Respiratory Infections

Flu season has officially begun in the United States, as the first cases and deaths of the season are reported, prompting health officials to press for vaccination.

Prolonged antibiotic use opens the door to the development of antibiotic resistance, superinfections, and the risk of Clostridium difficile infections.

William Schaffner, MD, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases’ (NFID), provides a brief overview of the past flu season (2016-2017).

New data reveal that when pregnant women receive the Tdap vaccine during pregnancy, it can prevent whooping cough in about 78% of newborns; however, only about 50% of pregnant women receive the vaccine.

A new discovery about Group A Streptococcus may lead to the development of a new vaccine or antibiotic to prevent flesh-eating infections.

Death rates among HIV-positive patients diagnosed with cryptococcal meningitis were slightly lower when antiretroviral therapy was delayed a few weeks after diagnosis.

In case you missed them, we've compiled the top 5 articles from this past week.

Following a deadly pneumonia outbreak in a Chinese hospital last year, researchers have identified a dangerous new superbug that is drug-resistant and highly virulent.

Alan Gross, PharmD, shares the drawbacks of some of the current prediction tools used for pneumonia.

WHO report confirms that “the world is running out of antibiotics” to treat resistant priority pathogens

Lefamulin, a pleuromutilin antibiotic, continues to meet primary endpoints for the treatment of community acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP) in clinical trials.

Alex Rinehart, PhD, explains if cabotegravir interacts with any other medications.

Researchers from Imperial College in London have created a scoring system designed to predict 10-year tuberculosis (TB) risk in adult contacts of index cases.

As practitioners continue to mistake the worsening of asthma symptoms for bacterial respiratory infections, more antibiotics are being prescribed, many times, inappropriately.

Alan Gross, PharmD, shares how an early diagnosis of multidrug-resistant pneumonia can work towards improving patient outcomes.

The CDC has launched an educational initiative called “Get Ahead of Sepsis,” which underscores the early recognition and timely treatment of sepsis.

In a recent article, researchers discuss common fungal respiratory diseases in non-immunocompromised patients.

The CDC shares ACIP’s recommendations regarding the prevention and control of seasonal influenza with vaccines for the 2017-2018 season.

The results of a new study from the United Kingdom reveal that oral prednisone had no effect on the severity and duration of symptoms in adult patients suffering from bronchitis.

Jason Pogue, PharmD, BCPS-ID, explains the clinical significance of his research team’s findings regarding the use of ceftolozane-tazobactam to treat Pseudomonas infections.

A recent study investigates what causes relapse in those with multiple sclerosis and sought to glean insight into the brain activity of patients with MS during respiratory infections.

Negative pressure isolation rooms will be in high-demand during an outbreak of SARS, MERS, or pandemic flu, but how will we meet these needs?

Lucy B. Palmer, MD, from Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York argues that inhaled antibiotic therapy provides higher drug concentrations of antibiotics with fewer systemic side effects than IV therapy.

Researchers find that performing a TB diagnostic test in a clinic as opposed to a centralized laboratory greatly reduced patients’ time to treatment.

Researchers from the University of Mississippi report a case of an HIV-positive man with pneumonia due to MRSA who was treated with dalbavancin.