In the Press

A new study by a team of US researchers highlights the role that diagnostic stewardship can play in reducing antibiotic use in hospitals.

HARTFORD, Conn.—The Connecticut Department of Public Health today announced that a Connecticut resident has tested positive for Powassan virus infection. This is the first case of POWV associated illness identified in Connecticut in 2022.  From 2017 to 2021, 12 cases of POWV associated illness were reported in Connecticut, including three in 2021. Of those 12 cases between 2017 and 2021, two were fatal.

Exposure to airborne pathogens is a major risk factor for human health [1]. It has been shown that microorganisms (e.g., fungi, viruses, and bacteria) from environmental sources may disperse over great distances by air currents and ultimately be inhaled, ingested, or come into contact with individuals who have had no contact with the infectious source.

To assess the diversity and composition of airborne fungi associated with particulate matters (PMs) in Beijing, China, a total of 81 PM samples were collected, which were derived from PM2.5, PM10 fractions, and total suspended particles during haze and non-haze days.

Resilient Drug Supply Project (RDSP) Co-Principal Investigator Stephen Schondelmeyer, PharmD, PhD, has been named to the first board of the newly launched End Drug Shortages Alliance (EDSA), the organization announced this week in a news release.

Antibiotic resistance is a massive problem rising constantly and spreading rapidly since the past decade.

Three new studies report on COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) and antibody responses to Omicron, with one from Sweden finding a drop in two-dose VE against severe disease after the transition from the BA.1 to the BA.2 subvariant but three-dose protection remaining above 80% against severe disease.

Cellics Therapeutics, Inc., a biotech startup company using the innovative Cellular Nanoparticle (CNP) Technology for the treatment and prevention of infectious and inflammatory diseases, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed the Investigational New Drug (IND) application for its lead drug product CTI-005, Human Red Blood Cell Nanosponges, for patients hospitalized with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or methicillin-sensitive Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) pneumonia. With the IND allowance, the company plans to start the clinical trial, which will be a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 1b/2a trial investigating the safety and potential efficacy of CTI-005 in MRSA and MSSA pneumonia patients.

Imagine if the real cost to society of the food you buy at the grocery store was built right into each product’s price. Everything with added sugar would cost a whole lot more, according to University of Alberta researchers in a new study in The Canadian Journal of Public Health. 

Fungal spores dispersed in the atmosphere may become cause of different pathological conditions and allergies for human beings. A number of studies have been performed to analyze the diversity of airborne fungi in different environments worldwide, and in particular in many urban areas in China.