Browse Infectious Disease Articles by Topic

Fidaxomicin Is More Clinically Effective than Vancomycin for C. difficile Infection

There is a lack of real-world data on using fidaxomicin for Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). A retrospective, single-center study found that treatment of CDI with fidaxomicin leads to reduced clinical failure compared to oral vancomycin.

Infectious Disease Updates

Eradication of Polio Around the World; Candida auris in Dialysis Facilities: How Great Is the Risk?

Community-Acquired Pneumonia Guidelines: Updates and Disputes

An update of elements of community-acquired pneumonia guidelines have been published. Of note is that these were not endorsed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America because of disagreement over recommendations for empiric antibiotic administration to some patient subsets with positive tests for respiratory viral infection.

Aluminum-Adsorbed Vaccines and Chronic Diseases in Children

A large Danish cohort study of 1.2 million children found no association between cumulative aluminum exposure from childhood vaccines and increased risk for autoimmune, atopic/allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders, adding to nearly a century of safety data for aluminum adjuvants, although the study’s findings have been the subject of public debate about interpretation of secondary analyses.

Routine Boosting Against Tetanus and Diphtheria in Adults: A Time to Reconsider

Slifka and colleagues make a strong argument against the routine booster vaccination of adults against tetanus and diphtheria as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Health and Economic Burden of Long COVID in the United States

Researchers using a computational simulation model found that the current health and economic burden of long COVID already exceeds the cost of several chronic diseases and will continue to grow as COVID-19 cases increase.

Influenza and Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy in Children

Of 41 U.S. pediatric patients with influenza-associated acute necrotizing encephalitis, 56% were female, the median age was 5 years, and 12% had underlying complex medical conditions. Influenza A accounted for 95% of cases. Despite the use of a variety of immunomodulating agents, 27% of these children died, and 63% of the survivors were left with at least moderate disability.

Do Gowns Help Prevent Transmission of Respiratory Viruses?

The authors examined various studies to look at the effectiveness of different kinds of gowns and materials in preventing viral infections. The results were mixed, with most studies demonstrating no good evidence that gowning helps in this regard.

Examining Fecal Microbiota Transplant for Primary C. difficile Infection

In a randomized controlled trial conducted in Norway, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) was noninferior to vancomycin for the treatment of primary Clostridioides difficile infection, with 66.7% of patients in the FMT group achieving clinical cure without recurrence compared to 61.2% in the vancomycin group over 60 days of follow-up.

Lenacapavir Injection and Tablets (Yeztugo)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved lenacapavir, a potent, first-in-class, capsid inhibitor, for reducing the risk of sexually acquired human immunodeficiency virus type 1.