Public Health

Summer COVID strain 2025, measles news, new RSV vaccine for infants and treatment for gonorrhea

| 10 Min Read

AMA Update covers a range of health care topics affecting the lives of physicians, residents, medical students and patients. From private practice and health system leaders to scientists and public health officials, hear from the experts in medicine on COVID-19, medical education, advocacy issues, burnout, vaccines and more.

How long does COVID last? What's the new COVID study? Is there a new COVID variant? What states have measles? Is there a new RSV vaccine?

AMA's Vice President of Science, Medicine and Public Health, Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, covers measles outbreaks, new COVID-19 research studies, the latest FDA approved vaccine for RSV, plus how to treat gonorrhea with new antibiotics. AMA Chief Experience Officer Todd Unger hosts.

Speaker

  • Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, vice president, science, medicine & public health, American Medical Association

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Garcia: The new COVID variant that's now spreading in the U.S. and other parts of the world is called NB.1.8.1, and it's being referred to as Nimbus. Like a recent COVID variance, Nimbus is a descendant of the Omicron variant, and back in the spring, it was behind a surge of cases in Asia. According to the CDC, it now accounts for more than one third of cases here in the U.S. 

Unger: Hello and welcome to the AMA Update video and podcast today is our weekly look at the public health issues facing physicians and patients across the country with the AMA's Vice President of Science, Medicine and Public Health, Andrea Garcia. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer. Welcome back Andrea. 

Garcia: Thanks, Todd. Good to see you, and great to be here as always. 

Unger: Lots to catch up on. Let's just start by talking about what's been happening with the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Andrea, take us through what's been happening. 

Garcia: Sure, Todd. So back on June 9, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that it would be reconstituting this committee and removing all 17 of its current members. As a reminder, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, is a group of medical and public health experts that advises the CDC on vaccine use in the U.S. population. 

Just two days after that initial announcement on the ninth, HHS Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. unveiled eight new people that he selected to serve on this committee. He also said that these new members will attend ACIP's next meeting, which is scheduled to take place from June 25 to the 27. 

Unger: Well, obviously, that is very significant, big news. What's the AMA perspective on this? 

Garcia: Well, following the initial announcement from HHS, the AMA put out a statement from our president at the time, Dr. Bruce Scott. In his remarks, Dr. Scott noted that ACIP has been a trusted source of advice and guidance for generations. Removing the 17 sitting members of this committee undermines that trust. And it upends a transparent process that has saved countless lives, and it will further fuel the spread of vaccine preventable illnesses. 

We also issued a statement from our new president, Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, about the eight new members of ACIP that the HHS Secretary selected. In his statement, Dr. Mukkamala said that the AMA is deeply concerned that the members have already been selected, which has happened without transparency and proper vetting. The AMA is urging the administration to reconsider removing the 17 ACIP members so physicians can continue to have confidence in that committee's recommendations. 

Unger: Well, this is certainly a development that we're going to continue to monitor closely. Also in recent weeks, COVID was back in the headlines with more news about a new variant. It's been a while since we've heard that word. Andrea, what do we need to know about that? 

Garcia: Well, the new COVID variant that's now spreading in the U.S. and other parts of the world is called NB.1.8.1, and it's being referred to as Nimbus. Like recent COVID variants, Nimbus is a descendant of the Omicron variant, and back in the spring, it was behind a surge of cases in Asia. According to the CDC, it now accounts for more than one third of cases here in the U.S. 

Now, back in May, the WHO designated Nimbus as a variant under monitoring and said that its spike mutations could potentially make it more transmissible. This is especially notable because, every year since 2020, we've seen COVID cases increase in the summer. And I think while it's too early to know what impact Nimbus will have on case counts, we'll continue to keep everyone up to date as we learn more over the coming weeks. 

Unger: All right. Thank you for that update. But it wasn't the only COVID story making the headlines. Also in the news were the results of two new studies about the process of recovering from a COVID infection. Andrea, what can you tell us about those studies? 

Garcia: Well, Todd, there are a lot of interesting findings for us to discuss here. Let's start with the study that was published in Open Forum for Infectious Diseases. This study looked at how health-related quality of life changed while recovering from a COVID infection over a 12-month period. It found that there was a meaningful recovery in physical well-being three months after infection. 

However, for mental well-being, that recovery took longer and meaningful improvement was seen after nine months. Additionally, it found that about 20% of patients continued to have overall suboptimal quality of life at one year. This study's findings are similar to others that we've discussed recently that show that long-term effects of a COVID infection can have on people. This point actually comes through in the next study that we're going to discuss as well. 

Unger: All right. Well, that's already one big finding. What can you tell us about the second study? 

Garcia: So the second study appeared in the Journal of Medical Virology. It was a systematic review and meta analysis that looked at the prevalence of symptoms three years after a COVID infection. And it found that 20% of patients reported one or more persistent symptoms after three years. 

Now, these symptoms included shortness of breath, fatigue, insomnia, loss of smell or taste, and anxiety. It also found that patients who were hospitalized with COVID were at an increased risk of death after three years. Previously, our understanding of the impact of a COVID infection was limited beyond that two-year mark, just due to the lack of data. This study starts to paint a clearer picture of that longer-term impact. And these findings also suggest a need to incorporate long COVID management into routine patient care. 

Unger: Well, thanks for walking us through that. Next up, there were some updates from the FDA about a new RSV vaccine for infants and a new treatment for gonorrhea. Andrea, tell us more about both of those. 

Garcia: So last week, the FDA approved a monoclonal antibody called clesrovimab, which helps prevent RSV in newborns and infants during their first RSV season. Now, this is the second monoclonal antibody immunization for infants to protect against RSV. The other is nirsevimab, which was approved by the FDA in July of 2023. In a statement about the FDA's approval, the manufacturer Merck noted that ACIP is scheduled to discuss a recommendation for this vaccine at its meeting later this month. 

Also last week, we learned that the FDA will review a new oral antibiotic for gonorrhea called dolophrosyne. If it's approved, it would be the first new antibiotic for gonorrhea in decades. Todd, this is especially significant because there's been rising antibiotic resistance to ceftriaxone, which is currently the recommended treatment for gonorrhea. 

Unger: And those are two welcome updates. Now let's shift gears and check in on the measles outbreak in the Southwest. Andrea, what's the update there? 

Garcia: Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we took a look at the case counts. And since then, we've continued to see slow increases in cases in most states. As of last Tuesday in Texas, the total number of measles cases had risen to 744. That was an increase in cases since the previous week. 

In New Mexico, the total number of cases was 81 at the end of last week. That means there have been no new cases for two weeks straight there. In Oklahoma, the total number of cases was 20 as of last Friday. And in Kansas, as of last Wednesday, there were a total of 76 cases, which was an increase of 3 from the week before. 

Unger: Andrea, are we continuing to see measles cases anywhere else? 

Garcia: Absolutely. So over the last two weeks, a number of states announced that they had more measles cases, including California, Colorado, Michigan and Montana. Meanwhile, Arizona confirmed its first measles case this year. 

In the CDC's weekly measles update, the agency reported that there have been a total of 1197 confirmed cases so far this year, reported by 35 jurisdictions. As we've discussed before, measles was officially eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. And when we say something is eliminated, it means there are no cases spreading in the country, and new cases are found when someone contracts measles while traveling abroad and returns home. 

Since then, the highest number of reported measles cases we've ever seen in a single year was in 2019, when there were 1274 cases. We are easily on track to surpass that number this year. Obviously, a sobering reminder that our work in addressing vaccine preventable disease is not done, and we're certainly going to have much more to do to reverse this trend in the years to come. 

Unger: Absolutely, Andrea. And thank you so much, as always, for joining us and keeping us up to date with each week. If you found this discussion valuable, you can support more programming like this. Physicians can join the AMA at ama-assn.org/joinnow

Patients you can get involved too by joining the AMA Patients Action Network at patientsactionnetwork.com. As always, you can find all our videos and podcasts at ama-assn.org/podcasts. Thanks for joining us today. Please take care. 


Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.

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