Search Medical Journals & Research Articles

[Comment] Refining COVID-19 care for immunocompromised patients

Since 2022, with the emergence of highly transmissible omicron variants and the relaxation of social distancing measures, protecting individuals who are immunocompromised from SARS-CoV-2 exposure has become increasingly difficult. As a result, these patients have been more frequently reported to have severe and persistent COVID-19.1,2 Currently, most COVID-19-related consultations performed by infectious diseases' doctors concern managing COVID-19 in patients who are immunocompromised.

[Comment] The patient pursuit of safe treatment options for tuberculosis

The recent progress in the development, evaluation, and global implementation of all oral, shorter, efficacious regimens ushered in a new era of optimism for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis.1 This has largely been made possible through the discovery of novel chemical entities, including a diarylquinoline (bedaquiline) and nitroimidazoles (pretomanid and delamanid), and the repurposing of an oxazolidinone (linezolid), which was previously used for the treatment of drug-resistant Gram-positive infections.

[Comment] Infections in long-term care: burden affirmed, action needed

In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Enrico Ricchizzi and colleagues report the results of a year-long study of the incidence of health-care-associated infections (HAIs) in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in nine European countries.1 Using prospective surveillance data from more than 3000 residents in 65 LTCFs, the authors show that 57% of residents had at least one HAI during the 12-month observation period, with respiratory tract infections (RTIs) and urinary tract infections (UTIs) being most common, and with an overall case fatality rate of 4·5% (95% CI 2·5–4·8).

[Comment] RSV prevention: public health lessons from the southern hemisphere

The NIRSE-CL study by Juan Pablo Torres and colleagues,1 published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is a landmark analysis of the first nationwide implementation of nirsevimab in the southern hemisphere. In Chile's 2024 respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) season, 145 087 infants (coverage of 94%) were immunised with nirsevimab through a universal immunisation campaign. This effort was associated with substantial effectiveness of nirsevimab against hospitalisation for RSV-related lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI; 76·41% [95% CI 72·57–79·72]), severe RSV requiring ICU admission (84·94% [79·47–88·95]), all-cause LRTI hospitalisations (66·50% [61·97–70·50]), and all-cause hospitalisations (47·90% [44·35–51·21]).

[Comment] Olorofim: addressing unmet needs of patients with difficult-to-treat fungal infections

Olorofim is a first-in-class compound from the novel orotomide class of antifungal agents. Among antifungals in the development pipeline,1 olorofim stands out because of its potent in vitro activity against various difficult-to-treat fungi, including moulds such as azole-resistant Aspergillosis spp, Scedosporium spp, and Lomentospora prolificans, as well as the dimorphic fungi Histoplasma spp and Coccidioides spp. Notable drawbacks include its lack of activity against yeasts and Mucorales and its higher minimum inhibitory concentrations for the Fusarium solani species complex and F dimerum than for other Fusarium spp.

[Editorial] The promise of lifelong vaccination

A News piece in this issue reports on the sixth Conference on Vaccines hosted by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in Lisbon between Sept 10 and Sept 13. Adult immunisation was a key topic at the conference, with widespread support voiced for shifting industry and policy focus away from predominantly paediatric programmes towards lifelong vaccination initiatives. Despite the substantial global burden of vaccine-preventable disease among adults, most national vaccination programmes are still designed to reduce mortality and morbidity in children.

[Personal View] Rift Valley fever epidemiology: shifting the paradigm and rethinking research priorities

Rift Valley fever (RVF), a zoonotic mosquito-borne viral disease with erratic occurrence and complex epidemiology, results in substantial costs to veterinary and public health and national economies. Since 1985, RVF virus (RVFV) epidemiology has focused on epidemics triggered by flood-induced emergence of transovarially infected mosquitoes, following an interepidemic period during which RVFV persists primarily in floodwater Aedes spp mosquito eggs, with potential for low-level interepidemic circulation.

[Personal View] Priority climate and health modelling needs

Climate and health modelling is necessary for improving understanding of the current and future distribution and timing of climate-related health risks. However, underinvestment in this area has limited the understanding required to inform policies that enable multisectoral interventions to safeguard health. We synthesised insights from a survey of 65 global climate and health modelling experts and 36 participants in a hybrid meeting to identify priority strategies for enhancing the validity, utility, and policy relevance of climate and health models.

[Personal View] Reducing the threats of rodent-borne zoonoses requires an understanding and leveraging of three key pillars: disease ecology, synanthropy, and rodentation

Rodents have co-existed with humans for centuries, and frequently exchange pathogens. Historically, rodent-driven plague outbreaks scoured the Old World, resulting in substantial human mortality. Although such pandemics have not occurred for centuries, serious threats from rodent-borne infections, such as the global emergence of mpox, still exist. Moreover, endemic and emerging rodent infections continue to cause substantial human morbidity and mortality in low-income and middle-income countries.

[Articles] Mapping landscape fire-sourced air pollution-related mortality across 2288 local communities in Australia: a nationwide health impact assessment

This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the mortality burden and economic loss associated with LFS air pollution, highlighting a clear socioeconomic inequality in health burdens across Australian communities. The results—presented as community-level mortality burden maps—could inform the development of targeted public health interventions and climate policies at both local and national levels.

[Articles] Ageing-related functional and cognitive impairments and cold mortality risk: a longitudinal cohort study in China

Beyond age as a general risk factor, to reduce cold-related mortality in China, interventions should prioritise older adults with impaired activities of daily living (eg, bathing or dressing) and cognitive deficits (eg, attention and calculation or short-term memory), particularly women. Community-based programmes, such as subsidised heating and real-time cold alert systems, combined with targeted caregiver support for functionally dependent individuals, could mitigate risks.

[Correspondence] Queering the framework of women’s food environments: insights from the Philippines

In their Review published in The Lancet Planetary Health, Lydia O’Meara and colleagues introduced a framework designed to understand the dynamics that shape women’s food environments in low-income and middle-income countries.1 This framework can inform programme and policy design by identifying intervention points targeting women’s nutrition.1 Although the framework offers valuable insight into gendered food access, people from the LGBTQ+ community, including lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, require complementary models that consider sexual orientation, gender identity, and unique inequities encountered.

[Correspondence] Whose descent? Whose design?

An Article by Millward-Hopkins and colleagues, recently published in The Lancet Planetary Health, offers a thought-provoking analysis of declining per capita energy use and a call for structural change.1 However, the study advances a narrative of global “energy descent” that, despite acknowledging inequalities, risks becoming a technocratic and neocolonial discourse. This framing generalises energy contraction as a universal pathway and obscures the historical and structural deprivation that many countries in the Global South have faced.

[Newsdesk] Planetary Health Research digest

Climate change poses a substantial threat to collective food security, intensifying the pressures of a growing global population and escalating food demand. Understanding the precise impacts of climate change on food systems is crucial for developing effective adaptive solutions; however, these sectors remain underexplored. Addressing this gap, Claire Palandri (University of Chicago, IL, USA) and colleagues examine the impacts of humid heat on cow-milk production and the efficacy of adaptation solutions (eg, cooling infrastructure and management adjustments).

[Comment] On the WEIRDo neoliberal policies that protect free markets over the planet and its people

Criticising the idea that “every culture is as good as any other”, Friedrich Hayek observed in an interview from 1978 that if we do not “create and maintain” a “market society” but “destroy” it, “then two-thirds of the present population of the world will be destined to die” (p 173).1 His position is reflective of the intellectual origins of the corporate-backed neoliberal crusade predominantly attached to the creation of The Mont Pelerin Society in 1947.2 One of the goals of the Society was to protect western civilisation against socialism (and later, environmentalism) and to promote economic freedom, individualism, and industrial capitalism.