Gastrointestinal Infections

An infectious disease clinical specialist shares treatment considerations for patients with complicated urinary tract infections, including for patients with comorbidities and older patients, and reviews antimicrobial therapies for multidrug-resistant UTIs.

Kim Leuthner, PharmD, FIDSA, provides insight on distinguishing between complicated and uncomplicated UTIs, and patients who are at high risk for developing complicated UTIs.

Stay informed with this concise summary of the week's most significant stories.

Empiric therapy for severe Salmonella disease remains effective, but fluoroquinolone resistance calls for a shift towards trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole as the preferred oral treatment for non-severe cases.

A study of patients with recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI) found that Rebyota, a rectally administered live biotherapeutic, was considered easy, quick, and appealing due to the lack of bowel preparation.

This study found a high proportion of reduced vancomycin susceptibility in C difficile patients, leading to lower rates of sustained clinical response.

Adults who scored higher on the Healthy Eating Index were found to have higher gut microbiota diversity, as well as a higher exercise frequency and lower BMI.

Recent phase 3 trial data for Vowst showed the microbiota-based therapeutic prevented recurrent C difficile infection in 91.3% of recipients after 8 weeks, a response that 94.6% of these patients maintained through week 24.

Compared to fidaxomicin and vancomycinfecal, fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) was the most cost-effective treatment for first and subsequent recurrent C difficile infection.

Vowst (SER-109) has received FDA approval to treat recurrent C diff infection, making it the first oral microbiome therapeutic.

Investigators determined there is a modest increased risk of long-term gastrointestinal symptoms and IBS following COVID-19 infection.

COVID-19 stories continue to be the most-read, but last month's top stories described how contracting COVID-19 increases the risk of gastrointestinal infection, C difficile infection, and cardiovascular disease.

Data from the US Veterans Affairs found a wide range of gastrointestinal disorders were more likely among patients who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2 within a year after the acute phase of the disease.

58.5% of an infant’s microbiota composition is transferred by their mother.

Enteric pathogens increase C difficile virulence by providing amino acids that shape the metabolic environment in the gut.

Use of early COVID-19 treatments did not reduce the risk of hospitalization or death, but did reduce long COVID symptoms after 3 months.

“HIV reservoir dynamics are driven by local inflammation and gut dysbiosis,” the investigators concluded.

From concerns of Guillain-Barré syndrome to the gut microbiota's effect on COVID-19 infection severity, these were the week's top stories.

Gut microbial abundance was observed to be independent of age and influenced COVID-19 spike IgG levels.

An increase in extensively drug-resistant Shigella infections prompted the CDC to release a health advisory for this major cause of bacterial diarrhea.

FDA says products have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria and were distributed along the east coast in several states.

The microbiome may be a source of future investigation and modulation approaches, the study authors wrote.

Patients treated with SER-109 reported a significant improvement in disease-specific health-related quality-of-life, regardless of their clinical outcome.

Utopia Foods, Inc., issued a voluntary recall after their imported Chinese enoki mushrooms tested positive for 2 strains of Listeria monocytogenes involved in an outbreak.

The data may help explain why COVID-19 patients experience dangerous secondary infections.