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Malaria continues to be a global scourge, with nearly half the world's population living in malaria-endemic areas, 200-500 million annual clinical cases, and nearly a million annual deaths (almost all due to P. falciparum).
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In this issue: Aggressive approach to CVD reduces MI, folic acid and vitamin B12 for CAD, corticosteroids for acute exacerbations of COPD, prescription drug abuse among young adults, and ARBs and cancer risk.
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Since the release of initial CDC guidelines in 2005 for using the Quanti-FERON-TB Gold test, two additional interferon gamma-release assays (IGRAs) have been approved by the FDA, bringing the number of tests for detecting tuberculosis (TB) infection used in the United States to four.
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A prospective, population-based cohort study was conducted from 2002-2006 in the Netherlands of 4,164 children during the first year of life, and included questionnaires and physician-confirmed infections of the upper respiratory tract (URT), lower respiratory tract (LRT), and gastrointestinal tract (GI).
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Data for 64 HIV/HCV co-infected patients treated in a prospective study of pegylated IFN alpha + RBV were analyzed. IFN was administered at 180 mcg SQ/week and RBV was dosed at 800 mg daily for patients with HCV genotype 2 or 3 and 1,000-1,200 mg/day for the first 12 weeks in patients with genotype 1 or 4, then reduced to 800 mg/day until completion of therapy.
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Early antibiotic administration was associated with reduced likelihood of death, mechanical ventilation, and readmission (but increased risk of Clostridium difficile infection) among patients hospitalized for acute exacerbations of COPD.
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Serious infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii are appearing in the community, spread by patients who acquired the organism in the hospital setting, and conversely, the organism is being introduced into the hospital from long-term nursing care patient settings. Resistance to antimicrobial agents has increased over the six-year study period, along with the severity of disease.
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The use of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in all acute myocardial infarction (MI) patients is controversial. Thus, these investigators from the Register of Information and Knowledge about Swedish Heart Intensive Care Admissions (RIKS-HIA) examined the association between ACE inhibitor therapy and mortality in unselected patients with acute MI.
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In this retrospective study of patients hospitalized because of severe chronic liver disease, venous thromboembolism was relatively common and "auto-anticoagulation" in the form of an elevated INR had no apparent protective effect.
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In a prospective study of the actual oral nutritional intake of patients with respiratory failure in the first week following extubation, average intake failed to exceed 50% of daily requirements on all seven days.