2 Renal & Urology News
WINTER 2022
www.renalandurologynews.com
FROM THE EDITOR EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
COVID-19 Research Effort Unprecedented
T
he COVID-19 pandemic, the most devastating health crisis in more than a century, will be entering its third year in March. As of January 14, some 317 million COVID-19 cases and 5.5 million related deaths have occurred worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center. The United States has tallied approximately 62.5 million COVID19 cases and 840,000 related deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and the resulting human toll and societal and economic disruption have led to an unprecedented worldwide marshalling of research efforts. SARS-CoV-2 has become perhaps the most studied virus in history. (See COVID-19 articles on pages 19 and 20.) This is reflected in PubMed, the database maintained by the National Institutes of Health. A search of that database on January 14 using the term “COVID-19” retrieved 217,349 citations related to the disease. That’s in just 2 years. By comparison, a search for “influenza” turned up 145,583 citations in the entire database. HIV had more entries (390,846), but that’s for research published during the approximately 4 decades since the virus was first recognized. The COVID-19 research effort to date has identified risk factors for SARS-CoV-2 infection, characterized the spectrum of clinical manifestations of infection, and zeroed in on which treatments are effective and those that are not. Such knowledge could lead to improved infection control measures and therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2 and perhaps better prepare us for whatever epidemic or pandemic comes next. The second year of the pandemic comes to an end with the emergence of a SARS-CoV-2 variant called Omicron. This variant is extremely transmissible, with experts saying they have never seen such a communicable virus. But it appears to cause milder disease than other variants. It remains unclear what the appearance of this less-virulent form of the virus means for the trajectory the pandemic. Regardless, like pandemics before it, this one will end eventually. The massive effort underway to vaccinate people against the virus has slowed its spread, but challenges remain in persuading millions of reluctant individuals to get their shots. SARS-CoV-2 could become endemic like seasonal influenza, with people learning to live with it, experts say. Meanwhile, researchers around the globe continue to probe COVID-19 from every scientific angle, and probably will do so for years to come. Jody A. Charnow Editor
Medical Director, Urology
Medical Director, Nephrology
Robert G. Uzzo, MD, MBA, FACS G. Willing “Wing” Pepper Chair in Cancer Research Professor and Chairman Department of Surgery Fox Chase Cancer Center Temple University School of Medicine Philadelphia
Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD, PhD, MPH Professor & Chief, Division of Nephrology, Hypertension & Kidney Transplantation UC Irvine School of Medicine Orange, CA
Nephrologists Anthony J. Bleyer, MD, MS Professor of Internal Medicine/Nephrology Wake Forest University School of Medicine Winston-Salem, NC
Urologists Christopher S. Cooper, MD Director, Pediatric Urology Children’s Hospital of Iowa Iowa City
David S. Goldfarb, MD Professor, Department of Medicine Clinical Chief New York University Langone Medical Center Chief of Nephrology NY Harbor VA Medical Center
R. John Honey, MD Head, Division of Urology, Endourology/Kidney Stone Diseases St. Michael’s Hospital University of Toronto
Csaba P. Kovesdy, MD Chief of Nephrology Memphis VA Medical Center Fred Hatch Professor of Medicine University of Tennessee Health Science Center Memphis
Stanton Honig, MD Department of Urology Yale University School of Medicine New Haven, CT J. Stephen Jones, MD Chief Executive Officer Inova Health System Falls Church, VA Professor and Horvitz/Miller Distinguished Chair in Urologic Oncology (ret.) Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Cleveland Jaime Landman, MD Professor of Urology and Radiology Chairman, Department of Urology UC Irvine School of Medicine Orange, CA James M. McKiernan, MD John K. Lattimer Professor of Urology Chair, Department of Urology Director, Urologic Oncology Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons New York Kenneth Pace, MD, MSc Assistant Professor, Division of Urology St. Michael’s Hospital University of Toronto Vancouver, Canada
Edgar V. Lerma, MD Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine Section of Nephrology Department of Medicine University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine Chicago Allen Nissenson, MD Emeritus Professor of Medicine The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Chief Medical Officer, DaVita Inc. Denver Rulan Parekh, MD, MS Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine University of Toronto Robert Provenzano, MD Associate Professor of Medicine Wayne State University School of Medicine Detroit Vice President of Medical Affairs, DaVita Healthcare Denver
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Jody A. Charnow
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Renal & Urology News (ISSN 1550-9478) Volume 21, Number 1. Published quarterly by Haymarket Media, Inc., 275 7th Avenue, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10001. For Advertising Sales & Editorial, call (646) 638-6000 (M–F, 9am–5pm, ET). For reprint/licensing requests, contact Customer Service at custserv@haymarketmedia.com. Postmaster: Send address changes to Renal & Urology News, c/o Direct Medical Data, 10255 W. Higgins Rd., Suite 280, Rosemont, IL 60018. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of Haymarket Media, Inc. Copyright © 2022.
