Latest Conference

Colleen R. Kelly, MD, FACG, speaks at MAD-ID 2022 on alternatives to antibiotics for C diff infection, including the use of probiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation.

“Clearly, stewardship is a team operation. It starts [with] the leadership, the clinical pharmacy, and coordination with infectious disease physicians truly has to be synergistic,” Goetz said in the keynote address at MAD-ID 2022.

Among community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) outpatients, 49% were prescribed unnecessary antibiotics.

Leveraging antimicrobial stewardship programs was crucial to ensure COVID-19 hospital inpatients received monoclonal antibody therapy quickly and safely.

To reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance, rapid laboratory diagnostics are needed to identify the pathogens in hospital patients with COVID-19 and sepsis.

A study of pregnant women positive for COVID-19 at delivery found no evidence of vertical transmission, but increased gastrointestinal problems in their newborn infants.

A comparison of COVID-19 PCR tests and rapid self-tests found self-tests to be highly accurate and user-friendly for children.

At 1 year after COVID-19 infection, children’s neutralizing antibodies only differed by vaccination status.

Children living with HIV had a similar immune response to mRNA COVID-19 vaccination as children without HIV.

A recent study examined whether immune response to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine differed by age and gender.

Lasting 505 days, investigators documented the longest known COVID-19 infection. The research, presented at ECCMID, also found one of the first cases of occult COVID-19, in which a patient who tests negative is later found to have ongoing COVID-19.

An ECCMID study found COVID-19 primary infections were more severe than reinfections, and vaccination further reduced symptoms.

Entasis Therapeutics gave 2 oral presentations at ECCMID today detailing results of their ATTACK trial, investigating the safety and efficacy of sulbactam-durlobactam (SUL-DUR) for multidrug-resistant pathogens.

During the pandemic, antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections increased in hospitalized patients who tested positive or negative for COVID-19.

One study, presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), found waiting longer in between the first and second Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses boosted immune response 9-fold.

Today at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID), Shionogi presented late-breaking data from their phase 2/3 clinical trial for S-217622, an investigational 3CL protease inhibitor. On day 4 of treatment with Shionogi’s S-217622, COVID-19 positive viral titers decreased by 90%.

Investigators used procalcitonin (PCT) levels to guide antibiotic recommendations in pediatric intensive care units. PCT-guided antibiotic stewardship decreased the number of antibiotic days without leading to therapy failure.

One study, presented this week at the Critical Care Congress, conducted a thorough analysis of all reported cases of myocarditis after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination.

What are the clinical characteristics of children under 1 year old who are hospitalized with COVID-19 infection?

Critical care pharmacists and PGY2CC residents made fewer antimicrobial stewardship interventions on the Mondays following weekends they worked.

One study, presented at the Critical Care Congress, found that initiating remdesivir (Veklury) earlier did not significantly reduce the recovery time of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The greatest risk factors for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) were age of at least 65 years, severe primary CDI, and use of non-CDI antibiotics. Patients with these risk factors should be prioritized for bezlotoxumab therapy.

Advanced age and comorbidities were more accurate predictors of severe COVID-19 disease than innate immune response.

Concomitant antibiotic (CA) use for infection treatment is a major risk factor for recurrent C difficile infection. One SHEA 2022 study examined whether fidaxomicin or vancomycin would be more beneficial for CA patients.

A study presented at the SHEA 2022 conference determined how common and severe breakthrough infections were for Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Janssen COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

A survey’s results show updating programs is largely dependent on resources and dedicated personnel.

An examination of COVID-19 infections by occupation found that most cases occurred in people who worked in management and healthcare, and COVID-19 death rates were highest among building/grounds cleaning and maintenance employees.