Science & Health
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Doctors Kept Close Eye on Trump’s Use of Malaria Drug 

The White House medical team kept a close eye on President Donald Trump’s heart rhythms, including at least one electrocardiogram, to watch for potential side effects when he took a two-week course of a malaria drug to try to prevent the coronavirus, his doctor reported Wednesday.”The President completed the regimen safely and without side effects,” Dr. Sean Conley wrote in a report on Trump’s latest physical and his treatment with hydroxychloroquine.A pharmacy tech pours out pills of hydroxychloroquine at Rock Canyon Pharmacy in Provo, Utah, May 20, 2020.Overall, Conley said, Trump showed little change in basic health measurements from 16 months ago. On the negative side, he gained a pound. But on the plus side, his cholesterol level continued to fall.”The data indicates the President remains healthy,” Conley concluded. Trump recently took a two-week course of hydroxychloroquine after two White House staffers tested positive for COVID-19.Conley said it was done in consultation with “appropriate care team members and close monitoring of the electrocardiogram (EKG),” indicating that doctors were looking for changes in his heartbeat because abnormal heart rhythms are one of the dangerous side effects that have been found in studies of the drug.The drug proved ineffective for preventing COVID-19 in the first large, high-quality study to test it in people in close contact with someone with the disease. Results published Wednesday by the New England Journal of Medicine show that hydroxychloroquine was no better than placebo pills at preventing illness from the coronavirus. The drug did not seem to cause serious harm, though — about 40% on it had side effects, mostly mild stomach problems. Trump has frequently cited anecdotal reports and seemed determined to prove the naysayers wrong. Trump’s weight came in a 244 pounds. That gives him a Body Mass Index of 30.5, based on his 6-foot, 3-inch frame. An index rating of 30 is the level at which doctors consider someone to be obese. About 40% of Americans are obese.  Trump was evaluated twice for the physical, first in November 2019 and then in April. He has a resting heart rate of 63 beats per minute. A normal resting heart rate for adults ranges from 60 to 100 beats per minute, and generally, a lower rate implies better cardiovascular fitness.  His blood pressure came in at 121 over 79. The American Heart Association says an elevated blood pressure range is when a reading for the upper number consistently ranges from 120-129 and less than 80 for the lower number. People with elevated blood pressure are likely to develop high blood pressure unless steps are taken to control the condition. Trump has shown marked improvement in his cholesterol levels during his presidency, helped by medication. At his physical in January 2018, his total cholesterol was 223. In early 2019, the reading came in at 196. It now stands at 167. The president takes rosuvastatin to help lower his bad cholesterol, known as LDL, and to raise his good cholesterol, or HDL. Ideally, total cholesterol should be less than 200.  Trump also takes aspirin daily and finasteride, a drug to treat enlargement of the prostate and male pattern hair loss. Aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke in people at high risk for them. 

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Science & Health
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Turkey, Russia Cooperate on Virus Vaccine 

Turkey and Russia have agreed to cooperate in the development of a coronavirus vaccine and plan to carry out joint clinical trials, the Turkish health minister said Wednesday. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said scientific advisers from the two countries were scheduled to hold a second round of talks later this week. A total of 22 Turkish universities and research centers are working to develop a vaccine, and four of them have advanced to the animal-testing stage, Koca said. The minister also said that Turkey has seen the benefit of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and will continue to administer it to COVID-19 patients, despite concerns raised over the drug. Koca said that unlike other countries, Turkey has been using the drug early in COVID-19 threatment.  Turkey recorded 867 confirmed virus cases and 24 deaths between Tuesday and Wednesday, the minister said. The update brought total confirmed cases in the country to 144,422 and the death toll in the pandemic to 4,609.  Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier Wednesday that Turkey evacuated more than 75,000 stranded Turkish nationals from 126 countries during the pandemic. At least 562 Turks died abroad, he said Turkish airline companies resumed domestic flights this week as restaurants welcomed sit-down customers and beaches and museums reopened.  

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Science & Health
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UK Study Tests Form of Ibuprofen as Coronavirus Treatment

A form of ibuprofen called flarin is being studied in Britain to see if it is effective for treating COVID-19 respiratory symptoms caused by the coronavirus.Also called lipid ibuprofen, flarin has anti-inflammatory effects and is designed to shield the stomach from irritation when taken.The study, LIBERATE Trial in COVID-19, aims to test flarin on 230 people who have been hospitalized due to COVID-19 and have acute respiratory failure. Only patients who are 18 or older are eligible.COVID-19 patients who have shown hypersensitivity to other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) do not qualify for the study.Ibuprofen received attention in March, when French Health Minister Olivier Veran tweeted that NSAIDS, which include ibuprofen, could aggravate COVID-19 symptoms.Since then, the World Health Organization, European Medicines Agency and other groups said there was not enough evidence to prove ibuprofen would worsen COVID-19 symptoms.  The sponsor of the LIBERATE study is King’s College London, with the Guy’s and St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust as the collaborator.The estimated date for initial results is Sept. 25, 2020, and the final estimated study completion date is May 25, 2021. 

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Economy & business/Silicon Valley & Technology
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Ethiopian Diaspora Champions Digital Apps in Fight Against COVID 

In Ethiopia, mobile applications are spreading fast to help health care workers and the public fight against COVID-19, which has claimed 12 lives in the country and affected about 1,100 people.  Ethiopian web developers have designed seven apps that do everything from virus tracing to sharing data and patient information among health workers.  But while the apps are spreading in cities, getting into remote and poor areas of Ethiopia remains a challenge.  FILE – Ethiopians have their temperature checked for symptoms of the new coronavirus, at the Zewditu Memorial Hospital in the capital Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 18, 2020.Just days after Ethiopia confirmed its first case of the coronavirus in March, 38-year-old software engineer Mike Endale, who emigrated to the U.S. 20 years ago, sent out a solitary tweet calling for help.   He called on all software developers and engineers in the Ethiopian diaspora to help the health ministry by contributing open source software to respond to COVID-19. Endale became coordinator of the Ethiopia COVID-19 Response Team, a volunteer force of doctors, artificial intelligence specialists, software engineers and data analysts.   He spoke via a messaging application from Washington, D.C., where he works as principal technologist at BLEN Corporation, a company that provides technology solutions for the public sector and charities.   “People just organically gathered around a slack channel and we started figuring out how to help,” he said.  “So, the impetus for the group was… to see if we could augment the Ministry of Health’s work in a couple of areas.  One originally was around tech.  Luckily for that there was already an internal initiative going on that started a day before [we originated].  We got connected with them and we started working on broad-based solutions.”  Alongside software engineers at the Ministry of Health and the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Endale’s army of tech gurus helped to develop a series of applications to aid health workers.   The apps allow health workers to register the identity and medical profiles of people entering the country and also record information about those in contact with COVID-19 patients.  The ministry’s contact tracing team is then sent into communities with tablet computers to identify suspected infections and test for the virus.   Though still limited in their use, the apps are modernizing how health workers and hospitals accurately and quickly share information in Ethiopia, where — until the pandemic — patient data was recorded on paper.   Other apps created through the response team can be downloaded by the public. The COVID-19 Ethiopia app was launched in late May so that the public can self-report cases or alert health authorities to others with symptoms.  And an app called Debo captures the identity of anyone who comes within two meters of the user so that contacts can be traced should the person one day test positive. “This is very important work for the country in responding to COVID-19,” said Biruhtesfa Abere, a senior health information specialist at the Ministry of Health. “Also, for decision makers, the ministry task force is sitting here trying to forecast how many cases they’re going to have in the future, next month.  So, they need data, they need baseline data.”  Biruhtesfa says the digital tools mean that test results — thousands per day — can be shared to health workers nationwide within 24 hours, allowing those who test negative for the virus to leave isolation quicker. Data in the apps are also being used to record where test kits are sent in Ethiopia, how many are being used, and how many are being wasted.  But while the apps are making progress in cities, Biruhtesfa says getting rural health workers using the tools where good internet and smartphones are rare, is a challenge.  “The tool can help you manage your records, maintain contact listing and [record] the relationship of the positive person’s contacts in the past 14 days.  That is basically automated and fully functional,” he said.  “But the problem is bringing the users on board to use the system.  We are strongly pushing contact tracing and the follow-up team to record using the system and they are coming a little bit at a time.  They will be on board very soon.”  Biruhtesfa says the health ministry is rolling out training sessions via video link to health workers in rural areas so they can learn how to use the applications.  And 30,000 tablet computers that were to be used for Ethiopia’s national census are being repurposed so that health workers in areas with poor internet can also use the applications.   Endale’s global network of volunteers are now organizing themselves beyond developing digital apps for Ethiopia.  He says members of the community have organized themselves into ten different work streams for tasks such as donation drives and repairing ventilators.              

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