How Often Should Immunocompromised People Get a COVID Booster?
Preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection in immunocompromised people hasn’t gotten any easier as the pandemic trundles on into its fifth year. The monoclonal antibody tixagevimab-cilgavimab (Evusheld) has long gone by the wayside for pre-exposure prophylaxis and no replacements are on the horizon. Other prevention strategies among the general population, such as mask-wearing, have all but disappeared. Vaccination […]
COVID-19 Booster Shots Can Wait
Vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 are proving quite safe and highly effective in the prevention of COVID-19, especially severe and/or fatal disease. Over half of the U.S. population has initiated immunization and more than three out of four people in the U.S. over the age of 65 have completed vaccination. The promising vaccine roll-out and reductions in […]
Most Immunocompromised Patients Clear Omicron Infections
Prolonged SARS-CoV-2 infection during the Omicron period was uncommon among patients who were moderately to severely immunocompromised, a prospective multicenter study found. Among the 150 individuals included in the analysis, 25% had prolonged infection lasting 21 days or more as detected by RT-PCR, and only 8% had a positive viral culture at 21 days or […]
COVID Vaccine, Infection May Affect Migraine Course Slightly
COVID vaccination or SARS-CoV-2 infection may play a small role in migraine worsening, preliminary data suggested. While some patients reported migraine worsening after either vaccination or infection, headache diaries did not reflect significant differences in migraine frequency, reported Patricia Pozo-Rosich, MD, PhD, of Vall d’Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain, and co-authors. “Our preliminary data point […]
Long COVID Symptoms May Emerge Months After Infection
Long COVID symptoms may emerge months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, data from the prospective multicenter INSPIRE study suggested. Symptom prevalence decreased over 1 year among long COVID patients, but persisted or emerged at different time points in some cases, reported Sharon Saydah, PhD, of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, and co-authors in […]
CDC: Dialysis Patients Carry Heavier COVID Burden
Patients on maintenance dialysis had somewhat higher rates of SARS-CoV-2 infections and related deaths than seen in the general U.S. population, although immunization mitigated some of the excess risk, the CDC reported. From June 30, 2021, to Sept. 27, 2022, the overall infection rate per 10,000 patient-weeks was 30.47 among maintenance dialysis patients, with a […]
People With HIV Had Only a Modest Reduction in Death During Omicron Wave
BRISBANE, Australia — While Omicron was generally considered to be a milder strain of SARS-CoV-2 that led to fewer deaths, there was scant relief for people living with HIV who were hospitalized during this wave of COVID-19, researchers reported here. Overall death rates were 19.6% for people with HIV compared with 9.8% for those without […]
Next COVID Vaccine Should Only Target XBB Strains, FDA Staff Says
The next COVID vaccines should exclude the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and exclusively target the Omicron XBB subvariants, according to FDA staff members. They unveiled their recommendation in a briefing document ahead of Thursday’s meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC), stating that “the totality of available evidence suggests that […]
Neurologic Events After COVID-19 Vaccines Assessed
All patients hospitalized with new or relapsing neurologic events after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination at a New York tertiary hospital had one or more risk factors for their neurologic condition, a prospective study showed. The most prominent neurologic index events in these vaccinated patients were ischemic stroke (37.7%), encephalopathy (32.6%), seizure (15.9%), and intracranial hemorrhage (ICH; 9.4%), […]
Healthcare Workers Who Wear Better Masks Get Less COVID
Healthcare workers had better odds of outmaneuvering SARS-CoV-2 infection while wearing a respirator mask rather than a surgical mask, an observational study showed. Among workers exposed to COVID-19 patients, those who always donned a respirator mask had a lower likelihood of infection (21% vs 35% for those that did not; OR 0.49, 95% CI 0.39-0.61), […]