February 2020

Just as influenza season started ramping up in the Northern Hemisphere, news hit the wire that Sanofi had secured over-the-counter rights for oseltamivir (Tamiflu).

Diagnostic stewardship is a novel concept related to modifying the process of ordering, testing, and reporting with the goal of decreasing unnecessary testing and treatment, working upstream and synergistically with antimicrobial stewardship principles.

A case of Kaposi sarcoma with immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome.

Despite the initial abandonment of bacteriophages in most areas of the world, the era of antibiotic resistance has led to a resurgence of phage therapy in clinical practice.

A death from an antibiotic-resistant infection occurs about every 15 minutes in the United States. The CDC’s 2019 threat report dives into national infection estimates and actions we can take to combat this threat.

Clinicians must identify when additional pounds cross the line of diminishing return.

Therapy options have increased in recent decades, yet there is a lack of guidance.

The US Food and Drug Administration approved imipenem-cilastatin-relebactam to treat complicated intra-abdominal infections and complicated urinary tract infections in adults with limited treatment options.

When using ceftolozane/ tazobactam to treat patients with P aeruginosa respiratory tract infections, the use of extended or continuous antibiotic infusion and/or combination therapy with other active antibiotic agents should be considered, particularly if targeting higher MIC values.

Readmission rates for patients receiving OPAT are reported to be as high as 20%, mostly due to catheter-related problems, adverse drug reactions, or worsening of the primary infection.

A new article published in The Lancet features information on epidemiology, laboratory, and radiology elements of the first 41 cases of the novel coronavirus confirmed in Wuhan, China.

Despite children’s higher risk of complications from influenza, few US child care centers report influenza vaccine requirements for children and/or adult care workers.

CDC has detailed the first reported case of Shewanella haliotis in the region of the Americas, describing a 2018 case in Flushing, New York.

The FDA has issused a complete response letter to ViiV Healthcare for cabotegravir/rilpivirine.

Ervebo has been approved for the prevention of Ebola virus disease, caused by Zaire ebolavirus in individuals 18 years of age and older.

Piperacillin/tazobactam and meropenem are both accepted as options for empiric antibiotic therapy due to their broad-spectrum activity

A team of pharmacists at Baptist Hospital reported that improving penicillin allergy documentation and increasing the use of β-lactams had potential cost savings of $21,468 over a 3-month period.

“My story is important only because it proves that HIV can be cured. And if something has happened, once in medical science, it can happen again,” Brown told Contagion®.

There is a vast unmet need for non-pharmacological treatment strategies to protect and improve cognitive function in the approximately 50% of adults living with HIV who experience HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder.

Thomas Lodise, PharmD, PhD, provides an overview of options for treating community-acquired bacterial pneumonia and highlights the challenges of the infection.