Infection News

Further research is needed to ‘deconvolute’ the risk of poor COVID-19 vaccine response in patients treated with immunomodulatory drugs, according to a presenter at the Basic and Clinical Immunology for the Busy Clinician symposium.

Despite a growing body of evidence documenting the existence of post-acute COVID-19 syndromes, there remain many more questions than answers, according to data presented at the Basic and Clinical Immunology for the Busy Clinician symposium.

The FDA has revised its emergency use authorization for the monoclonal antibody cocktail Evusheld, doubling its initial dosing for COVID-19 prevention in light of data suggesting it may be less active against certain omicron subvariants.

Treatment with baricitinib reduced mortality in critically ill patients with COVID-19 receiving invasive mechanical ventilation or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, researchers reported in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Lack of antibody response following COVID-19 vaccination is the strongest predictor of breakthrough infection in patients with autoimmune rheumatic disease, according to data published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

At this point in the pandemic, I am once again unsure of what the future will look like, save for two predictions. One (as I have recently been tweeting) is that COVID-19, in some form, will remain an endemic infection and prevalent risk for the immunocompromised.

The FDA authorized the emergency use of bebtelovimab, a monoclonal antibody that retains activity against the omicron variant, for the treatment of COVID-19, according to a press release.

In this episode, Cassandra Calabrese, DO, dual-boarded in infectious disease and rheumatology, walks us through when to suspect Bartonella (it’s not always a house cat!), how to diagnose and how to treat.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has moved from beta to delta to omicron, often with remarkable speed and unpredictable epidemiology, the efficacy of therapeutic approaches has risen and fallen accordingly.

The American College of Rheumatology has updated its COVID-19 vaccine clinical guidance for patients with rheumatic diseases to recommend a fourth mRNA vaccine dose in patients receiving immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory therapy.