Projects
The more you tell me how and why to avoid spreading COVID-19, the more I feel I can spare myself the trouble. Enhancing compliance with measures against COVID-19 by counteracting side-effects of appeals for preventive behaviour. KU Leuven
To curb the toll of COVID-19 , citizens need to massively comply with precautionary measures. Once a vaccine will be available that compliance will mostly consist of
getting vaccinated. Until then, it consists of things like wearing a mouth mask and social distancing. Since the start of the first COVID-19 outbreak in Belgium, however, our country has witnessed a decline of people's motivation to show those behaviours. Why have some ...
INFECT: exploratIoN oF (epi)-gEnetic changes Contributing To long COVID-19 KU Leuven
SARS-CoV-2 has been rapidly spreading around the globe counting >55million infections and >1 million deaths, with continuously rising numbers. A sizable fraction of infected subjects develops viral pneumonia with signs of acute respiratory distress syndrome, which – in severe cases – leads to respiratory failure and death. While tremendous efforts are made to probe the underlying molecular mechanisms of acute COVID-19 disease (SHORT ...
Development and use of relevant hamster and mouse Sars-Cov-2 infection models to aid the design of therapeutic and prophylactic options for Covid-19. KU Leuven
IIn some patients, COVID-19 progresses from an initially mild viral syndrome to a severe and life-threatening multi-system disorder with cytokine storm. This coronavirus pandemic is putting healthcare systems worldwide under unprecedented and increasing pressure. Efficient vaccines as well antiviral (small molecules and biologicals) and anti-inflammatory drugs are urgently needed. Given the emergency, the repurposing of small molecules and/or ...
Calming the storm: treating hypercoagulability and hyperinflammation in patients with COVID-19 KU Leuven
COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammation, hypercoagulability and hyperfibrinolysis are at increased risk for severe disease and mortality. Local dysfucntion of the viral receptor protein ACE2, which degrades the vasoactive peptides bradykinines, results in accumulation of vasoactive and inflammatory mediators that cause vasodilation and alveolar edema, leading to hypoxic respiratory failure and to activation of local and systemic ...
What can olfactory dysfunction in COVID-19 tell us about the mysteries of the sense of smell? KU Leuven
For many years, the human sense of smell was considered a “nonessential”
sense.
With olfactory dysfunction as a prominent and often sole symptom of
COrona Virus (SARS-CoV-2) Induced Disease (COVID-19), large
patient cohorts continue to experience the impact of postviral
olfactory dysfunction on their quality of life. Indirectly, the current
pandemic has renewed interest in the human sense of smell.
The ...
Minimal Invasive Autopsy to Study Cause of Death, Contributing Conditions and Pathophysiology in Deceased COVID-19 patients; University of Antwerp
Monitoring SARS-CoV-2-specific immunity upon COVID-19 vaccination in nursing home residents and staff Ghent University
Nearly 60% of all COVID-19 deaths in Belgium so far were nursing home (NH) residents. Therefore, in January 2021, Belgium prioritised NH residents and staff for vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech (PB) vaccine in the COVID-19 vaccination campaign. The PB vaccine showed 95% efficacy in a phase III trial, but older people were largely underrepresented. This is worrisome, since older adults most often suffer from immunosenescence (decreased ...
Balancing socio-economic and public health impact of COVID-19 for its sustainable control and mitigation (SOPHIA) Hasselt University
Balancing socio-economic and public health impact of COVID-19 for its sustainable control and mitigation (SOPHIA) Ghent University
Given the uncertainty about the further development of the COVID-19 pandemic, decision makers urgently need to balance the immediate public health impact of the virus and the - yet uninvestigated - psychological and socio-economic impacts of the mitigation measures that were imposed to safeguard our health care system. Just as the spread of COVID-19 itself, these effects are spatially heterogeneous and scale dependent, hence the need to ...