Respiratory Infections News

Guidelines for ear infections in young children may lead to unnecessary tympanostomy tube placement, according to a study published in Pediatrics.

The FDA will review a biologics license application for nirsevimab for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus in newborns and infants, according to Sanofi and AstraZeneca, which are developing the monoclonal antibody.

The FDA has accepted for priority review a supplemental biologics license application for Pfizer’s 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for use in infants and children aged 6 weeks to 17 years, Pfizer announced.

The XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant has evolved to become the most transmissible SARS-CoV-2 subvariant yet, rapidly replacing other variants, although its ultimate impact on the pandemic is unclear, according to experts.

A study found no reported serious adverse events among children who received a COVID-19 vaccine after recovering from multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, according to results published in JAMA Network Open.

As the world continues to grapple with effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals around the globe are still dealing with symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection for months, even years, after their initial infection.

The absolute vaccine effectiveness of a recent first booster dose of COVID-19 messenger RNA vaccine against COVID-associated hospitalization is 81% compared with 46% for the primary series alone, researchers found.

Researchers said it remains unclear whether low procalcitonin levels can be used to safely withhold antibiotics in patients with lower respiratory tract infection.

Updated COVID-19 shots, including bivalent boosters, dominated vaccine news in 2022, but good news also came for vaccines against malaria, Ebola and cancer.

In 2022, the front page of Infectious Disease News mostly peered beyond COVID-19 to showcase triumphs and progress being made elsewhere in the field of infectious disease.