Antimicrobials News

As a young medical student, I learned how tiny organisms could wreak great havoc in this world — which exposed me to the world of ID early in my medical career. I attended medical school with the goal of understanding and conquering them. During my ID rotation, I cared for a patient who had fever, vague symptoms and a rash that was biopsied. They called us, the ID service, hoping that we could offer answers. This role of a detective, collaborator, thinker and doctor is what still appeals to me the most about the practice of ID. I was in awe of the ID specialists who ascertained the etiology as secondary syphilis and treated this patient with penicillin — and I hoped someday to emulate them. Intriguing cases like this sparked my interest in this field, which only grew stronger in the years to come.

Starting Jan. 1, 2020, ambulatory health care organizations accredited by the Joint Commission that regularly prescribe antimicrobial agents will be required to abide by newly established antimicrobial stewardship requirements. The framework from the Joint Commission establishes five elements of performance that address antimicrobial stewardship in these types of settings. The first recommends the identification of an antimicrobial stewardship leader.

Beginning on Jan. 1, 2020, all ambulatory health care organizations accredited by the Joint Commission that regularly prescribe antimicrobial agents will be required to abide by newly established antimicrobial stewardship requirements.

The FDA approved Xenleta, a novel antibiotic to treat adults with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, or CABP.

An electronic medical record-driven antimicrobial stewardship program implemented in an Australian ICU was associated with high clinician compliance with recommendations and an improvement in the appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions, researchers reported.

Researchers tested two core Infectious Diseases Society of America-recommended antimicrobial stewardship interventions at four community hospitals in North Carolina and found that one — post-prescription audit and review by a pharmacist after 72 hours of therapy — was feasible in facilities with limited resources and little to no antimicrobial stewardship expertise.

Findings published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society showed that nearly 2% of children admitted to 32 children’s hospitals in the United States received at least one antimicrobial agent for conditions that were not infection-related.

Research published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology highlighted the usefulness of an antibiotic spectrum index, or ASI, to measure antimicrobial stewardship efforts in a St. Louis NICU.

The FDA has approved pretomanid — the first tuberculosis drug developed by a non-profit organization — as part of a three-drug regimen for the treatment of extensively drug-resistant TB, or XDR-TB, and other resistant forms of the disease.

ZuraGard, a novel preoperative skin antiseptic, was shown to be effective in reducing bacterial counts on the skin of healthy volunteers in two phase 2 trials, performing comparably to the standard antiseptic ChloraPrep, researchers reported.