News

Fast, frequent testing for COVID-19 can help stem the spread of the infectious disease on college campuses, according to a new report published by the National Academies on Dec. 1.

When we talk about the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, we hear a lot about vaccines that may prevent the virus, but researchers are also working on treatments to help people after they are already infected.

Duke University is sometimes referred to as a pretty good knock-off of fancier schools farther north. But while those ivy-clad universities with smart students, prestigious medical schools and big endowments stayed closed this fall, Duke invited its freshmen, sophomores, some upperclassmen and all of its graduate students to its Durham, N.C., campus for largely in-person classes. Now, it’s schooling those sniffier schools on how to reopen safely.

Duke's Dr. Tony Moody wears a lot of hats. Under his title, he is the associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases and the Department of Immunology at Duke University School of Medicine and a laboratory director at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute.

An aggressive COVID-19 surveillance and testing effort at Duke University was highly effective in minimizing the spread of the disease among students on campus, according to a case study appearing Monday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

When the novel coronavirus began to spread across China, researchers at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI) sprang into action and they haven’t slowed down since. They are collaborating with each other and with other institutions to unlock the secrets of the virus that causes COVID-19 and to develop tests, vaccines, and treatments.

The pandemic has left many with habits they’d like to change. With help from Duke experts, here are strategies that may help fix pitfalls.

If this seems like a vignette from a more innocent time, well, it is. With Oct. 31 fast approaching – and with Thanksgiving and Christmas not far behind – three Duke doctors spoke to media Wednesday about ways to navigate the trickiest of holiday seasons with COVID-19 lurking around the darkened corner. 

Dr. Carl Heneghan, director of the University of Oxford's Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, told The Spectator magazine in London, that the black-and-white nature of the test is leading to an inflated number of cases.

This year, she is thinking: wait till next year. She’ll stay home in Durham, N.C., with her husband, teenage son and 96-year-old mother, Marble Dudley. As a physician and the president-elect of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Alexander is fully aware of the risks of holiday gatherings in the middle of a pandemic and the vulnerability of her nonagenarian mother.