Trending News: High-Dose Influenza Vaccine More Effective for Hospitalization Prevention

Acute exacerbation of interstitial lung disease (AE-ILD) is a less frequent but fatal complication in patients with idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM); however, a regimen of steroids and disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) was found to reduce short-term death rates, according to The American Journal of Managed Care. Investigators from China retrospectively observed patients with IIM admitted to a hospital between 2007 and 2019 to understand the prevalence, risk factors, outcome, and outcome-related factors of AE-ILD in patients with IIM. When comparing the 64 patients with AE-ILD and 128 matched patients without AE-ILD, the study authors found that the case group presented with significantly higher on-admission disease activity compared with the controls.

Monoclonal antibody treatment is able to break apart microbial biofilms, potentially aiding existing antibiotic treatments in more efficiently clearing out infections, according to Contagion Live. The researchers tested a human monoclonal antibody with pan-amyloid-binding activity, mAb 3H3, against biofilms formed by Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium. The mAb 3H3 treatment made the Samonella typhimurium biofilms less tightly adherent, potentially exposing the eradication by antibiotics that work in tandem with the antibody for efficacy that might not otherwise be possible.

In a comparison between standard- and high-dose influenza vaccines, the high-dose vaccine offered greater efficacy for the prevention of influenza hospitalization among adults aged >65 years old, according to HCP Live. The research team enrolled hospitalized patients with acute respiratory illness to evaluate the efficacy of high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV) and standard-dose influenza vaccine (SD-IIV) for prevention of influenza-associated hospitalizations. Additional evaluation of HD-IIV could help investigators better understand differences in relative benefit of the vaccine across studies, seasons, and flu subtypes.