Research in brief

Abstract

Section snippets

Bedaquiline monotherapy for leprosy

Monotherapy with bedaquiline, a diarylquinoline used to treat pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, is efficacious in patients with multibacillary leprosy, suggests a phase 2, open-label study in Brazil. Nine adult patients with previously untreated leprosy consisting of at least six skin lesions received oral bedaquiline 200 mg once daily for 2 weeks, followed by bedaquiline 100 mg three times per week for 6 weeks. After 8 weeks of bedaquiline, patients started standard multidrug therapy

RSV vaccination in people who are immunocompromised

A US prospective cohort study examined antibody responses to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccination in patients with immunocompromising conditions. 38 individuals (median age 66 years [IQR 64–72], 50% female) who were planning to receive adjuvanted RSVPreF3-AS01E or nonadjuvanted RSVpreF vaccinations provided blood samples before vaccination and at 2, 4, and 12 weeks after. Only 23 participants (61%) achieved seroconversion by week 4 post-vaccination, defined as a four-fold or greater

Vaccine-strain rotavirus in a neonatal intensive care unit

Rotavirus vaccines have reduced rotavirus-associated morbidity and mortality in children worldwide. However, many neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in the USA do not administer the vaccine to hospitalised children (including preterm infants) due to a theoretical risk of transmission of vaccine strains to unvaccinated infants. A cohort study was undertaken over 1 year in a US NICU that routinely administered 226 doses of pentavalent rotavirus vaccine (RV5). Stool samples from only five of

Translocation of Ebola virus to human skin surfaces

Ebola virus is spread by direct contact with infected individuals and their bodily fluids, primarily via mucosal transmission. However, infectious virus is also present on the skin surfaces of infected individuals at later times during infection and after death, implicating skin contact as a source of transmission. To understand the mechanism behind skin translocation of the virus, researchers developed an ex-vivo human skin explant infection model using cultured full-thickness skin punch

Timing of antimicrobial therapy for Enterobacterales infections

Early initiation of phenotype-desirable antimicrobial therapy (PDAT) for Gram-negative bloodstream infections (ie, receipt of a β-lactam antibiotic with the narrowest effective spectrum of activity within 2 days of blood culture collection) improves patient outcomes, according to a retrospective cohort study in the USA. Data were examined from 8193 patients (mean age 69·0 years, 58·1% female) admitted to hospital from 2017 to 2022 with one or more blood culture isolates positive for an