Benny Borremans
Disease ecologist researching the transmission and spillover of wildlife pathogens. Marie Curie postdoc at Lloyd-Smith Lab (UCLA), Hens Lab (UHasselt).
Thought Leader
| #180 | Infectious Disease |
Last synced from Twitter 90d ago
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a virus (more specifically, a coronavirus) identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China.
Quantifying antibody kinetics and RNA detection during early-phase SARS-CoV-2 infection by time since symptom onset
A meta-analysis shows that seroconversion of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 is not affected by disease severity and finds higher viral RNA detection probability in lower respiratory tract and fecal samples.
6
Benny Borremans
When can antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 be detected? When can we detect viral RNA? Does it matter which samples we test? This @eLife meta-analysis integrates data from 21 different studies into one clear picture š
elifesciences.org/articles/60122 #COVID19 #SARSCoV2
126d
Beyond Infection: Integrating Competence into Reservoir Host Prediction
Most efforts to predict novel reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens use information about
host exposure and infection rather than competence, defined as the ability to transmit
pathogens. Better obtaining and integrating competence data into statistical...
Experimental parasite community perturbation reveals associations between Sin Nombre virus and gastrointestinal nematodes in a rodent reservoir host
Individuals are often co-infected with several parasite species, yet measuring potential within-host interactions remains difficult in the wild. The impact of these relationships on host fitness and epidemiology is therefore often unknown. Here, we...
Heat-treated virus inactivation rate depends strongly on treatment procedure
Decontamination of objects and surfaces can limit transmission of infectious agents via fomites or biological samples. It is required for the safe re-use of potentially contaminated personal protective equipment and medical and laboratory equipment....
Disease hotspots or hot species? Infection dynamics in multiāhost metacommunities controlled by species identity, not source location
Pathogen persistence in host communities is influenced by processes operating at the individual host to landscapeālevel scale, but isolating the relative contributions of these processes is challengi...
1
Benny Borremans
Really enjoyed Mark Wilber's #ESA2020 talk in which he elegantly disentangled the contributions of host species and landscape connectivity to pathogen spread.
174d
mbevand/florida-covid19-deaths-by-day
Contribute to mbevand/florida-covid19-deaths-by-day development by creating an account on GitHub.
Evaluating SARS-CoV-2 spike and nucleocapsid proteins as targets for IgG antibody detection in severe and mild COVID-19 cases using a Luminex bead-based assay
Large-scale serosurveillance of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will only be possible if serological tests are sufficiently reliable, rapid and inexpensive. Current assays are either labour-intensive and require...
The rise of disease ecology
Disease ecology is an interdisciplinary field that has recently rapidly grown in size and influence. We described the composition and educational experiences of disease ecology practitioners and identified changes in research foci. We combined a...
The competing risk between in-hospital mortality and recovery: A pitfall in COVID-19 survival analysis research
Background A plethora of studies on COVID-19 investigating mortality and recovery have used the Cox Proportional Hazards (Cox PH) model without taking into account the presence of competing risks. We investigate, through extensive simulations, the...
Fever checks can't catch all Covid-19 cases. Smell tests might help
Temperature checks are a flawed way to catch Covid-19 cases. But a growing body of science suggests adding smell tests to screenings might help.
A different Fourth of July, with new shutdowns in 19 counties, including 3 in Bay Area
Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday on Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday ordered 19 counties with surging coronavirus outbreaks to close indoor restaurants, wineries, movie theaters and other venues to keep the pandemic from spiraling out of...
Prevalence of IgG antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan - implications for the ability to produce long-lasting protective antibodies against SARS-CoV-2
Background It is to be determined whether people infected with SARS-CoV-2 will develop long-term immunity against SARS-CoV-2 and retain long-lasting protective antibodies after the infection is resolved. This study was to explore to explore the...
1
Benny Borremans
A recent preprint claims that antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are not long-lasting, which would have major significance. Worryingly, this is a highly hypothetical conclusion based on negative tests from healthcare workers with UNKNOWN infection status.
215d
Practical considerations for measuring the effective reproductive number, Rt
Estimation of the effective reproductive number, Rt, is important for detecting changes in disease transmission over time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers and public health officials are using Rt to assess the effectiveness of...