News & Updates

In patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) without cirrhosis, the rates of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss appear to be higher after discontinuation of tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) than of entecavir, and this is particularly true for patients who have not experienced relapse after treatment discontinuation, according to a study.

Not enough children in Singapore are getting vaccinated against influenza, whereas the number of those who are receiving pneumococcal shots has steadily increased over time.

A retrospective observational study of nearly 28,000 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in Hong Kong finds that use of sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors is independently associated with lower rates of ICU admission and all-cause mortality across various disease categories.

Influenza in a paediatric population can manifest as a neurologic disease, particularly as febrile seizures, according to a study. Hospitalized children with neurologic manifestation of influenza (neuro-flu) experience several neurologic comorbidities, which suggest that this condition is driven by host-factors rather than by pathogen-factors.

Faropenem, when used in combination with the other standard treatment drugs for the first-line treatment of tuberculosis (TB) infection, appears to be noninferior to ethambutol, with faropenem having the added benefit of lower frequency of adverse events (AEs), according to the results of an open-label study in China.

COVID-19 remains a global health concern, and children and adolescents are equally affected. In fact, COVID-19 hospitalization rates in children increased during the Omicron era. [MMWR 2022;71:271-278] In children aged 5–11 years who were hospitalized during the predominance of Omicron, nearly 90 percent were unvaccinated. [MMWR 2022;71:574-581]