Dermatology News

It was my first week of intern year, in the medical ICU. He presented in extremis and died within 90 minutes. He was reportedly bitten by his dog 3 days prior. I remember leaving the MICU in tears, overcome with emotion, feelings of guilt and helplessness, wishing I could have changed his outcome. When his admission blood cultures later grew Capnocytophaga canimorsus, I was intrigued. I was unfamiliar with the organism at the time and yearned to learn more. Henceforth, I was “hooked on ID,” forever.

Around one-third of Norway rats, or Rattus norvegicus, captured in the sewers of Barcelona tested positive for Leishmania infantum, indicating a public health concern, researchers said.

My path toward the field of infectious diseases was a bit winding. My love for immunology began at a young age. I was inspired to become an immunologist by my father, a rheumatologist and immunologist, whose license plate happens to be “T cell.” From the beginning, he made learning about the immune system fun and this still rings true with me today. At age 15, I spent my summer in the Cleveland Clinic microbiology lab with Dr. Belinda Yen-Lieberman. She taught me about virology, and I became fascinated with HIV. I always knew I wanted to be a rheumatologist but discovered that the intersection of infectious disease and rheumatology was the niche for me. With an immense amount of support from Carlos Isada, my ID program director, and Abby Abelson, my rheumatology program director, as well as from my father, I was fortunate to serve as the beta test subject of a 3-year combined fellowship in rheumatology and infectious disease, from which I graduated in 2018. Dr. Isada is the type of physician who is hard to come by these days — being a doctor is not “just a job” for him, but a life passion, and learning from him made it impossible to do anything but love the field of infectious diseases. Today I am lucky to practice medicine at the intersection of my two passions — seeing patients with infectious complications of immunosuppression, rheumatic manifestations of infections and HIV, and focusing on infection prevention and immunization. I am also lucky to get to work with my dad every day (and my sister, who also works in my department). I learn something new and have fun every day.

Longer courses of antibiotic therapy for skin and soft tissue infections are not associated with lower treatment failure rates in patients with obesity and heart failure, or both, study findings suggested.

ATLANTA — In this video, Kathleen P. Hartnett, PhD, MPH, an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, explains an increase in fungal and bacterial infections among people who inject drugs.

Researchers have identified a drug-free approach to treating MRSA using blue light and hydrogen peroxide.

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.

Extracutaneous infections, particularly ear infections, strep throat and urinary tract infections, have an increased likelihood in patients with atopic dermatitis, according to a literature review.

Infants who received probiotics through 6 months of age had a significantly lower incidence of atopic dermatitis compared with controls, according to research published in American Journal of Clinical Dermatology.

Dermatologists can help reduce the carbon footprint in their communities and practices by joining efforts to broaden awareness of the health consequences of “the single greatest public health challenge of our lifetime,” according to a viewpoint published in JAMA Dermatology.