Respiratory Infections News

Pfizer and BioNTech said Friday that their bivalent COVID-19 booster, which targets the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and the omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages, elicits stronger immune responses than their original vaccine.

COVID-19 vaccine equity has improved as the pandemic has progressed, some disparities in access remain prompting WHO to maintain the pandemic’s public health emergency of international concern, or PHEIC, status.

Pfizer reported topline data from a phase 3 trial of its respiratory syncytial virus vaccine for pregnant women, which showed high vaccine efficacy in newborns.

CHICAGO – Deanna Saylor, MD, MHS, discussed how certain infectious diseases can lead to neurological complications in a presentation at the 2022 American Neurological Association meeting.

CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, has experienced a rebound of COVID-19 symptoms after being treated with Paxlovid, the agency announced Monday.

CHICAGO – Rates of reaction times were slower among individuals who had long COVID compared with healthy counterparts, a researcher showed in a poster presentation at the 2022 American Neurological Association meeting.

Common childhood infections have returned following an interruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including respiratory syncytial virus, which has caused a recent surge in the United States. Healio spoke with Mary T. Caserta, MD, a professor of infectious diseases in the department of pediatrics at the University of Rochester Medical Center, about what physicians can expect from RSV.

People with hepatitis C, either treated or untreated, had an increased risk for developing active tuberculosis, according to data published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Influenza reached epidemic levels in Chile months earlier than a typical influenza season, just like in several other Southern Hemisphere countries, researchers reported.

Disruptions to care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic continued to negatively impact the fight against tuberculosis as cases and deaths have increased for the second year in a row after decades of declines, according to WHO’s 2022 Global TB Report.