Infectious Disease Alert – May 1, 2016
May 1, 2016
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Longer Course Therapy for Lyme Disease Is Not Beneficial
A randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial from the Netherlands found that longer-term antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease did not improve health-related quality of life compared to a standard course of treatment.
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Prolonged Empiric Antibiotic Therapy (PEAT) in Adult Intensive Care Units
Nine hundred ninety-eight patients admitted to 67 adult ICUs in 32 hospitals in the United States over a 24-hour period in 2011 were studied. Prolonged empiric antibiotic therapy was defined as continuing empiric antibiotics beyond 72 hours in patients in the absence of adjudicated infection as defined by CDC criteria. Three hundred thirty-three of 660 (50%) antibiotics were continued for at least 72 hours in patients who did not meet the CDC case definition of infection. Suspected pneumonia was the most common diagnosis in patients receiving PEAT. ICUs using invasive techniques to diagnose ventilator-associated pneumonia had lower rates of PEAT.
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Adverse Fetal Outcomes of Dengue During Pregnancy
During pregnancy, dengue infection, especially with symptomatic illness, is associated with increased risks of miscarriage, stillbirth, and low birthweight.
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Urban Yellow Fever in Angola: Lessons from a Large Outbreak
A large urban outbreak of yellow fever in Angola illustrates the obstacles to rapid control of this vaccine-preventable disease.
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Malaria in the United States
The number of reported cases of malaria in the United States in 2013 increased slightly over the previous year, while the 10 reported deaths were the most since 2001.
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Tenofovir Alafenamide vs. Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate
The FDA has approved a new prodrug of tenofovir. Tenofovir alafenamide has replaced the tenofovir disoproxil fumarate component of two commonly used drug combinations for HIV-1 infection.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
TB Quant Problematic in Leprosy; Trapping Flu Particles; An Old Scourge Revisited: Congenital Syphilis