📄 Category

infectious diseases

194 papers

Infectious diseases represent one of the most dynamic frontiers in global health, covering everything from seasonal flu outbreaks to emerging viral threats that cross borders. This field focuses on how pathogens spread, how our immune systems respond, and the strategies scientists use to stop infections before they become epidemics. Because the science moves fast, waiting for traditional publication often means missing critical insights that could save lives.

At Gist.Science, we process every new preprint in this category directly from medRxiv to ensure you see the latest findings the moment they appear. Our team transforms these raw studies into both accessible plain-language explanations and detailed technical summaries, bridging the gap between complex research and public understanding. Below are the latest papers in infectious diseases, updated daily with fresh insights from the global research community.

📄 infectious diseases

Sustained Specific EBOV GP Immunogenicity Five-Years Post-Vaccination: Longitudinal Results from North Kivu and Equateur, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Five years after receiving the rVSV-ZEBOV-GP vaccine during the 2018 Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a longitudinal study of 1,081 individuals demonstrated that the majority retained sustained detectable anti-EBOV GP antibodies, with response durability varying by prior exposure history and booster administration.

Merritt, S., Hoff, N. A., Mukadi, P. K., Kompany, J. P., Halbrook, M., Tambu, M., Beya, M., Kalengi, H., Etuk, V., Wong (…)2026-05-22
📄 infectious diseases

Geographical targeting of active case finding for tuberculosis in Pakistan using artificial intelligence software (SPOT-TB): a pragmatic stepped wedge cluster randomized control trial.

This pragmatic stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial in Pakistan demonstrates that an AI-guided targeting strategy (MATCH-AI) significantly improves the yield of bacteriologically confirmed tuberculosis during active case-finding camps compared to conventional site-selection methods, particularly in rural districts and areas with moderate baseline yields.

Mahfooz, A., Latif, A., Zaidi, S. M. A., Ahmed, W., Nawaz, N., Reza, T. E., Tahir, A., Ur Rehman, F., Naveed, S., Shahid (…)2026-05-22
📄 infectious diseases

Analysis Of Salivary Herpesviruses Reveals Associations Between HHV-6 And Long COVID Severity

This study of 45 Long COVID patients and matched controls found that while salivary hormone levels and viral shedding patterns did not differ significantly between groups, higher salivary HHV-6 DNA levels were positively associated with increased Long COVID symptom severity, anxiety, and depression.

Laxton, C. S., Tabachnikova, A., Cooke, L., Wang, K., Blaser, S., Silva, J., Wood, J., Nam, H., Lu, Z., Miller, C., Rodr (…)2026-05-21
📄 infectious diseases

Cytokine storm dynamics in hantavirus pulmonary syndrome: a multiscale ODE model with Wasserstein early-warning score and application to the 2026 Andes virus outbreak

This paper presents a multiscale ODE model of the 2026 Andes virus outbreak on the MV Hondius that identifies a critical immunopathological feedback loop as the driver of fatal cytokine storms, proposing a Wasserstein-based early-warning score and exogenous IL-10 supplementation as the most effective intervention to prevent vascular permeability failure.

des Rochettes, B.2026-05-20✓ Author reviewed ⓘ
📄 infectious diseases

Wastewater Surveillance as an Event Detection System: Outbreak and Peak Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Across 281 U.S. Counties

This paper introduces a novel classification-based framework for evaluating wastewater-based surveillance as an event-detection system, demonstrating that a Bayesian exponential growth model substantially outperforms traditional methods in reliably identifying SARS-CoV-2 outbreak onsets and epidemic peaks across 281 U.S. counties.

Link, N. B., Garrido, R., Nande, A., Santillana, M.2026-05-19
📄 infectious diseases

Multi-organ post-acute sequelae of major respiratory and Aedes-borne arboviral diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes evidence on multi-organ post-acute sequelae across major respiratory and Aedes-borne diseases, revealing that infant RSV infection significantly increases asthma risk and dengue fever elevates risks for various neurological, psychiatric, autoimmune, and cardiovascular conditions, while highlighting substantial heterogeneity in study designs that limits broader comparability.

Ponce, L. J., Xu, B., Choo, E. L. W., Chow, J. Y., Rayapati, R., Ling, B. Z. M., Wee, L. E., Li, R., Lye, D. C. B., Ooi (…)2026-05-19
📄 infectious diseases

Predictors of treatment outcomes in adults with drug-sensitive Tuberculosis in Maharashtra, India: A retrospective study

This retrospective study of over 320,000 adult drug-sensitive tuberculosis patients in Maharashtra, India, utilized programmatic data to identify that increasing age, male gender, lower body weight, comorbidities (HIV and diabetes), and substance use are significant predictors of both unfavorable treatment outcomes and mortality.

Parthasarathy, R., Raj, Y., Majumder, N., Mitra, M., Mehra, S., Rao, R., Rajan, S.2026-05-15
📄 infectious diseases

The germinal center B cell response to pneumococcal conjugate vaccines is antigenically restricted.

This study reveals that while pneumococcal conjugate vaccination triggers broad memory B cell expansion in peripheral blood, the germinal center response in lymph nodes is antigenically restricted to a limited number of specificities, suggesting that antigenic competition and extrafollicular responses play critical roles in adult immunity to multivalent vaccines.

de Vos, D. W., Johnson, M., Hoving, D., Loe-Sack-Sioe, G. E., Kienhuis, C., van Persijn van Meerten, E. L., Goldblatt, D (…)2026-05-15
📄 infectious diseases

Population scale proteomics enables adaptive digital twin modelling in sepsis

By integrating clinical data and plasma proteomics from over 3,000 patients, this study establishes a digital twin framework that enables precise sepsis diagnosis, prognostic prediction, and personalized therapeutic recommendations at emergency department admission to advance precision medicine.

Scott, A. M., Mellhammar, L., Malmström, E., Goch Gustafsson, A., Bakochi, A., Isaksson, M., Mohanty, T., Thelaus, L. (…)2026-05-13
📄 infectious diseases

Detection of a Vibrio paracholerae Case in a Diarrheal Disease Outbreak in Costa Rica

This paper reports the first documented detection of *Vibrio paracholerae* in a Costa Rican foodborne outbreak, highlighting the limitations of conventional diagnostic methods and emphasizing the critical need for genomic surveillance to accurately identify emerging enteropathogens.

Cordero-Laurent, E., Calderon-Osorno, M., Godinez-Rojas, A., Blanco-Arguedas, J., Barquero-Urena, G., Umana-Valverde, E. (…)2026-05-12