Infectious Disease Alert
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Healthcare-associated Infections — Better, But Not There Yet
One-day prevalence studies demonstrated that there has been a 16% reduction in the risk of healthcare-associated infections from 2011 to 2015.
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Oral Linezolid for Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia
Investigators evaluated 135 patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia (SAB) in a prospective cohort study comparing early switch to oral linezolid to continued treatment with standard parenteral therapy (SPT). Patients with complicated SAB and osteoarticular infection were excluded. Early switch to oral therapy yielded similar outcomes to continued SPT and allowed earlier hospital discharge.
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Factors Associated With Urinary Tract Infections Caused by Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative Bacteria
A multicenter, retrospective, cohort study from southern and eastern Europe identified predictive factors for multidrug-resistant complicated urinary tract infections (cUTI), which included male sex, cUTI acquisition in a healthcare facility, presence of a Foley catheter, having a UTI in the previous year, and receiving an antibiotic in the preceding 30 days.
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Blastomycosis (But Not That Blastomycosis) in the Western United States
Blastomycosis occurs in western Canada and in the United States well outside the known endemic area, but it is due to Blastomyces helicus, not Blastomyces dermatitidis.
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Optimal Treatment of Vivax Malaria
In glucose-6-phosphate-dehydrogenase-sufficient individuals in Southeast Asia, combined treatment with chloroquine and primaquine provides much more lasting relief from vivax malaria than either chloroquine alone or artesunate.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Tuberculosis Transmission From NAAT-negative Patients; Worldwide Rabies Risk: Dogs; Patients Need to Rethink the ‘Quality’ in Healthcare
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Plazomicin (Zemdri)
Plazomicin is an aminoglycoside recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating complicated urinary tract infections.
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Here Comes the Sun — And Here Comes Coccidioidomycosis
Another occupational outbreak of coccidioidomycosis in solar farm workers in an endemic area points to the continued risk and the difficulty of preventing such occurrences.
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In Patients Who Self-catheterize, Antibiotic Prophylaxis Prevents UTIs but Increases Antibiotic Resistance
A randomized, open-label, superiority trial found that daily antibiotic prophylaxis for patients who use clean, intermittent self-catheterization reduced symptomatic urinary tract infections by 48% over a 12-month period. Antibiotic resistance became prevalent in urinary isolates from the group receiving prophylaxis compared to controls.
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Childhood Diarrhea Varies Geographically Within Africa
Each year, 30 million preschool-aged children still get sick with diarrhea and 330,000 die. Most diarrheal illness and death is concentrated in a few high-risk areas, including parts of Benin, Lesotho, Mali, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Targeting preventive and therapeutic interventions in areas of risk could markedly reduce morbidity and mortality.