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Five residents of a skilled nursing facility in Kentucky were likely reinfected with COVID-19, and the disease was worse the second time, with one patient dying, according to today's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Originally published by CIDRAP News Feb 25
The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced that its influenza vaccine strain selection committee has made its recommendations for the Northern Hemisphere's 2021-22 flu season, which swaps out the two influenza A strains for both the egg-based and cell-based or recombinant vaccines.
The New York variant carries a mutation that may lower vaccine protection, and the California one has become widespread.
Leaders of some countries warned that spiking cases amid the spread of variant viruses will put intense pressure on health systems.
MIS-C patients were almost twice as likely to have no underlying medical conditions.
A survey of US registered dental hygienists reported that 3.1% had been diagnosed as having COVID-19 as of October 2020, according to a Journal of Dental Hygiene study published yesterday. At the time, the study says an estimated 2.3% of the general US population had been infected.
A nationwide study in Denmark found an association between the use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and increased risk of community-associated Clostridioides difficile infections (CA-CDI), Danish researcher reported today in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
In other developments, global COVID-19 cases fell for the sixth week in a row.
Two doses were 92% effective in preventing infection, but 1 dose was 74% effective against COVID-related hospitalization and 72% effective at preventing death.
In other good news, the CDC says case levels have dropped to summertime levels.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today issued a risk assessment regarding human H5N8 avian flu cases reported recently in Russia, with the caveat that it was basing its report on very limited data.
Russia recently reported seven infections in people who worked at poultry facilities in the south. They reportedly had asymptomatic infections, and no human-to-human transmission was noted.
Americans with COVID-19 antibodies displayed 10-fold increased protection against infection 90 days after testing compared with those who had no antibodies, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The authors say the data support the CDC's prioritization of this group for vaccination.
Pending FDA approval, Johnson & Johnson is prepared to deliver 100 million doses by mid-summer.
Data indicate amoxicillin-clavulanate is safe and effective and may cut the risk of fluoroquinolone-related harms.
Elsewhere, the UK says new cases involving SARS-CoV-2 variants are dropping sharply.
CARB-X announced today that it is awarding up to $2.2 million to the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB) to continue developing new compounds designed to boost antibiotics that have become ineffective against drug-resistant bacterial infections.
Patients critically ill with COVID-19 infections had significantly lower levels of antibodies against seasonal human coronaviruses (HCoVs) OV43 and HKU1 than those with mild to severe infections, according to a German study published yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
It took only 1 month for the nation's death tally to grow from 400,000 to 500,000.
