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A study of children hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) suggests that antibiotic decisions made in the emergency department (ED) have a significant impact on inpatient antibiotic use, researchers reported today in Pediatrics.
The study also found that nearly a third of children without radiographic evidence of pneumonia received antibiotics, suggesting that overuse is common.
Findings were similar to adults, but testing policy changes limited the study's ability to assess longer term impact.
In US developments, the CDC reported dozens more cases and Texas reported community spread of the virus.
Following a vaccine advisory group input earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today recommended that vaccine companies update their booster shots to target BA.4 and BA.5, two Omicron subvariants that are driving up cases in a number of countries.
A report yesterday from the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency (FSA) shows that that the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli in retail beef and pork samples remains low.
WHO director says he's worried monkeypox could spread to children and pregnant women.
Faster antimicrobial treatment did not lead to increased antibiotic use.
COVID-19 cases jumped 18% last week and are at their highest levels since April, the WHO says.
Deaths may have been directly related to COVID-19 or exacerbated by COVID-19 or by healthcare disruptions, study authors say.
Symptoms of long COVID are more frequently reported by women, those with poor overall health before the pandemic, and those aged 50 to 60, according to a new UK-based study in Nature Communications.
The study was based on results gathered from 6,907 people with self-reported COVID-19 from 10 population-based longitudinal health surveys in the United Kingdom that had been in place prior to the pandemic.
A new report from the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH, formerly OIE) shows global use of antimicrobials in animals fell by 27% from 2016 through 2018.
VRBPAC experts approved the booster recommendation by a 17-to-2 vote.
Also, "Many individuals are presenting with atypical symptoms," the WHO says.
A new study from researchers at Boston University (BU) shows that, for all but 17% of healthy, vaccinated young adults, the infectious period for COVID-19 from the Delta and Omicron variants was 5 days. The study was recently published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The incidence dropped by one-fifth for both mRNA vaccines when dose spacing was longer.
The WHO says it has received reports of 920 probable cases from 33 countries.
As cases top 4,000 worldwide, WHO consultants take a wait-and-see approach.
Emergent BioSolutions said in a news release late last week that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review an adjuvanted version of its anthrax vaccine for post-exposure prophylaxis (prevention) of anthrax.
The Journal of Infectious Diseases has published studies demonstrating lower COVID-19 incidence—but a higher risk of severe disease—in people with Down syndrome (DS), and a lower COVID vaccine immune response.
The number of genetic substitutions is 6 times higher than expected for an orthopoxvirus.
