Interim Estimates of 2024-2025 COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness Among Adults Aged ≥18 Years - VISION and IVY Networks, September 2024-January 2025.

COVID-19 vaccination averted approximately 68,000 hospitalizations during the 2023-24 respiratory season. In June 2024, CDC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that all persons aged ≥6 months receive a 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine, which targets Omicron JN.1 and JN.

Intersection of Race and Rurality With Health Care-Associated Infections and Subsequent Outcomes.

Importance: Health care-associated infections (HAIs) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality, but little is known about whether structural factors impacting race and rurality are associated with HAI and subsequent outcomes.

Objective: To evaluate the association of race and rurality, which are proxies for structural disadvantage, with HAI and subsequent outcomes.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study was conducted at 3 US urban and suburban hospitals.

COVID-19 and influenza vaccine Hesitancy among adults hospitalized in the United States, 2019-2022.

Background: Understanding similarities and differences between hesitancy for influenza and COVID-19 vaccines could facilitate strategies to improve public receptivity toward vaccination.

Methods: We compared hesitancy for COVID-19 vaccines during the first 13 months of availability (January 2021-January 2022) with hesitancy for influenza vaccines in the 15 months prior to COVID-19 vaccine availability (October 2019-December 2020) among adults hospitalized with acute respiratory illness at 21 hospitals in the United States. We interviewed patients regarding vaccination status, willingness to be vaccinated, and perceptions of vaccine safety and efficacy.

Comparison of sampling and culture methods for the recovery of yeast from hospital surfaces.

Objective: To compare the recovery of yeast from hospital surfaces from two different collection methods: Eswab moistened with molecular water, and premoistened stick-mounted sponge.

Design: Comparison of collection methods for the recovery of yeast in the hospital environment.

Setting: This study took place at intensive care units of a large academic medical center.

Impact of lung allocation policy change on Hispanic lung transplant outcomes: Addressing disparities and improving access.

Objective: Racial disparities in organ allocation may result in differential survival for marginalized groups. This study aims to examine the impact of the November 2017 lung allocation policy change (LAPC) on trends and outcomes of Hispanic lung transplant (LT) recipients.

Methods: The United Network for Organ Sharing database was used to identify adult (older than age 18 years) LT recipients between January 2010 and March 2023.

Benefit of early oseltamivir therapy for adults hospitalized with influenza A: an observational study.

Background: clinical guidelines recommend initiation of antiviral therapy as soon as possible for patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected influenza.

Methods: A multicenter US observational sentinel surveillance network prospectively enrolled adults (aged ≥18 years) hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza at 24 hospitals during October 1, 2022-July 21, 2023. A multivariable proportional odds model was used to compare peak pulmonary disease severity (no oxygen support, standard supplemental oxygen, high-flow oxygen/non-invasive ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, or death) after the day of hospital admission among patients starting oseltamivir treatment on the day of admission (early) versus those who did not (late or not treated), adjusting for baseline (admission day) severity, age, sex, site, and vaccination status.

Assessment and mitigation of bias in influenza and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness analyses - IVY Network, September 1, 2022-March 30, 2023.

Background: In test-negative studies of vaccine effectiveness (VE), including patients with co-circulating, vaccine-preventable, respiratory pathogens in the control group for the pathogen of interest can introduce a downward bias on VE estimates.

Methods: A multicenter sentinel surveillance network in the US prospectively enrolled adults hospitalized with acute respiratory illness from September 1, 2022-March 31, 2023. We evaluated bias in estimates of VE against influenza-associated and COVID-19-associated hospitalization based on: inclusion vs exclusion of patients with a co-circulating virus among VE controls; observance of VE against the co-circulating virus (rather than the virus of interest), unadjusted and adjusted for vaccination against the virus of interest; and observance of influenza or COVID-19 against a sham outcome of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

Effectiveness of Original Monovalent and Bivalent COVID-19 Vaccines Against COVID-19-Associated Hospitalization and Severe In-Hospital Outcomes Among Adults in the United States, September 2022-August 2023.

Background: Assessments of COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness are needed to monitor the protection provided by updated vaccines against severe COVID-19. We evaluated the effectiveness of original monovalent and bivalent (ancestral strain and Omicron BA.4/5) COVID-19 vaccination against COVID-19-associated hospitalization and severe in-hospital outcomes.

SARS-CoV-2 anti-N antibodies among healthcare personnel without previous known COVID-19.

Objective: To measure SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid (anti-N) antibody seropositivity among healthcare personnel (HCP) without a history of COVID-19 and to identify HCP characteristics associated with seropositivity.

Design: Prospective cohort study from September 22, 2020, to March 3, 2022.

Setting: A tertiary care academic medical center.

Informing estimates of probability of infection for testing and treatment: expert consensus from a modified-Delphi procedure.

Background: infection (CDI) may be misdiagnosed if testing is performed in the absence of signs or symptoms of disease. This study sought to support appropriate testing by estimating the impact of signs, symptoms, and healthcare exposures on pre-test likelihood of CDI.

Methods: A panel of fifteen experts in infectious diseases participated in a modified UCLA/RAND Delphi study to estimate likelihood of CDI.

Effectiveness of the Original Monovalent Messenger RNA Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccination Series Against Hospitalization for COVID-19-Associated Venous Thromboembolism.

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a strong risk factor for venous thromboembolism (VTE). Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in preventing hospitalization for COVID-19 with VTE.

Methods: Adults hospitalized at 21 sites between March 2021 and October 2022 with symptoms of acute respiratory illness were assessed for COVID-19, completion of the original monovalent messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID-19 vaccination series, and VTE.

A clinical comparison of glycol and water-based heater-cooler systems for cardiopulmonary bypass.

Introduction: While newer heater-cooler technologies using ethylene glycol-based (GB) solutions during cardiothoracic surgery have become commercially available, there is a paucity of clinical data describing their effectiveness during cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) support. This analysis aimed to compare clinical characteristics and procedural outcomes using water-based (WB) and GB heater-cooler systems.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on consecutive adult patients undergoing CPB from June to October 2022 comparing WB or GB groups.

Escape Velocity-the Launch of Microbiome Therapies.

Food and Drug Administration approval of the first microbiome therapies represents a true expansion the treatment paradigm for Clostridioides difficile but raises new questions about the future role of fecal microbiota transplantation. The authors outline the advances in microbiome therapeutic development that have addressed fecal microbiota transplantation's (FMT's) inherent limitations of safety and scalability. The authors also suggest that as microbiome therapeutic development continues for other indications, FMT will likely remain a necessary model of human microbiota dynamics for translational research.

Effectiveness of Updated 2023-2024 (Monovalent XBB.1.5) COVID-19 Vaccination Against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron XBB and BA.2.86/JN.1 Lineage Hospitalization and a Comparison of Clinical Severity - IVY Network, 26 Hospitals, October 18, 2023-March 9, 2024.

Background: Assessing COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) and severity of SARS-CoV-2 variants can inform public health risk assessments and decisions about vaccine composition. BA.2.

Gut microbiome correlates of recurrent urinary tract infection: a longitudinal, multi-center study.

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTI) affect approximately 250 million people annually worldwide. Patients often experience a cycle of antimicrobial treatment and recurrent UTI (rUTI) that is thought to be facilitated by a gut reservoir of uropathogenic (UPEC).

Methods: 125 patients with UTI caused by an antibiotic-resistant organism (ARO) were enrolled from July 2016 to May 2019 in a longitudinal, multi-center cohort study.

Assessment of the characteristics of COVID-19 infection among healthcare personnel working in long-term care facilities.

Between May and June 2021, healthcare personnel at two long-term care facilities underwent SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid immunoglobulin G testing and completed a survey on COVID-19 exposures and symptoms. Antibody positivity rate was 8.9%.

Severity of Respiratory Syncytial Virus vs COVID-19 and Influenza Among Hospitalized US Adults.

Importance: On June 21, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the first respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines for adults aged 60 years and older using shared clinical decision-making. Understanding the severity of RSV disease in adults can help guide this clinical decision-making.

Objective: To describe disease severity among adults hospitalized with RSV and compare it with the severity of COVID-19 and influenza disease by vaccination status.

Changes in heart transplant outcomes of elderly patients in the new allocation era.

Objective: Studies demonstrate that heart transplantation can be performed safely in septuagenarians. We evaluate the outcomes of septuagenarians undergoing heart transplantation after the US heart allocation change in 2018.

Methods: The United Network for Organ Sharing registry was used to identify heart transplant recipients aged 70 years or more between 2010 and 2021.

Perspectives on research needs in healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, and antimicrobial stewardship: what's on the horizon-Part II.

In this overview, we articulate research needs and opportunities in the field of infection prevention that have been identified from insights gained during operative infection prevention work, our own research in healthcare epidemiology, and from reviewing the literature. The 10 areas of research need are: 1) Transmissions and interruptions, 2) personal protective equipment and other safety issues in occupational health, 3) climate change and other crises, 4) device, diagnostic, and antimicrobial stewardship, 5) implementation and deimplementation, 6) healthcare outside the acute care hospital, 7) low- and middle-income countries, 8) networking with the "neighbors," 9) novel research methodologies, and 10) the future state of surveillance. An introduction and chapters 1-5 are presented in part I of the article and chapters 6-10 and the discussion in part II.