COVID-19 Clinical Trials and Expanded Access

The study will be conducted in the UCKWUM teaching hospital in Warsaw between 2020 and 2022. The study group will be comprised of UCKWUM healthcare professionals All employees willing to participate in the study will receive an anonymous questionnaire on attitudes towards influenza vaccination . We will distribute information posters of the National Programme for Combating Influenza as part of the educational programme. In order to increase the effectiveness of the educational campaign, we will also send information e-mails, using the internal hospital e-mail system and conduct a series of online training courses to present the latest international reports on influenza vaccinations among health care professionals [CITATION Abr10 \l 1045]. Considering the fact that lack of time [CITATION Kus11 \l 1045] is the most common reason for not getting vaccinated against influenza among healthcare professionals, we will provide this group with an opportunity to receive free influenza vaccination during working hours at the UCKWUM hospital. Information about the possibility of vaccination will be provided in the form of e-mails (mailings) to hospital employees (internal hospital e-mail system), letters of information submitted to the offices of individual departments, and information posters. The effectiveness of the educational programme will be assessed by re-administering the anonymous questionnaires after the influenza season, also by means of internal hospital e-mail system.

We seek to study the behaviour of Coronavirus infection in patients with rheumatological and/or autoimmune comorbidities, understood as a particular pathophysiological universe with its own risks and eventual benefits, until now fully hypothetical to be confirmed by means of real and recent evidence. On March 12, 2020, an initiative called the Global Alliance for COVID-19 in Rheumatology (The COVID-19 Rheumatology Alliance) arises, as a rapid response of international coordination whose ultimate goal is to serve as help or guideline for all those doctors who seek be faced with receiving, evaluating, understanding and caring for a patient with rheumatological and / or autoimmune diseases in relation to the imminent risk of COVID-19.

A new strain of coronavirus that caused severe respiratory disease in infected individuals was initially identified in China's Wuhan City in December 2019. Severe acute respiratory distress syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), which was responsible for the corona virus infectious disease-2019 (COVID-19).The World Health Organization declared that COVID-19 was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30,2020. The impact of COVID-19 in liver recipients remains largely unknown but accumulating experience is going on. Liver transplant recipients should have been classified as a risk group and should have received regular surveillance for COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. Some reports suggest decreasing immunosuppression for infected recipients, if no recent rejection episodes. Paradoxically, others suggest that a reactive immune response might be the cause for severe tissue damage, and that immunosuppression might be protective from the postulated cytokine storm. Some studies stated that the LT patients who are permanently on immunosuppressants could be particularly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, and their prognosis could be worse in comparison to the normal population. They recommended that LT recipients should be closely monitored for SARS-CoV-2. The LT society of India (LTSI) highlighted the potential of LT recipients as asymptomatic carriers and source of viral spread, and that SARS-CoV-2 can be transmitted to LT recipients. There are insufficient data on the relationship between immunosuppressive therapy and COVID-19 in LT recipients during this pandemic. However, the Beijing working party for liver transplantation suggested that LT recipients who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 should be treated with steroids for a short period to reduce the severity of pneumonia. They also suggested that immunosuppressive therapies should be continued for both patients with mild COVID-19 and those who were not infected by the virus, and calcineurin inhibitor treatment dosage should be reduced in moderate to severe cases. Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) play an important role in virus clearance and have been considered as a key immune product for protection or treatment against viral diseases. Virus-specific NAbs, induced through either infection or vaccination, have the ability to block viral infection. SARS-CoV -2 specific NAbs reached their peak in patients from day 10-15 after the onset of the disease and remained stable thereafter in the patients. Antibodies targeting on different domains of S protein, including S1, RBD, and S2, may all contribute to the neutralization. Al-Rajhi Liver Center is the only liver transplantation center in Upper Egypt that performed only 51 living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) cases since 2014, but it was used as isolation Hospital for COVID-19 cases from March to July, 2020. Communication with liver transplant cases during that period was via Telemedicine. Resuming usual Hospital activity as Tertiary Liver Center occurred in 15 August 2020. Similarly, other Hospitals in Egypt were designated as COVID-19 isolation Hospitals.

Passive immunization involves the administration of antibodies against a given agent to a susceptible individual for the purpose of preventing or treating an infectious disease due to that agent. A general principle of passive antibody therapy is that it is more effective when used for prophylaxis than for treatment of disease. When used for therapy, antibody is most effective when administered shortly after the onset of symptoms

Randomized, double-blind (blinded for the trial subject and the study physician), placebo controlled, multi-center clinical trial in parallel assignment of efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of the Gam-COVID-Vac combined vector vaccine against the SARS-CoV-2-induced coronavirus infection in adults in the SARS-СoV-2 infection prophylactic treatment.

Infection with covid-19 is associated with respiratory failure, which when related to other etiologies can lead to reduced quality of life, physical, cognitive and mental dysfunction. There is no knowledge of the possible consequences of severe covid-19 infection. Our objective is to describe these repercussions, identifying risk factors and assessing the impact of physical training. At least 100 patients over 18 years of age who survive severe Covid-19 infection will be evaluated. Assessments after 1, 4, 6 and 12 months after hospital discharge. Quality of life, dyspnea, activity of daily living, muscle strength, mental and cognitive dysfunction will be evaluated, as well as pulmonary function test, cardiopulmonary stress test and chest tomography. Return to work, thromboembolic events and mortality up to 12 months will also be monitored. Hospitalization data will be used to identify factors related to quality of life, fatigue and respiratory dysfunction. Predefined risk factors will be evaluated: age, sex, smoking, previous comorbidities index, previous clinical frailty, serum C-reactive protein and leukocyte / lymphocyte ratio in the first 24 hours of hospitalization, time between onset of symptoms and hospitalization, ICU and mechanical ventilation, time on mechanical ventilation, compliance corrected by the ideal weight at the start of mechanical ventilation, driving pressure, tidal volume corrected by the ideal weight and PEEP (positive end expiratory pressure) after 24 hours of intubation in controlled ventilation, tidal volume corrected by the ideal weight after 24 hours of spontaneous ventilation, inspiratory muscle training and pulmonary rehabilitation after hospital discharge.

Remdesivir is a monophosphoramidate prodrug of an adenosine analogue and it has a broad-spectrum antiviral activity against paramyxoviruses, falviviruses and coronaviruses. It showed in vitro activity on human airway epithelial cells against SARS-CoV-2. It is an investigational drug and granted an Emergency Use Authorization by Food and Drug Administration FDA, so it is under clinical trial. The potent mechanism of action of this drug is still unclear but it effects through several processes. It can interfere with nsp12 polymerase even when exoribonuclease proofreading is intact. It can also produce nucleoside triphosphate NTP that acts pharmacologically active alternate substrate of RNA-chain terminator, as a result NTP can constrain active triphosphates into viral RNA of coronaviruses. There is evidence of high genetic barrier to develop resistance against Remdesivir in coronavirus as a result of which is maintains its effectiveness in antiviral therapies against these viruses. Effectiveness of Remdesivir has been reported against different groups of coronaviruses including Alphacoronavirus NL63 and several SARS/MERS-CoV coronaviruses.

Many non-invasive ventilatory choices are available for COVID-19 patient who are having mild to moderate respiratory distress and their use will decrease the chance of ICU admission, intubation and mechanical ventilation in severe cases of COVID-19. However, all these respiratory supports and oxygen supply devices are aerosol generating and their selection should be precised enough to control nosocomial spread. High flow nasal cannula HFNC is a device that delivered the warmed and humid air on high flow rate through nose. It is used to treat severe respiratory distress in COVID-19 patients, a non-invasive ventilatory approach which is relative comfortable by using humidified and pre-heated air containing large concentration of oxygen. In acute respiratory failure HFNC is proven to be very effective and it also reduced the need of mechanical ventilation in severe patients. Apart from the supply of oxygen, HFNC generating positive airway pressure and decreasing the rebreathing from anatomical dead space. Prone position is also a save therapy and has been proven to be effective for refractory hypoxia by increasing tidal volume, oxygenation and diaphragmatic functions in ARDS patients. Recent studies showed that prone positioning and HFNC might avoid the prerequisite of intubation in moderate to severe patients of ARDS and as a result it decreases the nosocomial infection in physicians who are doing these aerosol generating procedures.

The most accepted description of severe COVID-19 disease is development and over production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Autopsy studies have been done on COVID-19 patients proved that severe disease is resulted due to deviant host-immune response and cytokine storm. Elevated inflammatory biomarkers like C-Reactive protein (CRP) and pro-inflammatory cytokines shown to be higher in severe disease of COVID-19. Several studies on severe COVID-19 have revealed raised levels of plasma cytokines like IL-6, IL-2, IL-10, Gamma interferon (INF), Tumor necrosis factor Alpha TNF. The Cytokines release syndrome (CRS) is a hyperinflammatory deadly syndrome characterized by release of uncontrolled immune system activation which is responsible for multi-organ failure. It has the main role in ARDS due to SARS-CoV-2 virus which binds to alveolar epithelium and resulting in IL-6 release that is responsible for increase alveolar-epithelium permeability. In many studies it has been observed that IL-6 have played a main role in CRS induction. Previous experiences from hyperinflammatory and cytokine storm syndromes recommends that early involvement of inhibiting CRS is essential to prevent lethal tissue damage and poor clinical outcome. In this scenario the judgement of clinical specialist who are suggesting that evidence of CRS can be cured with glucocorticoids, I/V immunoglobulin and anti-cytokine therapy cannot be ignored.

This study investigates the diagnostic performance of an AI algorithm in the detection of COVID-19 pneumonia on chest radiographs.