Erythromycin and the Risk of Sudden Death; Vaccine Shortage Putting Americans At Risk; FDA Actions.
Kiso and colleagues in Japan collected serial upper respiratory tract samples from children receiving oseltamivir for treatment of influenza A (H3N2), for isolation of the virus. Mutations in neuraminidase were identified in virus obtained from from 9 of 50 (18%) immunocompetent children treated with oseltamivir. Eight of the 9 contained mutations previously identified as conferring resistance to oseltamivir, while the ninth had a novel mutation.
A 38-year-old man returned to the United States from west Africa, where he had spent the last 4 months in Liberia and Sierra Leone where he owned farms. Two days before his August 2004 return, he developed fever, chills, and severe sore throat, and shortly after his arrival, he was hospitalized with, in addition to these complaints, diarrhea and back pain. Lassa fever was considered, and administration of ribavirin was planned, but the patient died before receiving this antiviral medication. The diagnosis of Lassa fever was confirmed by serum antigen detection, immunohistochemical staining of postmortem liver tissue, virus isolation in cell culture, and genome sequencing.
A retrospective review of 1387 cases of salmonellosis revealed that almost half of cases in children younger than 5 years of age were associated with contact with a reptile.
A 73-year-old woman who lives at home with her husband presented at the ED with progressive weakness and difficulty walking. Her chief complaint: My legs just feel weak. After an extensive work-up, including a CAT scan, there were no clear answers, and she was admitted for further evaluation.
A new report from the Urgent Matters Learning Network titled Bursting at the Seams: Improving Patient Flow to Help Americas Emergency Departments, describes the experiences of 10 hospitals selected for an initiative to help hospitals eliminate ED overcrowding. Of the 10, four received a special $250,000 grant for demonstrator projects.
