Volume 71, Issue 11, 1 December 2020

Presatovir treatment was safe but did not improve viral or clinical outcomes in hematopoietic-cell transplant recipients with respiratory syncytial virus upper respiratory tract infections. Exploratory analyses suggest clinical benefit in hematopoietic-cell transplant patients with lymphopenia at presentation.

Presatovir treatment was safe but did not improve viral or clinical outcomes in hematopoietic-cell transplant recipients with respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory tract infection. Future studies in this population should incorporate novel methods to evaluate virus-related injury and treatment effects.

In this meta-analysis of 834 544 HIV-infected people from 87 countries, the global prevalence of hepatitis B infection is high (8.4%), with substantial heterogeneity by UNAIDS region. The burden is higher in sub-Saharan Africa, followed by Asia and the Pacific.

People living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) are at high risk for cirrhosis and esophageal varices. Baveno VI and expanded Baveno VI criteria based on transient elastography and platelets can spare esophagogastroduodenoscopies. These criteria can be safely expanded to HEPAVIR and HIV cirrhosis criteria.

Cat scratch disease presenting as fever of unknown origin may be severe and debilitating and often mimics malignancy. Relapsing fever is a common clinical phenotype. Multiorgan involvement is common. Recovery is usually complete except in patients with ocular complications.

Using a nationwide and population-based registries, we conducted the first ever matched cohort study of brain abscess and show a significantly increased mortality for up to 30 years after infection and a cumulative incidence of new-onset epilepsy of 32%.

The presence of maternal fever/flulike symptoms and threatened miscarriage/threatened premature labor in the second trimester were clinical factors associated with the occurrence of congenital CMV infection of newborns.

We found no significant difference in treatment tolerability or completion rate between DAA-treated patients with and without Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC). Non-HCC and inactive HCC patients had similar cure rate (95%) but not active HCC (85%), an independent risk factor for lower SVR.

In Tanzania, increasing the total dosage of PfSPZ Vaccine from 1.35 × 10⁶ to 2.7 × 10⁶ PfSPZ, increased vaccine efficacy from 20% to 100%, but increasing the dosage further to 5.4 × 10⁶ PfSPZ was associated with reduction of vaccine efficacy to 33%.

Cotrimoxazole treatment in HIV-exposed, uninfected (HEU) infants increases resistance gene prevalence and α-diversity, and decreases microbial taxonomic, functional pathway, and resistance gene β-diversity. Future HEU infant prophylaxis recommendations should consider these findings given rising global antibiotic resistance.

The rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine was used as postexposure prophylaxis in individuals exposed to Ebola virus in the United Kingdom. It was rolled out rapidly and was generally well tolerated. Side effects correlated with the magnitude of CD8+ T-cell responses.

We assessed multimorbidity according to the period of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) diagnosis in 2476 people aged ≥70 years living with HIV. Multimorbidity was associated with older age, CD4/CD8 ratio, and nadir CD4 cell count, but not period of HIV diagnosis.

Future first-line tuberculosis treatment may include fluoroquinolones and/or require testing for fluoroquinolone susceptibility. We use a quantitative model to demonstrate that optimal approaches to fluoroquinolone susceptibility testing depend on local resistance patterns, associations with identifiable risk factors, and regimen robustness.

Implementation of a comprehensive antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) significantly reduced nosocomial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) even though community AMR (control) increased during the same period. This study provides evidence that ASPs play an important role in the fight against AMR.

Standardized definitions were used to estimate a 4-stage continuum of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care in 11 European Union (EU) countries in 2016. The EU is close to the 90-90-90 target, with the main challenge being the percentage of undiagnosed infections.

In an investigation of the first known outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in a skilled nursing facility in Illinois, we found that 39% of confirmed cases remained asymptomatic, and the 30-day probability of death was 29%.

Distribution of transmission potential during nonsevere COVID-19 was examined. Viral loads in upper respiratory specimens peak by 2 or 3 days from symptom onset. The vast majority of the viral load-time AUCs lie within 10 days of symptom onset.

There are limited data on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) clinical outcomes for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH). We report outcomes for a cohort of hospitalized PLWH with COVID-19 compared with demographically matched comparators. Major adverse outcomes were similar for PLWH and matched comparators.

Effective means of preventing hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, such as a vaccine, are needed. Controlled infection trials could facilitate HCV vaccine development, but they raise substantial ethics and practical concerns that require further deliberation as they are planned and implemented.

Implementation science offers a valuable set of tools to ensure that best practices are optimally delivered, and thus must assert a nimble presence before, during, and after a pandemic.

The ability to detect the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in respiratory secretions is essential to determine when an individual is infected and potentially infectious to others. This article discusses questions commonly asked by clinicians about COVID-19 diagnostic testing.

Response-adaptive randomization (RAR) is a noble attempt to increase the likelihood that patients receive better-performing treatments, but it causes numerous problems that more than offset any potential benefits. We discourage the use of RAR in clinical trials.

This report describes Candida auris emergence in Chicago during August 2016–December 2018, and public health response at one ventilator-capable skilled nursing facility with high colonization burden. Improved adherence to infection control and environmental disinfection is needed to control spread.

We enrolled outpatients with acute respiratory illness (ARI) during 5 winters (2013–2018). We estimated that influenza vaccination prevented 5.6% of all ARI syndromes, with syndrome-specific estimates ranging from 2.8% (sinusitis) to 11% (clinical influenza) and thus averted 1 in 25 antibiotic prescriptions.

We demonstrate that memory CD4⁺ T cells expressing high levels of integrin β7 are enriched in total and integrated HIV-1 DNA compared to β7^negative cells, and that preferential targeting of β7^high cells is associated with their activation status.