Day 88: Even the Pug

In coronaveterinary news, WRAL reports that a North Carolina pug named Winston is the first American dog to test positive for COVID-19. The pug was tested as part of a study its owners volunteered for. Their other dog and their cat were negative. (Of the owners, two parents and a son were positive, but the daughter was negative.) Winston experienced mild symptoms for a few days and has since recovered.

PlagueBlog disapproves of a trial of female hormones on male COVID-19 patients reported in the New York Times, because female hormones (whether naturally elevated in pregnancy or administered, e.g., as birth control) pose a risk of thrombosis (clotting), which is already a problem for coronavirus patients. Though they've excluded patients with a history of clotting from the study, PlagueBlog does not consider this precaution sufficient, as the side-effect normally occurs in young people with no history of clotting, anyway. PlagueBlog recommends that, when grasping at straws, one try to avoid the extra-pointy ones.

The Guardian (AU) reports on an increase in toxic shock syndrome and Kawasaki disease in children in the UK. Kawasaki disease is an inflammation of the walls of blood vessels; the cause is unknown but it is suspected to be childhood infections, and genetic susceptibility may be involved. A firm connection to the coronavirus pandemic has yet to be established. The Independent (UK) and the NHS seem a bit more hesitant to peg the disease(s), instead calling the phenomenon "a multi-system inflammatory state requiring intensive care."

In other weird symptom news, ABC News reports on silent hypoxia in the wild, sometimes with crazy O₂ levels:

Dr. Jeffrey Moon, medical director for the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's emergency department, said his department has seen "people coming in with COVID who are less symptomatic than we would expect given their low oxygen levels." Moon said he saw one patient Monday who was talking to him "in full sentences" despite having a pulse oxygenation level of just 55%.

"It's hard to believe what's in front of you at times. There is this subset of COVID patients where I don't believe my eyes," Moon said.

PlagueBlog speculates that one of those complete sentences was "I'm not dead yet!"

Time reports that "COVID toes" are getting more recognition, along with other minor dermatological symptoms like hives and rashes. There is some concern, however, that these conditions may be caused by generalized clotting, which may in turn be doing more significant damage under the surface.

LiveScience reports on the original weird coronavirus symptom, a "ruptured heart", observed in the autopsy of America's (retroactive) first death. (What actually ruptured was the left ventricle.)

This type of heart rupture occurs more typically in people with high cholesterol levels or abnormalities in the heart muscle, Melinek said. But Dowd's case was very unusual because her heart was a normal size and weight, she said.

Although LiveScience repeats rumors of the victim's alleged good health, the autopsy actually said that she was "mildly obese" with a "mildly" enlarged heart. In this context "mildly" obese is class 1 obesity, at a BMI of 31.2.

The Independent reports that the methanol poisoning death count in Iran has risen to 728, out of (apparently) a total of 5,011 poisoning cases.

P.S. Massachusetts' numbers are out; we are up 3% today. The governor describes us as on an unusual "plateau" and has closed the state for another three weeks, until May 18th. Middlesex County is also up only 3% (someone asked) and in no special need of masks at a distance outdoors, where the virus has never been shown to be transmissible.

In other mask news, the UK government and their scientific advisory committee have reiterated their complete rejection of masks for the public, in response to a belated attempt by Scotland to mask the populace merely on public transit and in shops.