Category: Emerging Infectious Diseases
U.S. government to test Pfizer’s Paxlovid for long COVID
(Reuters) The U.S. National Institutes of Health’s $1 billion RECOVER Initiative has picked Pfizer Inc’s (PFE.N) antiviral drug Paxlovid as the first treatment it will study in patients with long COVID, organizers of the study said on Thursday. The complex medical condition involves more than 200 symptoms ranging from exhaustion and cognitive impairment to pain, fever and […]
Oct 28, 2022
HIV Coinfection in Over 80% of Hospitalized Monkeypox Cases
(MedPageToday) In a cohort of patients hospitalized for monkeypox, four out of five had HIV and one in five died, CDC researchers said. Of the 57 adults hospitalized due to serious complications from monkeypox, 82.5% had HIV and 8.5% were receiving antiretroviral therapy, reported Maureen Miller, MD, of the CDC’s Monkeypox Emergency Response Team, and […]
Oct 28, 2022
Recurrence of Symptoms Following a 2-Day Symptom Free Period in Patients With COVID-19
(JAMA) Recurrence of symptoms after finishing treatment for COVID-19 with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) has become increasingly recognized.1–3 The biological underpinning of this phenomenon is unclear, and its etiology may be multifactorial, including rapid clearance of nirmatrelvir coupled with delayed immune responses or possible development of drug resistance.1–3 The contribution of treatment to symptom rebound needs to be differentiated […]
Oct 28, 2022
Why isn’t there an RSV vaccine for kids?
(NBC News) A failed clinical trial in the late ’60s pushed the development of an RSV vaccine back decades Cases of RSV continue to surge in the U.S., but a vaccine to protect young children against the respiratory virus remains a long ways off. RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is the most common cause of […]
Oct 27, 2022
Vaccine Candidates for RSV Ward Off Severe Illness in Older Adults
(MedPageToday) Prefusion F protein vaccine candidates for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) proved safe in adults 60 and up while demonstrating an ability to thwart lower respiratory tract illness, including severe cases, a pair of large phase III trials showed. A single dose of an RSV prefusion F protein vaccine (RSVPreF3 OA) yielded a vaccine efficacy […]
Oct 27, 2022
It’s a Bad Time to Be a Booster Slacker
(The Atlantic) And just like that, with the passing of Labor Day, fall was upon us. Seemingly overnight, six-packs of pumpkin beer materialized on grocery shelves, hordes of city dwellers descended upon apple orchards—and America rolled out new COVID boosters. The timing wasn’t a coincidence. Since the beginning of the pandemic, cases in North America […]
Oct 27, 2022
Neurologic, neurocognitive symptoms of COVID-19 persist for 1 year after diagnosis
(Healio Neurology) Persistent neurocognitive impairment, depression and anxiety were frequently reported in individuals with mild COVID-19 infection in Lima, Peru, according to a poster at ANA 2022. “Given the fact that this population has a different background, different culture and socioeconomic status, the outcomes aren’t necessarily going to be the same as those from high-income […]
Oct 27, 2022
(CBS News) A Virginia high school will remain open even as hundreds of students continue to stay home because of flu-like illnesses. Stafford High School, located in Fredericksburg, Virginia, had a “high number of student and staff illnesses” reported last week, prompting the school to shut down all activities and athletics scheduled from Friday through […]
Oct 25, 2022
Cardiovascular disease and mortality sequelae of COVID-19 in the UK Biobank
(BMJ) Objective To examine association of COVID-19 with incident cardiovascular events in 17 871 UK Biobank cases between March 2020 and 2021. Methods COVID-19 cases were defined using health record linkage. Each case was propensity score-matched to two uninfected controls on age, sex, deprivation, body mass index, ethnicity, diabetes, prevalent ischaemic heart disease (IHD), smoking, hypertension and high […]
Oct 25, 2022
People who caught mild Covid had increased risk of blood clots, British study finds
(NBC) Patients with mild Covid, defined as those not hospitalized, were 2.7 times more likely to develop blood clots, according to the study published in the British Medical Journal on Monday. Patients hospitalized with Covid were 27 times more likely to develop blood clots, 21 times more likely to suffer heart failure and 17 times […]
Oct 25, 2022