Research Roundup: Gates Foundation Will Fund Long-Awaited TB Vax Trial

Stat: First New TB Shot Since The BCG Vaccine Enters Trial Phase
The Gates Foundation unveiled plans Wednesday to fund a long-awaited trial for what, if proven effective, would be the first new tuberculosis vaccine in over a century. The 26,000-person, Phase 3 study, set to begin next year, will test a vaccine known as M72/AS01 that showed promising results from a smaller trial in 2019. The findings stoked excitement at the time. But a larger, confirmatory study was delayed as GSK, the company then developing it, transferred the shot to the Gates Medical Research Institute, an affiliate of the foundation, rather than move forward with the vaccine itself. (Mast, 6/28)

CIDRAP: Decolonization Protocol Tied To Dramatically Reduced MRSA In Critically Ill Infants 
A decolonization protocol normally used in older patients was associated with a sharp reduction in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections in critically ill infants, providers at Children's Hospital New Orleans reported today at the annual conference of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC). (Dall, 6/26)

Reuters: Scientists Isolate Human Gene Able To Fend Off Most Bird Flu Viruses 
UK researchers have homed in on a human gene implicated in thwarting most bird flu viruses from infecting people. Bird flu chiefly spreads among wild birds such as ducks and gulls and can also infect farmed birds and domestic poultry such as chickens, turkeys and quails. Although the viruses largely affect birds, they can spill into bird predators, and in rare cases, humans typically in close contact with infected birds. (Grover, 6/28)

CIDRAP: Researchers Say Bats In UK Harbor Novel Coronaviruses 
In Nature Communications researchers describe finding four species of circulating coronaviruses, including two novel ones, among 16 native bat species in the United Kingdom. Though none are currently capable of infecting humans, the viruses have similarities to those that cause COVID-19 and MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome). (Soucheray, 6/28)

CIDRAP: Tropical Diseases Not Linked To Long COVID, But Rate Of Prolonged Symptoms High In Amazon Basin 
A cohort study in the Amazon Basin suggests long COVID symptoms—reported in almost two thirds of COVID-19 patients—may be more likely in people who reported COVID reinfections over a 1-year period, but not in those with a history of tropical diseases, including dengue, malaria, and Zika. The study was published yesterday in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. (Soucheray, 6/27)

CIDRAP: New Guidelines Recommend Antibiotic Stewardship For Preventing MRSA
A collection of experts from US medical organizations today released updated recommendations to help acute-care hospitals prevent one of the most common healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Among the changes in the updated guidelines, to be published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology (ICHE), is the elevation of antimicrobial stewardship to an "essential practice" for preventing infection with and transmission of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a pathogen that causes roughly 10% of HAIs in US hospitals and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. (Dall, 6/28)

The Atlantic: The Gene That Explains Statins’ Most Puzzling Side Effect
Statins, one of the most extensively studied drugs on the planet, taken by tens of millions of Americans alone, have long had a perplexing side effect. Many patients—some 5 percent in clinical trials, and up to 30 percent in observational studies—experience sore and achy muscles, especially in the upper arms and legs. A much smaller proportion, less than 1 percent, develop muscle weakness or myopathy severe enough that they find it hard to “climb stairs, get up from a sofa, get up from the toilet,” says Robert Rosenson, a cardiologist at Mount Sinai. He’s had patients fall on the street because they couldn’t lift their leg over a curb. (Zhang, 6/27)