German hospital hacked, patient taken to another city dies

German authorities said Thursday that an apparently misdirected ransomware attack caused the failure of IT systems at a major hospital in Duesseldorf, and a woman who needed urgent admission died after she had to be taken to another city for treatment.

Private health insurers paid hospitals 247% of what Medicare would

Prices paid to hospitals nationally during 2018 by privately insured patients averaged 247% of what Medicare would have paid, with wide variation in prices among states, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Study shows high prevalence of fatigue following SARS-CoV-2 infection independent of COVID-19 disease severity

Research being presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that persistent fatigue occurs in more than half of patients recovered from COVID-19, regardless of the seriousness of their infection. The study is by Dr. Liam Townsend, St James's Hospital and Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, and colleagues.

Access to cancer medicines and clinical trials show stark variations across Europe

Access to cancer medicines is highly unequal across Europe both for new drugs in development because of uneven access to clinical trials and for currently approved drugs due to huge disparities in healthcare spending by different countries, according to results from studies presented at ESMO 2020.

Immunotherapy improves survival in advanced bladder cancer patients

An immunotherapy drug called 'avelumab' has been shown to significantly improve survival in patients with the most common type of bladder cancer, according to results from a phase III clinical trial led by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Cancer Centre, UK.

Interim data from early US COVID-19 hotspot show mortality of disease were not associated with race/ethnicity

A study of interim data from two hospitals in an early US COVID-19 hotspot, to be presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online 23-25 September), shows that race and ethnicity were not significantly associated with higher in-hospital COVID-19 mortality, and that rates of moderate, severe, and critical forms of COVID-19 were similar between racial and ethnic groups.

Study shows one quarter of hospitalized young patients aged 18-39 years with COVID-19 developed pneumonia

New research to be presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that one quarter of hospitalised younger patients with COVID-19 aged 18-39 years developed pneumonia, underlining the danger the disease respresents to young people. The study is by Assistant Professor Hyun ah Kim, Keimyung University Dongsan Hospital, Daegu, and Dr. Hyo-Lim Hong, Daegu Catholic University Medical Center, Daegu, South Korea, and colleagues.

Study shows SARS-CoV-2 jumped between people and mink, providing strong evidence of zoonotic transmission

A study investigating SARS-CoV-2 infections across 16 mink farms in the Netherlands, being presented at the ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) shows that the virus likely jumped between people and mink and back, providing strong evidence that animal to human (zoonotic) transmission is possible.

Study suggests substantial proportion of pet cats and dogs are infected with SARS-CoV-2 by their owners

A small study by Canadian veterinary science experts being presented at this ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID, held online from 23-25 September) suggests that a substantial proportion of pet cats and dogs can be infected by SARS-CoV-2 by their owners. Furthermore, in several cases pets found to be infected had COVID-19-like respiratory symptoms at the time their owner had COVID-19.