Rainbow flags flew proudly at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 1 as the USTA celebrated and welcomed the LGBTQ+ community to the first-ever Open Pride Day during the main draw of the 2021 US Open. It’s been an exciting start of the #USOpen for Dr. Bernard Camins, an infectious diseases specialist […]
Alphaviruses — mosquito-borne viruses that can trigger brain infections and arthritis — may have met their match. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified two antibodies that protect animals from disease caused by alphaviruses. The antibodies worked for every alphavirus tested, meaning they potentially could form the basis of treatments […]
Delays in implementing public health orders likely would have resulted in many more hospitalizations, deaths. In March 2020, not long after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported locally, health officials in the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County issued emergency public health orders intended to reduce interactions between people and slow the […]
This episode of ‘Show Me the Science’ focuses on the work of scientist Ali Ellebedy, who has published several papers about the immune response to vaccines and COVID-19 infection. Ali Ellebedy, PhD, a researcher at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has found that patients with COVID-19 infections and others who have been […]
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones named Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, an infectious disease specialist, the director of the St. Louis City Department of Health. Hlatshwayo Davis most recently was on the infectious diseases faculty at John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis. Her work includes fighting Covid-19, and HIV/AIDS, including on the Fast Track Cities Initiative, a […]
The virus that causes COVID-19 today is not the same as the one that first sickened people way back in December 2019. Many of the variants circulating now are partially resistant to some of the antibody-based therapeutics that were developed based on the original virus. As the pandemic continues, more variants inevitably will arise, and […]
Associate professor of medicine, Dr. Hilary Reno, is a co-author of the recently released Sexually Transmitted Infections Treatment Guidelines, 2021 (cdc.gov). The guidelines provide current evidence-based prevention, diagnostic and treatment recommendations that replace the 2015 guidance. Although the new guidelines emphasize treatment, prevention strategies and diagnostic recommendations are also discussed. CDC’s Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) […]
Andrej Spec, MD, MSCI, FECMM has been selected to lead the update of the Histoplasma guidelines by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA); the first update since 2007. The guidelines haven’t been updated since 2007. Dr Spec was chosen among a large field of candidates based on his research in histoplasmosis. Most recently he […]
Real-world evaluations have demonstrated high effectiveness of vaccines against COVID-19–associated hospitalizations (1–4) measured shortly after vaccination; longer follow-up is needed to assess durability of protection. In an evaluation at 21 hospitals in 18 states, the duration of mRNA vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) effectiveness (VE) against COVID-19–associated hospitalizations was assessed among adults aged ≥18 years. Among […]
More than half of the survivors of West Nile virus brain infections are left with memory disorders that make everyday tasks such as remembering the route from home to work challenging. Similar issues can arise in the aftermath of other viral infections, such as the “brain fog” that plagues some people after a diagnosis of […]
You have a gene. It’s called “cholinergic receptor nicotinic alpha 5 subunit,” or CHRNA5 for short. It does important things inside your body. Certain sections of it, for example, dictate how your brain processes nicotine.
Weather conditions this summer are resulting in a very active tick season, especially in the Midwest. And where there are ticks, the diseases they carry are not far behind – ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, Heartland virus, and Bourbon virus. Washington University physician and infectious disease clinic medical director Thomas Bailey, MD, explains, “While many […]
Despite causing a surge in infections this summer that has resulted in thousands of hospitalizations and deaths, the delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is not particularly good at evading the antibodies generated by vaccination, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Women in Infectious Diseases (WIID) is created for women professionals in ID to collaborate, promote, support, advocate, embrace, encourage and nurture each other and to celebrate all the amazing work being done by women in the field of Infectious Diseases. Our motto in WIID is “for women, with women, by women in ID”. According to AAMC, […]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is prepared to conduct virtual interviews of potential candidates to join our ID fellowship program. Since candidates are not visiting onsite, our fellows decided to create a video that shows canididates around the medical campus while they share what it is like to […]
The CTSA program was developed to accelerate new treatments from the lab to patients, enabled to a large extent by patients participating in and benefiting from clinical trials. Clinical trials provide that needed bridge from human subjects to hypotheses to treatments that can directly benefit human health. And, never has this connection been more critical […]
COVID-19 therapies made from antibodies often are given to patients who are at high risk of severe illness and hospitalization. However, there have been nagging questions about whether such antibody therapies retain their effectiveness as worrisome new virus variants arise.
How does COVID-19 impact pregnancy? ‘Let’s Meet the Virologists’, hosted by Larissa Thackray, PhD, associate professor of Infectious Diseases, talks in Episode 28 with Sonam Verma, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the Mysorekar laboratory in the Center for Reproductive Health Sciences, about her work examining SARS-CoV-2 colonization of the placenta, the impact on the […]
Retrospective study also indicates outcomes of critically ill patients in ICU improve when given antibodies from recovered COVID-19 patients A large, retrospective, multicenter study involving Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis indicates that convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients can dramatically improve likelihood of survival among blood cancer patients hospitalized with the virus.
Vaccines likely induce strong, persistent immunity to COVID9