Publications by authors named "Kelly Walblay"

This report summarizes risk assessment interviews and follow-up with health care personnel (HCP) after exposure to patients with mpox disease during 17 May to 8 July 2022. HCP-case interactions were assessed using a standard questionnaire to categorize the risk associated with patient encounters. We assessed 150 interactions among 142 HCP and 30 cases.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Understanding if persons with HIV (PWH) have a higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 reinfection may help tailor future COVID-19 public health guidance. To determine whether HIV infection was associated with increased risk for SARS-CoV-2 reinfection, we followed adult residents of Chicago, Illinois, USA, with SARS-CoV-2 longitudinally from their first reported infection through May 31, 2022. We matched SARS-CoV-2 laboratory data and COVID-19 vaccine administration data to Chicago's Enhanced HIV/AIDS Reporting System.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

SARS-CoV-2 infections among vaccinated nursing home residents increased after the Omicron variant emerged. Data on booster dose effectiveness in this population are limited. During July 2021-March 2022, nursing home outbreaks in 11 US jurisdictions involving >3 infections within 14 days among residents who had received at least the primary COVID-19 vaccine(s) were monitored.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Among nursing home outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with ≥3 breakthrough infections when the predominant severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant circulating was the SARS-CoV-2 δ (delta) variant, fully vaccinated residents were 28% less likely to be infected than were unvaccinated residents. Once infected, they had approximately half the risk for all-cause hospitalization and all-cause death compared with unvaccinated infected residents.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

This article describes 22 cases of breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection among over 14,000 fully vaccinated skilled nursing facility residents and staff. The majority of such infections were asymptomatic or were associated with mild symptoms, and there was no intra- facility spread related to these cases. This report suggests that postvaccination breakthrough infections are rare, but also confirms that vaccines do not offer 100% protection even in nonimmunosuppressed hosts, thus underscoring the need for studies of vaccine efficacy in immunosuppressed transplant recipients.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Early studies suggest that COVID-19 vaccines protect against severe illness (1); however, postvaccination SARS-CoV-2 infections (i.e., breakthrough infections) can occur because COVID-19 vaccines do not offer 100% protection (2,3).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Widespread global transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), continues. Many questions remain about asymptomatic or atypical infections and transmission dynamics. We used comprehensive contact tracing of the first 2 confirmed patients in Illinois with COVID-19 and serologic SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing to determine whether contacts had evidence of undetected COVID-19.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Ceftriaxone-resistant Salmonella enterica serotype Typhi (Typhi), the bacterium that causes typhoid fever, is a growing public health threat. Extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Typhi is resistant to ceftriaxone and other antibiotics used for treatment, including ampicillin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, and trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (1). In March 2018, CDC began enhanced surveillance for ceftriaxone-resistant Typhi in response to an ongoing outbreak of XDR typhoid fever in Pakistan.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Since the identification of the first 2 Candida auris cases in Chicago, Illinois, in 2016, ongoing spread has been documented in the Chicago area. We describe C. auris emergence in high-acuity, long-term healthcare facilities and present a case study of public health response to C.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - COVID-19, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was first identified in China in December 2019, and the initial case in Illinois, USA, was investigated by health agencies in January 2020.
  • - A woman in her 60s tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 after returning from China, leading to the identification of 372 contacts, with 347 monitored for symptoms; out of these, 43 were classified as persons under investigation, but all tested negative for the virus.
  • - The findings suggest that while there was direct person-to-person transmission in the initial case, extensive monitoring and testing of contacts, both symptomatic and asymptomatic, did not reveal any further spread of the virus. *
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

U.S. rural populations have been disproportionately affected by the syndemic of opioid-use disorder (OUD) and the associated increase in overdoses and risk of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF