Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1468749
12 INFECTION CONTROL Children's Hospital Los Angeles selects winners of vaccine innovation challenge By Katie Adams C hildren's Hospital Los Angeles on April 25 selected three winners of its VaxUp Challenge, a campaign to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among children and teens. e hospital partnered with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health for the program, which was designed to test, generate and scale creative ideas that will increase COVID-19 vaccination rates in children and teens who are disproportionately affected by the virus. e three winning teams will receive $75,000 each to further develop their programs and pilot them in Los Angeles County, according to a news release. ey winners are: 1. Kedren Community Health Center: e center plans to continue its work vaccinating the community through free and immersive family-friendly events and mobile vaccine clinics. 2. Northeast Valley Health Corp.: e provider developed a program in which patients receive an electronic vaccine readiness assessment. Clinical staff then use data from the assessment, as well as a persona-based algorithm, to create customized motivational interviewing techniques specific to the patient's circumstances and beliefs. 3. MiVacunaLA: MiVacunaLA will enroll 600 Latino parents with at least one unvaccinated child in a four-week program in which they will receive credible vaccination information via text messages. e program will also train 20 Latino parent ambassadors with at least one vaccinated child to recruit nonvaccinated families and share reliable vaccine information. n Syphilis, gonorrhea cases jumped amid pandemic: 5 CDC findings By Mackenzie Bean R eported cases of sexually transmitted diseases fell during the start of the pandemic — likely due to a drop in screenings — but most rose by the end of 2020, CDC data shows. The CDC's 2020 STD surveillance report, released April 12, is based on 2020 case notification data submitted through the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System, along with data collected through the agen- cy's STD Surveillance Network and Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project. Five things to know: 1. Reported cases of gonorrhea jumped 10 percent from 2019, while syphilis cases rose 7 percent. 2. Cases of congenital syphilis were also up 15 percent from 2019 and 235 percent from 2016. 3. Early data suggest syphilis and congenital syphilis continued to rise in 2021. 4. Cases of chlamydia fell 13 percent in 2020, likely due to decreased STD screenings and underdiagnosis during the pandemic, the CDC said. 5. The drop in reported chlamydia cases, which histori- cally make up the largest proportion of STDs in the U.S., likely contributed to an overall decrease in the number of reported STDs in 2020 (2.4 million, compared to 2.5 million in 2019). n Cleveland Clinic names inaugural global director of vaccine development By Kelly Gooch T ed Ross, PhD, was tapped as global director of vaccine development at Cleveland Clinic, a newly created role. Dr. Ross, an expert in virology, vaccines, immunology and microbiology, will focus on development of novel vaccine platforms for flu, HIV, COVID-19 and other infectious dis- eases, according to an April 28 news release. "Ted is one of the preeminent vaccine researchers in the world," Serpil Erzurum, MD, chief research and academ- ic officer at Cleveland Clinic, said in the release. "His groundbreaking translational research will accelerate our efforts to develop critically needed new treatments and vaccines for pathogens and virus-induced cancers." Previously, Dr. Ross was the Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar of Infectious Diseases and director of the Center for Vaccines and Immunology at the University of Georgia in Athens. He also previously served as director of vaccines and viral immunity at the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute of Florida in Port St. Lucie. In his new role, Dr. Ross will be based at Cleveland Clinic's Florida Research and Innovation Center, also in Port St. Lucie, according to the release. Cleveland Clinic is an integrated international health system with more than 65,000 employees worldwide. n