Infectious Disease Topics
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Encephalitis, Fever, and Doxycycline
Scrub typhus is a significant cause of acute encephalitis in north India and other parts of Asia and Africa. Doxycycline is a safe and effective treatment option.
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The Viral World Keeps on Going — Some Recent Activity
Ebola makes a comeback, but meets a vaccine. Lassa fever and Rift Valley fever also make their mark, while Keystone virus infects a teenager in Florida.
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Using Multilocus Sequence Typing for Surveillance and Discovery of Borrelia Species
Broad polymerase chain reaction screening followed by multilocus sequence typing is a useful method to understand the geographic distribution of Borrelia species causing human disease. Candidatus B. johnsonii (carried by bat ticks) was not known previously to infect humans. Its identification in a human patient suggests it may cause a relapsing fever syndrome.
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A Negative Nares Screen for MRSA Helps Exclude MRSA Pneumonia
A meta-analysis determined that nares screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has a high specificity and negative predictive value for MRSA pneumonia. MRSA nasal screening can be a useful tool for antimicrobial stewardship personnel to de-escalate empiric anti-MRSA therapy.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Utility of GI Multiplex Assay; ‘The World Is Covered by a Thin Layer of Feces’
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Why IDSA Did Not Support the Surviving Sepsis Campaign
The Infectious Diseases Society of America withheld its support for the Surviving Sepsis guidelines. The general concerns included vagueness and inconsistency in definition of sepsis, “one size fits all” prescription of time to administer antibiotics, lack of clarity around drawing blood cultures through IV catheters, recommendation of combination antibiotics, lack of definition around when to use procalcitonin levels, when and how to use pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data effectively, prolonged antibiotic “prophylaxis,” and duration of therapy.
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Oral Antibiotics May Increase the Risk for Nephrolithiasis
A case-control study found that receipt of an oral antibiotic in the preceding three to 12 months was associated with nephrolithiasis. The risk persisted up to five years, and younger patients were at increased risk.
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Reduced Noninfectious Adverse Events After Discontinuation of Contact Precautions in Patients Colonized or Infected With MRSA and/or VRE
Discontinuation of contact precautions for patients colonized or infected with either MRSA or VRE is associated with a decrease in rates of noninfectious adverse events.
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VRE and MRSA: Time to Assign Contact Precautions to the Dust Heap of History
In the context of other horizontally implemented, effective infection prevention measures, the use of contact precautions for most patients colonized or infected with MRSA or VRE fails to provide benefit.
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Rotavirus Vaccine and Intussusception
Using active surveillance, researchers enrolled 717 infants with intussusception from sub-Saharan Africa. The risk of intussusception was no higher in those who received the monovalent rotavirus vaccine than in non-immunized infants.