Top Infectious Disease News Stories Week of February 1 - February 7

We Are Losing the Current Battle With Measles and the Long-Term War

Measles in the US in 2026 is an acute public health problem with a large number of cases today and going back through the past year—with no end in sight. Immunization rates for the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine continue to decline, and this has been brought on by years of antivaccine rhetoric and, more recently, the pandemic, which brought about both disinformation and misinformation around the messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccines.

This background, combined with the current government stance and its actions associated with vaccines, makes an already tough situation that much worse to fight this vaccine-preventable disease. Paul Offit, MD, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, is concerned that today’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not operate as it has in the past and sees 2 major issues with the federal agency: a lacking disease surveillance operation and no efforts for mobilization to help those in areas where vaccination is needed.

PASTEUR Act Reintroduced in Congress

One cannot help but think about the famous Shakespeare line from the play Henry V, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends,” when knowing the Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act was reintroduced in Congress this week. This is the fourth time the bill has been introduced, and it is currently sponsored by representatives Buddy Carter (R-GA), Scott Peters (D-CA), Nick Langworthy (R-NY), Mike Levin (D-CA) and Mike Carey (R-OH).¹

“Antimicrobial resistance is already costing patients their lives and threatens our ability to provide the modern medical care we all depend on,” IDSA President Ronald G. Nahass, MD, MHCM, FIDSA, said in a statement.¹

Antibiotics Deconstructed: IV Fosfomycin

IV fosfomycin has been used internationally since the early 1970s, particularly in Europe, but remained unavailable in the United States primarily due to regulatory and commercial barriers rather than scientific ones.^1-3 The drug is off-patent and inexpensive in global markets, which historically made it unattractive for sponsors to invest in the costly FDA approval pathway.⁴

The FDA requires a sponsor-submitted NDA supported by FDA-acceptable trials and inspected manufacturing facilities, and no company undertook that effort for decades.^2,5 Meanwhile, European health systems allowed legacy antibiotics to enter practice based on national approvals and early comparative trials that predated modern noninferiority frameworks.⁶ The U.S. also had ready access to carbapenems, fluoroquinolones, and broad beta-lactams, delaying perceived clinical need. ⁷

Metformin’s Prospective Role in Preventing Long COVID

As the global health community continues to grapple with the long-term consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, preventing post–COVID-19 condition—commonly known as long COVID—has become a clinical priority. New evidence from randomized trials and target trial emulations suggests that an unlikely candidate, metformin, may offer a practical and effective strategy to reduce this risk when started early in acute infection.

Chaichana and colleagues recently conducted a sequential trial emulation to assess whether initiating metformin after SARS-CoV-2 infection lowers the risk of long COVID. Their findings closely align with results from randomized clinical trials, providing important validation across study designs. Together with data from earlier trials, these data strengthen the case for offering metformin to nonhospitalized adults with acute COVID-19 to prevent long-term sequelae.

Diagnostic Stewardship Requires Multifaceted Components to Make It Thrive

This is the latest episode of our From Pathogen to Infectious Disease Diagnosis podcast, where we discuss the relationship between clinicians and laboratory professionals.

Diagnostic stewardship has become a central concept in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology, yet its purpose is often misunderstood. In a recent podcast, clinical microbiologist Andrea Prinzi, PhD, MPH, SM(ASCP), director of scientists in global medical affairs at bioMérieux, provided some insights into what diagnostic stewardship truly means and why it is essential to modern health care.

At its core, diagnostic stewardship is about ensuring that testing is both appropriate and actionable. “The core mission of diagnostic stewardship is to perform the right test in the right patient at the right time,” Prinzi said. She emphasized that stewardship is not about limiting testing for its own sake but rather about ensuring diagnostic tools are used in ways that meaningfully inform clinical decision-making and improve patient outcomes.