Browse Infectious Disease Alert Articles by Topic

Optimal Treatment of Vivax Malaria

In glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase-sufficient individuals in Southeast Asia, combined treatment with chloroquine and primaquine provides much more lasting relief from vivax malaria than either chloroquine alone or artesunate.

Infectious Disease Alert Updates

Tuberculosis Transmission From NAAT-negative Patients; Worldwide Rabies Risk: Dogs; Patients Need to Rethink the ‘Quality’ in Healthcare

Plazomicin (Zemdri)

Plazomicin is an aminoglycoside recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating complicated urinary tract infections.

Here Comes the Sun — And Here Comes Coccidioidomycosis

Another occupational outbreak of coccidioidomycosis in solar farm workers in an endemic area points to the continued risk and the difficulty of preventing such occurrences.

In Patients Who Self-catheterize, Antibiotic Prophylaxis Prevents UTIs but Increases Antibiotic Resistance

A randomized, open-label, superiority trial found that daily antibiotic prophylaxis for patients who use clean, intermittent self-catheterization reduced symptomatic urinary tract infections by 48% over a 12-month period. Antibiotic resistance became prevalent in urinary isolates from the group receiving prophylaxis compared to controls.

Childhood Diarrhea Varies Geographically Within Africa

Each year, 30 million preschool-aged children still get sick with diarrhea and 330,000 die. Most diarrheal illness and death is concentrated in a few high-risk areas, including parts of Benin, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Targeting preventive and therapeutic interventions in areas of risk could markedly reduce morbidity and mortality.

Infectious Disease Alert Updates

Pet Snake Snacks: A Salmonella Treat; Linking HIV-positive Inmates to Outpatient Care

Prophylactic Antibiotics for Acute Aspiration

Researchers compared outcomes in patients with aspiration pneumonitis who received prophylactic antibiotics during the first two days after macro-aspiration to patients who received only supportive care during this time. Among the 200 patients meeting the acute aspiration pneumonitis case definition, antimicrobial prophylaxis was not associated with improvement in mortality. However, patients receiving prophylactic antibiotics required more frequent escalation of antibiotics and received more days of antibiotics than those who were managed initially with supportive care alone.

Oral Vancomycin Is the Most Cost-effective Treatment for the First Recurrence of Clostridium Difficile Infection

The authors of a pharmacoeconomic study comparing bezlotoxumab plus oral vancomycin, oral vancomycin alone, and fidaxomicin found that oral vancomycin alone was the most cost-effective regimen to treat the first recurrence of Clostridium difficile infection.

Infections Associated With Travel to the United States

Infectious illness is common in travelers from other countries visiting the United States. Skin and soft tissue infections, respiratory infections, and gastrointestinal illness are most likely, but specific geographic illnesses such as Lyme disease also occur.