Long COVID, C diff, Candida auris: This Week's Infectious Disease Stories to Watch

In an ECOSPOR III analysis, all-cause hospitalization by week 4 fell to 3.4% with fecal microbiota spores vs 16.1% with placebo in recurrent C difficile infection.

In the phase 2 RePreve trial, Lumen Bioscience’s investigational oral biologic LMN-201 plus standard antibiotics achieved global cure in 83.3% of patients with C difficile infection vs 36.4% with placebo, and cut recurrence sixfold (9.1% vs 55.6%) with no drug-related serious adverse events.

Alejandra Gurtman, MD, discussed the phase 2 data at IDWeek 2026 which showed the investigational 25-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine 25vPnC produced serotype 3 antibody levels about 15-fold higher than Prevnar 20 after the booster dose, targeting a serotype still behind 10.6% of invasive pneumococcal disease in US children younger than five years.

CDC says the Bundibugyo virus outbreak in the DRC is the second-largest Ebola outbreak on record, with 9735 confirmed cases and 4690 deaths.

Stopping empiric antibiotics early nearly tripled antibiotic-free days in neutropenic fever, and 5-day oseltamivir prophylaxis matched 10 days in hospital exposures.

Investigational asuptegravir cut HIV-1 RNA by up to 2.36 log10 copies/mL in 10 days, and adding fostemsavir boosted CD4 gains in immunologic nonresponders.

CDC lists 5 active multistate outbreaks tied to oysters, raw milk cheese, sprouts, and pet turtles, with recalls in effect for 4 of them.

Exploratory SCORPIO-PEP data presented at IDWeek 2026 show household contacts with breakthrough COVID-19 on ensitrelvir had lower peak viral RNA and fewer severe symptoms than placebo recipients.