Gastrointestinal Infections News

I was the intern on call for the pediatric oncology service at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital when my mother called with news that my father had experienced a stroke. My colleagues covered the service while my wife and I drove quickly to my hometown a few hours away. My dad had, indeed, experienced a large middle cerebral artery stroke, but curiously he was also highly febrile (40.5C). In the hours and days to follow, we would learn that he had a large mitral valve vegetation, that he had group B Streptococcus bacteremia and that he would not survive the event.

The CDC and other public health institutions are investigating another Escherichia coli outbreak linked to leafy greens, this time Fresh Express Sunflower Crisp chopped salad kits.

Data from a large, real-world study contributed to the growing safety and efficacy evidence of transplanting hepatitis C-infected organs into aviremic patients in the direct-acting antiviral era.

A novel ultraviolet C device was effective in reducing contamination on stethoscope diaphragms from several pathogens, according to data from a recent study.

Patients with current or prior hepatitis C infection were willing to engage in alcohol intervention including counseling and referral to treatment when encouraged by liver medical providers, according to data published in Hepatology.

While most U.S. hospitals have an antibiotic stewardship program, many smaller hospitals lack infectious disease expertise on their stewardship teams, and only about half of all hospitals use frontline workers in their programs, a nationwide survey showed.

Patients who failed to achieve sustained virologic response after initial treatment for hepatitis C achieved high cure rates during retreatment after switching from an NS5A inhibitor direct-acting antiviral to a protease inhibitor.

The CDC announced a multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli 0157:H7 infections linked to romaine lettuce harvested from the growing region in Salinas, California.

NEW YORK — In this video, Joseph A. Bocchini Jr., MD, professor and chairman of the department of pediatrics at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, discusses common travel-related infections.

I fell in love with immunology as a first-year medical student at Harvard in a class taught by the Nobel Prize-winning immunologist Baruj Benacerraf. It was the mid-1980s, and the HIV epidemic was emerging in all its perplexing horror, the virus devastating the immune system through unknown means. I had friends who were stigmatized and dying from HIV, which made it personal. When I was a third-year medical student in 1987, Chip Schooley was my ID attending. He was involved in clinical trials to treat HIV as well as laboratory research to understand HIV immunology. His brilliance and passion for patient care and research were inspiring, and that is when I became hooked on ID! I decided then that I would dedicate my career to fighting the HIV epidemic through clinical care and research to unravel how HIV evades and depletes the immune system. I was fortunate that Chip recruited me to perform my ID fellowship at the University of Colorado and then to join the faculty. Although there were many challenges, the path has been fulfilling. I would encourage anyone who wishes to pursue an academic career in ID to focus on what they think is important and find good mentors!