Locally Acquired Melioidosis Linked to Environment - Mississippi, 2020-2023.

Melioidosis, caused by , is a rare but potentially fatal bacterial disease endemic to tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. It is typically acquired through contact with contaminated soil or fresh water. Before this investigation, was not known to have been isolated from the environment in the continental United States.

Rapid Diagnostic Testing for Response to the Monkeypox Outbreak - Laboratory Response Network, United States, May 17-June 30, 2022.

As part of public health preparedness for infectious disease threats, CDC collaborates with other U.S. public health officials to ensure that the Laboratory Response Network (LRN) has diagnostic tools to detect Orthopoxviruses, the genus that includes Variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox.

Detection of influenza antigenic variants directly from clinical samples using polyclonal antibody based proximity ligation assays.

Identification of antigenic variants is the key to a successful influenza vaccination program. The empirical serological methods to determine influenza antigenic properties require viral propagation. Here a novel quantitative PCR-based antigenic characterization method using polyclonal antibody and proximity ligation assays, or so-called polyPLA, was developed and validated.

Novel vaccine strategies with protein antigens of Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) are a major cause of mortality throughout the world. This organism is primarily a commensal in the upper respiratory tract of humans, but can cause pneumonia in high-risk persons and disseminate from the lungs by invasion of the bloodstream. Currently, prevention of pneumococcal infections is by immunization with vaccines which contain capsular polysaccharides from the most common serotypes causing invasive disease.