Antibiotics

In case you missed them, here are our top 5 articles for the week of May 7, 2017.

Belinda Ostrowsky, MD, MPH, Health Systems Director of Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship & Infection Prevention, Montefiore Medical Center, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, explains how empiric treatment can lead to antibiotic overuse.

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses new resources dentists can use for prescribing antibiotics prophylactically.

What can healthcare providers do to stop these infections before they start?

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses what we still don’t know about antibiotics.

Contagion® Editorial Advisory Board member, Khalid Eljaaly, PharmD, BCPS, CAPP, discusses key updates in the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Thoracic Society recommendations.

There has been an increase in STDs seen in US emergency departments, a setting that proves to be less than optimal for providing STD care.

Today, May 5th, is Hand Hygiene Day, a day that reminds healthcare workers, visitors, and policy makers alike, that frequent handwashing can be used to fight the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, and ultimately, save millions of lives.

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explains the importance of identifying gaps in antibiotic stewardship.

Lauri A. Hicks, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses how more data is needed to provide dentists with better guidelines for prescribing antibiotics.

Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, explains why stewards should think outside of the box when coming up with interventions to include in an antimicrobial stewardship program.

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses the potential consequences of prescribing unneeded antibiotics.

Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, shares an effective stewardship intervention for ruling out if someone is allergic to penicillin.

An outbreak of MRSA at a Los Angeles-area hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit has raised questions about when health officials were notified of the outbreak, and why the public was not informed sooner.

A new treatment for antibiotic-resistant bacteria may reduce effects of chronic infections, lessen the days spent in hospitals, and reduce the use of antibiotics.

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discusses what we know about antibiotic prescribing habits among dentists.

A £150 million program funded by NHS England aimed to study how rapid point-of-care infection-testing for hospital patients could impact the number of antibiotics prescribed.

Madeline King, PharmD, assistant professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences, Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, discusses the significance of the findings of her research on Ceftazidime-Avibactam.

Researchers from McGill University, Montreal, have found that maple syrup extracts can enhance the effectiveness of certain antibiotics used against pathogenic bacteria.

Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and Contagion® Editorial Advisory Board Member, discusses how antibiotic allergies can affect stewardship.

A new study has found that young and middle-aged adults who were prescribed long-term antibiotics later had increased risk of colorectal adenoma, a suspected precursor to cancer.

Lilian Abbo, MD, chief, infection prevention & control and antibiotic stewardship, Jackson Health System, associate professor of clinical medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, explains the importance of rapid diagnostic testing.

Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and Contagion® Editorial Advisory Board Member, discusses some points to be mindful of when considering IV to PO conversions.

Belinda Ostrowsky, MD, MPH, Health Systems Director of Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship & Infection Prevention, Montefiore Medical Center, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, discusses limitations to C. difficile testing that could impact stewardship practices in healthcare facilities.

Top-line results of a phase 3 clinical study show that omadacycline met all US Food and Drug Administration primary and secondary endpoints and European Medicines Agency co-primary endpoints.

Lauri A. Hicks, DO, Director, Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, explains an area of debate in the general medical field regarding antibiotics.

Belinda Ostrowsky, MD, MPH, Health Systems Director of Epidemiology, Antimicrobial Stewardship & Infection Prevention, Montefiore Medical Center, and Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, explains how to be more sensible when it comes to testing for Clostridium difficile.

Sara Cosgrove, MD, MS, current president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), painted a picture of the new landscape of antibiotic stewardship in the Opening Plenary of the 2017 SHEA Spring Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri.

Emily Heil, PharmD, BCPS-AQ ID, assistant professor at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, describes what the ideal antibiotic stewardship team would look like.

A multi-institution research team has found that daptomycin is effective and well-tolerated in children.