Respiratory Infections News

The phone call came while I was celebrating Christmas with my husband’s family during my first year of medical school. My grandfather, a World War II veteran, both a best friend and hero of mine, had died. He died of septic shock secondary to MRSA in the ICU in which I would eventually rotate in as a resident. He died under the care of an intensivist who would ultimately become my attending. As my training continued, I was drawn to the ICU; the sickest of the sick. There are profound ties between infectious diseases and critical care. In the ICU, patients are either presenting with life-threatening infections, or, in the process of providing critical care, we place devices that carry risk for infection, and thus every day demands attention to the appropriate diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infection. As an infectious disease and critical care physician, I have been blessed to have many physician mentors in both fields. But truth be told, my greatest mentor is the one I lost. Every day, his death challenges me to continue to improve the outcomes for our critically ill patients.

Tuberculosis is a disease that affects millions of individuals globally, killing an estimated 1.3 million people in 2017. Approximately one-quarter of the human population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, not everyone infected will develop active disease. An infected individual may have latent TB infection, or LTBI, if the bacterium remains dormant. Patients with LTBI do not exhibit symptoms and cannot spread the disease to others. If the bacteria overcome the immune system and begin to replicate, LTBI may progress into active TB disease. Without treatment, approximately 5% to 10% of patients will develop active TB.

BALTIMORE — The type of insurance coverage that an adult has impacts how they are vaccinated, according to research presented at the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases’ Annual Conference on Vaccinology Research.

The United States witnessed an uptick in the number of children experiencing weakness and paralysis of unknown origin in 2014. The CDC began investigating cases of the condition, known as acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, and since then, surveillance data have shown a spike in cases occurring every 2 years.

In this guest editorial, Bernhard L. “Bud” Wiedermann, MD, MA, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and a professor of pediatrics at The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, discusses the dangers associated with the resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases. He explains why immunization is so critically important, especially amid a “perfect storm” caused by complacency, anti-vaccine sentiment, increasing international travel and a highly contagious virus like measles.

Findings of a prospective birth cohort study presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases suggested that infants born through caesarean section have an altered gut microbiota that may leave them more susceptible to respiratory infections in the first year of life.

Infants with bronchiolitis caused by rhinovirus C were more likely to develop recurrent wheeze by age 3 years compared with infants who had bronchiolitis caused by other viruses, according to findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center did not see an apparent increase in invasive mold infections in patients treated after Hurricane Harvey, despite concerns that extensive floodwater damage would lead to an excess of cases in immunocompromised patients, researchers said.

Early lung disease in children with cystic fibrosis is characterized by mucus accumulation, even in the absence of infection or structural defects, according to a study published in Science Translational Medicine. The findings suggest that agents designed to break down mucus flakes could potentially reduce the severity of early-stage symptoms.

New estimates show that the burden of respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, among children aged younger than 2 years in the outpatient setting is higher than previously reported, and children aged younger than 6 months are particularly high risk.