COVID-19 and Pregnancy: An Updated Review about Evidence-Based Therapeutic Strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant challenge for clinicians in managing pregnant women, who were at high risk of virus transmission and severe illness. While the WHO declared in May 2023 that COVID-19 is no longer a public health emergency, it emphasized that it remains a global health threat. Despite the success of vaccines, the possibility of new pandemic waves due to viral mutations should be considered. Ongoing assessment of the safety and effectiveness of pharmacological therapies is crucial in clinical practice. This narrative review summarizes the evidence-based therapeutic strategies for pregnant women with COVID-19, considering over three years of pandemic experience. The review discusses the safety and effectiveness of various drug regimens (antivirals, anticoagulants, corticosteroids, immunoglobulins, monoclonal antibodies, and therapeutic gases) and procedures (prone positioning and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation). Drugs with contraindications, inefficacy during pregnancy, or unknown adverse effects were excluded from our evaluation. The aim is to provide healthcare professionals with a comprehensive guide for managing pregnant women with COVID-19 based on lessons learned from the pandemic outbreak

Status of the ITER remote experimentation centre

The ITER Remote Experimentation Centre (REC) project (one of the three sub-projects of the International Fusion Energy Research Centre (IFERC)) is progressing under the agreement between the Government of Japan and the European Atomic Energy Community for the joint implementation of the Broader Approach (BA) activities in the field of fusion energy research. The objectives of the REC activity are to identify the functions and solve the technical issues for the construction of the REC for ITER at Rokkasho, and to develop the remote experiment system and verify the functions required for remote experimentation by using the Satellite Tokamak (JT-60SA) facilities to facilitate the future exploitation of ITER and JT-60SA. The functions of REC will be tested, and the total system will be demonstrated using JT-60SA and existing facilities in the EU, such as JET and WEST. The hardware of the REC has been prepared in Rokkasho Japan, which has the remote experiment room with a large video wall to show the plasma and operation status, IT equipment and a storage system by the reuse of the Helios supercomputer tape library. A broadband network infrastructure of 10Gbps has been installed connected to SINET5. Using this network system, fast data transfer from ITER to REC was examined in 2016, and the transfer of the data volumes expected for the initial ITER experiments has been demonstrated. A secure remote experimentation system has been developed, using JT-60SA, that has functions for preparing and setting of shot parameters, viewing the status of control data, streaming of the plasma status, data-exchange function of shot events, and monitoring of the facility operation. Remote data analysis techniques, data visualisation software, a documentation management and experiment planning system and numerical simulation codes for the preparation and performance estimation of discharges have also been developed