Infection

The number of global measles cases nearly doubled in 1 year after a decline in vaccine coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to experts.

A CDC investigator described how Colorado was able to prevent a measles outbreak after identifying an infected traveler who passed through the Denver airport, a children’s hospital and a community gathering while infectious.

HOUSTON — Natural language processing could reduce the need for manual chart reviews to determine a patient’s risk for carrying or being infected with multidrug-resistant organisms, according to a study.

Older patients with respiratory syncytial virus have higher complication rates than those with influenza, although both illnesses had comparable mortality rates, researchers found.

HOUSTON — Using social network analysis, researchers were able to show how health care facilities in Colorado are connected by patient transfers, which allowed them to identify potential outbreak origins.

The American Association of Kidney Patients has given Barry Smith, PhD, MD, president of Dreyfus Health Policy and Research Center, its 2024 medal of excellence award.

Replacing contaminated sinks did not end an outbreak of multidrug-resistant bacteria in a Japanese pediatric ward but other infection prevention measures did, such as forbidding mouth-washing using sink water, researchers reported.

Patients with long COVID showed no difference in fatigue after exercise vs. those without long COVID, nor did their symptoms significantly worsen, suggesting that “cautious exercise” could help rehabilitation, a randomized study showed.

Vagus nerve stimulation surgeries were relatively safe, with complication rates low but differing depending on the type of procedure and presence of complications, researchers reported in Brain and Spine.

A task force supported by the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society recently published the first guidance for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in children in the vaccine era.