Respiratory Infections News

I knew from the earliest stages that if I pursued medicine as a career, infectious disease was the only choice for me. As a child, my favorite storybook was The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur, which recounts the discovery of the rabies vaccine. The idea that there were these mysterious entities called viruses and the human immune system had ways to combat them was completely captivating. As I grew older and learned about infectious diseases such as HIV, this fascination only increased. By the time I decided to go to medical school, I had already consumed scores of books on Ebola, Lassa fever, antimicrobial resistance and anything else I could get my hands on. In residency, I was mocked for carrying C.J. Peters’ Virus Hunter in my lab coat pocket, whereas the pockets of my fellow residents were teaming with reference books that allowed them to function on the wards.

There has been much speculation about what has been causing the recent outbreaks of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, in United States since its emergence in 2014, with enteroviruses being the main suspect.

The 2019-2020 influenza vaccine has been 45% effective overall in the United States this season and 55% effective in children, according to preliminary estimates published today in MMWR.

Empirical anti-MRSA therapy was not associated with reduced mortality for any group of patients hospitalized for pneumonia, even those at high risk for MRSA, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Almost one-third of patients with HIV in China are within days of running out of their ART medications due to quarantines and other restrictions put in place to control the COVID-19 outbreak, and nearly half do not know where to collect their refill of antiretrovirals, a UNAIDS survey found.

Findings from a small observational study in China showed no evidence that the novel coronavirus at the center of a global outbreak is passed from mother to child during pregnancy.

Trivalent and quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccines offered similar protection against influenza B illness during four recent influenza seasons, study findings showed.

President Trump’s proposed 2021 budget would reduce HHS funding by more than 9%, including large cuts to the NIH and CDC budgets. Reductions to some programs could impact the country’s ability to prevent and respond to public health threats and weaken support for global efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, observers warned.

In response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, which has so far infected 12 individuals in the United States, several airlines have delayed travel to mainland China and the CDC has begun 14-day quarantines of U.S. citizens arriving from Wuhan, leaving some health care providers to question the necessity of these restrictions.

On Tuesday, the FDA issued an emergency use authorization to enable emergency use of the CDC’s diagnostic panel for the 2019 novel coronavirus, according to an agency press release.