Respiratory Infections 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.

Today we have access to a multitude of new and novel medications, biologic agents, medical devices, imaging modalities, and surgical and nonsurgical invasive procedures, which have transformed the practice of internal medicine from what was essentially a diagnostic profession to one that is now heavily focused on treatment. Although the subspecialty of ID has been treatment oriented for many years, the advent of many new and sophisticated tests means we should turn our attention to potential improper use of the clinical laboratory — a major cost center in any health care system. This brings up the less often addressed but surely relevant concept of laboratory stewardship.

In 2013, China experienced the first outbreak of avian influenza A(H7N9).

Study findings showed that a novel point-of-care tuberculosis test for patients with HIV offers superior diagnostic sensitivity to the currently available test while maintaining specificity, researchers reported.

Pertussis cases appear most frequently among age-appropriately vaccinated children, which suggests that suboptimal DTaP vaccine effectiveness plays a major role in epidemics, according to a retrospective cohort study published in Pediatrics.

A case-control study conducted in southern Brazil described the first case of triple influenza virus infection, and researchers said their findings indicate that “influenza virus coinfections probably occur more often than has been previously documented.”

This week, the CDC reported that measles cases have reached over 1,000 cases in the United States for the year despite a vaccine available that demonstrates 97% efficacy if both doses are given.

An active case-finding strategy uncovered a “very high prevalence” of tuberculosis coinfection among newly diagnosed HIV-infected patients in the country of Georgia, according to a recent study.

Entasis Therapeutics announced the start of a global phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate a novel antibiotic for the treatment of patients with pneumonia and bloodstream infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, with the hope of filing a new drug application with the FDA once the trial is complete.

Children presenting to EDs and other outpatient settings with community-acquired pneumonia, or CAP, often receive unnecessary diagnostic interventions and treatments, including chest X-rays and antibiotic therapy, according to research published in the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society.