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Also, WHO airs concerns about COVID-19 spread amid interrupted vaccination efforts in Afghanistan.
The Ivory Coast yesterday launched an Ebola vaccination campaign aimed at frontline health workers and other high-risk groups, part of the response into an imported Ebola case involving a woman who had just arrived from Guinea.
China's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccine is tied to a slight increased risk of Bell's palsy, while the Fosun/BioNTech (Pfizer/BioNTech's parallel product in China) did not show a significantly increased risk, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Both the researchers and a related commentary conclude that COVID-19 vaccines' benefits outweigh the risks.
Vaccination is key to protect adult household members, an editorial on the study notes.
For the first time since February, the US topped 900,000 cases in a week, and more kids are hospitalized than ever before.
A WHO official says the case is concerning because it was detected in Abidjan, a city of 4 million people, but it's not linked to an earlier outbreak in Guinea.
An analysis of hospitalized geriatric patients found that rigorous de-escalation and curtailing of antibiotics was associated with reductions in hospital readmission and mortality, US researchers reported last week in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance.
US wildfires were associated with excess COVID-19 cases and deaths from mid-August to mid-October 2020, according to a study published late last week in Science Advances.
"The science teams have done remarkable work. It's not a science problem; it's an economics problem."
The authors say factors could include high patient numbers and underestimating airborne transmission.
Also, two states with relatively high vaccination rates are seeing COVID-19 surges.
Japan and Thailand report record daily cases, and South Korea says its fourth surge hasn't peaked yet.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Outpatient antibiotic use in British Columbia has declined by more than 23% over the last two decades, driven by significant decreases in pediatric use, Canadian researchers reported yesterday in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance.
COVID-19 transmission among households was three times more likely if the household had a high living density, according to a study yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Higher living density is defined as having more than three household members but fewer than six rooms.
Data indicated a third dose was safe and had efficacy in the immunosuppressed.
The next study phase includes examining raw data and stored blood samples.
Also, two states make up 30% of COVID hospitalizations, and third doses for immunocompromised people are likely.
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine was safe in adolescents 12 to 17 years old, with a similar immune response to that in young adults, according to results of an ongoing phase 2-3 trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday.
An analysis of Google Trends suggests World Antimicrobial Awareness Week has not improved public awareness of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
