Respiratory Infections

RSV expert Steven Varga, PhD, describes the failed vaccine trials that paved the way for the world's first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, as well as the innovations still needed to protect vulnerable populations against RSV infection.

The FDA has authorized GSK’s Arexvy (RSVPreF3 +AS01E) prevent lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD) caused by RSV in adults 60 years and older.

An outbreak of the highly infectious measles virus has led American Samoa to declare a public health emergency.

The floods, heat waves, droughts, and other calamities caused by excessive greenhouse gas emissions also make us more vulnerable to ill effects of pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, plants and fungi.

Omicron lineages, and especially BA.5, were determined to have higher reinfection rates and lower disease severity than previously circulating variants of concern.

Two RSV vaccines for seniors have completed phase 3 trials and demonstrated beneficial results. FDA decisions on potential approvals for both could be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Patients who contracted COVID-19 later in the pandemic (2021-2022) were more likely to develop new chronic diseases after infection than patients who caught COVID-19 in 2020.

Anemia is both common and independently associated with poor clinical outcomes in respiratory infections, including COVID-19.

The FDA moved to harmonize primary and booster COVID-19 vaccine doses, deciding only the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent mRNA vaccines should be administered to individuals 6 months and older.

These study findings suggest COVID-19 admission testing may not be necessary in hospitals, as most asymptomatic COVID-19 patients were not infectious.

Moderna announced new mRNA vaccine candidates to combat prevalent viruses, and is even developing their first-ever bacterial vaccine for Lyme disease.

This study of health care access and affordability found adults with long COVID reported more unmet health care needs in the past 12 months.

Can anakinra reduce inflammation and the need for mechanical ventilation in patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia?

This week's most-read stories discussed unforeseen consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including an increase in gastrointestinal diseases and a decrease in childhood asthma diagnoses.

How likely is COVID-19 reinfection? A new study estimates the protection from past COVID-19 infection by variant and time since infection.

Pfizer’s investigational RSV prefusion F protein−based vaccine (RSVpreF) was 81.8% effective at preventing medically attended severe RSV-associated lower respiratory tract illness in infants.

Vilobelimab (Gohibic) was granted Emergency Use Authorization to treat adults hospitalized with severe COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 prevention practices such as masking, social distancing, and school closures lowered children’s exposures to circulating respiratory viruses and other environmental triggers of asthma.

These findings suggest the World Health Organization's definition of post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID) may be too broad.

After assessing the landscape, the company is leaving the adult RSV vaccine market.

Early treatment with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) was associated with the greatest clinical benefit in reducing COVID-19 hospitalization and death.

"Antibiotics can safely be withheld in most patients with viral respiratory infections,” these study authors wrote.

This week's hottest topics included the risks of proton pump inhibitors, rare tickborne disease, HIV vaccination, COVID-19 immunity from a common cold, and hydrocortisone for pneumonia.

March 24 is World Tuberculosis Day. Here’s a brief history of the second deadliest infectious disease, and how it affects the world today.

On this day of commemoration, The Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute has multiple TB therapies and a prophylactic vaccine in development, and its Chief Medical Officer Michael W. Dunne, MD, remains optimistic long-term about the state of clinical care, especially in areas of dire need such as low-and-middle-income countries.