Respiratory Infections News

The FDA announced it has granted Insmed, Inc. approval for Arikayce, a new drug developed for the treatment of lung disease caused by Mycobacterium avium complex.

A quick test for viral infections can reduce unnecessary antibiotic use and hospital admissions, according to research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.

Results of a retrospective study of more than 60,000 patients initiating long-acting opioids found that their risk for infection varied by opioid type. Patients using nonimmunosuppressive opioids had a 22% lower rate of serious infections than immunosuppressive opioid users, researchers reported.

A vaccine candidate provided 54% protection against active tuberculosis disease in adults with Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, according to results from a phase 2b trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

“Pneumonitis” denotes inflammation of pulmonary parenchymal tissue, either alveolar or interstitial, resulting from any one of several known pathophysiologic mechanisms. However, in more generic terms, the clinical term “pneumonia” — often described by radiographers as “air space disease” — is conceptualized by most as an infectious disease. Health care providers are led to this diagnostic determination when evaluating patients who present with clinical features such as cough, pleuritic chest pain, dyspnea, fever, hypoxemia, mucopurulent sputum production, leukocytosis, pulmonary auscultatory findings, and the demonstration of a new or changing infiltrative lung process on radiologic chest imaging.

The FDA has granted breakthrough therapy designation to Pfizer for its 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine candidate for preventing invasive disease and pneumonia caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes in the vaccine in adults aged at least 18 years, according to a press release.

Physicians in San Francisco reported a rare extrapulmonary manifestation of tuberculosis: infection of the finger.

Refugee children residing in Germany are significantly more likely to develop invasive pneumococcal disease than German-born children, according to research published in Emerging Infectious Diseases. According to the researchers, these children are less likely to be vaccinated and are nearly 24 times more likely to develop an infection resistant to multiple antibiotics.

Tuberculosis remains the top infectious disease killer in the world, killing more than 4,000 people daily. According to a new WHO report, the global TB burden is shrinking but not fast enough to reach milestones set by the End TB Strategy.

Global spending on research into “game-changing” products like vaccines for hepatitis C virus, HIV, malaria and tuberculosis is underfunded by as much as $2.8 billion per year, researchers reported recently in Gates Open Research.