Infectious Disease Frontier

At ESCMID Global 2025, antimicrobial resistance stood out as one of the most pressing topics. As carbapenem resistance rises to alarming levels worldwide, the medical community is urgently seeking viable…

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to pose a serious threat to global health systems, particularly in high-burden countries like India. The challenges it presents to surgical treatment are complex and evolving, demanding both robust surveillance and strategic preventive interventions. In this interview, Dr. Camilla Rodrigues from Hinduja Hospital shares the current epidemiological landscape of AMR in India, discusses the risks it poses to surgical patients, and outlines successful approaches her center has implemented to mitigate these threats—particularly through systematic MRSA decolonization and strengthened infection control protocols.

New research led by Dr. Andrea Mastrangelo at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois unveils a distinct transcriptomic signature in lymph node (LN) HIV-specific CD8 T cells of HIV controllers. Unlike chronic HIV-infected individuals (CHI), controllers exhibited an enriched population of stem-like CD8 T cells marked by TCF7, IL7R, and BACH2, which may contribute to proliferative potential and effective viral control.

New research from Dr. Rebecca P Sumner at the University of Surrey uncovers key biological differences between the global MPXV lineage B and its ancestral lineage A, which remains endemic in Africa.

A recent study in The Journal of Infection suggests that SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may accelerate symptom resolution in individuals with ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 (OSC) and post-COVID syndrome (PCS). Using data from the ZOE COVID Symptom Study app, researchers found that vaccinated individuals experienced greater improvement in symptoms like fatigue and brain fog compared to unvaccinated individuals.

A recent study published in Emerging Microbes & Infections introduces C10, a pan-SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) that offers a novel approach to combating COVID-19. Unlike traditional neutralizing antibodies, C10 targets infected lung epithelial cells and mediates their elimination via NK cell-driven antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC).

Dr.Lise Gehrt Cardél has led a groundbreaking study that sheds new light on the broader health benefits of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine. This large-scale, nationwide cohort study across Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden found that children who received MMR after the diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis (DTaP) vaccine had lower rates of infectious disease hospitalizations, suggesting potential non-specific protective effects beyond its targeted diseases.

Dr. Petek Eylül Taneri, MD, PhD has led a landmark study published in JAMA Network Open, setting a new standard for neonatal sepsis research. The Neonatal Sepsis Core Outcome Set (NESCOS) is a global consensus that defines the key outcomes to be measured in all future studies on neonatal sepsis, ensuring consistency, comparability, and impact.

Dr. Abdullah Tarik Aslan, alongside his colleagues, has led an important multinational, multicenter cohort study investigating the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) in patients receiving piperacillin-tazobactam (TZP) with either vancomycin (VAN) or teicoplanin (TEI).

New insights highlight integrons as key players in the dissemination of beta-lactamase (BL) genes, driving resistance to carbapenems and other beta-lactams. A review of 1981 integrons from clinical and environmental settings shows their role in capturing and spreading BL genes across multiple bacterial genera, with Pseudomonas aeruginosa as the most frequent host.