News

Rachel Presti, MD, PhD and the Infectious Diseases Clinical Research Team collaborate in $3.4 million effort to make a better flu vaccine

Stephen Liang, MD, MPHS, assistant professor of medicine, joined Missouri Task Force I (MO-TF1) in 2011 as a medical team manager, and has traveled to many sites helping disaster victims and their communities. When Hurricane Florence hit in September 2018, MO-TF1 was activated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy as a type III […]

Infectious disease specialist Gary Weil, MD, at the School of Medicine, has received a $2.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to lead a clinical trial in eastern Ghana to evaluate a triple drug combination for treating onchocerchiasis, a parasitic worm disease also called river blindness. The researchers want to determine whether […]

Study identifies key step in spread of drug resistance, opportunity for intervention Spotless surfaces in hospitals can hide bacteria that rarely cause problems for healthy people but pose a serious threat to people with weakened immune systems. Acinetobacter baumannii causes life-threatening lung and bloodstream infections in hospitalized people. Such infections are among the most difficult to treat […]

It is my pleasure to announce that Dr. Jennifer Philips MD, PhD, has accepted the position as Co-Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, in the Department of Medicine. Dr. William Powderly will continue as Co-Director of the Division overseeing the clinical faculty, operations, research and educational programs. 

Dr. Gerry Medoff lead the team at Washington University School of Medicine to help develop the original 24-pill cocktail that stopped HIV from being a death march.Let that sink in. More recently he was in a race against Parkinson’s Disease. Tim Breitbach of Optimal Entertainment is an award-winning writer (Dopamine, Sundance Film Festival), director (Multiple […]

Remembered as an inspiring leader, investigator, dedicated teacher, caring physician. Gerald Medoff, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine and former director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and vice chair of medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died peacefully Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, in hospice care at Evelyn’s House in Creve […]

Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) published their report on the Chut Pyin Massacre with forensic evidence of violence against the Rohingya in Myanmar. The report is based on interviews and forensic medical examinations of Rohingya survivors of these attacks. Dr. Rupa Patel, is among the three physicians involved in field investigations related to Chut Pyin. […]

Isotretinoin, a form of vitamin A, has been prescribed to treat acne for decades. It reduces oil production in the skin, which helps prevent acne from forming. But new research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has uncovered a previously unknown benefit of the medication. It shifts the skin microbiome of acne […]

Andrej Spec, MD, assistant professor and former ID fellow, was appointed Associate Editor for Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID). Dr. Spec will be responsible for reviewing topics of mycology and transplant infectious diseases.

Dr. Kwon recently joined the IDSA Research Committee. The goals of the IDSA Research Committee are to promote research and new advancements in infectious diseases; to monitor developments and make recommendations related to federal support for biomedical research; and to make recommendations on activities/issues under its purview that involve federal legislation and regulation. Jennie has […]

The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), the nation’s leading infectious diseases professional society, recognized distinguished physicians and scientists from the United States and around the world who were elected this year to be Fellows of IDSA. Among the honorees in 2018 are Steven J. Lawrence, MD, MSc, associate professor of medicine and Hilary M. […]

Despite a history of unequal access to medical education, women have made a lasting impact on the world of medicine. The Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Foundation recently honored the lives and achievements of four women in medicine who have made a lasting impact on the field of infectious diseases (ID). During the early […]

Gerome Escota, MD, assistant professor of medicine and co-director of our ID Fellowship program, initiated a forum for teaching and learning infectious diseases through questions, pearls, and case discussions on twitter. Since inception, the case forum has gained popularity accruing over 1000 national and international followers. Join the group @WUIDQ to be challenged!

Since August 2017, over 900,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh, establishing the largest single refugee camp in the world. Nearly 50% are adolescents (ages 10-18 years) and the majority is female. Over 50% of Rohingyas have faced violence. More specifically, international reports by multiple agencies provide evidence of ethnic cleansing by the Myanmar military […]

The Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) advances Dr. Hilary Babcock to the SHEA member category of Fellow of SHEA. The Fellow of SHEA category recognizes and honors those who have achieved professional excellence in healthcare epidemiology and infection prevention and control. The Society looks to Fellows of SHEA as imperative voice in advancing […]

Jennie H. Kwon, DO, MSCI, is an assistant professor of medicine, Infectious Diseases, atWashington University School of Medicine and an Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. Dr. Kwon performs clinical and translational research on the transmission of multidrug resistant organisms (MDRO) and the impact of antimicrobials on the fecal microbiome. Her […]

Parasitic roundworms and flatworms (collectively known as “helminths”) cause some of the most common yet neglected tropical infectious diseases affecting more than a billion people worldwide, in addition to afflicting many important plants and animals. Such diseases include chronic and sometimes severely painful and physically disabling conditions like river blindness, schistosomiasis and hookworm infections. Now, […]

A starved supply closet and a lack of basic necessities such as electricity or running water pose significant health risks to patients at medical clinics in poverty-stricken parts of the world, sometimes even more so than illness or disease.