Emerging Diseases News

Hybrid SARS-CoV-2 immunity in pregnancy — immunity from a prior infection plus vaccination — is associated with a greater likelihood of protection at delivery for mothers and infants compared with a prior infection alone, a study found.

Last autumn, the availability of the 2023-2024 updated COVID-19 vaccines, which more closely targeted the then-dominant XBB omicron subvariant lineage, promised to restore protections that had waned over time.

COVID-19 vaccination provided strong and durable protection among children and adolescents during two strong waves of infections, according to real-world study findings reported in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Bartonella quintana, the louse-borne bacterium known for causing trench fever in World War I, meets the criteria of being a neglected tropical disease in Africa, researchers suggested.

Children with obesity demonstrate a greater likelihood of shock, ICU admission and worse laboratory scores in multisystem inflammatory syndrome, but not Kawasaki disease, according to data published in JAMA Network Open.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult for all Americans, with unprecedented morbidity and mortality, economic hardship and social stressors.

In September 2021, the Biden administration introduced the American Pandemic Preparedness Plan, a proposal to transform the country’s capabilities to respond to future pandemics.

Researchers linked more than 1 million deaths in Africa in 2019 to antimicrobial resistance, more than half of which were linked to just four pathogens.

In patients with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, a 2-week pause of methotrexate after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine booster yielded a sustained, significantly increased antibody response, without serious flares, according to a study.

COVAX, the multinational program launched in 2020 to deliver COVID-19 vaccines to low- and lower-middle income countries, will end on Dec. 31, 2023, as the vaccines shift to routine immunization programs.