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Rifaximin (Xifaxan) has rreceived US FDA approval on May 25, 2004, for the treatment of travelers diarrhea caused by enteropathogenic (non-invasive) Eschericiha coli in individuals at least 12 years of age. Rifaximin is a rifamycin that is poorly absorbed (< 0.4%) from the gastrointestinal tract, and thus achieves very high concentrations in the feces.
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Erythromycin use is associated with a 2-fold increased risk of sudden cardiac death and a 5-fold increase in those who concurrently receive other medications that significantly inhibit its metabolism by CYP3A4.
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Five days of oral treatment with azithromycin appeared to be at least as effective as a similar duration of treatment of treatment with ceftriaxone in children in Cairo with typhoid fever.
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To avert a looming public health crisis with a unique set of underlying causes, Congress and the administration, including federal public health agencies, must act quickly to reinvigorate pharmaceutical investment in antibiotic research and development (R&D). Otherwise, doctors wont have drugs to protect Americans against antibiotic-resistant infections a rapidly growing and often deadly problem.
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A hospital in Melbourne, Australia has contacted 1,056 patients who underwent brain or spinal surgery in the past 18 months after a patient died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), according to published reports. Australian health authorities said in a statement there was an extremely remote risk that the disease could be spread by surgical equipment.
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A new draft pandemic influenza plan issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services calls for a combination of standard precautions and droplet isolation measures and an overall atmosphere of respiratory etiquette in hospitals caring for flu patients.
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The danger of the next influenza pandemic has become so crystal clear and ever present that the recently released federal pandemic influenza plan has become something of a page turner among the normally dry reading requirements of the infection control professional. The draft document by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is being reviewed by many as if it may have to be implemented all too soon.
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The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) rallied its members recently in support of a congressional action that could block controversial respirator fit-testing requirements.
