The Journal of infectious diseases
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Perhaps the most dramatic finding in the 2014 National Institutes of Health Physician-Scientist Workforce Working Group Report is the aging of the physician-scientist workforce. There are currently 1.6-fold more physician-scientists over the age of 61 than under the age of 50, indicating that our pipeline of physician-scientists is insufficient to maintain current numbers. Several factors likely contribute to this leaky pipeline, including the long training periods, poor compensation during training, diminished funding odds for young investigators, and lack of role models, particularly for women and underrepresented minorities. This perspective will present several ideas for how training programs can play a role in assuring a robust pipeline of future physician scientists.
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Translational research is often conceptualized with an implicit directionality, taking an idea generated in the laboratory (ie, the "bench") and applying it at the point of care (ie, the "bedside"). This role is often played by physician-scientists who work both in the laboratory and in the clinic. ⋯ The goal of this editorial is to highlight this often overlooked role that clinical-translational physician-scientists can play in translating observations at the bedside to efforts at the bench, highlighting their importance for scientific progress and discussing the type of research training and scientific environments that can help these individuals flourish. The importance of cohort studies and multidisciplinary team science in this context will also be highlighted.
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The Infectious Diseases Society of America, HIV Medicine Association, and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society are concerned by the continued decline in the number of infectious diseases trainees pursuing careers as physician-scientists and the attrition of junior and midcareer physician-scientists. The inability to replace the aging physician-scientist workforce will have a negative, long-lasting impact our biomedical research enterprise and its ability to drive the discovery of new treatments for important infectious diseases. We discuss policy recommendations for securing and optimizing the infectious diseases physician-scientist workforce in the areas of education, training, compensation, and mentorship, as well as ways to improve federal research funding, cross-sector collaboration, and workforce diversity.
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The use of ribavirin to treat Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) infection has been controversial, based on uncertainties about its antiviral efficacy in clinical case studies. We studied the effect of ribavirin treatment on viral populations in a recent case by deep-sequencing analysis of plasma samples obtained from a CCHFV-infected patient before, during, and after a 5-day regimen of ribavirin treatment. The CCHFV load dropped during ribavirin treatment, and subclonal diversity (transitions) and indels increased in viral genomes during treatment. Although the results are based on a single case, these data demonstrate the mutagenic effect of ribavirin on CCHFV in vivo.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Safety and Immunogenicity of 3 Formulations of an Investigational Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine in Nonpregnant Women: Results From 2 Phase 2 Trials.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes bronchiolitis and pneumonia in neonates and infants. RSV vaccination during pregnancy could boost preexisting neutralizing antibody titers, providing passive protection to newborns. ⋯ All formulations of RSV-PreF boosted preexisting immune responses in 18-45-year old women with comparable immunogenicity. The RSV-PreF safety profile was similar to that of Tdap vaccine.