📄 Category

infectious diseases

242 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

Smartphone-connected, battery-free aptamer-based digital test for quantification of procalcitonin and monitoring of infection at the point of care

The researchers developed and validated ELLA-PCT, a battery-free, smartphone-connected electrochemical lateral flow assay that enables rapid, quantitative, and laboratory-grade detection of procalcitonin at the point of care, offering a decentralized solution for diagnosing bacterial infections and guiding antibiotic therapy in resource-limited settings.

Cai, Y., Flauzino, J. M. R., Sanli, A., Hu, T., Lee, H. S., Collins, A. S., Gonzalez-Macia, L., Williams, S., Frederico (…)2026-07-31
📄 infectious diseases

Large language models enable consensus-level interpretation in metagenomic diagnostics

This study demonstrates that locally deployed large language models, when combined with structured decision trees, can achieve expert-level consensus in interpreting metagenomic sequencing data for sterile-site specimens, thereby enabling scalable and standardized clinical pathogen diagnosis.

Steinig, E., Krysiak, M., Deo, K., Duncan, A., Prestedge, J., Barr, J., Moselen, J., Khan, S. F., Fernando, J. A., Savic (…)2026-07-31
📄 infectious diseases

High quality analysis of circulating biomarkers reveals no evidence of elevated inflammatory markers in a long COVID cohort recruited at a primary care center

This study utilized an enhanced biomarker panel with high-precision cytokine quantification to demonstrate that a primary care cohort of individuals with Long COVID does not exhibit elevated systemic inflammatory markers compared to age- and sex-matched controls who had recovered from acute infection.

Torres, M. L., Lerma-Irureta, D., Ibanez-Ruiz, J., Lucas, A., Magallon-Botaya, R., Schoorlemmer, J.2026-07-30
📄 infectious diseases

Biomarkers of protection against controlled human SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant breakthrough infection

This controlled human infection model study demonstrates that while low pre-existing serum neutralizing antibody levels are the primary predictor of susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 Delta breakthrough infection, a diverse multi-pronged immune response involving antibodies and T cells is associated with protection and reduced viral loads.

Singanayagam, A., Wagstaffe, H. R., Slater, L. J., Fox-Sheehan, P., Wu, M.-S., Mawer, A., Scott, H., Daly, O., Low, J. M (…)2026-07-28
📄 infectious diseases

RSV concentration in wastewater and trends among incident hospitalizations in children and older adults

This study demonstrates that wastewater-based epidemiology is a reliable surveillance tool for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) that correlates strongly with hospitalization trends, offering a three-week lag for children and a two-week early warning for older adults, with wastewater data explaining 88% of the variance in hospital admissions for the over-50 population.

Hill, D. T., Laplante, J., Byun, S., Alazawi, M., Gowie, D. L., Biswas, S., Hill, L., Zhu, Y., Foote, M., Kappus-Kron, H (…)2026-07-23
📄 infectious diseases

Predicting radiological severity of pulmonary tuberculosis in children: an assessment of the WHO-criteria and novel prediction scores on an individual participant dataset

This study evaluates WHO eligibility criteria and develops novel clinical scores for predicting radiological severity of pediatric pulmonary tuberculosis without chest X-rays, finding that while the new scores offer improved sensitivity over current criteria, both methods remain suboptimal for safely implementing shorter treatment regimens in children.

Gupta, A., van der Zalm, M. M., Nguyet, M. H. T. N., d'Elbee, M., Dodd, P. J., Palmer, M., Larsson, L., Razid, A., Hesse (…)2026-07-20
📄 infectious diseases

Simulation of synthetic health records for assessment of causal inference methods for vaccine efficacy

This paper demonstrates that low-fidelity synthetic datasets, generated from the EAVE-II platform using marginal structural models to simulate various confounding scenarios, can effectively validate causal inference methods for vaccine efficacy assessment, particularly showing that inverse probability of treatment weighting is necessary to recover true causal parameters under strong confounding.

Velasco Pardo, V., Daines, L., Katikireddi, S. V., Ritchie, L., Robertson, C., Simpson, C. R., McCowan, C., Swallow, B.2026-07-20
📄 infectious diseases

Malaria burden and care in hard-to-reach indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon during the COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study

This mixed-methods study reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated malaria burdens in remote Peruvian Amazon indigenous communities by disrupting healthcare access and control activities, resulting in high infection rates and highlighting the urgent need to strengthen surveillance and ensure continuity of care in isolated regions.

Fernandez, S. P., Rojas, L. M., Gomez, J., Sandoval-Bances, J., Condori-Catachura, S., Garcia, P. D., Abrams, S., Anthie (…)2026-07-15