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Coronaviruses are important human and animal pathogens. At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus was identified as the cause of a cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, a city in the Hubei Province of China. It rapidly spread, resulting in an epidemic throughout China, with sporadic cases reported globally. In February 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated the disease COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019. Previously, this virus was referred to as 2019-nCoV.

This UpToDate topic discusses the epidemiology, clinical features, diagnosis, management, and prevention of COVID-19

Understanding of this novel coronavirus is evolving try this PubMed filter to locate recent literature

Access BMJ Best Practice resources on coronavirus including BMJ topic page, learning modules and patient leaflets

A counter showing in real time the global number of COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries from Johns Hopkins University

The basic premise of a stepped wedge cluster randomised trial (SW-CRT) is that all clusters start in the control condition, and they switch to the intervention condition in an order determined by randomisation. SW-CRTs differ from cluster crossover trials in that the switch is only in one direction, from control to intervention condition.
Find out more in this instalment of MJA Research Skills

Short term exposure to fine particulate matter with diameter less than 2.5 µm (PM2.5) - bush fire smoke - has previously been associated with increased risk of mortality and hospital admissions due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, neurological diseases, and deep vein thrombosis. A recent US study published in the BMJ, including data from 95,277,169 participants (aged 65 or older admitted to hospital), found short term exposure to PM2.5 was also positively associated with risks of several prevalent but rarely studied causes of hospital admissions, such as septicemia, fluid and electrolyte disorders, and acute and unspecified renal failure. These associations remained even at a daily PM2.5 concentration below the WHO 24 hour guideline. Substantial economic costs were linked to a small increase in short term PM2.5.

Find out more in the December issue of the Library newsletter

READ editorial (Requires Library membership)
RESULTS of the FluTracking Bushfire Smoke Symptoms survey
READ author's opinion piece
Listen to an interview with the author on Norman Swan's Health Report on the ABC

This NIHR-funded study published in the Lancet is the 24-month follow-up to an earlier publication of 12-month outcomes for 558 people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) receiving usual care alone or additional telephone or web-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). The former paper showed that both therapies helped people deal with their IBS. This longer-term follow-up shows that CBT continues to benefit patients months after therapy sessions have stopped. IBS can be a very debilitating and difficult condition to treat. The present study helps strengthen the case for the provision of remote talking therapies, particularly telephone-based therapy (71% of study participants experienced a clinically significant improvement in their IBS symptoms), as a way to improve access and outcomes for patients.
READ NIHR review