Articles related to Infectious Diseases

This quiz tests your knowledge on the appropriate screening follow-up from a 23-year-old woman who was treated for gonococcal arthritis. After a physical exam that showed a complete resolution of symptoms, which screening test is the next course of action? A CD4 lymphocyte subset? Serum IgA level? Total hemolytic complement (CH50) level? Is any additional testing even needed?

Although there now exist many safe and approved therapeutics for non-hospitalized patients who have COVID-19 or one of its variants, these therapies are often distributed in an ineffective and unequitable manner, according to an article published by JAMA Network. The article highlights many of the available therapies and how to distribute them fairly to patients when demand exceeds available supply.

Amy Watson became famous for coining the term “COVID long hauler” to describe people, such as herself, who suffer from the effects of the respiratory disease over an extended period. These long-haul symptoms can include fever, body aches, and fatigue. Watson herself says she rarely goes more than a few hours without suffering a fever, nearly two years after first contracting COVID-19. GoodRx Health chronicles Amy Watson’s story and what it’s like for people suffering from long COVID.

Since the onset of COVID-19, medical professionals have struggled to rapidly diagnose and determine whether someone has the respiratory illness. This issue is particularly acute in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) where doctors and nurses must triage patients based on the severity of their illnesses. Now, a “breathalyzer” test given to critically ill patients has been found to detect the virus quickly and efficiently, providing new hope for the rapid screening of people who are overwhelming hospital emergency rooms. Specifically, the breathalyzer test was found to detect COVID-19 with 88% sensitivity among a group of 46 patients admitted to an ICU.

At the outset of the pandemic, biotechnology company Novavax was one of the frontrunners to bring a vaccine against COVID-19 to market. But nearly two years later, Novavax’s vaccine has yet to appear. In a compelling article, the BMJ details the repeated delays and setbacks that have torpedoed Novavax’s once-promising vaccine candidate and rendered it unnecessary now that other vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca flood the global marketplace.

A study published in Morbidity & Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) argues that immunosuppressed patients and people with compromised immune systems need more than two vaccine doses to achieve adequate protection against COVID-19. After two vaccine doses, immunocompromised patients saw 77% vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization, versus 90% for immunocompetent individuals.