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Healthy Lifestyle Can Offset Effects Of Life-Shortening Genes By More Than 60%, Results Show

HealthDay (4/30, Thompson) reports, “A healthy lifestyle can offset the effects of life-shortening genes by more than 60%,” according to researchers who “analyzed data drawn from nearly 354,000 people participating in the UK Biobank genetics and health study” and found that “people at high genetic risk of a curtailed lifespan could extend their life expectancy by nearly 5.5 years if they’ve adopted a healthy lifestyle by age 40.” The findings were published in BMJ Evidence Based Medicine.

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Investigational Antibiotic Noninferior To Dual Therapy For Treatment Of Uncomplicated Urogenital Gonorrhea, Late-Stage Results Show

MedPage Today (4/30, Kahn) reports investigational antibiotic gepotidacin “proved noninferior to dual therapy for the treatment of uncomplicated urogenital gonorrhea, according to results of the phase III EAGLE-1 trial.” Results presented during the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Global Congress show “the microbiological success rate was 92.6% with oral gepotidacin compared with 91.2% with ceftriaxone plus oral azithromycin.”

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Scientists Reportedly Dumbfounded By New Findings About How H5N1 Affects Cattle

STAT (4/30, Branswell, Molteni, Subscription Publication) reports that scientists are “dumbfounded” by the recent finding of the H5N1 bird flu virus in dairy cattle, specifically how the virus infects bovine mammary glands. This presents a new set of scientific challenges, as the usual transmission patterns seen in birds might not apply in cattle. The primary concern is the spread within milking parlors where the virus seems to easily transmit among cows due to shared milking equipment.

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FDA Says 1 In 5 Pasteurized Milk Samples Contained Avian Flu Fragments

NBC News (4/25, Lovelace) reports, “The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that traces of the bird flu virus have been found in 1 in 5 samples of pasteurized milk, providing a more detailed picture of how much of the milk supply has been impacted.” As of Thursday, avian “flu has been detected in 33 herds in eight states: Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, South Dakota, Ohio and Texas.” As a result of the positive tests, the US Department of Agriculture has issued “a federal order mandating that all dairy cows be tested for bird flu before being transported between states.”

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Majority Of Pregnant Individuals Likely To Receive Maternal RSV Vaccine, Survey Finds

MedPage Today (4/25, Kahn) reports, “A majority of pregnant individuals or those trying to become pregnant were interested in getting a maternal respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine once it became available, a nationwide survey found.” In the poll, 54% of respondents “said they were ‘very likely’ to get an RSV vaccine during pregnancy...reported” researchers in Pediatrics. Healio (4/25, Weldon) reports this figure “rose to 63% if they reported perceiving RSV infection as serious and likely. Among those who felt RSV infection was not serious, only 35% planned to get vaccinated.”

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Serologic Screening Rates For Coccidioides In Endemic US Regions Low Among Patients With Autoimmune/Rheumatic Diseases, Study Finds

Rheumatology Advisor (4/25, Goldberg) reports, “Rates of serologic screening for Coccidioides in areas endemic for the fungus were low among individuals with autoimmune/rheumatic diseases initiating treatment with biologic/targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs), conventional synthetic (cs) DMARDs, and noninhaled corticosteroids, according to study findings published in ACR Open Rheumatology.” The study found that “in the year before prescription initiation, screening rates for Coccidioides were undetected in Texas and negligible in California, corresponding to 2.8% (95% CI, 0.0-6.7) for b/tsDMARDs, 1.0% (95% CI, 0.0-2.0) for csDMARDs, and 0.8% (95% CI, 0.4-1.1) for corticosteroids.”

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Antibiotic Stewardship Program Reduced Overuse Of Extended-Spectrum Antibiotics For Patients Hospitalized With UTI, Study Finds

Renal & Urology News (4/25, Persaud) reports, “An antibiotic stewardship program involving individualized risk assessment and electronic health record prompts led to successful de-escalation of extended-spectrum antibiotics in favor of standard-spectrum antibiotics for patients hospitalized with urinary tract infection (UTI) deemed at less than 10% risk (‘low-risk’) for multidrug-resistant organisms.” In the study, “the intervention group experienced a significant 17.4% reduction in the number of days on empiric extended-spectrum antibiotics compared with the routine stewardship group...reported” researchers in JAMA.

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USDA Orders Dairy Cows Moving Across State Lines Be Tested For Avian Flu

The New York Times (4/24, Weiland, Mueller, Anthes) reports, “The Biden administration on Wednesday said that it would begin requiring dairy cows moving across state lines to be tested for bird flu, which has been spreading in herds for months.” The new measure, ordered by the USDA, “is part of a growing effort to stamp out the spread of a virus that federal health officials have sought to reassure Americans poses little risk to people so far.” CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah, MD, “told reporters on Wednesday that there were no changes in the genetic makeup of the virus that would allow it to spread easily among people. So far, Dr. Shah said, states have been monitoring 44 people who were exposed to the virus and are being monitored for infection.” The Washington Post (4/24, Nirappil, Sun) reports, “Biden administration officials said the move is meant to contain transmission of the virus known as H5N1 and to reduce the threat to livestock, but they maintained that the risk to humans remains low.” The spread of the disease “has drawn public health concerns because it marks the first time bird flu has moved to cows, and greater transmission in mammals increases the risk that the virus could spread more easily in humans.” The AP (4/24, Aleccia) reports, “The federal order was announced a day after health officials said they had detected inactivated remnants of the virus, known as Type A H5N1, in samples taken from milk during processing and after retail sale. They stressed that such remnants pose no known risk to people or the milk supply.” Reuters (4/24, Polansek, Steenhuysen) also reports.

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HIV Incidence Low Among Women With High PrEP Adherence, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (4/24, Nye) reports, “The incidence of HIV infection is very low among women who maintain consistently high levels of adherence to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with emtricitabine (FTC) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF), according to findings published in JAMA.” In the study, “compared with patients aged 25 years and older, those younger than 25 were less likely to exhibit consistently high adherence to daily PrEP, consistently high adherence to 4 to 6 weekly doses, or dynamic adherence.”

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COVID-19 Vaccines Tied To Higher Risk Of Myocarditis/Pericarditis, Seizures Among Children, Data Suggest

MedPage Today (4/24, Kahn) reports, “Only myocarditis/pericarditis and seizures occurred at higher rates in adolescents and children vaccinated for COVID-19 when compared with historical rates of those outcomes, according to an analysis of safety data from the FDA’s Biologics Effectiveness and Safety (BEST) Initiative.” Data “revealed that myocarditis or pericarditis occurred at higher rates than before the vaccines were introduced among 12- to 17-year-olds after receiving the original monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 (Comirnaty) vaccine...reported” researchers in JAMA Network Open. Additionally, they “detected a statistical signal for seizures after vaccination with the BNT162b2 vaccine among children ages 2 to 4 years and with the Moderna mRNA-1273 (Spikevax) vaccine among children ages 2 to 5 years.”

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Community Notes On X Debunk COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation, Study Finds

MedPage Today (4/24, Robertson) reports, “The Community Notes feature, an open-source misinformation countermeasure introduced to X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, was successful in correcting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in viral posts, a study suggested.” In “205 randomly sampled Community Notes on posts mentioning COVID vaccination, 97% were entirely accurate, 2% were partially accurate, and 0.5% were inaccurate, reported” researchers. The majority of these “notes cited high or moderate credibility sources (49% and 44%, respectively), while 7% cited low credibility sources, they detailed in a research letter published in JAMA.”

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Republic Of Congo Declares Mpox Epidemic

Reuters (4/24, Bouka) reports, “Republic of the Congo has declared an epidemic of mpox after 19 cases were confirmed across five departments, including the capital Brazzaville.” So far, “no deaths have yet been recorded, Health Minister Gilbert Mokoki said in a statement on Tuesday. He called on the public to take precautions including avoiding close contact with suspected cases, avoiding contact with animals and avoiding handling game meat with bare hands.”

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mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Boost Mucosal Immunity In Previously Infected People More Than People Who Were Never Infected, Study Finds

MedPage Today (4/23, Kahn) reports, “COVID-19 mRNA vaccines stimulated mucosal immunity in people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, but generated only a tiny amount of immunity in people who had never been infected, according to a cohort study using data from the French CoviCompare trials.” Among those “who received the Moderna mRNA-1273 (Spikevax) vaccine in early to mid 2021, SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific saliva IgA levels were significantly higher in those with previous infection compared with the most responsive SARS-CoV-2-naive participants at day 180 (P<0.001), reported” researchers in JAMA Network Open.

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Researchers Say Long-Term Taste Loss After COVID-19 Likely Tied To Olfactory Epithelium Damage, Not Taste Buds

MedPage Today (4/23, George) reports, “Taste dysfunction was gone 1 year after exposure to COVID-19, but smell loss remained for some people, a national cross-sectional study showed.” Specifically, “olfactory dysfunction was present in 30.3% of individuals with prior COVID-19 compared with 21% of those who had no history of COVID infection...noted” researchers in JAMA Network Open. As a result, “long-term taste loss after COVID may reflect damage to olfactory epithelium, not taste buds, the researchers suggested.”

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Applying Neomycin Ointment In The Nose Might Protect Against Invading Respiratory Viruses, Study Finds

HealthDay (4/23, Thompson) reports, “A fingerful of Neosporin antibiotic swabbed inside your nose might help you fight off a range of invading respiratory viruses, a new study claims.” Neomycin “ointment triggered a swift immune response from genes in the human nose that serve as a first line of defense against invading viruses,” including flu and COVID-19, “researchers reported April 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.”

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AI Model Accurately Predicts HIV Incidence Among Patients With STIs, Study Finds

Infectious Disease Advisor (4/23, Nye) reports, “A machine learning model was found to predict incident HIV infection in patients with sexually transmitted infections (STIs) with a high degree of accuracy, indicating the potential use of such models toward the development of tailored interventions for HIV prevention. These findings were published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.” In the study, “overall, the model was associated with high rates of precision and recall in both men and women (80% and 78% vs 80% and 81%, respectively).”

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Ending Universal Masking, Admission Testing Tied To Increase In Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections, Researchers Find

Healio (4/23, Stulpin) reports, “Ending universal masking and admission testing of all hospitalized patients was associated with an increase in hospital-onset COVID-19 at five Massachusetts hospitals, researchers found.” According to the study, “the mean weekly ratio of new hospital-onset to community-onset SARS-CoV-2 infections rose from 2.6% before omicron, to 8.5% (95% CI, 7%-9.9%) during omicron, to 17% (95% CI, 15%-19%) after universal admission testing and masking ended.” These results were presented at the 2024 Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Spring Conference.

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Study Indicates Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Quickly Identifies Clinically Significant Pathogens In Patients With Lower Respiratory Tract Infections

Infectious Disease Advisor (4/22, Nye) reports, “Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) rapidly detects pathogens of clinical significance among patients with lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI), demonstrating its supplementary value in diagnosis and treatment decisions in clinical practice.” These research findings were published in Infection. Infectious Disease Advisor adds, “To assess whether mNGS has clinical utility in the treatment and diagnosis of LRTIs, researchers conducted a retrospective study using data captured from patients (N=201) with suspected LRTIs at Jinling Hospital in China between 2021 and 2022.”

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Adults With HIV Or TB Frequently Experience Adrenal Insufficiency, Systemic Review And Meta-Analysis Indicates

Infectious Disease Advisor (4/22, Nye) reports, “Adults infected with HIV or tuberculosis (TB) commonly experience adrenal insufficiency, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.” Infectious Disease Advisor adds that “researchers at Uganda Martyrs Hospital Lubaga and Makerere University Kampala in Uganda” carried out that research to evaluate “the prevalence, significant clinical features, and predictors of adrenal insufficiency in adult patients infected with HIV or TB.”

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Inappropriate Diagnosis Of Community-Acquired Pneumonia Is Common Among Hospitalized Adults, Study Finds

Pulmonology Advisor (4/22, Goldberg) reports, “Inappropriate diagnosis of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is common among hospitalized adults, particularly those who are older and those presenting with altered mental status or dementia, according to study findings.” Researchers came to this conclusion after conducting “a prospective cohort study from July 2017 through March 2020 across 48 hospitals in Michigan, retrospectively evaluating hospitalized patients treated for CAP using medical records and patient telephone calls.” The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Internal Medicine.

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Healthy Lifestyle Can Offset Effects Of Life-Shortening Genes By More Than 60%, Results Show

Investigational Antibiotic Noninferior To Dual Therapy For Treatment Of Uncomplicated Urogenital Gonorrhea, Late-Stage Results Show

Scientists Reportedly Dumbfounded By New Findings About How H5N1 Affects Cattle

FDA Says 1 In 5 Pasteurized Milk Samples Contained Avian Flu Fragments

Majority Of Pregnant Individuals Likely To Receive Maternal RSV Vaccine, Survey Finds

Serologic Screening Rates For Coccidioides In Endemic US Regions Low Among Patients With Autoimmune/Rheumatic Diseases, Study Finds

Antibiotic Stewardship Program Reduced Overuse Of Extended-Spectrum Antibiotics For Patients Hospitalized With UTI, Study Finds

USDA Orders Dairy Cows Moving Across State Lines Be Tested For Avian Flu

HIV Incidence Low Among Women With High PrEP Adherence, Study Finds

COVID-19 Vaccines Tied To Higher Risk Of Myocarditis/Pericarditis, Seizures Among Children, Data Suggest

Community Notes On X Debunk COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation, Study Finds

Republic Of Congo Declares Mpox Epidemic

mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Boost Mucosal Immunity In Previously Infected People More Than People Who Were Never Infected, Study Finds

Researchers Say Long-Term Taste Loss After COVID-19 Likely Tied To Olfactory Epithelium Damage, Not Taste Buds

Applying Neomycin Ointment In The Nose Might Protect Against Invading Respiratory Viruses, Study Finds

AI Model Accurately Predicts HIV Incidence Among Patients With STIs, Study Finds

Ending Universal Masking, Admission Testing Tied To Increase In Hospital-Onset COVID-19 Infections, Researchers Find

Study Indicates Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Quickly Identifies Clinically Significant Pathogens In Patients With Lower Respiratory Tract Infections

Adults With HIV Or TB Frequently Experience Adrenal Insufficiency, Systemic Review And Meta-Analysis Indicates

Inappropriate Diagnosis Of Community-Acquired Pneumonia Is Common Among Hospitalized Adults, Study Finds