The CDC recently updated its recommendations for hepatitis B infection testing, saying all adults should be tested at least once in their lifetime and a wider range should be periodically retested.

Mass General Brigham researchers at two hospitals found the metabolic strategies C. difficile uses to rapidly colonize the gut and identified ways to combat the disease, the Somerville, Mass.-based health system said in a March 9 news release.

A California physician contracted mpox via skin contact after working with two infected patients, in a rare case of infection without a needle stick.

Bacteria from a water purification system may be linked to three deaths at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, according to research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Healthcare workers who had symptoms after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination had longer and stronger immunity than those who did not, researchers at Farmington, Conn.-based UConn Health, found, according to a March 6 news release.

Ahead of the ending COVID-19 emergency, several hospitals and health systems have begun to walk back their mask rules. 

Denver Health and Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth plan to lift universal mask mandates March 1, Colorado Public Radio reported Feb. 27. 

Raleigh-based North Carolina State University researchers developed an inhalable powder that can help protect a person's lungs and airways from viral infections.

Hospitalized patients taking proton pump inhibitors — medications used to treat heartburn — may be at a higher risk of acquiring multidrug-resistant bacteria, according to a study published Feb. 23 in JAMA Network Open. 

An 11-year-old Florida boy died of flesh-eating bacteria after spraining his ankle, NBC affiliate WESH reported Feb. 18.

Researchers at the University of Central Florida secured a patent for a "nanomaterial-based disinfectant that can kill several viruses," including SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, the Orlando-based school said Feb. 20. 

Health officials in Mississippi are continuing to watch the growing number of cases of Candida auris, a drug-resistant fungal infection, which is now believed to be the cause of four deaths in the state, according to a Feb. 20 report from Mississippi Today.

A recent study found a link between gender and the department in which a patient is hospitalized and mortality and length of stay.

After coming under fire from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Elon Musk's brain-computer interface company Neuralink is under investigation by the Department of Transportation for allegedly risking human exposure to deadly pathogens via contaminated hardware, CNBC reported Feb. 11.

New York state dropped its masking requirement regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status in hospitals on Feb. 12, giving healthcare organizations the ability to set their own masking guidelines going forward.

Researchers discovered that men with a history of C. difficile — one of the most common hospital-acquired infections — had lower rates of prostate cancer.

On Feb. 12, New York will allow its state mask mandate for hospitals and healthcare facilities to lapse, Spectrum News reports. Although the state will not enforce this, individual facilities can still choose to do so.

The discovery of a protein showed signs of being a possible therapeutic target for monoclonal antibody treatment in sepsis cases as well as other infectious diseases, including COVID-19, according to research led by Haichao Wang, PhD, a professor and director of the laboratory of emergency medicine at Northwell Health's Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in Manhasset, N.Y.

Three years into the pandemic and hundreds of studies later, evidence is still lacking as to what extent masks may slow the spread of respiratory viruses such as flu or COVID-19, according to a research review published Jan. 30 in the Cochrane Library. Researchers said the findings underscore the need for more studies to definitively understand masking's benefits and are not intended to be a case against the practice. 

Adults on dialysis treatment for end-stage kidney disease were 100 times more likely to be diagnosed with a Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection when compared with adults not on dialysis, according to a Feb. 6 CDC Vital Signs report.