Antimicrobials News

All-cause readmission rates at 90 days among people who inject drugs and left the hospital against medical advice decreased when they were prescribed oral antibiotic therapy — including partial IV therapy and partial oral therapy — compared with patients who were not prescribed any antibiotics, according to findings in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended against screening for bacterial vaginosis in asymptomatic pregnant women who are not at increased risk for preterm delivery. The task force also said there is insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of screening for bacterial vaginosis in asymptomatic pregnant women who are at increased risk for preterm delivery.

The number of antibiotic prescriptions a patient receives may increase that person’s likelihood of being admitted to the hospital, according to a study published in BMC Medicine.

Aspiration pneumonia is a common diagnosis among patients seen in and out of the hospital. Aspiration pneumonia is estimated to occur in 5% to 15% of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP); however, standard diagnostic criteria for aspiration pneumonia are lacking. Aspiration is the result of impaired swallowing, allowing oral or gastric contents — or both — to enter the lungs. Following an aspiration event, the pathology varies from pneumonitis to pneumonia, lung abscesses or empyema.

Adults with uncomplicated acute appendicitis who were treated with antibiotics and did not need surgery at a later date were as satisfied with their treatment experience as those who went through surgery, according to a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial that appeared in JAMA Surgery.

Oral fluoroquinolones were prescribed appropriately only 15% of the time in long-term care facilities, according to results of a retrospective chart review published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

ORLANDO — The novel antiviral agent letermovir appeared effective for primary cytomegalovirus prevention among haploidentical stem cell transplant recipients, according to results of a single-center chart review presented at TCT | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings.

Women who received metronidazole with the CDC-recommended antibiotic regimen of ceftriaxone and doxycycline for pelvic inflammatory disease, or PID, experienced better clinical and microbiologic outcomes than women who received only ceftriaxone and doxycycline, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

I knew from the earliest stages that if I pursued medicine as a career, infectious disease was the only choice for me. As a child, my favorite storybook was The Value of Believing in Yourself: The Story of Louis Pasteur, which recounts the discovery of the rabies vaccine. The idea that there were these mysterious entities called viruses and the human immune system had ways to combat them was completely captivating. As I grew older and learned about infectious diseases such as HIV, this fascination only increased. By the time I decided to go to medical school, I had already consumed scores of books on Ebola, Lassa fever, antimicrobial resistance and anything else I could get my hands on. In residency, I was mocked for carrying C.J. Peters’ Virus Hunter in my lab coat pocket, whereas the pockets of my fellow residents were teaming with reference books that allowed them to function on the wards.

It likely goes without saying that two of the most integral steps to fighting hospital-acquired infections are practicing antimicrobial stewardship and sound infection prevention strategies. We know that HAIs plague our health care systems and contribute to significantly increased morbidity, mortality and health care costs. The type of infections seen in health care are more commonly caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria and can easily spread from patient to patient, health care worker to patient, and environment to patient. A 2019 CDC report titled “Antibiotic Resistance Threats in the United States” sheds some light on the impact of MDR pathogens, which cause an estimated 2.8 million infections and at least 35,000 deaths each year. The report addresses core concepts such as antimicrobial stewardship, infection prevention and One Health approaches to combating antibiotic-resistant threats. Although these have been proven to be effective methods, we still have some barriers in everyday practice that make fighting HAIs challenging. Most clinicians would agree that when we collaborate in our efforts, we will be able to more effectively fight HAIs.