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MONDAY, March 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Folks who contract COVID-19 will develop symptoms between five and 12 days after their exposure to the new coronavirus, Johns Hopkins researchers report. Based on data from 181 confirmed cases, the researchers estimate the average incubation period of COVID-19 is about five days. More than 97% of infected people who develop symptoms will do so within 11.5 days, the researchers concluded. That's good news, because it means the 14-day quarantine period established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is "appropriate" and will cover 99% of all infectious cases of COVID-19, said study co-author Kyra Grantz, a graduate student at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, in Baltimore. "We predict a very low...

MONDAY, March 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Isturisa (osilodrostat) oral tablets have been approved to treat adults with Cushing disease, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday. Isturisa is indicated in adults with Cushing disease who are not candidates for pituitary gland surgery or who have had the surgery but still have the disease. The drug works by blocking the enzyme 11-beta-hydroxylase and preventing cortisol synthesis. Isturisa is taken orally twice a day, in the morning and evening. After treatment initiation, health care providers may reevaluate dosage based on the patient's response. The approval was based on data from a 24-week, single-arm, open-label study of 137 adults with Cushing disease who were aged a mean of 41 years old. About 75 percent of the...

MONDAY, March 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- People with the heart condition atrial fibrillation often use blood thinners to help prevent a stroke. Now a new study suggests one of those medications might stand out as safer and more effective. Researchers found that a-fib patients on the drug Eliquis (apixaban) had a slightly lower risk of blood clots and stroke than those on Xarelto (rivaroxaban) -- a clot-preventing drug in the same class. They were also significantly less likely to suffer gastrointestinal bleeding as a side effect of their medication. However, experts stressed that the findings do not prove that Eliquis is better -- in large part because they are based on patients' health insurance records. "The highest-quality evidence comes from controlled clinical trials,"...

MONDAY, March 9, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Work is proceeding apace on a "universal" flu vaccine capable of protecting humans from all forms of influenza, researchers report. A single dose of a synthetic universal flu vaccine called FLU-v appears capable of providing safe long-term protection across a broad spectrum of influenza viruses, a new clinical trial has shown. FLU-v outperformed a placebo in elevating people's immune response, as measured by a number of different biomarkers related to the immune system, researchers found. The experimental vaccine now awaits a phase 3 trial that will test how well it actually protects against the seasonal flu, said lead researcher Olga Pleguezuelos, chief scientific officer at SEEKacure, a London-based pharmaceutical development...