Journal Article Zinc and Coronavirus Disease 2019 Get access Harri Hemilä, Harri Hemilä Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland Correspondence: H. Hemilä, Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Post Office Box 20, Helsinki, FI 00014, Finland (harri.hemila@helsinki.fi). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4710-307X Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Elizabeth Chalker Elizabeth Chalker Biological Data Science Institute, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1593-3770 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 76, Issue 10, 15 May 2023, Pages 1865–1866, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad078 Published: 14 February 2023 Article history Published: 14 February 2023 Corrected and typeset: 07 March 2023

Lung transplantation can provide quality of life and survival benefits for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated end-stage lung disease. Characteristics and outcomes of these lung transplant recipients are limited to mostly single-center experiences or provide a short-term follow-up. Characteristics of deceased donors and adult lung transplant recipients for COVID-19-associated end-stage lung disease between August-2020 and June-2022 were analyzed using deidentified United Network for Organ Sharing database. Post-transplant patient survival of COVID-19 recipients was analyzed and compared with non-COVID-19 recipients. Secondary outcomes were length of hospitalization, post-transplant complications, and rates of organ rejection. During the study period, 400 lung transplants for COVID-associated end-stage lung disease comprised 8.7% of all lung transplants performed in United States. In the COVID-19 group, Hispanic males received lung transplants at significantly higher rates. The COVID-19 group was younger and had greater need for intensive care unit stay, mechanical ventilation, hemodialysis, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support, and receipt of antibiotics pre-lung transplant. They had higher lung allocation score, with a shorter wait-list time and received more double lung transplants compared with non-COVID-19 recipients. Post-transplant, the COVID-19 cohort had longer hospital stays, with similar 1-year patient survival (COVID, 86.6% vs non-COVID, 86.3%). Post-transplant, COVID-19-associated deaths were 9.2% of all deaths among lung transplant recipients. Lung transplantation offers a effective option for carefully selected patients with end-stage lung disease from prior COVID-19, with short-term and long-term outcomes similar to those for lung transplant recipients of non-COVID-19 etiology.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) events have been reported among patients with certain viral and bacterial infections. Whether invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) increases the risk of AMI remains unclear. We examined whether laboratory-confirmed IPD was associated with the risk of AMI. We conducted a self-controlled case series analysis among adult Tennessee residents with evidence of an AMI hospitalization (2003-2019). Patient follow-up started 1 year before the earliest AMI and continued through the date of death, 1 year after AMI, or study end (December 2019). Periods for AMI assessment included the 7 to 1 days before IPD specimen collection (pre-IPD detection), day 0 through day 7 after IPD specimen collection (current IPD), day 8 to 28 after IPD specimen collection (post-IPD), and a control period (all other follow-up). We used conditional Poisson regression to calculate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for each risk period compared with control periods using within-person comparisons. We studied 324 patients hospitalized for AMI with laboratory-confirmed IPD within 1 year before or after the AMI hospitalization. The incidence of AMI was significantly higher during the pre-IPD detection (IRR, 10.29; 95% CI: 6.33-16.73) and the current IPD (IRR, 92.95; 95% CI: 72.17-119.71) periods but nonsignificantly elevated in the post-IPD risk period (IRR, 1.83; 95% CI: .86-3.91) compared with control periods. The AMI incidence was higher in the post-IPD control period (29 to 365 days after IPD; IRR, 2.95; 95% CI: 2.01-4.32). Hospitalizations with AMI were strongly associated with laboratory-confirmed IPD.

Journal Article Deconstructing the 2023 Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Revised Piperacillin-Tazobactam Breakpoints Against Pseudomonas aeruginosa Get access Pranita D Tamma, Pranita D Tamma Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA Correspondence: P. D. Tamma, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 200 N Wolfe St, Ste 3149, Baltimore, MD 21287 (ptamma1@jhmi.edu); R. M. Humphries, Department of Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, 1161 21st Ave S, CC3309, Nashville, TN 37232 (romney.humphries@vumc.org). https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4143-6324 Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Patrick N A Harris, Patrick N A Harris Faculty of Medicine, UQ Center for Clinical Research, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital Campus, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Amy J Mathers, Amy J Mathers Department of Medicine and Pathology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Eric Wenzler, Eric Wenzler Department of Pharmacy Practice, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Romney M Humphries Romney M Humphries Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6568-156X Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic PubMed Google Scholar Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 76, Issue 10, 15 May 2023, Pages 1868–1870, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciad012 Published: 10 January 2023 Article history Published: 10 January 2023 Corrected and typeset: 01 February 2023

We evaluated the prevalence of transmitted drug resistance (TDR) to integrase strand-transfer inhibitors (INSTIs) and nucleoside/nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) and of clinically relevant resistance (CRR) in newly diagnosed people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV; PWH) naive to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in Europe. MeditRes is a consortium that includes ART-naive PWH newly diagnosed in France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, and Spain during 2018-2021. Reverse transcriptase and INSTI sequences were provided by participating centers. To evaluate the prevalence of surveillance drug resistance mutations (SDRM), we used the calibrated population resistance tools from the Stanford HIV website. To evaluate CRR, defined as any resistance level ≥3, we used the Stanford HIV Drug Resistance Database v.9.1 algorithm. We included 2705 PWH, 72% men, median age of 37 years (interquartile range, 30-48); 43.7% were infected by non-B subtypes. The prevalence of INSTI-SDRMs was 0.30% (T66I, T66A, E92Q, E138T, E138K, Y143R, S147G, R263K; all n=1) and the prevalence of NRTI-SDRMs was 5.77% (M184V: 0.85%; M184I: 0.18%; K65R/N: 0.11%; K70E: 0.07%; L74V/I: 0.18%; any thymidine analog mutations: 4.36%). INSTI-CRR was 2.33% (0.15% dolutegravir/bictegravir, 2.29% raltegravir/elvitegravir) and 1.74% to first-line NRTIs (0.89% tenofovir/tenofovir alafenamide, 1.74% abacavir, 1.07% lamivudine/emtricitabine). We present the most recent data on TDR to integrase-based first-line regimens in Europe. Given the low prevalence of CRR to second-generation integrase inhibitors and to first-line NRTIs during 2018-2021, it is unlikely that newly diagnosed PWH in MeditRes countries would present with baseline resistance to a first-line regimen based on second-generation integrase inhibitors.

The endemic mycoses are important causes of pulmonary and systemic disease in many parts of the world, including in the United States, where blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis, and histoplasmosis cause tens of thousands of serious infections annually. They are caused by thermally dimorphic fungi with lifecycles that include a mold phase in soil and a yeastlike phase in tissue (after inhalation of aerosolized spores). These fungi are geographically restricted, although the precise boundaries (and the specific environmental conditions that limit their geographical reach) are incompletely understood. Despite their clinical and public health importance, research on the endemic mycoses is limited. In this context, the study by Mazi et al [1] is a welcome contribution to the literature. Their study was an analysis of a very large administrative database of Medicare billing data from 2007 to 2016, comprising >45 million patients 65 years and older across the United States. The authors surmised location of diagnosis from the patient's county of residence. In total, the database included nearly 80 000 cases of histoplasmosis, greater than 37 000 cases of coccidioidomycosis, and more than 6000 cases of blastomycosis. Granular, county-level data of the distribution of patients with these mycoses are included in an accompanying website (www.mycoses.org). These data are juxtaposed with historical maps of the areas of geographic risk for the respective infections and clearly spill beyond the classic demarcation, which led the authors to conclude that the geographic ranges of the endemic mycoses are expanding. Mazi and colleagues argue that these findings should challenge the validity of the concept of endemicity—that is, the geographic associations of dimorphic mycoses—and that clinicians should place less emphasis on geography to guide inclusion of these infections in their differential diagnoses.

Journal Article 2022 CID Reviewer Recognition List Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 75, Issue 12, 15 December 2022, Pages e878–e886, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciac819 Published: 19 December 2022

The short-term effectiveness of a 2-dose regimen of the BioNTech/Pfizer BNT162b2 vaccine for adolescents has been demonstrated. However, little is known about the long-term effectiveness in this age group. It is known, however, that waning of vaccine-induced immunity against infection in adult populations is evident within a few months. Leveraging the database of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), we conducted a matched case-control design for evaluating the association between time since vaccination and the incidence of infections, where 2 outcomes were evaluated: documented SARS-CoV-2 infection (regardless of symptoms) and symptomatic infection (COVID-19). Cases were defined as individuals aged 12-16 with a positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test occurring between 15 June and 8 December 2021, when the Delta variant was dominant in Israel. Controls were adolescents who had not tested positive previously. We estimated a peak vaccine effectiveness between 2 weeks and 3 months following receipt of the second dose, with 85% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 84-86%) and 90% (95% CI: 89-91%) effectiveness against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), respectively. However, in line with findings for adults, waning effectiveness was evident. Long-term protection was reduced to 73% (95% CI: 68-77%) against infection and 79% (95% CI: 73-83%) against COVID-19 3-5 months after the second dose and waned to 53% (95% CI: 46-60%) against infection and 66% (95% CI: 59-72%) against COVID-19 after 5 months. Although vaccine-induced protection against both infection and COVID-19 continues over time in adolescents, the protection wanes with time since vaccination, starting 3 months after inoculation and continuing for more than 5 months.