Respiratory Infections News

An estimated 25% of household tuberculosis case contacts in the Innate Factors and Early Clearance of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, or INFECT, study in Indonesia were considered early clearers, and researchers found that protection against M. tuberculosis was strongly associated with bacille Calmette-Guérin, or BCG, vaccination.

Data from a phase 1, open-label, single-arm, dose-escalation trial demonstrated the tolerability, safety and immunogenicity of a vaccine against Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, researchers reported.

Tuberculosis is treatable and curable, but newly published study findings showed that patients treated for — or cured of — TB still experience significantly increased mortality following treatment, with a pooled standardized mortality ratio, or SMO, nearly three times higher than the general population or matched controls, according to results from a systematic review and meta-analysis published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

HHS’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, will provide up to $20.7 million over 2 years to VenatoRx Pharmaceuticals as part of a cost-sharing contract to develop an antibiotic to combat drug-resistant infections, the pharmaceutical company announced.

Clofazimine was a safe and well-tolerated part of a multidrug regimen used to treat children with odontogenic Mycobacterium abscessus infection that was caused during an outbreak at a dental facility, according to study results published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society.

About one-quarter of the world’s population may be infected with latent tuberculosis, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the European Respiratory Journal.

Point-of-care ultrasound was shown to be a useful tool for nonphysician clinicians in South Sudan to determine whether children had pneumonia, according to a study published in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

A survey of infectious disease clinicians showed there is “little consensus” regarding Pneumocystis pneumonia prophylaxis for patients with connective tissue diseases and that guidelines would be “helpful,” researchers reported.

Sanofi Pasteur, the largest provider of influenza vaccines in the United States, said shipments of its vaccines for the 2019-2020 season will be delayed by around 1 month because of a lag in production.

Among patients with cystic fibrosis, the use of ivacaftor was associated with a 32% reduction in the rate of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection and a 15% reduction in the rate of Staphylococcus aureus infection over time, according to data published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society.