Category: Infection

By Maria Chiorando For Mailonline Published: 02:14 EDT, 13 October 2023 | Updated: 02:14 EDT, 13 October 2023

Federal officials are still looking for the cause of an outbreak of Salmonella Thompson infections. According to an update from the Food and Drug Administration, the outbreak continues to grow, with 67 patients having been confirmed so far. The FDA first reported the outbreak on Oct. 4 but has not reported where the outbreak patients live. Investigators have begun traceback efforts, but the FDA is not reporting what food or foods are being traced. The agency has not yet begun sample collection or on-site inspections. There has been at least one recent Salmonella infection in a South Carolina resident, but it is unknown if the patient is part of the FDA’s current investigation. Recently, at least five Salmonella outbreaks have been linked to cantaloupe, including one this year. A spokesperson with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Food Safety News that the agency is not currently investigating Salmonella infections involving South Carolina residents and cantaloupe. About Salmonella infectionsFood contaminated with Salmonella bacteria does not usually look, smell, or taste spoiled. Anyone can become sick with a Salmonella infection. According to the CDC, infants, children, seniors, and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of serious illness because their immune systems are fragile. Anyone who has developed symptoms of Salmonella infection should seek medical attention. Sick people should tell their doctors about their possible exposure to Salmonella bacteria because special tests are necessary to diagnose salmonellosis. Salmonella infection symptoms can mimic other illnesses, frequently leading to misdiagnosis. Symptoms of Salmonella infection can include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever within 12 to 72 hours after eating contaminated food. Otherwise, healthy adults are usually sick for four to seven days. In some cases, however, diarrhea may be so severe that patients require hospitalization. Older adults, children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as cancer patients, are more likely to develop severe illness and serious, sometimes life-threatening conditions. Some people get infected without getting sick or showing any symptoms. However, they may still spread the infections to others. (To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here)

Last year’s “triple-demic” marked the beginning of what may be a new normal: a confluence of respiratory infections — RSV, influenza, and covid-19 — will surge as the weather cools each year. Like blizzards, the specific timing and severity of these outbreaks are hard to forecast. But their damage can be limited in more ways than ever before. More protective vaccines against influenza are on the horizon. And new vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, were approved this year, as were updated covid vaccines. Although the first days of rollout for the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines saw hiccups, with short supplies at some pharmacies and billing confusion with some insurers, the shots now are generally available at no cost. What’s more, after enduring the worst pandemic in a century, people are more attuned to protecting themselves and those around them. Wearing face masks and staying home when sick can stop the spread of most respiratory infections. The rate of flu vaccinations has climbed over the past five years. “It seems like the pandemic reminded them of how important vaccination is,” said Brian Poole, a microbiologist at Brigham Young University in Utah. In a study of college students, Poole and other researchers found that flu vaccination rates have nearly tripled since 2007, from 12% to 31% in the respiratory infection season of 2022-23. Only a minority of students expressed “vaccine fatigue.” There is, however, one dangerous departure from the past. Vaccination has become politicized, with college students and older adults who identify as Republican or conservative being less likely to get covid vaccines, as well as vaccinations against flu. Before 2018, studies found that political affiliation had no influence on vaccine uptake. But as measures to limit covid, such as school and church closures, became controversial, some political leaders downplayed the effects of covid — even as the pandemic’s U.S. death toll soared above 1 million. That messaging has led to a disbelief in public health information. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports data showing that covid hospitalizations nearly tripled in the latest surge, with more than 40,000 hospitalizations in the first two weeks of September compared with about 13,600 in the same period of July. But in a recent KFF poll, half of Republicans did not believe in the surge, compared with just 23% of Democrats. Email Sign-Up Subscribe to KFF Health News’ free Morning Briefing. Messaging to minimize the toll of covid also makes vaccines seem unnecessary, with 24% of Republicans leaning toward getting the updated covid shot versus 70% of Democrats in the KFF poll. A larger share of vaccine-eligible adults said they planned to get, or have gotten, the flu shot and a new RSV vaccine. “It’s important to recognize that the flu, covid, and respiratory viruses still kill a lot of people, and that the vaccines against those viruses save lives,” said David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Flu vaccines prevent up to 87,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths each year in the United States. “I like to highlight that,” Dowdy added, “as opposed to making up terms like ‘triple-demic’ to make people cower in fear.” Dowdy predicted this fall and winter will be better than the past few, when patients with covid, influenza, or RSV filled hospitals. Even so, he estimated that more people will die than in the seasons before covid appeared. About 58,000 people died from the flu last season, and hundreds of thousands more were sickened, staying home from school and work. This year, the flu doesn’t appear to be kicking off unusually early, as it did last year with cases picking up in November, rather than in January. And more people are partially immune to covid due to vaccines and prior infections. The effectiveness of flu vaccines varies depending on how well its formula matches the virus circulating. This year’s vaccine appears more protective than last year’s, which reduced the risk of hospitalization from the flu by about 44% among adults. This year, researchers expect an effectiveness of about 52%, based on data collected during South America’s earlier flu season. Its benefit was higher for children, reducing hospitalizations by 70%. The flu’s toll tends to be uneven among demographic groups. Over the past decade, hospitalization rates due to the flu were 1.8 times as high among Black people in the United States as among white individuals. Just 42% of Black adults were vaccinated against the flu during that period, compared with 54% of white or Asian adults. Other issues, ranging from a lack of paid sick leave and medical care to a prevalence of underlying conditions, probably contribute to this disparity. People who have asthma, diabetes, or cardiovascular issues or are immunocompromised are at higher risk of a severe case of flu. Sean O’Leary, an infectious disease pediatrician and the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics committee on infectious diseases, urges parents to vaccinate their kids against influenza and covid. Children hospitalized with co-infections of the two viruses last year were put on ventilators — an intense form of life support to allow them to breathe — far more often than those hospitalized for the flu alone. And covid is surging now, O’Leary said. Hospitalizations among children under age 18 increased nearly fivefold from June to September. “Almost all of our kids who have died have been completely unvaccinated” against covid, he said. The FDA greenlighted new RSV vaccines from the pharmaceutical companies GSK and Pfizer this year. On Sept. 22, the CDC recommended that pregnant mothers get vaccinated to protect their newborns from RSV, as well as infants under 8 months old. The disease is the leading cause of hospitalization for infants in the United States. The agency also advises people age 60 and older to get the vaccine because RSV kills between 6,000 to 10,000 older adults each year. Rather than vaccination, the CDC advised a new long-acting antibody treatment, nirsevimab, for children between 8 to 19 months old who are

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV) – In the Bi-State, COVID-19 numbers are rising, but experts say there are likely more infections out there going unreported. In St. Louis County alone, the average number of daily new cases is 148. As this new variant continues to be somewhat unpredictable, some people are getting confused on what they should do to stay safe. Sweta Patel and her family all got COVID for the first time last month. “Our symptoms were like pretty bad,” Patel said. Patel said their initial symptoms were a fever and cough. “It was definitely scary because it was the summertime because you don’t really expect to get sick in the summer,” Patel said. Patel said they’ve all been vaccinated and had a booster shot. However the CDC is warning the new COVID variant can still get people who have been vaccinated sick. “With different variants and more boosters, I feel like it is for the average person to kind of understand it is kind of complicated,” Patel said. That’s what Washington University infectious disease specialist at BJC, Dr. Rachel Presti, is trying to clear up. The CDC said this variant may be more able to cause an infection in people who have had coronavirus or had a COVID-19 vaccine. But Dr. Presti said that’s being misinterpreted. “You might be a little more at risk from this new variant,” Dr. Presti said. “That doesn’t mean you’re more at risk than somebody who is not immune. That means there’s a new kid in town, and you might be a little more likely to be infected with this one. Somehow, that was misinterpreted as people who are immune are more likely to get infected than people who are not immune.” As the virus adapts, it mutates and can get more people sick. Mercy Department of Medicine chair and infectious disease physician Dr. Farrin Manian said it’s the same flu-like symptoms, but people aren’t getting more severely sick with this variant. “We’re looking at a population who has been somewhat experienced in terms of being exposed to these types of viruses,” Dr. Manian said. “What’s changed is that the current variant seems to be kind of evading the immune system enough that even if you’ve the vaccine in the past or the actual infection, you may still get it. But you’re not at any higher risk of getting it.” A new booster vaccine is expected to come out within the next few weeks, specifically tailored to fight against this variant and others that are forming. Copyright 2023 KMOV. All rights reserved.

You or someone you know has likely become infected with COVID-19 in the past few weeks, and many are confused on what to do about it.Medical experts said virus levels in the U.S. have been on the rise for weeks, and it’s hard to tell how worried people should be.Federal data suggests that the current increases have stayed far below earlier surges. The data also shows that there are probably more infections than current surveillance systems can capture.Dr. Miriam Alexander is the medical director of employee health and wellness at Lifebridge Health.”We are seeing more cases in our employees and slightly more cases here at the hospital,” Alexander said.Lifebridge officials said they are also seeing a definite increase in cases at Expresscare locations. Alexander said there is a lot of confusion about the uptick.”Many have home kits so many are testing at home, and that data would not get transmitted by any authority, so that’s some of the confusion. The cases that get reported might just be the tip of the iceberg,” she said.Alexander said, as of now, the public does not need to wear a mask during general activities.”If you’re in tight quarters, some people are masking up again, and if you are in a high-risk population, it may be worthwhile masking up again,” she said.If you test positive for COVID-19, Alexander suggested taking steps to prevent the spread of the virus.”(Lifebridge is) continuing to follow the same protocol. We are having people stay home for five days after they start getting sick, and then after those five days, we then have people mask for another five days,” she said.With constantly changing variants, Alexander said you should be sure to vaccinate and get the latest booster. BALTIMORE — You or someone you know has likely become infected with COVID-19 in the past few weeks, and many are confused on what to do about it. Medical experts said virus levels in the U.S. have been on the rise for weeks, and it’s hard to tell how worried people should be. Advertisement Federal data suggests that the current increases have stayed far below earlier surges. The data also shows that there are probably more infections than current surveillance systems can capture. Dr. Miriam Alexander is the medical director of employee health and wellness at Lifebridge Health. “We are seeing more cases in our employees and slightly more cases here at the hospital,” Alexander said. Lifebridge officials said they are also seeing a definite increase in cases at Expresscare locations. Alexander said there is a lot of confusion about the uptick. “Many have home kits so many are testing at home, and that data would not get transmitted by any authority, so that’s some of the confusion. The cases that get reported might just be the tip of the iceberg,” she said. Alexander said, as of now, the public does not need to wear a mask during general activities. “If you’re in tight quarters, some people are masking up again, and if you are in a high-risk population, it may be worthwhile masking up again,” she said. If you test positive for COVID-19, Alexander suggested taking steps to prevent the spread of the virus. “(Lifebridge is) continuing to follow the same protocol. We are having people stay home for five days after they start getting sick, and then after those five days, we then have people mask for another five days,” she said. With constantly changing variants, Alexander said you should be sure to vaccinate and get the latest booster.

Malaria-infected mosquitoes found in US The experts share ways to protect yourself after malaria-infected mosquitoes have spread in several states. <!–> Summer might be winding down, but mosquitoes haven’t gotten the memo. –> They’re still out there biting, and in some cases spreading diseases, including one that hasn’t spread in the U.S. in 20 years. Consumer Reports has more on the return of malaria and how you can protect yourself. <!–> Malaria was virtually wiped out in the U.S. in the 1950s, but this summer the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced nine cases of “locally acquired malaria.” –> <!–> –> That means the people infected had not traveled to areas where malaria is common. <!–> The most likely scenario is that a mosquito bit someone who was infected in a foreign country and then traveled back to the U.S., and then that mosquito bit another person, spreading the infection to them. –> At least seven people in Florida, two in Texas, and one in Maryland tested positive for what is believed to be locally acquired malaria. <!–> –> The other more worrisome but less likely scenario is that the U.S. has a previously undetected new strain of malaria-infected mosquitoes. <!–> The most common symptoms are flu-like and include fever, shaking chills, sweats, headache, body aches, nausea, and vomiting, and typically start seven to 30 days after infection. –> <!–> Why is malaria returning now? It’s always been the case that malaria could become reestablished in the U.S., because the mosquitoes that transmit it are common here. –> Factors like a warming climate and increasing global travel can make the environment friendlier to mosquitoes and the diseases they carry. <!–> Still, public health measures have had a good track record of stopping malaria transmission in the U.S. –> Despite these new cases, the risk of locally acquired malaria in the U.S. is extremely low, while other mosquito-borne infections like West Nile are far more common, and can be dangerous. <!–> So your best bet is to prevent mosquito bites before they happen. And always use a safe, effective insect repellent. –> Consumer Reports’ tests show the most effective repellents include those that contain 25 to 30 percent deet — like 3M Ultrathon Insect Repellent8 and Ben’s Tick and Insect Repellent Wilderness Formula Pump. <!–> –> It’s also important to keep mosquitoes away from your yard. <!–> –> Keep your space free of containers filled with water, and keep your lawn mowed and free of leaves and other debris. <!–> And you’ll lessen your risk of getting bitten when you avoid going outside at prime feeding times: That’s dawn and dusk. –> All Consumer Reports material Copyright 2023 Consumer Reports, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Consumer Reports is a not-for-profit organization which accepts no advertising. It has no commercial relationship with any advertiser or sponsor on this site. Fo <!–> –>

Getty Images By Soutik Biswas India correspondent What does the biggest gathering of humanity on Earth have to do with antibiotics? Quite a bit, evidently. Researchers from US-based institutes, supported by Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University and Unicef, have found that clinics at India’s Kumbh Mela, a Hindu festival and the world’s largest religious gathering, have prescribed an excessive amount of antibiotics to the tens of thousands of pilgrims, primarily arriving with respiratory tract infections. The more antibiotics are used, the higher the risk of developing what doctors refer to as “antimicrobial resistance”. This occurs when bacteria change over time and become resistant to drugs designed to combat and treat infections they cause. Consequently, doctors face a surge in antibiotic-resistant “superbug infections”. India facing a pandemic of resistant superbugs The World Health Organisation (WHO) says this poses a major “global threat” to public health. Such resistance directly caused 1.27 million deaths worldwide in 2019, according to The Lancet, a medical journal. The toll is projected to rise to 10 million deaths per year by 2050, says the WHO. Antibiotics – which are considered to be the first line of defence against severe infections – did not work on most of these cases. India has the highest rate of human antibiotic use in the world. Antibiotic-resistant neonatal infections alone are responsible for the deaths of nearly 60,000 newborns each year. Researchers say use of antibiotics was exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Getty Images The weeks-long Kumbh Mela occurs in four Indian cities. The pilgrims take a holy dip in the river waters on the banks of the cities where the festival is held. The US-based researchers gathered data from some 70,000 patients who turned up at more than 40 clinics at two editions of the festival in 2013 and 2015 held in the cities of Prayagraj – also known as Allahabad – and Nashik. More than 100 million pilgrims attended the two festivals. In Prayagraj in 2013, the patients had a median age of 46 years and most of them were men. Their common symptoms included fever, cough, runny nose, muscle pain, and diarrhoea. Concerns over superbug among India Covid patients Researchers found that more than a third of patients at the clinics were prescribed antibiotics. In Prayagraj, nearly 69% of the patients reporting upper respiratory tract infections received antibiotics at the free state-run clinics at the festival site. “This is an alarmingly high rate, given that the vast majority of upper respiratory tract infections are viral in nature,” the researchers say in a recently published paper. Getty Images Researchers found that entering a clinic at the Kumbh Mela for any reason carried a one-in-three likelihood of walking out with a prescription for antibiotics. If you sought help for a runny nose, the probability increased to two in three. “When antibiotics were prescribed, there appeared to be little rhyme or reason to guide their selection,” the researchers said. Their findings align with earlier estimates of antibiotic prescription rates in India, which typically range from 39% to 66% in outpatient settings. The researchers conceded that doctors at the Kumbh Mela’s crowded clinics faced significant challenges, including high patient volumes, limited time and a lack of comprehensive patient diagnostic information. Drug-resistant infections killing millions – study Each clinic sees hundreds of patients a day, doctor-patient encounters are cursory and patients expect to be prescribed medicines for their aliments. Doctors spent less than three minutes on average with each patient, “often prescribing antibiotics without examining the patient”. The choice and dosage of antibiotics “appeared arbitrary”. Official protocols allowed a three-day supply of antibiotics along with a recommendation for a follow-up visit. However, researchers observed that, with a few exceptions, the vast majority of pilgrims only made a day trip to the festival and returned home. Getty Images The researchers have recommended a number of measures to cut back prescription of antibiotics in the upcoming festivals. They say that most people who turn up at the clinics do not need the attention of a physician. So, they recommend that mid-level health providers, medical students and community health workers identify patients and implement triage. Fewer patients would reduce fatigue among the doctors. The clinics should be beefed up with adequate diagnostics such as laboratory or radiology services. Lack of diagnostics, they believe, could lead to over-prescription of antibiotics. Also, doctors needed to be educated more in antibiotic use and the policy of providing a three-day antibiotic dose should be re-examined. “Public health preparedness and response seems to be marked by a string of missed opportunities,” said Satchit Balsari, one of the researchers and an assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. India HIV patients in ‘drugs shortage’ pain The 2013 festival in Prayagraj was one of the first mass gatherings to have cloud-based near real time disease surveillance. The Nashik edition in 2015 replaced paper-based records with digital tablets, laying the foundation for continuous epidemiological surveillance. “In both instances, there was little institutional memory that could either expand the intervention to all primary clinics, or even leverage it during the [coronavirus] pandemic,” Prof Balsari told me. He said the 2025 festival in Prayagraj could lay the foundation for functional digital health infrastructure that does three simple tasks – identify the diseases in the city based on clinical, laboratory and drug utilisation and sewage data. Experts believe India needs to strengthen regulations around prescribing antibiotics. – and the world’s largest gathering of humanity would be a good starting point. BBC News India is now on YouTube. Click here to subscribe and watch our documentaries, explainers and features. Read more India stories from the BBC: ‘Wrong number’ couple fight India deportation India’s Moon lander and rover put in ‘sleep mode’ Long wait for justice after India cough syrup deaths The new generation taking over from Asia’s richest man India launches its first mission to observe the Sun ‘Any story could be your last’ – India’s Kashmir press crackdown Related Topics

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Enlarge this image Lab data suggests the new COVID-19 booster shots should protect against a variant that concerns scientists. The boosters should be widely available this fall at pharmacies, like the one seen in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn borough in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images Scientists have produced the first data indicating that a variant that has raised alarm is unlikely to pose a big new COVID-19 threat. Four preliminary laboratory studies released over the weekend found that antibodies from previous infections and vaccinations appear capable of neutralizing the variant, known as BA.2.86. “It is reassuring,” says Dr. Dan Barouch, who conducted one of the studies at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. When it was first spotted, BA.2.86 set off alarm bells. It contains more than 30 mutations on the spike protein the virus uses to infect cells. That’s a level of mutation on par with the original Omicron variant, which caused a massive surge. The concern was BA.2.86, while still rare, could sneak around the immunity people had built up and cause another huge, deadly wave. “When something heavily mutated comes out of nowhere … there’s this risk that it’s dramatically different and that it changes the nature of the pandemic,” says Benjamin Murrell, who conducted one of the other studies at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. But Murrell and Barouch’s experiments, along with similar studies conducted by Yunlong Richard Cao at Peking University in China and by Dr. David Ho at Columbia University in New York, indicate BA.2.86, is unlikely to be another game-changer. “For BA.2.86 the initial antibody neutralization results suggest that history is not repeating itself here,” Murrell says. “Its degree of antibody evasion is quite similar to recently circulating variants. It seems unlikely that this will be a seismic shift for the pandemic.” The studies indicate that BA.2.86 doesn’t look like it’s any better than any of the other variants at evading the immune system. In fact, it appears to be even be less adept at escaping from antibodies than other variants. And may also be less efficient at infecting cells. “BA.2.86 actually poses either similar or less of an immune escape risk compared with currently circulating variants, not more,” Barouch says. “So that is good news. It does bode well for the vaccine.” The Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve new vaccines soon that target a more recent omicron subvariant than the original shots. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would then recommend who should get them. While that subvariant, XBB.1.5, has already been replaced by others, it’s a close enough match for the new shots to protect people, scientists say. “I wish the booster was already out,” says Dr. Peter Hotez of the Baylor College of Medicine, noting that yet another wave of infections has already begun increasing the number of people catching the virus and getting so sick that they’re ending up in the hospital and dying. “We need it now.”

New research from The Ohio State University College of Medicine finds COVID-19 vaccine mandates are highly effective at reducing the spread of the virus and increasing immunity in a university setting. The study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens, found net viral loads among all community members declined after university vaccine requirements went into effect. Masking, isolation and antibodies from getting sick weren’t enough to decrease infection rates. “Before the vaccine was required, the virus was becoming more concentrated in saliva and easier to spread to vulnerable populations like young children and older adults,” said Richard Robinson, principal investigator and associate professor in the Department of Microbial Infection and Immunity. “Once the requirements were in place, we saw on average a 100% decrease in virus in saliva and up to 12,000% increase in antibody levels to block its spread.” Researchers looked at data generated as part of The Ohio State University’s COVID monitoring program, which occurred from August 2020 to June 2022. As part of this program, saliva specimens were collected on a weekly basis from asymptomatic students, staff and faculty. More than 850,000 diagnostic COVID tests were performed. “The COVID monitoring program focused on asymptomatic adults for several reasons,” Robinson said. “Asymptomatic infections are more common in young adults, asymptomatic individuals would still spread the virus and the isolation of symptomatic individuals alone wasn’t enough to flatten the curve of COVID infections.” Six Ohio State campuses in Columbus, Newark, Mansfield, Lima, Marion and Wooster participated in the monitoring program. The data found COVID positivity in asymptomatic adults occurred in waves which mirrored the infection rates in the regions surrounding the university campuses and were driven by newly emerging variants such as delta and omicron. “At the time, there was growing concern that college students were creating new waves and peaks in infection when they would return to communities after distance learning and breaks in their education, but that wasn’t the case,” Robinson said. “The rates of infection were already increasing when classes resumed, even in rural areas.” Additionally, researchers explored the causes of breakthrough infections in vaccinated people. They compared the antibody responses of uninfected vaccinated people with those of infected vaccinated people. The study found breakthrough infections in vaccinated people were not due to an absence of antibodies but depend on antibody levels at the time of exposure, the neutralizing ability of the antibodies and the amount of virus to which the person is exposed. Future research will focus on the conditions that make people more resistant to COVID infection. Other researchers involved in this study were Marlena R. Merling, Amanda Williams, Najmus S. Mahfooz, Marisa Ruane-Foster, Jacob Smith, Jeff Jahnes, Leona W. Ayers, Jose A. Bazan, Alison Norris, Abigail Norris Turner, Michael Oglesbee, Seth A. Faith and Mikkel B. Quam.