Healthcare workers, first responders, and adults with pre-existing conditions that put them at risk for severe symptoms of COVID-19 should be the initial recipients of the first approved vaccine in the United States, according to a framework from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) published yesterday. Today, NAM will hold a virtual public meeting on the recommendations.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 62 studies has found that immunity conferred by the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine fades each subsequent year, suggesting that vaccination strategies should be revisited.
Residents ventured out about 98% less in most counties in the 42 US states and territories that issued stay-at-home orders to contain SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
One more Ebola case has been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Equateur province outbreak, lifting the overall total to 110, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said in a Twitter update today.
No new deaths have been reported, keeping the outbreak's fatality count at 47.
An intervention to reduce antibiotic treatment for asymptomatic bacteriuria (ASB) at a Toronto hospital was safe and associated with reduced exposure to unnecessary antibiotics, Canadian researchers reported this week in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
A new study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology shows that 46% of hospitalized adults with severe COVID-19 suffer from acute kidney injury (AKI), and AKI was associated with a 50% mortality rate.
The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) yesterday released new guidelines for the treatment of three common antibiotic-resistant pathogens.
A new study in Transboundary and Emerging Disease calculated the case-fatality rate (CFR) of COVID-19 infections in 53 countries or regions that experienced a second wave—or resurgence—of coronavirus activity, and found a significantly lower death rate among all confirmed cases than in the first wave.
This is the first study to compare the CFR in the first and second waves of the pandemic.
Four of 26 competitive athletes (15%) who had recovered from mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 had evidence suggestive of myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle, on cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Cardiology.
A report this week from the British Poultry Council (BPC) shows steep reductions in antibiotic use in recent years.
The introduction of a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) in conjunction with antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) activities and infectious disease (ID) consultation at an academic tertiary medical center was associated with shortened time to optimal antibiotic therapy in patients with bloodstream infections, University of Maryland researchers reported in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
A group of experts from Stanford and Harvard universities, as well as the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, propose a new model for measuring direct, indirect, and excess deaths from COVID-19 in the United States, and they say relying solely on death certificates likely undercounts the true death toll COVID-19 has taken in the United States. Their proposal is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Preliminary data from a small study published today in Nature Medicine suggests convalescent plasma may have some efficacy in patients with severe COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new recommendations for the prevention and control of Staphylococcus aureus in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients.
A phase 3 trial for a bivalent Clostridioides difficile toxoid vaccine was terminated because of futility, an international team of investigators led by scientists from Sanofi Pasteur reported yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
Live SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was isolated from air samples collected 2 to 4.8 meters (6.6 to 15.7 feet) away from two coronavirus patients—one recently released and one newly admitted—in a single hospital room, according to a study published yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases.
The results of a randomized, controlled clinical trial show that intravesical bacteriophage treatment was non-inferior to standard-of-care antibiotic treatment and safe for treating urinary tract infection (UTI) patients, but it was not superior to placebo in terms of efficacy or safety, researchers reported yesterday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases.
To better track the neurologic chronic wasting disease (CWD) in deer, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is asking hunters for deer heads from harvested deer and will have a digital option for entering CWD testing information, according to a DNR news release yesterday.
Increased age, male sex, non-Hispanic black ethnicity, and certain underlying health conditions are associated with a greater risk of hospitalization from COVID-19, according to an analysis of data from more than 5,000 hospitalized adults. A group based at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported its findings today in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
A report today from a British think tank says critical gaps remain in the United Kingdom's efforts to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and it calls for more focus on vaccines, diagnostic, and public awareness.
Acute stress and depression rates rose in US adults as COVID-19 cases and deaths accumulated from mid-March to mid-April, largely related to preexisting mental and physical conditions and stressors such as job and wage loss, according to a study of 6,514 people from three large, nationally representative cohorts.
CARB-X announced today that it will award drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) up to $7.51 million to develop a drug to treat and prevent urinary tract infections (UTIs) caused by Escherichia coli.
Health officials in Massachusetts recently reported the state's fifth eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) case of the year, involving a woman in her 60s who was exposed in Plymouth County, where a similar was detected earlier this month in an area known to be at higher risk.
