WashU infectious diseases alum, Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, named St. Louis Public Health Director

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 […]

Antibody protects against broad range of COVID-19 virus variants – Targets key part of virus’s spike protein that changes little across variants (Links to an external site)

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 […]

Hilary Reno, MD, PhD, FIDSA, an author of recent STI Treatment Guidelines 2021 also co-authors “A Guide to Taking a Sexual History”

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 selected to lead the update of the Histoplasma guidelines by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA)

Andrej Spec, MD

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 […]

Hilary Babcock, MD, MPH and Jennie Kwon, DO, MSCI are co-authors of MMRW early release of reports on COVID-19 Hospitalizations and Vaccine Effectiveness (Links to an external site)

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 […]

Congrats to Dr. Robyn Klein, who has received an $8.7M grant to investigate why some emerging viral infections can trigger memory problems that last long after the virus is gone from the body. (Links to an external site)

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 […]

Beating the clock on ticks and tick-borne illnesses – infectious disease clinic medical director Thomas Bailey, MD, explains

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 […]

Antibodies elicited by COVID-19 vaccination effective against delta variant – Jacco Boon, PhD and Ali Ellebedy co-senior authors (Links to an external site)

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.

Second year fellow, Gayathri Krishnan, MD, creates online platform for women professionals in the field of Infectious Diseases

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, […]

ID Fellows create video to show prospective fellow candidates what fellowship is like at WashU

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 […]

Rachel Presti, MD, PhD uses ICTS resources for COVID-19 research and clinical trial efforts

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 […]

LMtV Podcast: examining SARS-CoV-2 colonization of the maternal-fetal interface

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 […]

Jeff Henderson, MD, PhD lead author of study that shows blood cancer patients with COVID-19 fare better with convalescent plasma (Links to an external site)

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.

Congratulations to our class of 2021 graduating fellows!

Program Directors and Graduates 2021 (l-r) Dr. Nigar Kirmani, program director, Drs. Patrick Mazi, Joseph Cherabie, Miguel Chavez, Nathan Nolan, Sasinuch Rutjanawech, and Gerome Escota, MD, program co-director.

We are so proud of this graduating class of fellows. Their achievements are many and mentioned below in a brief synopsis of each fellow. Miguel Chavez, MD, MSc is the recipient of the 2021 SHEA Jonathan Freeman Scholarship Award, has published 2 peer reviewed articles, and presented 3 posters (healthcare epidemiology, microbiology, fungal infection and […]

LMtV Podcast: Let’s ‘meet’ the clinical epidemiologist Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly examining the acute and long-term burden of COVID19 disease.

What are the potential long-term effects of COVID-19? ‘Let’s Meet the Virologists’, hosted by Larissa Thackray, PhD, associate professor of Infectious Diseases, talks in Episode 29 withZiyad Al-Aly, MD, FASN, assistant professor in the Division of General Medical Services, Director of the Clinical Epidemiology Center, and Chief of Research and Education Service at the VA […]

Gayaythri Krishnan, MD chosen as Chief ID Fellow for FY 2022

Dr. Krishnan was selected by her ID fellow peers to serve as the second Chief ID Fellow. She follow Nathan Nolan, MD and recent graduate of the ID Fellowhip program . Honored, humbled and ecstatic about this new responsibility, Gayathry hopes to promote Fellow wellness and trainee education. “Thank you @WashUID for entrusting me with […]

Mild COVID-19 induces lasting antibody protection (Links to an external site)

Months after recovering from mild cases of COVID-19, people still have immune cells in their body pumping out antibodies against the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Such cells could persist for a lifetime, churning out antibodies all the while.