The latest CDC numbers show a 5.8% increase in measles cases from week-to-week, bringing the 2026 US total to more than double the amount seen in all of 2025 with 2 months left in the year.
|Articles|January 6, 2023
This Week’s Top 5 Infectious Disease Stories
Author(s)Nina Cosdon
So far, these are Contagion's 5 most-read stories of 2023.
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Unfortunately (but inevitably), infectious disease followed us into 2023.
However, this week’s 5 most-clicked stories, including a potential
Despite failing to meet primary trial endpoints, molnupiravir reduced the length of COVID-19 infection by 4.2 days in vaccinated patients.
Developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, the single-dose long-acting antibody was designed to help protect all infants from birth through their first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season.
In just a month, the XBB.1.5 variant went from causing 1% to over 40% of new COVID-19 infections.
Health programs and efforts to inform the public about the importance of sharing liver education can play a major role in prevention as well as patient care.
The 24-valent investigational pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, VAX-24, met its primary endpoints in a phase 1/2 trial.
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Investigational agent Zelicapavir cut time to complete RSV symptom resolution by up to a week and lowered hospitalization in high-risk adults.
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.
The latest CDC numbers show a 4.0% increase in measles cases from week-to-week, bringing the 2026 US total to 4588 confirmed cases. Ninety-six percent of cases are outbreak-associated.
In the phase 3b ENCORE trial, adding amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) to azithromycin and ethambutol significantly improved culture conversion in newly diagnosed MAC lung disease, while treatment-emergent amikacin (2.2%) and macrolide (1.1%) resistance stayed rare. Kevin Winthrop, MD, provides insights around the study.
Oral zelicapavir cut time to complete RSV symptom resolution by up to 1 week in high-risk adults, but it did not meet its primary end point in a phase 2 trial.
The FDA approved bepirovirsen (Hibsago; GSK) with nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy for chronic hepatitis B, based on B-Well 1 and 2 functional cure rates of 19% vs 0% with placebo.
The latest CDC numbers show an 8.1% increase in measles cases from week-to-week, bringing the 2026 US total to 4410 confirmed cases. A CDC disease detective is going to Pennsylvania to aid in the state's massive outbreak, and the agency reports on a rare measles complication that is uniformly fatal.
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