According to the latest weekly update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID-19, seasonal influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity continue to increase across the country, with COVID wastewater detections reaching high levels. 

COVID-19 is still causing a low number of people to seek emergency department care, but numbers are increasing. RSV and flu are also increasing. 

We predict COVID-19 illness will continue to increase in the coming weeks as it usually does in the winter.

"We predict COVID-19 illness will continue to increase in the coming weeks as it usually does in the winter," the CDC said. "COVID-19 activity is increasing in most areas of the country, with high COVID-19 wastewater levels and increasing emergency department visits and laboratory percent positivity.”

RSV activity remains high, with pediatric hospitalizations increasing across most of the country, the CDC said. 

Flu positivity up 12%

Though hospital visits for flu are still moderate, flu positivity increased by 12% in the week ending on December 21. Influenza A, H1N1 and H3N2, were the predominant viruses reported.

Of note, five pediatric deaths associated with seasonal influenza virus infection were reported this week, bringing the 2024-2025 season total to nine pediatric deaths.

“CDC estimates that there have been at least 3.1 million illnesses, 37,000 hospitalizations, and 1,500 deaths from flu so far this season,” the CDC said.

The addition of macrolides for empiric treatment of patients hospitalized with moderate and high-severity community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) was not associated with improved clinical outcomes, according to a population-level study published this week in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Using electronic medical record data from 8,872 adults who were hospitalized with CAP in Oxfordshire, England, from January 1, 2016 through March, 19, 2024, and received initial treatment with amoxicillin or co-amoxiclav, researchers from the University of Oxford examined the effect of adjunctive macrolides on 30-day all-cause mortality, time to hospital discharge, and changes in Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score. While guidelines from the British Thoracic Society and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommend combining macrolides with beta-lactam antibiotics for moderate and high-severity pneumonia to provide coverage of atypical pathogens, existing studies have yielded conflicting evidence on efficacy.

Benefits should be weighed against risk of resistance, side effects

Among 3,239 (36.5%) and 5,633 (63.5%) patients who received baseline amoxicillin or co-amoxiclav, 606 (18.7%) and 1,821 (32.3%) received additional macrolide antibiotics, respectively. After adjustments using inverse probability treatment weighting to address confounding by baseline severity, the researchers found no evidence of an association between the use of additional macrolides and 30-day mortality, with marginal odds ratios of 1.05 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.75 to 1.47) for amoxicillin with versus without a macrolide and 1.12 (95% CI, 0.93 to 1.34) for co-amoxiclav with versus without a macrolide.

There was also no evidence that the addition of macrolides produced differences in time to discharge among those receiving baseline amoxicillin (restricted mean days lost +1.76 [-1.66 to +5.19]) or co-amoxiclav (+0.44 [-1.63 to +2.51]) or that macrolide use was associated with SOFA score decreases (marginal difference with amoxicillin +0.03 [- 0.19 to +0.25]; co-amoxiclav -0.06 [-0.19 to +0.06]). The results were consistent across varying levels of CAP severity.

The researchers also noted that atypical pathogens were rarely identified.

"Our findings suggest that the benefits of empirical macrolide therapy should be weighed against the risk of resistance and side-effects," they wrote.

One year after becoming available for older Americans and pregnant women, receptive public opinion of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines is growing, according to the latest poll from the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. 

The poll was conducted in November 2024 and shows 52% of adults think the vaccine given to pregnant individuals to protect their infants from RSV is effective, up 10 percentage points from 42% in October of 2023. 

In the October 2023 survey, 54% of poll respondents said the RSV vaccine was effective for older adults, and that percentage is now 61%.

The poll results come in the wake of the 2024 presidential election and Donald Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a noted vaccine skeptic, to head the Department of Health and Human Services. 

Only 65% think COVID vaccine is safe

When asked about vaccine confidence for a number of immunizations, 86% of respondents said the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine (MMR) is safe, up from 81% in October 2023. Eighty-three percent said the annual flu shot is safe, a number unchanged from 2023. 

Importantly, 90% of respondents said they would recommend a child in their household to get the MMR vaccine, 88% said they would recommend the polio vaccine, and 85% said they would recommend their child receive the Tdap vaccine. 

Only 65% of those polled in November said the COVID-19 vaccine was safe, however. 

• The US Food and Drug Administration has upgraded a voluntary recall of organic, pasture-raised eggs sold by Costco stores to Class I, the agency's highest risk level. The eggs, sold under Costco's Kirkland Signature brand, were recalled by Handsome Brook Farms of New York on November 26 because of possible contamination with Salmonella. The eggs were distributed to 25 Costco stores in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee beginning November 22, 2024, and have a Use By Date of January 5, 2025. The FDA classifies a recall as Class I when there is "a reasonable probability that the use of, or exposure to, a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death." 
• Health authorities in Kosovo have confirmed the country's first mpox case, according to media reports. Citing a statement from Kosovo's Institute of Public Health, Reuters reports that the case-patient is a 30-year-old man who recently returned from an unidentified West African country and was hospitalized on December 24 after exhibiting fever, chills, and skin changes on his face and hands. The institute said health officials have traced all contacts of the patient and shared recommendations for infection control and prevention.
• Two children in Pakistan were diagnosed as having polio this week, according to Pakistani news site Geo News. The cases, which were reported in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, bring the polio-endemic country's tally for the year to 67. The cases come amid efforts by Pakistani health officials to inoculate 44 million children across the country. In other polio news, Australian health officials revealed this week that routine wastewater testing in Melbourne detected the virus earlier this month. The Victoria Department of Public Health said in a news release that circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was detected on December 2 and was likely linked to a person who received a live polio vaccine overseas and has continued to shed the virus since arriving in the country.