Infectious Diseases News

• Study IDs Most Common Lingering Symptoms 8 Months After Mild COVID What are the most common and persistent symptoms for those still ailing after mild COVID-19 -- and what's notably absent?
  Medscape Medical News, April 09, 2021
• Several Vaccine Sites Pause Johnson & Johnson Shot After Adverse Reactions Three vaccine sites in North Carolina closed temporarily after several people had immediate reactions. Sites in Colorado, Georgia, and Iowa also paused after multiple people reported adverse reactions.
  WebMD Health News, April 09, 2021
• French Health Body to Say mRNA Vaccine Should Be Used as Second Dose After AstraZeneca France's top health body will on Friday say that recipients of a first dose of AstraZeneca's traditional COVID-19 vaccine who are under 55 should get a second shot with a new-style messenger RNA vaccine, two sources aware of the plans said on Thursday.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• Pfizer Asks FDA to Extend Use of COVID Vaccine to Ages 12–15 Pfizer said it hopes to begin vaccinating this age group before the start of the coming school year.
  Medscape Medical News, April 09, 2021
• Fauci Admits PPE Shortages Drove Up Death Toll Anthony Fauci, MD, thanked America's healthcare workers, even as he acknowledged that PPE shortages had contributed to the deaths of more than 3600 of them.
  Kaiser Health News, April 09, 2021
• Lasting Norovirus Immunity May Depend on T Cells Findings could guide development of a norovirus vaccine and novel cellular therapies.
  Medscape Medical News, April 09, 2021
• Alert FDA: Time to Move Away From Using Decontaminated Respirators Domestic supplies for new respirators have increased, so the decontaminated disposable versions should be used only when new ones aren't available.
  News Alerts, April 09, 2021
• Vaginal Gel Shows Promise in Preventing Common STIs Already approved as a contraceptive, this gel was tested for safety and effectiveness in preventing chlamydia and gonorrhea.
  Medscape Medical News, April 09, 2021
• Alert New Side Effects With AstraZeneca and Janssen COVID-19 Vaccines? The European Medicines Agency has started a review of safety signals in regard to capillary leak syndrome with the AstraZeneca vaccine and unusual blood clots with Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine.
  News Alerts, April 09, 2021
• Ocular Abnormalities Not Likely in Newborns of SARS-CoV-2-infected Mothers Unlike pathogens such as cytomegalovirus and Zika, SARS-CoV-2 is not likely to cause ocular problems in newborns whose mothers were infected with the virus during pregnancy, a new case series suggests.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• Eli Lilly's Arthritis Drug Fails to Prevent Mechanical Ventilation in COVID-19 Patients Eli Lilly and Incyte said their rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib did not meet the main goal of preventing progression to mechanical ventilation in hospitalized COVID-19 patients under a late-stage study.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• Transplant Saves Selected Patients With Irreversible COVID-19 Lung Disease Double lung transplants are the only known way to save the lives of people with acute respiratory distress syndrome and irreversible lung damage from COVID-19, a new study shows.
  Reuters Health Information, April 07, 2021
• Russia Calls on Slovakia to Return Sputnik V Doses After Dispute Russia called on Slovakia on Thursday to return hundreds of thousands of doses of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine, citing contract violations, in an escalating row between the two countries after a Slovak watchdog raised doubts about the shot.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• AstraZeneca Woes Grow as Australia, Philippines, African Union Curb COVID Shots Australia and the Philippines limited use of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, while the Africa Union dropped plans to buy the shot, dealing further blows to the company's hopes to deliver a vaccine for the world.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• Brazilian Health Regulator Anvisa Authorizes Trials for GSK-Medicago COVID Vaccine Brazilian health regulator Anvisa approved on Thursday the beginning of clinical trials in the country for a new COVID vaccine developed by Canada's Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline, Anvisa said in a statement.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• Scientists Call for New Probe Into COVID-19 Origins With or Without China A joint China-WHO study into COVID-19 has provided no credible answers about how the pandemic began, and more rigorous investigations are required, a group of international scientists and researchers said on Wednesday.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• Germany's Vaccine Rollout Gets Shot in the Arm From Doctors Surgeries Germany's COVID-19 vaccination drive has picked up speed with more than 650,000 doses administered on Wednesday, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) showed on Thursday, supercharged by extending the rollout to family doctors.
  Reuters Health Information, April 08, 2021
• NFK 2021 Difelikefalin Safe, Effective for Kidney Disease-Associated Pruritus Combined data from two difelikefalin pivotal trials and from open-label extended treatment show a favorable profile for an agent now under FDA review.
  Medscape Medical News, April 09, 2021
• Regulators' Update on AZ Vaccine, Vaccination and Variants, NZ Travel Bubble: COVID-19 Global Weekly Highlights These are the global coronavirus stories you need to know about this week.
  Medscape News UK, April 09, 2021
• Why Employee COVID Vaccination Mandates May Not Be Legal Until vaccines get full FDA approval, it's not clear that employers -- including healthcare systems -- can legally require workers to get shots, a Kaiser Family Foundation report says.
  Medscape Medical News, April 08, 2021