Respirology


A real-world study during Hong Kong’s Omicron BA.2 wave showed that both molnupiravir and nirmatrelvir/ritonavir effectively lowered the risks of disease progression and all-cause mortality in hospitalized COVID-19 patients not requiring oxygen supplementation on admission. However, mortality risk reduction was larger with nirmatrelvir/ritonavir vs molnupiravir.








A large retrospective study from the US, presented at IDWeek 2021, has shown that the Abbott ID NOW rapid molecular COVID-19 assay is highly sensitive and specific at detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in a paediatric population.

Same-day pre-event screening for SARS-CoV-2 using antigen-detecting rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDT) may enable the resumption of large-scale indoor events which were halted or had their attendance capacity reduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study from Spain presented at ECCMID 2021.


A fixed-dose combination of albuterol and budesonide, delivered as needed, reduced the risk of severe exacerbations in patients with moderate-to-severe asthma inadequately controlled with corticosteroid maintenance therapy, according to results of the phase III MANDALA trial presented at ATS 2022.



In addition to cardiometabolic benefits, a lifestyle intervention aimed at weight loss in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) who are overweight or obese may reduce COPD symptoms, according to results of the INSIGHT COPD trial presented at ATS 2022.

The tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib may reduce mortality in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19, according to follow-up results of the CounterCOVID study presented at ATS 2022.

