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Sandiumenge and colleagues evaluated the effects of three strategies of antibiotic prescribing in a 14-bed ICU. The strategies were applied serially, beginning with an initial 10-month period during which patients with suspected ventilator-associated pneumonia received "patient-specific therapy" in which multiple antibiotic regimens, chosen on the basis of length-of-stay and recent antibiotic exposure, were used.
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Infection control practices and other "hospital factors" specific to individual institutions appear to be a greater influence on infection risk than a patient's severity of illness, researchers found.
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The program developed at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore that pushed catheter-related bloodstream infection rates to zero in some intensive care units is based on the following four overriding principles. Sara Cosgrove, MD, hospital epidemiologist, comments on each one as follows:
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The World Health Organization/International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease Global Project on Anti-tuberculosis Drug Resistance began collecting its data in 1994 on drug resistance in 90 countries.
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This article originally appeared in the August 2006 issue of Travel Medicine Advisor. It was edited by Frank Bia, MD, MPH, and peer reviewed by Philip R. Fischer, MD, DTM&H. Dr. Fishcer is Professor of Pediatrics, Divsion of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. Dr. Fishcer reports no financial relationships relevant to this field of study.
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HIV antiretroviral therapy treatment soon will become a whole lot simpler than most antibiotic regimens when the FDA approves the combination pill of efavirenz/emtricitabine/ tenofovir (Truvada/Sustiva).
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Within the United States, 3 groups of individuals have been deemed the highest priority for annual influenza vaccination based on estimates of risk: (1) Persons ¡Ý 65 yrs; (2) Persons 18-64 yrs with chronic health conditions such as cardiorespiratory disease or who reside in a long-term care facility; (3) and health care workers and other persons with close contact with groups 1 and 2.
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Of 696 episodes of community-acquired meningitis in adults identified by the nationwide Dutch Meningitis Cohort study from 1998 to 2002, 30 (4%) were due to Listeria monocytogenes. The mean age was 65 ± 18 years; all 10 of the previously immunocompetent patients were >50 years of age.
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The new quadrivalent Human Papillomavirus (HPV) L1 virus-like particle vaccine (types 6, 11, 16, 18) was studied for immunogenicity and reactogenicity in 506 girls and 510 boys (10-15 years of age) and 513 young women (16-23 years of age). Vaccine was administered in the standard schedule of 0, 2, and 6 months. Type-specific serologies were performed in a blinded fashion using a competitive Luminex xMAP-based immunoassay (cLIA) on serum samples obtained at 0, 3, and 7 months.
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Community-Associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) has emerged as an important cause of skin and soft-tissue infection. Most isolates of CA-MRSA are positive for the Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL), an exotoxin that is generally absent from "classic" hospital-associated MRSA strains. This suggests that PVL may be an important virulence determinant in CA-MRSA.
