The World Health Organization has had its collective eye on mpox for some time now, but announced August 14 that the prevalence of the disease in Africa raises the epidemic to a public health emergency of international concern, a change in policy driven by the emergence of a novel strain of the pathogen.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health sponsored a study that was designed to establish whether there are any biomarkers that are strongly associated with the constellation of symptoms known as long COVID, but the study shed little light on the question.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has released a sweeping plan that is designed to help manage vector-borne pathogens, such as the Zika virus, with the ultimate goal of reducing the related disease burden to zero.
In a study published in Nature on Oct. 11, coinciding with the beginning of IDWeek 2023 in Boston, researchers from Harvard Medical School described EVEscape, a method for anticipating the movements of SARS‑CoV‑2 by predicting potential mutations likely to escape current vaccines and treatments.
In a study published in Nature on Oct. 11, coinciding with the beginning of IDWeek 2023 in Boston, researchers from Harvard Medical School described EVEscape, a method for anticipating the movements of SARS‑CoV‑2 by predicting potential mutations likely to escape current vaccines and treatments.
In a study published in Nature on Oct. 11, coinciding with the beginning of IDWeek 2023 in Boston, researchers from Harvard Medical School described EVEscape, a method for anticipating the movements of SARS‑CoV‑2 by predicting potential mutations likely to escape current vaccines and treatments.
Even though COVID-19 is transitioning from pandemic to endemic across the world, it will remain first in mind as U.S. lawmakers look to reauthorize the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) this year to ensure the country is better prepared for future threats. With a Sept. 30 deadline for reauthorizing PAHPA, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee has its work cut out for it. But it won’t be starting from scratch. In opening a May 4 hearing on the reauthorization, HELP Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the committee would build on the efforts started last year under then-Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and now-retired Ranking Member Richard Burr (R-N.C.).
With the COVID-19 public health emergency ending in the U.S. next week, Congress is looking to use the lessons learned from the pandemic to draft a new iteration of the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act to ensure the country is better prepared for the next pandemic.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services received low marks on its latest Government Accountability Office (GAO) report card for its oversight of high-risk research involving potential pandemic pathogens, but legislative fixes might be necessary to ensure that all the gaps are closed.
President Joseph Biden’s recent statement that the COVID-19 pandemic is over may or may not reflect popular fatigue with the associated public health emergency (PHE), but the statement struck a different tone in some quarters on Capitol Hill. Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) was one of several who argued that the need for the PHE had thus necessarily run its course, with Burr specifically calling into question the need for additional funding for COVID-related federal health efforts.
