Infectious Disease Topics
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Malaria in Pregnancy — Simplified Treatment Decisions
History, data, and international consensus lead to the same conclusion: Artemether-lumefantrine is the first choice for treatment of uncomplicated falciparum malaria in everyone, even pregnant women.
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Major Cardiovascular Event Risk Reduction with Pitavastatin in Patients Living with HIV
Among participants living with HIV who are at low-to-moderate risk for cardiovascular disease, those who received pitavastatin were 35% less likely to experience a major adverse cardiovascular event over a follow-up of approximately five years vs. those who received placebo.
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Use of Ceftobiprole for Complicated Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia
In a randomized, controlled trial conducted by Holland and colleagues, no significant difference in overall treatment success of complicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia was observed in patients who received ceftobiprole as compared with patients who received daptomycin.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Infectious Disease Approval to Reduce Hospital Clostridioides difficile Cases; Oral Amoxicillin for Syphilis
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Antibiotic Stewardship vs. Diagnostic Stewardship for Reducing Unnecessary Antibiotics in Asymptomatic Bacteriuria
A statewide quality study compared antibiotic stewardship to diagnostic stewardship for hospitalized patients with asymptomatic bacteriuria. It found that reducing urine cultures decreased unnecessary antibiotic prescribing better than antibiotic stewardship.
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First-Choice Antibiotic for Acute Bacterial Sinusitis in Children
Review of a large database reveals that, for children treated for acute sinusitis, amoxicillin and amoxicillin-clavulanate yield similar rates of treatment failure. However, medication side effects are more common when amoxicillin-clavulanate is used.
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New International Guidelines on Prolonged Infusion Beta-Lactams
The largest randomized clinical trial of prolonged vs. intermittent beta-lactam antibiotic (meropenem) infusion in septic intensive care unit patients found no benefit in mortality or emergence of antibiotic resistance. Unfortunately, this trial has numerous flaws that ultimately limit its generalizability.
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More Reports of Severe Group A Streptococcal Infection
Around the world, rates of severe illness caused by group A Streptococcus are rising. Possible explanations for the increase include immunity-altering, post-pandemic changes in exposure to respiratory pathogens and the emergence of new pathogenic M strains of Streptococcus.
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Using Doxycycline as Postexposure Prophylaxis to Prevent Bacterial Sexually Transmitted Infections
In an open-label, randomized study involving men who have sex with men and transgender women, using doxycycline within 72 hours of condomless sex was associated with a two-thirds reduction in the incidence of bacterial sexually transmitted infections vs. those who received standard care.
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COVID-19 Vaccine, 2023-2024 Formula (Comirnaty, Spikevax)
The newest vaccines target XBB.1.5, which is no longer the dominant circulating variant, but they offer protection against XBB.1.16 and more distant variants (e.g., EG.5.1, FL.1.1.1, and BA.2.86).