Respiratory Infections News

Despite guidelines recommending its use, pneumococcal urinary antigen testing, or UAT, is not performed often in the United States, even though it can help identify patients who are eligible for antibiotic de-escalation, researchers reported.

Recently updated guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of adults with community-associated pneumonia, or CAP, stressed the importance of de-escalation of antibiotic therapy and made stricter recommendations on when to use broad-spectrum antibiotics for the treatment of patients with CAP and risk factors for drug-resistant organisms.

The theme of this year’s International Infection Prevention Week, which runs from Oct. 13 to 19, is “Vaccines are Everybody’s Business.”

It is still common for antibiotics to be dispensed without a prescription at community pharmacies throughout China, though the practice is less prevalent in chain pharmacies, in urban areas and in places where a pharmacist is on duty, according to a recently published study.

Initiating 28-week isoniazid therapy during pregnancy was noninferior to initiating it 12 weeks after delivery to prevent tuberculosis in pregnant women with HIV who are on ART, according to results from a randomized controlled trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine. However, researchers found a greater risk for treatment-related adverse events in mothers who initiated treatment during pregnancy, suggesting that the best time to start isoniazid is after delivery.

WASHINGTON — Helen Y. Chu, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology at the University of Washington, explains findings from the Seattle Flu Study, an effort to track influenza transmission in the community as an “early alert system” for hospitals.

WASHINGTON — Influenza vaccination reduced the risk for influenza-related hospitalization in children by nearly half and the odds of death in adults by about 36% over several recent influenza seasons, according to CDC data from two studies presented at IDWeek.

WASHINGTON — Cefiderocol, a novel siderophore cephalosporin, was noninferior to high-dose meropenem for the primary endpoint of all-cause mortality 14 days after treatment was started in patients with nosocomial pneumonia caused by gram-negative pathogens, according to results of a randomized phase 3 trial called APEKS-NP.

WASHINGTON — Researchers identified a biological signature of acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM, found in cerebrospinal fluid.

WASHINGTON — The efficacy and safety of the antibiotic omadacycline are comparable in patients with and without diabetes, according to researchers.