Infectious diseases Archive

The US is seeing an unusual spike in the mosquito-borne illness dengue fever. What is dengue, and where is it occurring in the US? How does it spread? And what steps can you take to protect against this and other mosquito-borne illnesses?

Guidelines advise unvaccinated people at high risk for severe COVID to take Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir with ritonavir) soon after symptoms begin. However, a 2024 study suggests that people who are vaccinated and high-risk or unvaccinated and low-risk don't need to do so.

Two-thirds of Americans with long COVID are women. Women approaching menopause who have long COVID seem to experience worsened symptoms of both conditions. Women's sex hormones appear to contribute to this phenomenon. Hormone therapy is becoming both a treatment and a diagnostic tool to determine driving factors behind affected women's symptoms. Because symptoms overlap, some women may have trouble being correctly diagnosed with perimenopause or long COVID.

The shingles vaccine, Shingrix, can trigger side effects such as a sore arm, achiness, fatigue, and fever. But Shingrix is highly effective at preventing painful shingles rashes and a complication called postherpetic neuralgia, which involves long-lasting nerve pain.

People who received a COVID vaccine during the first two years of the pandemic had a lower risk of developing long COVID, according to a 2024 study.

It's never easy for parents to talk to their teens about sex, so many are understandably hesitant to do so. But even if teens are not yet sexually active, it's important for them to have accurate information about sexually transmitted infections to keep themselves safe and healthy.