Antimicrobials News

There is no clinical advantage in treating men with UTIs and no additional complicating conditions for longer than 7 days, according to researchers, who found that shorter treatment duration is not associated with an increased risk for recurrence.

As readers of Infectious Diseases in Children are well aware, it is not uncommon to hear “penicillin” when parents are asked, “Does your child have any drug allergies?” However, many published studies of adults and children have demonstrated that the vast majority of patients who answer with “penicillin” — greater than 95% — are not “allergic” with respect to a demonstrable immunoglobulin E-mediated (eg, anaphylaxis) or T-lymphocyte reaction (eg, Stevens-Johnson syndrome). Most of these reported allergies are not likely to be clinically significant with repeated penicillin or beta-lactam antibiotic administration, or the reported adverse reactions were initially unrelated to penicillin administration (eg, a viral exanthem).

 Penicillin is the most commonly implicated medication reported as the source of a drug allergy, with a reported incidence of up to 10% in the United States. However, only about 1% of the reported population has a confirmed anaphylactic reaction and is therefore appropriately labeled with a penicillin allergy.

Establishing several firsts, a hospital in London used genetically engineered bacteriophages to successfully treat a teenager’s extensively-resistant mycobacterial infection following a double lung transplant for cystic fibrosis, researchers said.

ATLANTA — Research presented at the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service Conference showed that an outbreak of group A Streptococcus, or GAS, in a shelter for unaccompanied migrant children that lasted more than 6 months and was stopped by the mass administration of antimicrobial prophylaxis to both children and staff members.

ATLANTA — Infectious Disease News spoke with Erin Blau, DNP, MSN, a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officer assigned to the Kentucky Department of Public Health, about how inappropriate vaccine storage and handling procedures led to a recent outbreak of injection-site Mycobacterium fortuitum infections in three states, affecting more than 100 people.

The FDA rejected approval of a new antibiotic for the treatment of complicated UTIs, or cUTIs, due to issues related to facility inspections and manufacturing deficiencies, according to a news release.

A rapid high-throughput PCR test developed by OpGen “accurately and reliably” predicted antibiotic resistance in common bacteria at a rate of 90% or higher, researchers reported.

Nursing homes with more staff hours dedicated to infection prevention and control were more likely to fulfill all seven core elements of antibiotic stewardship, according to findings published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Every day a blood culture returns positive for Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia, a patient’s risk for mortality increases, with a significant increase for risk beginning at day 3, according to findings from a multicenter, prospective, observational study.