Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Research Roundup: Transplants; Fungal Diseases; C. Diff; Covid
A study of patients at a transplant center found a high burden of bloodstream infections (BSIs) caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) following organ transplant, researchers reported yesterday in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance. (Dall, 1/12)
Global incidence and mortality from invasive fungal disease is substantially higher than previously thought, according to a systematic review published last week in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Using data from literature published from 2010 through 2023, along with 85 papers on individual country and global disease burden, the review estimates that over 6.55 million people annually are affected by invasive fungal infection, including over 2.1 million with invasive aspergillosis, 1.8 million with chronic pulmonary aspergillosis, and 1.5 million with a Candida bloodstream infection or invasive candidiasis, 500,000 with Pneumocystis pneumonia, and 194,000 with Cryptococcal meningitis. These infections lead to more than 3.75 million deaths annually, of which 2.55 million are directly attributable to the fungal disease. (Dall, 1/16)
A study of two large, integrated health systems suggests that outpatient Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) may be underdiagnosed, researchers reported today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. In a retrospective study of adult members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Kaiser Permanente Northwest, researchers identified 777,533 medically attended diarrhea (MAD) episodes among 592,877 people from 2016 through 2021. The researchers targeted patients with MAD episodes because they haven't been well described and are believed to contribute to a reservoir of undiagnosed CDI cases in the community because these patients don't always get tested for CDI. (Dall, 1/11)
Implementation of ventilation standards of at least five clean-air changes per hour, COVID-19 testing, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), and universal wearing of respirators prevented most SARS-CoV-2 transmissions in a California healthcare system from 2020 to 2022, suggests a study published yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases. (Van Beusekom, 1/17)
