Caitlyn Stulpin

Throughout the year, surveillance of both new and old fungal infections became more prominent.

Throughout 2024, data surrounding STDs came in waves of good and bad news, with data showing slower rates of infection and even disease elimination intermingling with news of hospitals failing to follow CDC guidance.

The largest documented outbreak of blastomycosis in the United States was reported at a paper mill in Michigan in 2022-2023.

Factors such as non-Hispanic Black race and all-cause mortality within 90 days after tuberculosis, or TB, diagnosis, as well as diabetes and HIV status, were associated with extrapulmonary TB infection, according to a study.

Researchers developed a computer-based tool to evaluate hospitalized patients for suspected tuberculosis that correctly identified 100% of cases, which could help prevent spread to other patients, they said.

A computerized clinical decision support tool implemented as a diagnostic stewardship intervention led to an approximate 50% decrease in urine culture testing for patients with a urinary catheter, researchers found.

Using a novel approach accounting for prescriber preference, researchers found that longer durations of antibiotic therapy was not associated with greater risk of harm or benefit compared to a shorter duration.

In early December, health officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, announced that an unknown illness had emerged and had already killed dozens of patients, with hundreds more sick.

Patients with HIV and hepatitis B coinfection are at an increased risk for hepatitis D, which is associated with an increased risk of liver-related complications and mortality, researchers found.

Maps of histoplasmosis, blastomycosis and coccidiomycosis may underestimate the areas of endemicity for these infections because researchers have found diagnoses outside their historically defined regions in the United States.