Respiratory Infections News

Efforts to raise flagging childhood vaccination rates increased in 2023 as new shots hit the market.

The FDA in 2023 approved treatments for several hospital-associated infections and fully approved a long-used COVID-19 medication, among other non-vaccine-related regulatory decisions.

Major vaccine developments in 2023 included the approvals of the first two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, the first chikungunya vaccine, a new vaccine against malaria, and a move to new monovalent COVID-19 vaccines.

Young children with respiratory syncytial virus were hospitalized at a higher rate in the years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic than in the six seasons before it, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics.

On Dec. 14, the CDC issued an urgent warning calling for health care providers to increase vaccination coverage for COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus.

The front page of Healio | Infectious Disease News this year included stories about COVID-19, new vaccines, reversing decades of ID dogma, and more.

To mark the end of 2023, we compiled a list of this year’s Pharmacology Consult columns, in which our contributing PharmDs dig deep into the newest research to report on emerging therapies and vaccines for infectious diseases.

Patients who died of a COVID-19 and tuberculosis coinfection had a shorter median time to death compared with patients who died of either COVID-19 or TB alone, according to results published in European Respiratory Journal.

Similar to SARS-CoV-2, which can cause long COVID, people hospitalized with influenza are at an increased risk for health issues long after they have cleared the infection, according to a study.

Daily toothbrushing was linked to a significantly decreased risk for hospital-acquired pneumonia, or HAP, as well as lower rates of ICU mortality, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine.