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Pathologist Aims to Boost Interest in Laboratory Medicine in African Country that Desperately Needs It

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Waste Management Plus One

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Study of the diagnostic efficiency of anti-ZnT8 autoantibodies for type 1 diabetes in pediatric patients

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WHO Chief Says Risk To Public From H5N1 Remains Low

Reuters (6/12, Tétrault-Farber) reports, “The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the risk to public health from the avian influenza A (H5N1) virus remained low despite its spread among dairy cattle in the United States.” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus “said the virus had not shown signs of having acquired the ability to spread easily among humans, with 893 human cases reported since 2003.” He added, “That remains the case, which is why at this time, WHO continues to assess the risk to public health as low.”

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Sotrovimab Effective At Preventing Severe COVID-19 Outcomes During Omicron Period, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (6/12, Kuhns) reports, “Sotrovimab was found to be continuously effective in preventing severe clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19 infection during the periods of Omicron BA.2 and BA.5 subvariant predominance, according to study results published in Infection.” In the study, “compared with no monoclonal antibody treatment, sotrovimab recipients exhibited lower risks in both March 2022 (adjusted relative risk [aRR], 0.36; 95% CI, 0.23-0.56; P <.001) and April 2022 (aRR, 0.32; 95% CI, 0.04-2.38; P =.0519). The risk for progression to severe, critical, or fatal COVID-19 infection was also lower among high-risk patients who received sotrovimab during the Omicron period (adjusted odds ratio, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.16-4.89).”

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Two-Drug Dolutegravir-Based Antiretroviral Therapy Associated With High Rates Of Virologic Suppression Among Patients With HIV Infection, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (6/12, Nye) reports, “Two-drug dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy was associated with high rates of virologic suppression among patients with HIV infection in real-world settings.” Additionally, “the selection of DTG-based ART by treating clinicians is primarily driven by a desire to avoid long-term toxicities. These study results were published in Infectious Diseases and Therapy.”

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CDC Tracking Cases Of Drug-Resistant “Dual Mutant” H1N1 Influenza

CBS News (6/12, Tin) reports, “At least two human cases of the new so-called ‘dual mutant’ strains of H1N1 influenza have been detected in U.S. patients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday, with genetic changes that could cut the effectiveness of the main flu antiviral that hospitals rely on.” A study investigating “the new H1N1 flu viruses with these two concerning mutations – which scientists call I223V and S247N, describing changes to key surface proteins of the virus – was published this week in the agency’s Emerging Infectious Diseases journal.”

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South Africa Records First Mpox Death

Reuters (6/12, Anders) reports, “A 37-year-old man has become South Africa’s first recorded death from mpox after five laboratory-confirmed cases of the viral infection were recorded in the past month, the health minister” Joe Phaahla “said on Wednesday.” He “said all of South Africa’s mpox cases were in men aged between 30 and 39 years old without travel history to countries currently experiencing an outbreak, which suggests local transmission of the infectious disease.” Genomic “sequencing of three of the cases found the strain mpox clade IIb, which began to spread globally in 2022.”

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Moderna’s COVID-19/Influenza Combination Vaccine Superior To Separate Shots In Trial

Reuters (6/10, Wingrove) reports Moderna announced “on Monday its combination vaccine to protect against both COVID-19 and influenza generated a stronger immune response in adults aged 50 and over when compared to separate shots against the viruses in a late-stage trial.” In the trial, “the combination using messenger RNA technology generated greater antibodies than currently marketed traditional flu vaccines and Moderna’s Spikevax mRNA COVID shot, the company said.” CNN (6/10, Christensen) reports, “Moderna’s Phase 3 trial was a randomized, observer-blind, active control study, meaning that even the clinicians giving the shots didn’t know who got which vaccines. The trial studied the vaccine in two different age groups” – those 65 and older, and those between 50 and 65 – “with about 4,000 adults in each age category.” ABC News (6/10, Benadjaoud) reports, “There are still multiple steps required before the shot would become available. Moderna would need to apply to the FDA for approval, which may require input from the FDA’s independent panel of experts.” And the CDC would have to sign off before it could be distributed.

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Barriers To Widespread H5N1 Avian Flu Testing Remain

NBC News (6/10, Maxmen, Allen) reports, “To become a pandemic, the H5N1 bird flu virus would need to spread from person to person. The best way to keep tabs on that possibility is by testing people.” Although “many diagnostic laboratories could detect the virus,” hurdles such as “red tape, billing issues, and minimal investment” could impede efforts “to quickly ramping up widespread availability of testing.” Right now, “the Food and Drug Administration has authorized only the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s bird flu test, which is used only for people who work closely with livestock.” So far, three human cases have been confirmed in dairy workers, but “researchers agree that number is an undercount given the CDC has tested only about 40 people for the disease.”

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HIV, HCV Testing Rates Suboptimal In Hospitalized Patients Who Use Drugs, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (6/10, McSwiggin) reports, “Patients who use drugs need more opportunities for HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) testing, as testing rates for these conditions during inpatient encounters are suboptimal among this population.” In the study, “across all sites, the mean rate of HIV and HCV antibody screening was 40% and 32%, respectively. The researchers noted widespread heterogeneity in the rate of testing for both HIV infection (SD, 23%) and HCV infection (SD, 15%).” These findings were published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

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Active C. Auris Screening Strategy Reduced Healthcare-Associated Transmission, Study Finds

Healio (6/10, Stulpin) reports, “An active screening strategy meant to rapidly identify patients with Candida auris and isolate them to reduce the risk of transmission successfully helped reduced transmission within a health care facility.” In the study, “over a 21-month time frame, 3,508 high risk patients were tested, with 2.7% of these patients testing positive for C. auris.” The results were presented at the APIC 2024 meeting.

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Cases Of Tick-Borne Babesiosis On The Rise

NPR (6/10, Aubrey) reports, “The first case of babesiosis in the U.S. was identified on Nantucket Island in 1969. The tick-borne parasitic disease is endemic in New England, and as deer ticks expand their range it’s now found from Virginia to Maine as well as the upper Midwest, from Michigan to Minnesota.” Cases have risen significantly over the past decade, according to the CDC. Treatments include “a seven to 10 days course of an antibiotic, azithromycin combined with atovaquone, which are both prescription medications. But, sometimes, this isn’t enough to kill off the parasite, and there’s a risk of relapse.” Researchers are investigating anti-malarial tafenoquine as a possible treatment.

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Hypertension, Dyslipidemia Among Patients With HIV On ART Associated With Use Of INSTIs Or Tenofovir Alafenamide, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (6/10, Nye) reports, “In patients with HIV infection on antiretroviral therapy, associations were observed between gain, the concurrent or separate use of integrase strand transfer inhibitors [INSTIs] or tenofovir alafenamide, and incident hypertension and dyslipidemia risk.” In the study, “dyslipidemia incidence was higher among patients on INSTIs with TAF, INSTIs without TAF, or TAF without INSTIs (IR, 161, 139, and 157 per 1000 person-years, respectively) than in those on ART regimens without INSTIs or TAF (IR, 129 per 1000 person-years).” Meanwhile, “hypertension risk was associated with the use of INSTIs with TAF (adjusted IRR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.31-1.68), TAF without INSTIs (aIRR, 1.33; 95% CI, 1.14-1.55), and INSTIs without TAF (aIRR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.13-1.39).” These results were published in The Lancet HIV.

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Physicians Warn Against Overreliance On Burgeoning Industry Of At-Home Tests

The Washington Post (6/9, A1, Dwoskin, Gilbert, Hunter) reports, “A new world of DIY testing is changing the relationship between physicians and patients, allowing people...to bypass the doctors office and take medical tests on their own.” Startups “now offer tests for a battery of conditions including menopause, food sensitivity, thyroid function, testosterone levels, ADHD and sexually-transmitted diseases.” However, “the boom angers some doctors, who argue that circumventing their offices can lead to questionable remedies, misdiagnosis or delayed medical care.”

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CDC Data Indicate KP.3 COVID-19 Variant Rising To Dominance In US

USA Today (6/8, Forbes) reported, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows that a new COVID variant, the KP.3 variant, is rising to dominance across the United States.” Over “the two-week period starting on May 26 and ending on June 8, the government agency data shows that KP.3 accounts for 25% of COVID cases in the U.S. and is now the dominant variant,” knocking “down previous frontrunner, the JN.1 variant, which spread globally last winter, and now makes up 22.5% of cases.”

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CDC Says Bird Flu Strain Found In Texas Killed Ferrets Used To Mimic Disease In Humans

Reuters (6/7, Lapid) reported the H5N1 avian flu virus strain that infected a Texas dairy farm worker in March “was lethal to ferrets in experiments designed to mimic the disease in humans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Friday.” The strain, found in Texas, “spread easily among healthy ferrets when they were placed in direct contact with infected ferrets, the researchers found.” However, the virus “was less efficient than other influenza strains at spreading by respiratory droplets.”

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FDA Expands Approval Of GSK’s RSV Vaccine To Adults 50 To 59

Reuters (6/7, Roy, Santhosh, Singh) reported, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the expanded use of GSK’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine on Friday in adults aged between 50 and 59, making it the first shot endorsed for that age group.” GSK’s vaccine, Arexvy, “and vaccines from rivals Pfizer and Moderna are already approved for people aged 60 and older for the virus,” but “Arexvy has dominated the U.S. RSV vaccine market since its launch last year.” The CDC “is yet to sign off on the use of GSK’s vaccine in the expanded patient population. CDC’s panel of independent experts will convene between June 26 to 28.”

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Many Immigrant Communities At Risk Of Vaccine-Preventable Disease Outbreaks Due To Low Vaccination Coverage, Study Finds

Healio (6/7, Weldon) reported, “Many immigrant communities are at risk for outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases because of low and declining vaccination coverage, according to findings published in Pediatrics.” In the study, “vaccine coverage at 36 months with one or more MMR doses ranged from 41% among children born to a parent from Ukraine to 93.2% for children born to a parent from Mexico, compared with 85.6% among children with two U.S.-born parents.”

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Federal Data Indicate Whooping Cough Cases In 2024 Have Doubled Year-Over-Year

The Washington Post (6/6, Johnson, Malhi) reports, “Whooping cough, a bacterial illness that poses an especially significant threat to infants, is surging in the United States – another potential legacy of the coronavirus pandemic.” Federal trackers “report that during the first five months of this year, about 5,000 whooping cough cases were reported, more than double the number for the same period last year.” At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, “when people feared being exposed to the coronavirus in a doctor’s office, some children may have missed vaccination appointments, leaving them vulnerable to future infections.”

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Pathologist Aims to Boost Interest in Laboratory Medicine in African Country that Desperately Needs It

Waste Management Plus One

Study of the diagnostic efficiency of anti-ZnT8 autoantibodies for type 1 diabetes in pediatric patients

WHO Chief Says Risk To Public From H5N1 Remains Low

Sotrovimab Effective At Preventing Severe COVID-19 Outcomes During Omicron Period, Study Finds

Two-Drug Dolutegravir-Based Antiretroviral Therapy Associated With High Rates Of Virologic Suppression Among Patients With HIV Infection, Study Finds

CDC Tracking Cases Of Drug-Resistant “Dual Mutant” H1N1 Influenza

South Africa Records First Mpox Death

Moderna’s COVID-19/Influenza Combination Vaccine Superior To Separate Shots In Trial

Barriers To Widespread H5N1 Avian Flu Testing Remain

HIV, HCV Testing Rates Suboptimal In Hospitalized Patients Who Use Drugs, Study Finds

Active C. Auris Screening Strategy Reduced Healthcare-Associated Transmission, Study Finds

Cases Of Tick-Borne Babesiosis On The Rise

Hypertension, Dyslipidemia Among Patients With HIV On ART Associated With Use Of INSTIs Or Tenofovir Alafenamide, Study Finds

Physicians Warn Against Overreliance On Burgeoning Industry Of At-Home Tests

CDC Data Indicate KP.3 COVID-19 Variant Rising To Dominance In US

CDC Says Bird Flu Strain Found In Texas Killed Ferrets Used To Mimic Disease In Humans

FDA Expands Approval Of GSK’s RSV Vaccine To Adults 50 To 59

Many Immigrant Communities At Risk Of Vaccine-Preventable Disease Outbreaks Due To Low Vaccination Coverage, Study Finds

Federal Data Indicate Whooping Cough Cases In 2024 Have Doubled Year-Over-Year