Kenneth Bender, PharmD, MA

A large trial supports de-escalation from empiric, broad-spectrum antibiotic treatment for Enterobacterales bacteremia to a non-antipseudomonal agent.

Community acquired pneumonia is often inappropriately diagnosed in hospital admissions, particularly among older adults with dementia, and can lead to in-hospital antibiotic-associated adverse events, such as Clostridioides difficile.

Investigators find that bacteremia rarely develops from asymptomatic bacteriuria, and that empiric antibiotic treatment should be reserved for those at risk.

New analysis indicates that children treated at 3 years of age for perinatally acquired HCV will live longer, with less liver morbidity and lower health care costs than if treated at 6 years of age.

Patients hospitalized for suspected community-acquired pneumonia received targeted treatment more quickly with PCR testing than with culture-based diagnostics.

Inhaled nanoparticles deliver antibiotic and antimicrobial peptides through mucus and biofilm barriers in animal model of infection-exacerbated COPD.

ePOCT+, a digital clinician decision support tool, reduced outpatient antibiotic prescribing without adverse health outcomes, potentially mitigating development of antimicrobial resistance.

New vancomycin dosing regimens are proposed to improve outcome and minimize toxicity in overweight and obese patients with renal insufficiency.

Myopathy, with metabolic disturbances and amyloid deposits, is discovered in persons with Long COVID who experience post-exertional malaise.

Doxycycline postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) has reduced STIs among men who have sex with men, but poor adherence marred trial results with women.

Investigators studying over 4500 patients with gram-negative bacteremia see opportunities for earlier transition from IV to oral antibiotics.

Investigational 24-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine developed on cell-free protein synthesis platform is first to broaden coverage without reduced immunogenicity.

Infants with HIV could be spared from requiring lifetime ART if treated within hours of birth to disrupt formation of HIV viral reservoirs.

Amikacin inhaled once daily for 3 days reduced risk of developing ventilator-associated pneumonia in placebo-controlled trial in critically ill.

CDC recommends HCV testing in these populations as a critical step to achieving national priority of eliminating HCV.

Veterans Affairs (VA) study finds some reduction in post-COVID thromboembolic events with early use of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir but no protection against 30 other conditions.

Excess death risks from GI diseases, above pre-pandemic patterns, were largest for C difficile colitis, followed by GI hemorrhage, ulcers, and colorectal cancer.

A New Drug Application (NDA) for ceftobiprole was accepted for 3 indications including S aureus bacteremia, days after phase 3 results were published.

Neither alcohol use nor hepatic fibrosis interfered with achieving sustained virologic response with direct-acting antiviral treatment of hepatitis C virus.

Review of hepatitis D virus describes “unique” biologic characteristics and “ominous” medical effect, but constrained as HBV treatments affect HDV life cycle.

Long-term follow-up of DAA treatment of HCV infection after liver transplant shows persistent improvement in hepatic function, fibrosis, and survival rate.

A risk-based screening for multidrug-resistant gut microbes could improve accuracy and timeliness of empiric antibiotic treatment of systemic infection.

Study compares efficiency of expanding HCV screening for all persons with HIV to programs focused on those at higher risk of HCV.

Reconciling that C difficile infection is classified as hospital-onset based only on laboratory identification, while diagnoses is made from multiple factors.

Recently published data of bezlotoxumab dosing and safety in children with C diff was basis for expanding approval from just adults to as young as 1 years old.

Antibiotic actions on gut microbes of patient might affect the microbiome of housemates.

Hepatitis B vaccine non-responders with chronic HCV infection were likely to respond and gain protection against HBV after HCV treatment.

HCV infections during pregnancy increased 16-fold from 1998 to 2018 in US, with adverse maternal and infant outcomes linked to opioid epidemic.

EXPAND Cdiff international group of infectious disease specialists propose changing criteria for initial and sustained response to antibiotic treatment.

Hospital posits that testing for C diff in patients without symptoms inflates rate of hospital-acquired infection with cases of asymptomatic colonization.