Highlights April 2024 -EID, Eurosurveillance, MMWR

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Welcome to our selected article summaries from some great

public health journals including the April 2024 issue of the CDC's Emerging

Infectious Diseases Journal, March Eurosurveillance, and other leading journals.

Our summaries are brief so please check the original of any article that takes

your interest! You can jump ahead using the time stamps in the episode notes. To find out more about this podcast see

closecontact dot info.

From the April issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases,

we will cover:

• A report on deaths associated with pediatric hepatitis of unknown etiology in the USA, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/4/23-1140_article
• An article on concurrent outbreaks of hepatitis A, invasive meningococcal disease, and mpox in Florida, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/4/23-1392_article
• The global threat due to antimicrobial resistance of Salmonella Infantis associated with poultry https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/4/23-1031_article
• A study on bus riding as an amplification mechanism for SARS-CoV-2 transmission in Germany, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/4/23-1299_article
• Findings on a Chlamydia pneumoniae upsurge at a tertiary hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/4/23-1610_article
• A commentary titled "Ten Years of High-Consequence Pathogens— discussing challenges in dealing with pathogens like ebola viruses, henipavirus and monkeypox virus over the past decade. https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/30/4/24-0160_article

Additionally, the MMWR examines the detection of measles vaccine virus in children with rash illness, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/pdfs/mm7312a3-H.pdf

from Eurosurveillance,

a report on the increase in invasive Streptococcus pyogenes UKM1 infections linking-Iceland and Scotland,

Briefs

Then a series of brief reports, including vaccine adverse events reporting associated with political inclination, effectiveness of updated COVID-19 vaccines among immunocompromised adults, cephtriaxone resistant gonorrhea in China, atypical age distribution and severity in children with RSV infections during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a systematic review on the potential for person-to-person transmission of Henipaviruses. Plus some late breakers from Promed including the H5N1 outbreak among dairy cattle in the USA.

Briefs –

Reports of COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Events in

Predominantly Republican vs Democratic States

A cross-sectional study found that the more states were

inclined to vote Republican, the more likely their vaccine recipients or their

clinicians reported COVID-19 vaccine AEs. All AEs were increased but severe

adverse event rates were reported at an odds ratio 1.2 for a 10% increase in Republican voting. These

results suggest that either the perception of vaccine AEs or the motivation to

report them was associated with political inclination. That was from JAMA Network Open March 29th.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2816958

Interim Effectiveness of Updated 2023–2024 (Monovalent

XBB.1.5) COVID-19 Vaccines Against COVID-19–Associated Hospitalization Among

Adults Aged ≥18 Years with Immunocompromising Conditions — VISION Network,

September 2023–February 2024

It found that among adults aged ≥18 years with immunocompromising conditions, vaccine effectiveness against COVID-19–associated hospitalization was 38% in the 7–59 days after receipt of an updated vaccine dose and 34% in the 60–119 days after receipt of an updated dose. Few persons (18%) in this high-risk study population had received updated COVID-19 vaccine. It recommends that those with immunocompromising conditions may receive additional updated COVID vaccines from just 2 months after their last

vaccine. That was from the March 28th MMWR.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7312a5.htm?s_cid=mm7312a5_w

Ceftriaxone-Resistant Gonorrhea — China, 2022 also from March 28th MMWR.

During 2017−2022, the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant strains of N. gonorrhoeae increased in China, with resistance to ceftriaxone, the first-line treatment for gonorrhea, approximately tripling. Resistance varied by geographic region. Gonorrhea strains were resistant to other antibiotics at prevalences up to 97.6%, varying by antibiotic type.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/73/wr/mm7312a2.htm?s_cid=mm7312a2_w

Atypical age distribution and high disease severity in

children with RSV infections during two irregular epidemic seasons throughout

the COVID-19 pandemic, Germany, 2021 to 2023 , from March Eurosurveillance.

https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.13.2300465

This study highlights atypical age distribution and high

disease severity in children with RSV during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers found earlier RSV seasons in 2021 and 2022/23, with intense RSV-A followed by

RSV-B circulation. In 2021, 2-4-year-olds were at high risk, while the 2022/23 season saw increased disease severity and intensive care needs. Listeners with an interest in RSV will appreciate the detailed figures breaking down age and year specific attack rates and severity and RSV subtyping. The authors stress the importance of year-round, age-stratified surveillance to estimate RSV impact and guide timely healthcare delivery in light of these unusual pandemic-era RSV seasons.

Potential for Person-to-Person Transmission of

Henipaviruses: A Systematic Review of the Literature from the March 15 issue of the Journal of Infectious Diseases

This review identified 52 studies with data on confirmed human Henipavirus infections finding there is substantially more evidence demonstrating the transmission potential of Nipah Virus Bangladesh , compared to Nipah Virus Malaysia type or Hendra Virus, from both the studies of human epidemiology and animal infection. The authors note the inadequacies in many investigations and the need for shared protocols for conducting and reporting from human investigations and animal experiments. https://academic.oup.com/jid/article/229/3/733/7334308

Late breakers Lastly from our general monitoring of

ProMed mail and other sources, we alert you to:

The first and growing spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in dairy cattle across 5 states in the USA. Infected cattle transported from one state to another leading to subsequent outbreaks appears to confirm that this outbreak is supported by cattle to cattle transmission and not just cattle exposure to infected birds. The illness causes a significant drop in milk output and is primarily impacting older cattle. There has been one cases of H5N1 in a human exposed to infected cattle in Texas. At this time the case’s only clinical manifestation is conjunctivitis.

Elsewhere on ProMed, we see reports on the global measles

epidemic noting outbreaks in South Sudan, Netherlands, and Chicago, high case counts of Tick Borne

Encephalitis in Poland thought to be associated with global warming and Lassa

Fever transmission continues in Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria with over 66 deaths

reported between week 9 and 11.

Long Reads for Later

Nature Disease Primer on Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis https://www.nature.com/articles/s41572-024-00504-2

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