Respiratory Infections News

Findings from a retrospective cohort study showed that a clofazimine-containing regimen was safe and effective at treating rapidly growing mycobacteria, particularly in nonpulmonary and non-Mycobacterium abscessus complex infections, researchers reported.

An updated version of the Xpert Mycobacterium tuberculosis and rifampin assay, known as Ultra, demonstrated high sensitivity in diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis in children compared with traditional bacteriologic testing, according to research published in Pediatrics.

An experimental vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis was nearly 50% effective in protecting infected adults from progression to pulmonary tuberculosis disease for at least 3 years, according to study findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The CDC launched a national campaign called Life is Better with Clean Hands to promote the importance of hand-washing among adults.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported that a person with an infectious case of measles visited Disneyland and a coffee shop last week, potentially exposing many others to the highly contagious virus.

I did my internal medicine residency at Yale New Haven Hospital in the years immediately before the advent of protease inhibitors would change the face of ART. In addition to caring for many young gay men with AIDS, I saw the side of the epidemic that even today remains relatively hidden in the United States, and is operative throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa: young women — often black — who presented late in the disease, having been infected by boyfriends or husbands. I was on call when one of my favorite patients, Shirley B., was admitted to die, and the team paged me to let me know so I could see her. I’ll never forget their kindness in doing that and my visit to her room. These experiences solidified not only my interest in ID but in advancing women’s reproductive health and autonomy related to ID and HIV prevention. Vaginal health? Female-controlled prevention methods? These were not sexy concepts that attracted big names during my subsequent training and early research career. Luckily, through persistence and commitment and probably some measure of stubborn cluelessness, I connected with some brave visionary mentors who believed there was a future in this arena and who themselves had battled for sexual and reproductive health — women, LGBT people, others not always at the proverbial table when funding or policy priorities are set. The rest is my personal history, and I know that only in ID would I have been able to accomplish any of it.

Curtis J. Donskey, MD, and colleagues at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center had a novel idea to prevent some infections in their facility.

NEW ORLEANS — In-hospital influenza vaccination may reduce 30-day readmissions, mortality, morbidity and health care resource utilization in adults with community-acquired pneumonia.

Researchers were “encouraged” by the interim results from a phase 1 study of a novel influenza vaccine approach they hope will one day protect patients from both seasonal and pandemic influenza.

The FDA has approved Xofluza for the treatment of patients aged 12 years or older who are at high risk for developing influenza-related complications and have been symptomatic for no more than 2 days, Genentech announced.