Top Infectious Disease News Stories Week of May 3 - May 9

Clinical Insights Around the Hantavirus and the Cruise Ship Outbreak

As of Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported the cluster of hantavirus cases aboard the cruise ship, MV Hondius, had increased to 8 infections and yet remained at 3 deaths. Five of the cases have tested positive for the Andes virus, the only hantavirus species known for limited human-to-human transmission.¹ The ship started with 147 passengers and crew and is currently in the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 200 miles off the west African coast near Mauritania, sailing toward the Canary Islands.

Most species of the hantavirus are transmitted from mice or rats to people through the animals’ urine or feces. Luis A. Marcos, MD associate professor of Medicine, director for the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Stony Brook Medicine, points out this virus is not highly contagious when transmitted from person-to-person.

AI at the Point of Care: How Real-Time Clinical Knowledge Tools May Transform Antimicrobial Stewardship

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

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly reshaping clinical decision-making, and a new generation of point-of-care tools is targeting one of health care’s most persistent challenges: antimicrobial stewardship. In a recent podcast discussion, Eolas Medical Founder and CEO Declan Kelly, MBBS, outlined how limited access to localized guidelines has historically hindered optimal prescribing. As a former emergency department physician, Kelly understands that clinicians often face time-sensitive decisions while navigating fragmented systems, outdated intranets, or hard-to-find protocols, particularly in high-pressure environments such as the emergency department.

From Allies to Adversaries: Antibiotics and Their Influence on Gut Microbiome

The gut microbiome is a diverse microbial ecosystem comprising commensal bacteria that live in symbiosis with the host. The microbiome plays a fundamental role in overall health, including the maintenance of metabolic, immune, neurologic, and gastrointestinal (GI) homeostasis. Numerous factors may contribute to microbiome composition, including medications, age, lifestyle, diet, and environmental factors, and microbiota disturbances have been linked to a wide array of human diseases and have long-lasting, far-reaching consequences. The gut microbiome is dominated by 2 main phyla, Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes, which together account for approximately 90% of the microbial community, followed by Actinomycetota, Fusobacteriota, Proteobacteria, Verrucomicrobiota, and Cyanobacteriota.^1-3

Mortality Rates from Resistant Gram-negative Infections Remain High Despite New Antibiotics

Mortality rates in patients with difficult-to-treat resistant (DTR), Gram-negative infections remain high despite increased use of newer antibiotics with greater efficacy and corresponding susceptibility testing, according to findings of a recent large retrospective cohort study.¹

"Despite the availability of newer antibiotic agents, the estimated mortality and ongoing use of in-vitro discordant initial antibiotics remains unacceptably high among patients with DTR infections in US hospitals," declare lead author Morgan Walker, MD, Clinical Epidemiology Section, Critical Care Medicine Department, National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, MD, and colleagues.

Contagion Survey: We Need Your Feedback

We have launched a new audience survey aimed at better understanding the needs, preferences, and challenges of our readership. The initiative reflects a growing recognition that meaningful engagement with health care professionals, researchers, and stakeholders is essential to delivering timely and valuable content.

By inviting readers to share their perspectives, Contagion is taking an important step toward ensuring its reporting aligns with the realities faced on the front lines of infectious disease. Feedback collected through the survey will help identify gaps in coverage, highlight emerging topics of interest, and refine how information is delivered to maximize impact.

Understanding an audience is particularly critical in a field as rapidly evolving as infectious diseases, where new data, treatments, and public health threats constantly reshape the landscape. Surveys provide a direct line of communication, allowing readers to voice what matters most to them, whether it is clinical insights, policy updates, or real-world case experiences.

To fill out the survey, interested participants can go here.