Top in ID: BA.2 subvariant, tuberculosis, war in Ukraine

In the United States, the omicron subvariant BA.2 accounted for 35% of SARS-CoV-2 infections in the week ending March 19, according to the CDC.

Experts said it is unclear whether the increasing prevalence of the subvariant will result in a COVID-19 surge. It was the top story in infectious disease last week.

Another top story was about a recent decline in tuberculosis in the U.S., which may indicate that the disease is being underdiagnosed.

Read these and more top stories in infectious disease below:

COVID-19 surge from BA.2 not certain in US, experts say

CDC data show that the omicron BA.2 subvariant of SARS-CoV-2 accounted for approximately 35% of COVID-19 cases in the United States during the week ending March 19, up from around 22% the week before. Read more.

Providers should ‘think TB’ as data show possibility of underdiagnosis

There was a 20% decline in reported cases of tuberculosis in the United States in 2020 compared with previous years, which was not a result of underreporting but did raise concerns that TB was underdiagnosed, researchers said. Read more.

War in Ukraine could disrupt critical TB services, experts warn

In 2014, the United Nations initiated the End TB Strategy, setting a goal of ending tuberculosis by 2035. Over the following years, data showed that the world made progress against TB, achieving reductions in new cases and deaths. However, gains have been reversed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more.

Should the CDC make COVID-19 data publicly available as soon as it comes in?

Healio asked Amesh A. Adalja, MD, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, and Peter Chin-Hong, MD, Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member and professor of medicine and director of the transplant infectious disease program at the University of California, San Francisco, if the CDC should always make the data it collects publicly available as soon as it is collected. They agreed: yes, it should. Read more.

Aerosolized hydrogen peroxide reduces C. difficile in hospitals, study finds

Adding aerosolized hydrogen peroxide to hospital infection prevention protocols significantly reduced Clostridioides difficile infections, according to the results of a 10-year study reported in the American Journal of Infection Control. Read more.