Respiratory Infections News

LOS ANGELES — In a Healio video exclusive, the president-elect of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, or SHEA, gave an overview of the critical issues that health care epidemiologists will face in the coming year.

LOS ANGELES — Public health officials could have detected H5 influenza in wastewater days before highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in cattle earlier this year, according to a study presented at IDWeek.

LOS ANGELES — Healio is on-site again for IDWeek, which is being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center from Oct. 16-19.

As older Americans continue to shoulder much of the COVID-19 burden, new data show that most went without a vaccine last winter and that those who got sick rarely received antivirals.

The number of pertussis cases in the United States has quadrupled over the last 12 months, according to the CDC, raising questions as to what is behind the sudden, significant spike.

Children with health care-associated respiratory syncytial virus were more likely to need respiratory support, compared with children with community-associated RSV, according to a recent study.

A combination of remdesivir plus dexamethasone significantly reduced the risk for death among people hospitalized with COVID-19 with baseline oxygen requirements compared with dexamethasone alone, according to a study.

Adults with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder had increased risk for severe infection outcomes while exposed to antipsychotics compared with nonexposure periods, according to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Despite clinical guidance advising against such use, most individuals said that antibiotics would help treat common symptoms and prevent more serious illness, according to results of a survey of patients seen in primary care and ED clinics.

This is the second respiratory disease season with two new powerful tools to protect infants from severe respiratory syncytial virus disease, and experts are optimistic that uptake will improve from last season.