Contagion's 2024 Top Stories: Respiratory Infections

In 2024, there were many news updates in the world of respiratory infections, ranging from updates in vaccinations to new data on the long-term effects of some of these illnesses on patients. The Contagion team followed it all, and spent our time speaking with experts from major institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and the federal agencies who are working together to push medical science forward.

Here, we'll be providing a list of stories that resonated with our audience in 2024 in the area of respiratory infections. As expected, a number of COVID-related updates made their way into this list, among other news items that were of interest to readers.

Click the headlines to read more from these stories.

During the Pandemic, 75% of Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Received Antibiotics, Despite Only a Minority Needing Them

In the early days of the pandemic when hospital ICUs were filling up with severe COVID-19 patients, clinicians had no therapeutic agents, and no one had any form of immunity to fight the virus, thus health care turned to a familiar form of treatment: antibiotics.

New data from the WHO offers further information on the scope of this treatment challenge that happened in the first years of the pandemic.

Although only 8% of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 had bacterial co-infections requiring antibiotics, 75% of patients were treated with antibiotics ‘just in case’ they helped, according to the WHO research. The highest rate of antibiotic use was seen among patients with severe or critical COVID-19...

COVID-19 Vaccination Associated with Reduced Risks of Thromboembolic, Cardiovascular Complications

One of the ongoing concerns of COVID-19 vaccines has been reports around thromboembolic and cardiovascular events. There have been reports of blood clots following adenovirus-based COVID-19 vaccines, with an association that was further assessed in observational studies. Later on, mRNA-based vaccines were found to be associated with the risk of rare myocarditis events. Contrary to these past associations, a new study published in the journal, Heart, reported there was a major reduction of risk (45–81%) for post-acute COVID-19 venous thromboembolism (VTE), arterial thrombosis/thromboembolism (ATE) and heart failure (HF) in patients who had been vaccinated...

Healthcare Workers Who Received Additional Vaccine Dose Had Lower Odds of Symptoms at 6 Weeks

The early days of the Omicron predominant period continued to see high incidence rates of COVID-19 that included severe infections, hospitalizations, and mortality. For their part, healthcare workers (HCWs) were always in close proximity to patients with severe infection, and consequently in harm’s way. As such, HCWs saw a large incidence rate of active infection as a population.

According to 1 study done in the early period of the pandemic beginning from the time no vaccines were authorized, and extending through until nearly a year after the vaccines had been initially rolled out (December 2020), HCWs took up a large percentage of confirmed cases...

The US Will Transition to Trivalent Vaccines for Next Year's Influenza Season

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee recommended that all US flu vaccines transition from quadrivalent to trivalent vaccines for the 2024-2025 flu season. The trivalent vaccines’ formula will still contain the influenza A(H1N1), A(H3N2), and B/Victoria-lineage vaccine virus, but omit the influenza B/Yamagata virus because it is no longer actively circulating.

“FDA has been engaging and interacting with manufacturers of FDA-approved seasonal flu vaccines and providing scientific and regulatory advice to them to facilitate the timely availability of approved safe and effective trivalent seasonal flu vaccines for the 2024-2025 US flu season,” said the FDA in a news release...

COVID-19 Vaccination During Early Pandemic Years Shown to Reduce Risk for Heart Attacks, Strokes

The incidence rates for both heart attacks and strokes (arterial thromboses) were lower after COVID-19 vaccination than before or without vaccination during the earlier years of the pandemic, according to a new study from England.

Heart attacks and strokes were up to 10% lower in the 13 to 24 weeks after the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. And post-second dose, the incidence was up to 27% lower after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine and up to 20% lower after the Pfizer/Biotech vaccine...

Japan Approves Updated Self-Amplifying mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine

Japan has approved the CSL and Arcturus Therapeutics' Updated self-amplifying (SA) mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine, ARCT-154 (Kostaive). The updated vaccine is targeted to protect against the JN1 lineage of omicron subvariants for adults 18 years of age and older. "We are pleased to receive the updated approval from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and remain on track to distribute Kostaive in time for the October COVID-19 vaccination campaign," Emmanuelle Lecomte-Brisset, senior vice president and head of Global Regulatory Affairs, CSL, said in a statement...

New Study Reveals Long COVID Effects

In a retrospective cohort study published in BMC Infectious Diseases, investigators evaluated the incidence of certain symptoms and conditions associated with long COVID, potentially indicative of PASC, within 31 to 150 days after a SARS-CoV-2 test in both adults and children, comparing those with positive and negative results. Individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2, particularly those who required hospitalization, faced an increased risk of being diagnosed with specific symptoms and conditions following their acute infection phase.

Following adjustments for baseline covariates, adults and children who were hospitalized and tested positive showed higher odds of receiving a diagnosis of ≥1 symptom...

CDC Updated COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccination Guidelines for 2024-2025 Season

During the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting held on June 27, 2024, voting members recommended the authorized 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccines for those 6 months of age and older and reaffirmed the influenza vaccination guidelines. The CDC discussed that the 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccination has proven effective in protecting against various aspects of the virus, including asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infections, COVID-19-related visits to emergency departments and urgent care facilities, and hospitalizations. While showing waning patterns over time, it continues to provide notable protection against illness...

Internal Tremors: Adding to the List of Long COVID Symptoms

Long COVID has a laundry list of symptoms — and a lesser-known but troubling one is the sensation of having internal tremors, often with no outward evidence that this is happening. In a new, Yale-based Long COVID study, over one-third of participants report experiencing this strange symptom, which feels as if tremors are occurring inside their bodies.

Long COVID remains one of the most poorly-understood aspects of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Since shortly after the pandemic began in 2020, health professionals have had to come to terms with the fact that some patients who overcome their initial COVID-19 infection never completely recover. People with Long COVID have developed a variety of symptoms that range from gastrointestinal issues to chronic fatigue...