Antimicrobials News

Among women at normal CVD risk, long-term exposure to antibiotics in middle and older adulthood was associated with increased risk for future CVD events, researchers reported.

Researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Nebraska Medicine found that incorporating a “hard stop” command into the electronic health record led to a significant reduction in inappropriate gastrointestinal testing.

The phone call came while I was celebrating Christmas with my husband’s family during my first year of medical school. My grandfather, a World War II veteran, both a best friend and hero of mine, had died. He died of septic shock secondary to MRSA in the ICU in which I would eventually rotate in as a resident. He died under the care of an intensivist who would ultimately become my attending. As my training continued, I was drawn to the ICU; the sickest of the sick. There are profound ties between infectious diseases and critical care. In the ICU, patients are either presenting with life-threatening infections, or, in the process of providing critical care, we place devices that carry risk for infection, and thus every day demands attention to the appropriate diagnosis, treatment and prevention of infection. As an infectious disease and critical care physician, I have been blessed to have many physician mentors in both fields. But truth be told, my greatest mentor is the one I lost. Every day, his death challenges me to continue to improve the outcomes for our critically ill patients.

POINT

Although guidelines do not recommend probiotics for the prevention of Clostridioides difficile infection, or CDI, researchers continue to study them as a potential solution.

Study findings suggest that filamentous bacteriophages may be associated with chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection, antibiotic resistance and other negative outcomes in patients with cystic fibrosis.

A recent case-control study identified antibiotic use as a risk factor for community-associated Clostridioides difficile infection, or CA-CDI, in children.

Results from a retrospective cohort study demonstrated the safety of an antimicrobial stewardship intervention that uses guideline-directed beta-lactam antibiotic test-dose procedures in hospitalized patients with reported beta-lactam allergies.

Findings from a study conducted in seven European countries showed that the number of antibiotic-resistant genes found in wastewater treatment plants mirrored the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant genes in clinical isolates collected from patients.

Bacteria samples from four animals at a small animal hospital in the United Kingdom were found to be resistant to linezolid, an antibiotic that is often used as a “last resort” for gram-positive infections in humans, according to a presentation at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Researchers raised concerns that the gene causing the drug resistance, known as optrA, may leap from animals to humans.