Spring(ing) Into Action on Drug-Resistant STIs and Recruiting New Professions on Antimicrobial Stewardship Teams

Spring has finally sprung. New guidelines for Clostridium difficile infection have been published, and the April issue of Contagion^® is here with a bevy of interesting content. In this edition’s featured article, “Drug-Resistant Gonorrhea and Other Emerging Issues in STIs” by Nicola M. Parry, BVSc, MRCVS, MSc, DACVP, ELS. Dr. Parry discusses how trends of decreasing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the United States have recently reversed. Current first-line drugs are largely effective, although the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s listing of drug-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae as 1 of the 3 most urgent threats in antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the United States is a reminder that further drug development and research in this area are sorely needed.

The new In the Literature and Case Study sections are providing fresh material for Contagion^® readers and their section editors have more in the queue. This issue’s case study concerns an intriguing case of Aspergillus infection of implanted cardiac defibrillator leads. Other therapeutic content includes articles on HIV and hepatitis C co-infection, treatment options for carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae infections, and a discussion on how to use long-acting agents for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection.

In Stewardship and Prevention, we have an article on involving nurses in antimicrobial stewardship. Sometimes I feel that antimicrobial stewardship has become such as buzzword that it gets mentioned with every health profession that has ever been associated with the word “antibiotic.” I admit that I was ignorant about the role that nurses can play before attending the most recent IDWeek conference, when a presenter turned on a lightbulb in my head about how much these most-visible colleagues can add. One example that was given, on teaching nurses in skilled nursing facilities when not to call prescribers for urinalyses, can significantly decrease the number of patients treated for asymptomatic bacteriuria. David R. Ha, PharmD, and Mary Bette Forte, MSN-Ed, RN, write about this type of collaboration from a hospital perspective.

This issue also contains information gleaned from recent conferences, namely CROI 2018, the 47th Critical Care Congress, and the 2018 BMT Tandem Meetings. Moving forward, you can look forward to coverage from the upcoming conferences of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and the American Society for Microbiology.

Jason C. Gallagher, PharmD, FCCP, FIDSA, BCPS

Editor-in-Chief