Bacteria
Walker et al. The Minimum Growth Temperatures of Shiga Toxin–Producing Escherichia coli. Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. 2026;23(3). DOI: 10.1089/fpd.2024. Free access.
Authors investigated minimum growth temperatures for 48 STEC-strains, none of which were <8°C (or 46.4°F) in laboratory conditions. Previous studies had investigated much fewer strains, finding similar minimum growth temperatures. Important limitations include not accounting for cold adaptation, which might lead to lower minimum growth temperatures and is a process that could occur in real-life conditions.
Siamalube et al. Vibrio cholerae: Understanding a persistent pathogen in Sub-Saharan Africa and the East Mediterranean Region. Pathogens and Disease. 2025;84:ftaf004. DOI: 10.1093/femspd/ftaf004. Open access.
This review clarifies important factors exacerbating high Vibrio cholerae burden in specific regions in the Global South. There are ongoing cholera outbreaks in Sub-Saharan Africa and the East Mediterranean regions, both of which experience armed conflict, infrastructural challenges and climate burdens. These factors play crucial roles in sustaining the outbreaks by damaging water and sanitation systems or making them inaccessible or over-crowded, contaminating water supplies and making diagnosis and treatment inaccessible. Similar challenges complicate vaccine delivery. The authors therefore recommend improved water and sanitation infrastructure and vaccine innovation, among other strategies for long-term cholera control.
If you’re wondering why I included a year-old paper in this list: for some reason, the publisher sent me an email alert with this issue in it. The journal isn’t even accepting new admissions anymore, it’s defunct! Interesting paper, still.
Auta et al. Global and regional knowledge of antibiotic use and resistance among the general public: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 2026;32(3):399-407. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmi.2025.11.016. Open access.
The authors report that a majority of the population understands that antibiotics are effective against bacteria, but that a minority of the population is aware that antibiotics are ineffective against viruses. Most people appear to know that unnecessary use of antibiotics leads to resistance, but most people do not know that resistant organisms can be spread. As expected, regional differences in knowledge levels were observed, probably influenced by antimicrobial resistance awareness campaigns in several regions, though knowledge of ability of spread of resistant organisms from person to person was low everywhere. This represents a global knowledge gap, which can be addressed in campaign messaging. Note that the vast majority of included studies were observed to suffer from sampling bias and low response rates, though sensitivity analyses that excluded studies with high risk of bias found similar results as the original analyses.
Viruses
Săndulescu et al. Achieving global immunity against hepatitis A through universal vaccination: a position paper from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Study Group for Viral Hepatitis. Clinical Microbiology and Infection. 2026;32(3):416-426. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmi.2025.11.026. Open access.
Globally, hepatitis A burden is high, with significant regional heterogeneity. Due to improved sanitation in low-endemicity countries and (therefore) less seropositivity in (young) adults, an increasing – and increasingly old – population is at risk for hepatitis A infection, which translates to increased morbidity and mortality risk. The authors’ position is that due to high hepatitis A vaccine efficacy, robust vaccine safety profile, long-term vaccine protection, relatively low estimated required vaccination threshold for herd immunity (70-80%), stable genetic structure of the hepatitis A virus preventing vaccine escape, and cost-effectiveness, eradication of hepatitis A is feasible and purposeful. The authors suggest several (concomitant) pathways to achieve eradication: universal infant vaccination, catch-up vaccination for unimmunized children and outbreak-response and targeted immunization. The authors combine these pathways to propose a phased global approach. As with any vaccine program, vaccine supply and cost, logistics, vaccine hesitancy within the population and financing of the program are possible barriers for successful program roll-out and goal achievement, which should therefore be addressed adequately through regional and global collaboration. Of note, the authors suggest studying the effectiveness of single-dose programs.