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Reservoir bugs: CRE in long term acute care hospitals threatens to spread to other facilities

Long term acute care (LTAC) hospitals have been described as a "perfect storm" for emergence of multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs).

Infectious Disease Alert Updates

The problem of diagnosing TB in children

How best to treat latent TB?

Transmission risk in smear-negative TB

Antibiotics for Traveler’s Diarrhea?

Foreign travel is associated with travelers’ diarrhea and the intestinal acquisition of extended-spectrum beta lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, especially when travel is to South Asia. The risk of acquisition of resistant flora was almost doubled when antibiotics were used to treat the episode of diarrhea.

Ceftolozane/Tazobactam — Formulary Considerations

Information about ceftolozane/tazobactam

Deworming Is Beneficial in HIV-infected Patients

988 HIV-infected pregnant women receiving ART in sub-Saharan Africa were treated with albendazole in a targeted or non-targeted fashion. Albendazole therapy was associated with favorable changes in hemoglobin levels, CD4 counts, and viral loads, particularly in patients with helminth infections.

Combination Therapy for Invasive Aspergillosis in Patients with Hematologic Malignancies or Hematopoeitic Cell Transplants

In an evaluation of the primary endpoint, all-cause mortality at 6 weeks, there was no statistically significant difference between treatment with voriconazole alone or in combination with anidulafungin in patients with invasive aspergillosis and hematologic malignancies or hematopoietic stem cell transplants.

Measles in Our Not-So-Magical Kingdom

ABSTRACT & COMMENTARY: Routine vaccination would have prevented most of these recent cases in California.

HAI report: Hard-won gains fall short of ‘ambitious’ targets

Nobody said this was going to be easy. While much progress has been made, the unvarnished truth is that not one of the national health care associated infection (HAI) five-year reduction goals from 2009 to 2013 were met, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.¹

Internal Medicine [ALERT]

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) gave a level B recommendation in support of annual low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) to screen for lung cancer in appropriate risk groups. The USPSTF decision was largely based on the National Lung Screening Trial (NLST), a mega-trial (n = 53,454) in the United States that randomized subjects to annual LDCT or chest X-ray. The primary endpoint of the study was lung cancer mortality, and all-cause mortality was a secondary endpoint. Inclusion criteria included at least a 30-pack/year history of smoking (if stopped within 15 years), ability and willingness to complete follow-up for abnormal findings, and absence of problematic comorbidities that might otherwise compromise long-term survival.

Human Papillomavirus 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant (Gardasil® 9)

The FDA has approved a 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. The new vaccine covers five more types of HPV than the previous vaccine and protects against 90% of the HPV strains that cause cervical cancer.1 The new vaccine is marketed by Merck as Gardasil®9.