Antimicrobials News

A large study conducted at more than 800 hospitals found that antibiotic prophylaxis guidelines were not followed in more than two-fifths of inpatient elective surgeries.

The FDA’s Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee voted Thursday to support the approval of Paxlovid for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults at high risk for severe disease, hospitalization or death.

Outpatient antibiotic prescribing fell more than 25% in 2020 compared with earlier years across all ages, but researchers found most of the prescribing was among adults, according to a study published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.

An infectious disease consultation within 3 1/2 days of a diagnosis of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia was shown in a study to increase adherence to quality care indicators and decrease hospital stays compared with a later consultation.

Financial incentive did not improve uptake of outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy among physicians, though uptake was already high before introduction of the incentive, suggesting that there was little room for improvement to start.

A combination therapy of IV doxycycline and azithromycin was more effective for the treatment of severe scrub typhus than using either drug alone, according to findings published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.

As the COVID-19 pandemic grew, so did the feeling that the field of ID might begin to attract more physicians, drawn by the important and rewarding work that was so suddenly in the public eye.

I grew up in Bangkok, where I saw first-hand the impact of cholera, dengue, malaria and other tropical diseases — and experienced the early waves of the seventh pandemic of cholera.

The establishment of the field of medical microbiology and its vital role in infectious diseases paved the way to better understand the wide varieties of pneumococcal disease.

Physicians have cited overwork and burnout as contributing factors making it difficult to recruit physicians for a career in infectious diseases.