Respiratory Infections News

As the novel coronavirus at the center of the ongoing outbreak in China continues to spread, officials have decided to expand heightened health screenings among travelers from China to 20 Unites States airports.

The novel coronavirus at the center of an ongoing outbreak in China continues to pose a “low” risk to the general United States population, according to the CDC.

In this bimonthly column, pediatric infectious disease specialists Asif Noor, MD, FAAP, and Ulka Kothari, MD, share valuable insight on antimicrobial stewardship in pediatric outpatient settings and explain why it is important for your practice. Antimicrobial stewardship programs, or ASPs, have become a crucial intervention to spare patients and facilities from the burden of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, which are responsible for one death every 15 minutes, according to updated estimates from the CDC.

In this bimonthly column, pediatric infectious disease specialists Asif Noor, MD, FAAP, and Ulka Kothari, MD, share valuable insight on antimicrobial stewardship in pediatric outpatient settings and explain why it is important for your practice. Antimicrobial stewardship programs, or ASPs, have become a crucial intervention to spare patients and facilities from the burden of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, which are responsible for one death every 15 minutes, according to updated estimates from the CDC.

The second case of a novel coronavirus at the center of an ongoing outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, has been identified in the United States.

An emergency committee convened by WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, MSc, met for the second time today to review the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China, and recommended against declaring it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, or PHEIC, at this time.

WHO is not yet ready to decide if the Chinese coronavirus outbreak is a global public health emergency.

Multidrug-resistant (MDR) gram-negative bacteria continue to present an important threat to public health, and a long-stagnating antibiotic pipeline prompted the launch of the “10 x ’20” initiative by the Infectious Diseases Society of America in 2010. The IDSA called for FDA approval of 10 new systemic antibiotics by the year 2020. This goal has now been met and exceeded, largely through the Generating Antibiotic Incentives Now title of the FDA Safety and Innovation Act, which permitted fast track and priority review, followed by an additional 5 years of patent exclusivity upon approval, for novel antimicrobials.

Some decisions in life are quite difficult and complex; others come more easily and naturally. For me, the latter was the case with my decision to pursue a career in infectious diseases. From early first year pharmacology classes, to learning at the feet of ID giants like Harold Neu, Glenda Garvey, Mark Goldberger and many others in my 3rd and 4th years, going into ID was an easy choice.

Data indicate that fewer medical students and fellows are joining the HIV workforce, perhaps under the impression that HIV is no longer the exciting and rewarding field it once was. We asked Infectious Disease News Editorial Board Member Peter Chin-Hong, MD, professor of medicine and director of the transplant infectious disease program at University of California, San Francisco, what the “new HIV” is — the ID-related field that is attracting today’s young clinicians.