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There is possibility for the spread of the novel coronavirus from dead bodies of patients, suggest Indian doctors.
Nearly a year has passed since the COVID-19 outbreak started in China's Wuhan city, but there are many unanswered questions about the novel virus. A few of the vaccine candidates are in the final stage of testing and are expected to be available by early next year. But whether a vaccine could bring an end to the pandemic is still a big question, given the various unusual characteristics of the novel coronavirus. Doctors and researchers are coming up with interesting facts about the new contagious disease almost every day. In one of the latest findings, doctors in the Indian state of Karnataka have suggested that a COVID-19 patient's body can remain infectious even 18 hours after death.
They made this startling discovery while conducting a post-mortem on a 62-year-old man who died after contracting Coronavirus in Bengaluru. On examining the body nearly 18 hours after the death, they found that the presence of the virus in nasal and throat swab samples, but not in the samples collected from the skin.
This indicates that there is a possibility for the virus to spread from the bodies of patients, according to Dr Dinesh Rao, Head of Department, Forensic Medicine, Oxford Medical College, who led the autopsy.
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In addition, they found that the lung of the COVID-19 patient became hard as a leather ball. Usually, lungs have a spongy appearance. However, the COVID-19 patient's lung was not enlarged. The air sacs were ruptured and there were some clots in the blood vessels due to which there was coagulative necrosis of the lungs, Dr Rao said.
The post-mortem was conducted on October 10 and it completed in an hour and 10 minutes.
A study published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health found that people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like diabetes are more vulnerable to catching the novel coronavirus and dying from the infection. Further, it said that their exposure to NCD risk factors -- such as substance abuse, social isolation and unhealthy diets -- has increased during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has also disrupted essential public health services which people with NCDs rely on to manage their conditions, it added.
For the findings, scientists reviewed almost 50 studies on the synergistic impact of the novel coronavirus or COVID-19 on people with NCDs in low and middle-income countries such as Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Nigeria.
The study highlighted the negative effect of the Covid-19 'syndemic' -- also known as a 'synergistic epidemic' - which occurs when the coronavirus infection is combined with obesity, diabetes and other chronic diseases.
Study lead author Uday Yadav from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Australia warned that the COVID-19 syndemic would persist, just as NCDs affected people in the long-term, PTI reported.
Another study published in the European Journal of Immunology revealed that 90 per cent of the COVID-19 patients have detectable antibodies up to seven months post contracting the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But men produce more COVID-19 antibodies than women, it said.
The antibody levels increase rapidly within the first three weeks after Covid-19 symptoms but reduced to intermediate levels thereafter, found researchers from Medicina Molecular Joao Lobo Antunes in Portugal.
On average men produce more antibodies than women in this early response phase, but levels equilibrate during the resolution phase and in the months after SARS-CoV-2 infection.
They saw no significant differences in the production of antibodies between age groups but observed higher antibody levels in patients with more severe disease.