About 75% of COVID-19 deaths in the least-vaccinated Chicago areas could have been prevented if their uptake would have equaled that of the highest-coverage areas during the Alpha and Delta variant surges, suggests a study late last week in JAMA Network Open.
A new analysis of a randomized clinical trial shows that a repeated post-discharge decolonization regimen for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) carriers reduced MRSA colonization overall and at multiple body sites, researchers reported yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Three COVID-19 vaccine doses offer good protection against infection and hospitalization, including those caused by variants of concern—regardless of brand, type, or combination, according to an ongoing meta-analysis published yesterday in BMJ.
An analysis of studies published over the past two decades shows that human intestinal carriage of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Escherichia coli has risen substantially in healthcare and community settings around the world, researchers reported today in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance.
Compared with reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing, dogs can detect COVID-19 infections via scent with high sensitivity (97%)—though lower specificity (91%)—even when patients are asymptomatic, according to a study in PLOS One yesterday.
A study of 4,737 COVID-19 patients in Israel conducted during the Omicron surge concludes that Pfizer's antiviral drug Paxlovid roughly halves the risk of severe COVID-19 or death, according to findings published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Nearly all long-COVID patients at an Ohio health system reported moderate to severe fatigue, and about half said they had serious sleep disruptions, which were up to three times more common in Black participants, according to findings presented this week at the Associated Professional Sleep Societies' annual meeting.
The research abstract was published May 25 in an online supplement of Sleep.
A study of samples from two Brazilian rivers found a high incidence of colistin-resistant bacteria and MCR-1 producers, Brazilian and Portuguese researchers reported today in the Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance.
People who believe in conspiracies about the COVID-19 pandemic are at an increased risk of experiencing anxiety and depression, according to new research presented at the European Congress of Psychiatry and published in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
COVID-19 infection and pregnancy independently raised the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admission, the need for supplemental oxygen, and death among hospitalized women in sub-Saharan Africa, finds a study published today in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) this week issued an alert on the potential emergence and spread of extremely drug-resistant (XDR) Shigella sonnei in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Unvaccinated heart-failure patients who contract COVID-19 are three times more likely to die of their infections than their vaccinated and boosted counterparts, concludes a study published yesterday in the Journal of Cardiac Failure.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) yesterday said it and health officials in multiple state are investigating Salmonella outbreaks tied to backyard poultry that have sickened 219 people, 1 fatally, in 38 states.
The Global Antibiotic Research and Development Partnership (GARDP) announced yesterday that it is collaborating with Indian biopharmaceutical company Bugworks on a phase 1 clinical trial to assess a new class of antibiotic compounds for multidrug-resistant bacteria.
A study of data from insured US children found that rotavirus vaccination was associated with reduced antibiotic prescribing for acute gastroenteritis, researchers reported last week in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Work disruptions related to a lack of childcare in 2020 increased by one-third relative to before the pandemic—especially for caregivers of children with special healthcare needs, low-income families, and those from racial minority groups, estimates a study published today in JAMA Pediatrics.
Automated text messages were as effective as direct phone calls in encouraging study participants to get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a JAMA Network Open study yesterday from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania,.
Indian researchers yesterday reported on a hospital outbreak of two strains of extensively drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae. Their findings appeared in Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control.
T cells induced by infection with coronaviruses such as those that cause the common cold might help protect against COVID-19, finds a small UK study today in Nature Communications.
US Federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) have been critical to providing COVID-19 vaccinations to low-income and racial minority populations, finds a study yesterday in JAMA Network Open.
A study of 42 million US patient visits for antibiotic-inappropriate acute respiratory infections (ARIs) found that more than 10% received an antibiotic prescription, with providers in urgent care clinics and southern states among the most likely prescribers, US researchers reported this week in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
The US COVID-19 vaccination program may have averted 14 million infections, saved more than 240,000 lives, and prevented upwards of 1.1 million hospitalizations in the first half of 2021, according to estimates from a modeling study yesterday in JAMA Network Open.
Austrian scientists writing in a letter in the New England Journal of Medicine yesterday demonstrate poor neutralization of the Omicron variant when using serum from vaccinated or recovered COVID-19 patients, potentially signaling a need for variant-specific vaccines.
Danish microbiome technology company SNIPR Biome ApS announced this week that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved the company's application to initiate the first human clinical trial of its CRISPR-based drug for preventing Escherichia coli infections in cancer patients.
