This Week's Top 5 Infectious Disease News Stories: August 8-August 14, 2026

Review of Intravenous Carbapenems and Oral Tebipenem Pivoxil

The carbapenems are beta-lactam antibiotics with a broad spectrum of activity against gram-negative, gram-positive, and anaerobic organisms.^1-3 They work by inhibiting bacterial cell wall synthesis by binding to penicillin binding proteins.^1-3 Carbapenems should generally be reserved when narrow spectrum antibiotics cannot be utilized due to documented or suspected resistance.⁴ They are often utilized as the drug of choice for ESBL-producing aerobic gram-negative bacilli when susceptible and indicated.^1-3 Of note, the carbapenems do not provide coverage against Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus.^1-3

Salmonella Outbreak Tied to Jalapeños Expands Downstream Recalls

The FDA is reporting that Coast Citrus Distributors' recall of contaminated jalapeños has triggered downstream recalls across the food supply chain. Taylor Fresh Foods recalled multiple jalapeño-containing products on August 9, with distribution to retail centers in 26 states and best-if-used-by dates through August 16, 2026.¹ The US Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) separately issued a public health alert for meat and poultry products containing FDA-regulated jalapeños.²

Expanding Hepatitis C Treatment: EU Approves Maviret

In June, the European Commission approved glecaprevir/pibrentasvir (Maviret) for acute hepatitis C virus infection, making it the only therapy approved in the European Union for both acute and chronic HCV.¹ More than 12 million people in Europe live with hepatitis C, and expanding treatment eligibility to acute infection is expected to support broader HCV elimination efforts.¹

The approval is supported by data from the phase 3 M20-350 trial, a multicenter, single-arm study of an eight-week Maviret regimen in adults with acute HCV infection.² The trial met its primary endpoint, with 96.2% of patients in the intent-to-treat population achieving sustained virologic response at 12 weeks, with no virologic failures or post-treatment relapses.²

Cascading Effects of Executive Order on Childhood Vaccines

With this week’s presidential executive order on the childhood vaccine schedule, clinicians are again having to consider the potential consequences associated with it including the idea that this will change vaccine guidance and the ability to deliver appropriate healthcare to patients.

“We do not make medical decisions because of someone's belief, opinion, or ability to just write on a piece of paper. We make medical decisions and recommendations based on research, evidence, and science, and it's a process,” said Jason M. Goldman, MD, MACP, immediate past president of the American College of Physicians (ACP). “We go through decades of data and information, hundreds of thousands of patients over the years looking at vaccines, diseases, the effects of them, how they work, why they work, what we're preventing, and then we go through a very rigorous process on the evidence itself to even make a recommendation. And this can take months, years…to make sure we're getting it right. So to be able to just write an order and disregard all science because they think it's that way doesn't make it so.”

The Potential Ramifications of Changing the MMR Vaccine Into 3 Separate Immunizations

Earlier this week, President Trump signed an executive order changing the pediatric vaccine schedule, and in many ways and reflecting the wishes of the current Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy for decreased access to immunizations. The order changes the spacing of immunizations, breaks the existing measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine into 3 separate vaccines, and continuing to push the “shared clinical-decision making” category for numerous vaccines that were previously recommended.

The MMR vaccine change is one of the most unusual parts of the executive order as it has not been something previously discussed in terms of breaking it into 3 single-antigen vaccines. The efficacy and safety for the vaccine are well-established, so the move is baffling.