Top in ID: Moderna bivalent booster; COVID-19 reinfections
Data from a phase 2/3 trial showed that Moderna’s bivalent COVID-19 booster shot outperformed the company’s original vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 omicron subvariants.
Moderna has been testing two bivalent boosters — one that targets the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants and another that targets the Wuhan strain and BA.1 subvariant — against its original vaccine. Both bivalent boosters outperformed the original vaccine booster, according to the company. It was the top story in infectious disease last week.
Another top story was about the efficacy of clinical and cycle threshold value assessments in distinguishing COVID-19 reinfections vs. virus from a previous infection. According to researchers, these assessments failed to identify 33% of genomically supported reinfections.
Read these and more top stories in infectious disease below:
Moderna bivalent COVID-19 booster outperforms original against variants, company says
Moderna said that data from a phase 2/3 trial showed that its bivalent COVID-19 booster shot triggers a higher antibody response against SARS-CoV-2 omicron subvariants than its original vaccine. Read more.
33% of genomically supported COVID-19 reinfections missed by clinical assessments
Although clinical and cycle threshold value assessment can distinguish COVID-19 reinfection from detecting virus from a prior infection, it failed to identify 33% of genomically supported reinfections, according to a recent study. Read more.
‘Serious setback’: New Medicare fee schedule undervalues infectious disease workforce
The 2023 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule does not reflect the important role infectious disease physicians play in safeguarding public health and is a “serious setback” to the ID workforce, the Infectious Diseases Society of America said. Read more.
Report details six cases of nosocomial malaria in French hospitals
Six cases of nosocomial malaria that occurred in French hospitals may be attributed to a failure to adhere to precaution measures, researchers wrote in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Read more.
STI screening, HIV testing lacking among married women
Married women are less likely to receive sexually transmitted disease counseling and HIV testing in the year before a pregnancy compared with unmarried women, according to research presented at IDWeek 2022. Read more.