This week's top infectious disease stories cover treatment strategies for daptomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium, fluoroquinolone prescribing's link to antimicrobial resistance, the legal standing of the childhood vaccine schedule executive order, and rising vaccine exemption rates alongside declining MMR coverage that's fueling continued measles outbreaks.
Newly released CDC data show childhood immunization rates have steadily declined since 2020, pushing measles vaccination coverage below the threshold needed for herd immunity and leaving an estimated 280,000 kindergartners without documented vaccinations this year. Robert Hopkins Jr, MD, medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID), discusses the latest vaccine data, geographic patterns, and how public health and school officials can address this continued trend.
Fluoroquinolone prescribing emerged as key driver of AMR in multiple pathogens in a 14-year study period at US Veterans Affairs medical centers.
Cases and deaths continue to increase in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but the country's neighbor, Uganda, is declared Ebola-free.
With the news this week that childhood vaccine exemptions were at a historical high, it is important to understand what they are and how they are applied. Pediatrician Sharon Nachman, MD, offers some insights around the ability to forgo vaccines because of exemptions.
As of August 17, federal officials are reporting more than 15, 716 cases, hundreds of hospitalizations, and nearly all US states have been affected.
The latest national numbers shows a decrease in vaccination continues along with a spike in the number of immunization exemptions leading to an increase in the number of cases for vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles.
In the second episode with Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, he touches upon the legal side of the order and how it may affect the childhood vaccine schedule.
FDA has assigned its highest-risk Class I classification to a recall of nearly 19 million eggs linked to a multistate salmonella enteritidis outbreak that has sickened 98 people across 17 states.
Daptomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium bacteremia is an emerging, high-mortality challenge in transplant and other high-risk patients, requiring early recognition, aggressive source control, and reliance on limited alternatives—most notably linezolid—with combination or salvage therapies considered when options are constrained.
This week's infectious disease news spans a broad-spectrum carbapenem review, an expanding jalapeño-linked salmonella recall, the EU approval of Maviret for acute hepatitis C, and clinician backlash against President Trump's executive order reshaping the childhood vaccine schedule.
In the second part of the interview with Sharon Nachman, MD, she touches upon how the administration’s shared clinical decision-making category related to childhood vaccines will affect the hepatitis B and rotavirus vaccines and the expectations there will be subsequent disease increases.
Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, discusses the potentially damaging effects of the rhetoric coming from the presidential executive order including downstream consequences as well as his concerns around the prospective findings of the HHS Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines associated with it.
The presidential executive order changing the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine from a combination to a single-antigen vaccine means children will get more shots not less. Sharon Nachman, MD, offers some insights around the challenges of how the order’s latest changes could affect pediatric vaccine schedules.
The EU recently approved glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (Maviret), an eight-week direct-acting antiviral regimen, which offers people with hepatitis C the fastest treatment option available, giving European health systems a new tool in aiding the World Health Organization's goal of eliminating the virus by 2030.
The FDA has accepted EIT Pharma's new drug application for lonafarnib, an investigational oral therapy for chronic hepatitis D, supported by the phase 3 D-LIVR study, the largest clinical trial conducted to date in the disease.
FDA continues its investigation of a Salmonella outbreak spanning across 27 states, with a recall that has expanded to include products that have jalapeños and sold at major retailers.
President Trump signed an order spacing the timing of immunizations, limiting the number of vaccines, and changing the MMR vaccine by separating it into 3 single-antigen vaccines.
The European Commission has approved glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (Maviret) for acute hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, making it the only therapy approved in the European Union for both acute and chronic HCV and allowing clinicians to test and treat patients at the point of diagnosis. Mudra Kapoor, MD, discusses the phase 3 data and the treatment's potential role for greater HCV elimination.
An estimated 172,000 infants acquired hepatitis B virus through mother-to-child transmission in the WHO African region in 2022, and combining birth-dose vaccination with maternal antiviral prophylaxis could cut this burden by more than 86%. Peyton Thompson, MD, MSCR, discusses the barriers to eliminating vertical transmission of hepatitis B, and strategies to reduce the coverage gap.
Here is a brief clinical overview of the single-agent intravenous carbapenems available in the United States (ertapenem, meropenem, and imipenem-cilastatin) and the recently approved oral carbapenem tebipenem pivoxil.
International study estimates actual and optimal use of WHO AWaRe Access, Watch, and Reserve antibiotic classes in 186 countries and regions.
A food-safety roundup covers a growing multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak including thousands more reported sickened and 2 deaths tied to iceberg lettuce, a Salmonella Javiana outbreak with hundreds of cases across 27 states linked to jalapeño peppers served at Chipotle and QDOBA, and the US suspension of avocado inspections in Michoacan, Mexico.
The FDA has approved Moderna's influenza vaccine and set a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) date for Merck's RSV immunization product for expansion for a second season.
A phylodynamic analysis combining Arizona wild bird surveillance with national sequence data found the H5N1 D1.1 genotype spread in a stepwise pattern among adjacent US flyways during fall 2024, with limited direct exchange between the Pacific and Atlantic flyways.
A serologic study of patients in northwestern Italy found hantavirus antibodies in 7.3% of samples tested, with neutralization data suggesting Puumala virus as the likely infecting strain in a region where rodent-borne viral infections are rarely diagnosed.
A real-world analysis of the OPERA cohort found no HIV infections among 315 women using long-acting cabotegravir for PrEP, despite frequent short delays in maintenance injections, reinforcing the regimen's real-world effectiveness.
Week 96 data from the LATA trial show Cabenuva was superior to daily oral therapy in adolescents with HIV, while new real-world OPERA cohort data reinforce comparable effectiveness in adults, both presented at AIDS 2026.
An oral antiviral candidate blocked airborne and direct-contact transmission of a measles-like virus in ferrets, offering a potential new outbreak-control tool as US measles cases hit a 35-year high.
Atea Pharmaceuticals' bemnifosbuvir/ruzasvir combination met its primary endpoint of noninferiority to sofosbuvir/velpatasvir in the phase 3 C-BEYOND trial, achieving comparable cure rates for hepatitis C with as little as 8 weeks of treatment.
