Browse Infectious Disease Alert Articles by Topic

When Profiling Is a Good Thing: Distinguishing Bacterial from Viral Infection

Transcriptional analysis outperformed serum procalcitonin in distinguishing viral from bacterial infections.

Does Bacteremia Associated with Bone and Joint Infections Require Prolonged IV Antibiotic Therapy?

Two hundred sixty-five children with culture-proven acute bone or joint infections were studied. All patients received 2-4 days of IV antibiotics followed by PO antibiotics. Clinical outcomes and resolution of inflammatory biomarkers were the same whether the patient had positive blood cultures or not on admission.

BCG — Back to the Future?

In a population-based study, neonatal vaccination with bacille Calmette-Guérin significantly reduced rates of hospitalization for non-tuberculous respiratory infection and sepsis. BCG vaccine might provide significant protection through nonspecific immune enhancement.

Polio — New Strategies as We Get Close to Eradication

The switch to a bivalent live attenuated oral polio vaccine by elimination of serotype 2 will be coordinated with the use of trivalent inactivated vaccine. The goal is to eliminate outbreaks of polio due to vaccine serotype 2, the major cause of such events.

Antibiotics for Acute Appendicitis

ABSTRACT & COMMENTARY: Of those who needed surgery after treatment with antibiotics, the risk for complications was low.

Infectious Disease Alert Updates

Point-of-Care Syphilis Testing; Revised Urinary Catheter Use Guidelines; HIV and Meningococcal Vaccination Revisited

MERS: From the Middle East to East Asia

On May 20, 2015, a 68-year-old Korean man with fever and cough who had returned eight days previously from a trip to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates was found to be infected with MERS coronavirus.

Travel Medicine: News You Can Use

In May, 1,296 travel medicine specialists gathered in Quebec City, Canada, for the 14th biannual conference of the International Society of Travel Medicine. Several of the topics discussed are practically relevant to readers of Infectious Disease Alert, so we offer this Top 10 list of news items.

Infectious Diseases Grand Rounds — Stanford University

CASE: A 55-year-old male with an atypical cause of osteo-articular infection

Measles-induced Immunomodulation and Impact on Childhood Mortality

Population-level studies in high-resource countries demonstrated that fluctuations in childhood mortality from all infectious diseases are strongly associated with measles infection. The effect is likely attributable to generalized immunomodulation that follows measles infection, with a duration of two to three years.