Top in ID: Paxlovid does not reduce long COVID risk; oral antibiotics safe in transplants

Paxlovid, an oral antiviral approved by the FDA in May 2023, did not reduce the risk for long COVID among vaccinated, nonhospitalized patients who received it within a month of their first SARS-CoV-2 infection, a study showed.

Researchers found that the risk for long COVID was similar between those who received Paxlovid and those who did not.

“We were surprised,” Matthew S. Durstenfeld, MD, MAS, a cardiologist and assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told Healio. “We expected that Paxlovid would prevent long COVID and that those who experienced rebound would be more likely to later develop long COVID.”

It was the top story in infectious disease last week.

In another top story, patients given IV and oral antibiotics had similar rates of mortality, bacteremia recurrence and reinitiation of IV antibiotics, researchers found.

“Our study suggests that transition to oral therapy for treatment of uncomplicated gram-negative bacteremia in solid organ transplant recipients is safe, effective and associated with fewer treatment-related adverse effects compared with continued IV therapy,” Eliezer Z. Nussbaum, MD, an infectious diseases physician at Tufts Medical Center, told Healio.

Read these and more top stories in infectious disease below:

Paxlovid may not reduce risk for long COVID, study shows

Paxlovid did not reduce the risk for long COVID among vaccinated, nonhospitalized people who received it within a month of their first SARS-CoV-2 infection, a study showed. Read more.

Oral antibiotics safe, effective for transplant recipients with gram-negative bacteremia

Transitioning organ transplant recipients to oral antibiotic therapy for the treatment of uncomplicated gram-negative bacteremia is effective and associated with fewer adverse events compared with continued IV therapy, researchers found. Read more.

Wastewater can detect mpox, especially as cases increase

Wastewater surveillance can detect a single mpox case in large samples representing thousands to millions of people, and its effectiveness increases as the number of cases grows, according to a study. Read more.

Outpatient C. difficile may be more common than thought, study results indicate

California hospitals detected a high incidence of Clostridioides difficile infection among outpatients treated for diarrhea despite a low rate of testing, suggesting that outpatient C. difficile may be underdiagnosed, researchers said. Read more.

Scaling up HCV testing, treatment in prisons highly cost-effective

Scaling up hepatitis C testing and treatment in prisons effectively reduced HCV incidence and was a cost-effective option compared with existing services, data from a study in Australian prisons showed. Read more.