaccinations and antibody response to reducing burnout amongst healthcare workers and identifying novel therapeutic targets.

Targeting internal proteins instead of spike proteins may be a promising strategy for monoclonal antibody therapy to combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

Northwestern Medicine investigators continue to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, from evaluating repurposed drugs in preventing severe disease to using sentinel surveillance to monitor SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates and studying the prevalence of “long COVID” in pediatric patients.

Northwestern Medicine investigators continue to study COVID-19, from comparing mortality rates between SARS-CoV-2 variants to examining the effectiveness of maternal vaccination in protecting infants and combating COVID-19 misinformation on social media.

Accelerating new advances in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases is an important goal of the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (NUCATS) and the past two years have been a crucial time for the study of infectious diseases. Richard D’Aquila, MD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Northwestern and director of NUCATS, discusses some milestone discoveries made and recent lessons from the COVID-19 and the HIV/AIDs pandemics.

What do we know about the effectiveness of COVID-19 boosters, and how might they better protect us from new variants such as omicron? Alexis Demonbreun, PhD, assistant professor of Pharmacology, offers insight. She is the author of a new study that shows COVID-19 boosters seem to supercharge antibody response.

Judd Hultquist, PhD, talks about key variants of SARS-CoV-2 and how his lab is identifying and studying these variants.

As the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 is causing breakthrough infections in some vaccinated people around the world, scientists at Northwestern Medicine are developing and studying potential next-generation COVID-19 vaccines that could be more effective at preventing and clearing breakthrough infections. Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, PhD, an assistant professor of Microbiology-Immunology at Feinberg, discusses work in his lab that could lead to better vaccines and treatments for coronaviruses.

Chicago resident Arthur “Art” Gillespie fell ill in early March 2020 with COVID, after he and his father went to visit an uncle in a nursing facility. “I was hospitalized for 12 days with a high fever and cough, and during that time, they were taking scans of my lungs, which showed stage 1 lung cancer on my right lung,” Gillespie, 56, recalled in a news release. “I had no symptoms of lung cancer, so in a way – because of COVID – we were able to catch the cancer early.” Gillespie had one lung damaged by cancer and the other damaged by COVID, ultimately leaving him with just one last chance for survival. Doctors at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago saved his life through a double-lung transplant that took place in January – the first such procedure involving two lungs damaged by two different ailments, they said. “When Arthur first came to see us in September 2023, even though he looked physically strong, he could barely speak a single sentence without getting short of breath or take a few steps before having to sit down,” Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery at Northwestern Medicine, said in a news release. “The pressure inside the lungs had also increased to a point that it was causing heart failure, and his only option for survival was a double-lung transplant,” added Bharat, who performed Gillespie’s surgery. “Despite being told ‘no’ by other doctors, Arthur had the courage and determination to keep searching for answers,” Bharat said. “I feel honored that we were able to help him since he spent so many years helping the community as a police captain.”

A new family of COVID variants nicknamed “FLiRT” is spreading across the country, as vaccination rates in Chicago — as well as nationwide — remain concerningly low for some public health experts. While symptoms and severity seem to be about the same as previous COVID strains, the new FLiRT variants appear to be more transmissible, said infectious disease expert Robert Murphy, MD, . “A new, more contagious variant is out there,” said Murphy, executive director of Northwestern University’s Institute for Global Health and a professor of infectious diseases at the Feinberg School of Medicine. “COVID-19 is still with us, and compared to flu and RSV, COVID-19 can cause significant problems off-season.” Murphy urged the public to get up to date on COVID shots, particularly individuals who are at higher risk for severe complications from the virus. While much of the population has some immunity from vaccination or previous COVID infections, Murphy noted that “with COVID-19, immunity wanes over time.”

For some who contract COVID, symptoms can last for quite some time as part of a condition known as “long COVID.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID symptoms typically appear anywhere from two to 14 days after someone is exposed to the virus. The CDC says most people with COVID-19 “get better within a few days to a few weeks after infection.” COVID “long-haulers,” are defined as individuals who have had COVID symptoms for six or more weeks, Northwestern Medicine has said. A study from Northwestern Medicine last year showed that many so-called COVID “long-haulers” continue to experience symptoms like brain fog, tingling, headaches, dizziness, blurred vision, tinnitus and fatigue an average of 15 months after the onset of the virus.

Chicago Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews has revealed that he is fighting symptoms of long COVID. The Blackhawks announced over the weekend he is going to be out indefinitely while he deals with the effects of long COVID. Researchers say Toews is not unusual. Doctors at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine say there are some 30 million people suffering from long COVID symptoms on some level. It is the third most frequent neurological illness in the U.S. “Some people tend to improve in a seesaw pattern,” said Dr. Igor Koralnik at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “Some stay flat and unfortunately some get worse over time.” Toews missed the entire 2021 season due to chronic immune response syndrome. Doctors say they have studied patients with long COVID and most – about eight out of ten – are young, healthy and never had severe symptoms initially. “There are some people who feel they are 10-20% recovered after more than two and a half years,” Dr. Koralnik said.

As colds, flu and COVID continue to circle this winter, a new U.S. government study finds that young children infected with COVID plus a second virus tend to become sicker. While severe COVID is rare among children, kids can and do fall ill enough to end up in the hospital. When youngsters have more than one infection, it’s hard to know what’s “driving” their symptoms, said William Muller, MD, PhD, an infectious disease specialist at Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. He also noted that severely ill kids are probably more often tested for multiple bugs. But to Muller, the bottom line is straightforward: “We need to vaccinate more,” he said. That means both COVID vaccination and the yearly flu shot, Muller said. Both can be given to children age 6 months or older, and both slash the risk of severe illness. Both doctors stressed that the point is not to alarm parents: The vast majority of children with COVID or the flu do not land in the hospital. At the same time, there are ways to lower those odds.

If you’re like most Americans, someone in your family or social circle is sick right now with COVID, flu, a cold or RSV. It is in fact, possible, to catch more than one of these germs at the same time. There’s plenty of evidence of people testing positive for, say, COVID and the flu or flu and RSV simultaneously. “Absolutely, you can catch more than one virus at the same time,” says Tina Tan, MD, professor of pediatrics in infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We’ve had kids that have actually had three different viruses. Some of them come in with RSV. They’ve also had influenza and enterovirus. There have been other kids who have presented with COVID and influenza.” The risk for multiple infections is especially high this year because so many viruses have been surging together. “It’s kind of a perfect storm for co-infections,” Tan says. It’s unclear how often this happens because most of the testing for this sort of thing is done on hospitalized patients, who probably aren’t representative of the general public. But some studies have found co-infections in up to 20% of those patients. The risk, however, doesn’t appear to be the same for everyone. Children appear to be far more likely to get more than one bug on top of the other, especially very young kids, researchers say.