Browse Infectious Disease Articles by Topic

Consider Probiotics in Patients at High Risk of C. diff Infection

After the most exhaustive analysis to date on the efficacy of probiotics in preventing Clostridium difficile infection, a researcher recommends that high-risk patients consider taking the products.

HICPAC Taking New Approach to IC Recommendations

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principle infection control advisory committee is taking steps to clarify its recommendations, be more transparent about its review of research, and, to paraphrase Voltaire, quit making “perfect the enemy of good.”

IC Leadership Rounds: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

Once consigned to silos themselves, infection preventionists are increasingly out on the floors and inviting their administrators to join them in “leadership rounds.”

Lightning Strikes: Fatal Infections of Rare Origin

Consider two separate tales of transplant and transfusion gone horribly awry by the narrowest of margins. Each represents a conspiracy of unlikely events that enabled deadly pathogens to find a path to frail patients.

Infectious Disease Alert Updates

House Mice as Vectors; Eat Your Fruits and Vegetables — or You Might Get TB!

Another Reason to Get the Flu Shot Every Year

In a case-control study, among older adults, repeated vaccination for influenza was twice as effective in preventing severe influenza compared to non-severe influenza in patients who were admitted to the hospital.

Fosfomycin or Nitrofurantoin for Cystitis?

A single dose of fosfomycin was found to be less effective than five days of thrice-daily dosing of nitrofurantoin in the treatment of symptomatic lower urinary tract infection in women.

PANDAS: Examining the Evidence for Treatment Options

Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) is a proposed disorder first named in 1998 that has been the subject of controversy in the literature. Although the debate has waned somewhat in the United States, it remains a topic of discussion in many European medical journals. A recent systematic review found no evidence for antimicrobial or immunomodulatory treatment for this condition.

Antibiotic Cycling Is Not Useful for Reducing Antibiotic-resistant Gram-negative Pathogens in Patients Admitted to Intensive Care Units

A randomized study that included eight intensive care units in Europe found no reduction in mortality or carriage of antibiotic-resistant gram-negative pathogens with antibiotic cycling compared to antibiotic mixing.

Azithromycin Saves Lives in Africa

Approximately 200,000 preschool-aged children in communities in Malawi, Niger, and Tanzania were treated twice yearly with either azithromycin or placebo. Communities in which azithromycin was provided had 13.5% less all-cause mortality than did placebo-treated communities. In children 1 to 5 months of age, the mortality was 25% lower with azithromycin than with placebo.