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Synopsis: Bartonella is a cause of unexplained fever in HIV-infected patients.
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Synopsis: More than 90% of individuals studied maintain measurable humoral or T-cell mediated immunity against vaccinia virus for as long as 75 years after smallpox vaccination.
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Synopsis: A prospective study of 671 episodes of acute chest syndrome in 538 patients with sickle cell anemia found that 51 (9%) had serologic evidence of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection, including 12% of episodes in children < 5 years of age. Mycoplasma hominis was cultured in 10 episodes.
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Synopsis: Treatment of CAP with 750 mg of levofloxacin daily for 5 days was as effective as a 10-day course of 500 mg daily.
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Synopsis: Copper silver ionization in potable waters was found to be highly effective in reducing environmental Legionella colonization and preventing nosocomial Legionnaires disease over prolonged time periods.
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Pulsed-dose intravenous methylprednisolone added to the conventional treatment of IVIG and high-dose aspirin, resulted in faster resolution of fever and lower ESR, CRP, and levels of IgA in children with Kawasaki disease.
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Staphylococcus lugdunensis, in contrast to the other skin and mucus membrane-colonizing coagulase-negative staphylococci, has virulence factors that closely resemble those of Staphylococcus aureus and consequently causes similar aggressively destructive infections.
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The FDA has approved Pfizer's eplerenone (Inspra) for the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF) in patients who have sustained a myocardial infarction. The drug is a selective aldosterone blocker, a new class of drug for the treatment of CHF.
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An outbreak of Pseudomonas surgical-site infections was traced to the infected thumbnail of a cardiac surgeon. The outbreak stopped after the infected nail was removed.
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Compliance with a protocol for managing catheter-related bacteremia was improved from 56% to 75% simply by sending a reminder by e-mail.