Infection News

In its ongoing effort to limit potential disease transmission due to difficult-to-clean devices, the FDA is recommending a transition to duodenoscopes with innovative designs and is encouraging the development of new methods to clean the scopes, according to recent safety communication.

First and even second time high-level disinfection may not be enough to eliminate bacterial contamination in duodenoscopes, but a culture and quarantine program can help identify which scopes need more attention, according to study results.

The PAGE-B score and a modified PAGE-B score identified which patients on antiviral therapy for chronic hepatitis B had a low risk for hepatocellular carcinoma development, according to published data.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease and other immune-mediated diseases who receive Janus kinase inhibitors may be at increased risk for herpes zoster infection, according to the results of a meta-analysis.

Implementation of a multifaceted hepatitis C care pathway improved screening and linkage to care rates, especially among baby boomers, or those born between 1945 and 1965.

The “direct-acting antiviral era” for hepatitis C has been a novel step forward in medicine with several regimens providing cure rates of 95% or higher and many available as secondary treatments for patients whose initial treatment failed. With this highly curative option, researchers have focused on evaluating opportunities to use hepatitis-C infected organs to increase the transplant donor pool.

In this guest commentary, Tyler M. Berzin, MD, co-director of GI Endoscopy at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Mohammad Bilal, MD, an advanced endoscopy fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, discuss developments surrounding duodenoscope contamination and the emergence of single use duodenoscopes.

Researchers found high rates of sexually transmitted hepatitis C among HIV-negative men who have sex with men who used pre-exposure prophylaxis, especially among drug users, according to data published in Journal of Hepatology.

In 2018, infections were the cause of 13% of all new cancer diagnoses, totaling 2.2 million new cases worldwide, although these totals do not include nonmelanoma skin cancers, according to findings published in The Lancet Global Health.

Microbial dysbiosis caused by Helicobacter pylori infection may be an important driver in the development of gastric cancer, according to study results.