SARS-CoV-2 infections among vaccinated nursing home residents increased after the Omicron variant emerged. Data on booster dose effectiveness in this population are limited. During July 2021-March 2022, nursing home outbreaks in 11 US jurisdictions involving >3 infections within 14 days among residents who had received at least the primary COVID-19 vaccine(s) were monitored. Among 2,188 nursing homes, 1,247 outbreaks were reported in the periods of Delta (n = 356, 29%), mixed Delta/Omicron (n = 354, 28%), and Omicron (n = 536, 43%) predominance. During the Omicron-predominant period, the risk for infection within 14 days of an outbreak start was lower among boosted residents than among residents who had received the primary vaccine series alone (risk ratio [RR] 0.25, 95% CI 0.19-0.33). Once infected, boosted residents were at lower risk for all-cause hospitalization (RR 0.48, 95% CI 0.40-0.49) and death (RR 0.45, 95% CI 0.34-0.59) than primary vaccine-only residents.

Among nursing home outbreaks of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with ≥3 breakthrough infections when the predominant severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variant circulating was the SARS-CoV-2 δ (delta) variant, fully vaccinated residents were 28% less likely to be infected than were unvaccinated residents. Once infected, they had approximately half the risk for all-cause hospitalization and all-cause death compared with unvaccinated infected residents.

CONTEXT: Between April 2020 and May 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) awarded more than $40 billion to health departments nationwide for COVID-19 prevention and response activities. One of the identified priorities for this investment was improving infection prevention and control (IPC) in nursing homes. PROGRAM: CDC developed a virtual course to train new and less experienced public health staff in core healthcare IPC principles and in the application of CDC COVID-19 healthcare IPC guidance for nursing homes. IMPLEMENTATION: From October 2020 to August 2021, the CDC led training sessions for 12 cohorts of public health staff using pretraining reading materials, case-based scenarios, didactic presentations, peer-learning opportunities, and subject matter expert-led discussions. Multiple electronic assessments were distributed to learners over time to measure changes in self-reported knowledge and confidence and to collect feedback on the course. Participating public health programs were also assessed to measure overall course impact. EVALUATION: Among 182 enrolled learners, 94% completed the training. Most learners were infection preventionists (42%) or epidemiologists (38%), had less than 1 year of experience in their health department role (75%), and had less than 1 year of subject matter experience (54%). After training, learners reported increased knowledge and confidence in applying the CDC COVID-19 healthcare IPC guidance for nursing homes (≥81%) with the greatest increase in performing COVID-19 IPC consultations and assessments (87%). The majority of participating programs agreed that the course provided an overall benefit (88%) and reduced training burden (72%). DISCUSSION: The CDC's virtual course was effective in increasing public health capacity for COVID-19 healthcare IPC in nursing homes and provides a possible model to increase IPC capacity for other infectious diseases and other healthcare settings. Future virtual healthcare IPC courses could be enhanced by tailoring materials to health department needs, reinforcing training through applied learning experiences, and supporting mechanisms to retain trained staff.

In May of 2018, PulseNet, the national molecular subtyping network for enteric pathogens, detected a multistate cluster of illnesses caused by an uncommon molecular subtype of Salmonella serovar Mbandaka. A case was defined as an illness in a person infected with the outbreak strain of Salmonella Mbandaka with illness onset on or after 3 March 2018 and before 1 September 2018. One-hundred thirty-six cases from 36 states were identified; 35 hospitalisations and no deaths were reported. Ill people ranged in age from <1 year to 95 years (median: 57 years). When standardised questionnaires did not generate a strong hypothesis, opened-ended interviews were performed. Sixty-three of 84 (75%) ultimately reported consuming or possibly consuming a specific sweetened puffed wheat cereal in the week before illness onset. Environmental sampling performed at the cereal manufacturing facility yielded the outbreak strain. The outbreak strain was also isolated from open cereal samples from ill people's homes and from a sealed retail sample. Due to these findings, the brand owner of the product issued a voluntary recall of the cereal on 14 June 2018. Additional investigation of the manufacturing facility identified persistent environmental contamination with Salmonella Mbandaka that was closely genetically related to other isolates in the outbreak. This investigation highlights the ability of Salmonella to survive in low-moisture environments, and the potential for prolonged outbreaks linked to products with long shelf lives and large distribution areas.

BACKGROUND: Adult residents of skilled nursing facilities (SNF) have experienced high morbidity and mortality from SARS-CoV-2 infection and are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease. Use of monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment improves clinical outcomes among high-risk outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, but information on mAb effectiveness in SNF residents with COVID-19 is limited. We assessed outcomes in SNF residents with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 associated with an outbreak in Arizona during January-February 2021 that did and did not receive a mAb. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed to describe the effect of bamlanivimab therapy on COVID-19 mortality. Secondary outcomes included referral to an acute care setting and escalation of medical therapies at the SNF (e.g., new oxygen requirements). Residents treated with bamlanivimab were compared to residents who were eligible for treatment under the FDA's Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) but were not treated. Multivariable logistic regression was used to determine association between outcomes and treatment status. RESULTS: Seventy-five residents identified with COVID-19 during this outbreak met eligibility for mAb treatment, of whom 56 received bamlanivimab. Treated and untreated groups were similar in age and comorbidities associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 disease. Treatment with bamlanivimab was associated with reduced 21-day mortality (adjusted OR=0.06; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.39) and lower odds of initiating oxygen therapy (adjusted OR=0.07; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.34). Referrals to acute care were not significantly different between treated and untreated residents. CONCLUSIONS: mAb therapy was successfully administered to SNF residents with COVID-19 in a large outbreak setting. Treatment with bamlanivimab reduced 21-day mortality and reduced initiation of oxygen therapy. As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves and newer immunotherapies gain FDA authorization, more studies of the effectiveness of mAb therapies for treating emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in high-risk congregate settings are needed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Opioid use disorder and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) increased in Massachusetts from 1999 to 2013 (1,2). In response, in 2016, the state passed a law requiring birth hospitals to report the number of newborns who were exposed to controlled substances to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH)* by mandating monthly reporting of International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) diagnostic codes related to maternal dependence on opioids (F11.20) or benzodiazepines (F13.20) and to newborns affected by maternal use of drugs of addiction (P04.49) or experiencing withdrawal symptoms from maternal drugs of addiction (P96.1) separately.(†) MDPH uses these same codes for monthly, real-time crude estimates of NAS and uses P96.1 alone for official NAS state reporting.(§) MDPH requested CDC's assistance in evaluating the sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of either maternal or newborn codes to identify substance-exposed newborns, and of newborn exposure codes (both exposure [P04.49] or withdrawal [P96.1]) and the newborn code for withdrawal alone (P96.1) to identify infants with NAS cases related to three exposure scenarios: 1) opioids, 2) opioids or benzodiazepines, and 3) any controlled substance. Confirmed diagnoses of substance exposure and NAS abstracted from linked clinical records for 1,123 infants born in 2017 and their birth mothers were considered the diagnostic standard and were compared against hospital-reported ICD-10-CM codes. For identifying substance-exposed newborns across the three exposure scenarios, the newborn exposure codes had higher sensitivity (range = 31%-61%) than did maternal drug dependence codes (range = 16%-41%), but both sets of codes had high PPV (≥74%). For identifying NAS, for all exposure scenarios, the sensitivity for either newborn code (P04.49 or P96.1) was ≥92% and the PPV was ≥64%; for P96.1 alone the sensitivity was ≥79% and the PPV was ≥92% for all scenarios. Whereas ICD-10-CM codes are effective for NAS surveillance in Massachusetts, they should be applied cautiously for substance-exposed newborn surveillance. Surveillance for substance-exposed newborns using ICD-10-CM codes might be improved by increasing the use of validated substance-use screening tools and standardized facility protocols and improving communication between patients and maternal health and infant health care providers.

During July 2017, Texas public health officials noted an increase in the number of reported cyclosporiasis cases. They detected a cluster in the Houston metropolitan area that involved four locations of a Mediterranean restaurant chain, restaurant A. A case-control study was conducted among patrons of restaurant A to identify a common food vehicle among items containing fresh produce. In matched case-control ingredient-level analyses that included both probable and confirmed cases, consumption of green onions, red onions, tomatoes, and cabbage was significantly associated with illness. A substantial percentage of case patients reported consumption of green onions, and only green onions remained statistically significantly associated with illness, whether probable and confirmed cases were included in analyses (matched odds ratio: 11.3; 95% confidence interval: 2.5 to 104.7), or only confirmed cases were included in analyses (matched odds ratio: 17.6; 95% confidence interval: 2.5 to 775.7). These results provide evidence that green onions were the likely vehicle of infection. It was not possible to trace the green onions to their source due to the need to redirect public health resources to Hurricane Harvey response efforts in Texas.

In August 2018, CDC noted an increased number of reports of patients having symptoms clinically compatible with acute flaccid myelitis (AFM), a rare condition characterized by rapid onset of flaccid weakness in one or more limbs and spinal cord gray matter lesions, compared with August 2017. Since 2014, CDC has conducted surveillance for AFM using a standardized case definition (1,2). An Epi-X* notice was issued on August 23, 2018, to increase clinician awareness and provide guidance for case reporting.

During July 21–August 8, 2017, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) was notified of 20 cases of cyclosporiasis among persons who dined at a Mediterranean-style restaurant chain (chain A) in the Houston area. On August 10, 2017, DSHS requested assistance from CDC to support ongoing investigations by the City of Houston Health Department, Harris County Public Health, Fort Bend County Health and Human Services, and Brazoria County Health Department. The objectives of this investigation were to determine the source of the illnesses in the Houston area and to generate hypotheses about the source of the national increase in cyclosporiasis in 2017.