Respiratory Infections News

The novel coronavirus outbreak was first reported on Dec. 31, 2019, in Wuhan, China. Within a month, the virus had spread to Italy, the United States and Germany.

More than 40% of parents in the United States are snacking more during the COVID-19 pandemic, data from the International Food Information Council Foundation’s 2020 Food and Health Survey show.

To introduce the American Society for Microbiology, or ASM, Microbe 2020 virtual meeting, Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, discussed vaccine diplomacy and the impact of COVID-19 on global health during the opening keynote address.

Deaths related to preventable occupational lung diseases caused by inhaling dust particles such as coal dust and asbestos decreased by 40% from 1999 to 2018, according to a CDC analysis published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Nearly half of the primary care physicians who responded to a Primary Care Collaborative, Larry A. Green Center and 3rd Conversation weekly survey “continue to lack” personal protective equipment.

As COVID-19 case counts reach 8.8 million worldwide, including 465,000 deaths, more than 183,000 new cases were reported to WHO on Sunday — the most in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.

As the U.S. grapples with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid epidemic plaguing many rural areas persists, creating more barriers for people who use drugs to seek and obtain health care. Such barriers include stigma that researchers say negatively impacts these individuals’ ability to self-function and seek care.

Gitanjali Pai, MD, AAHIVS, has devised a way to shield patients from the stigma of an HIV diagnosis and encourage them to continue to seek care.

A cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine prevented more influenza-related hospitalizations and ED visits, all-cause hospitalizations and hospitalizations related to serious respiratory events compared with egg-based quadrivalent vaccines.

A novel respiratory syncytial virus strain led to infections in all but one of 20 healthy adults in a controlled human infection trial designed to evaluate the safety and infectious potential of the strain.