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Top stories in infectious disease: Antiseptic stops therapy dogs from spreading MRSA, what you need to know about fungal disease
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Many of this week’s top stories in infectious disease come from IDWeek, an annual scientific meeting of several leading medical societies focusing on infectious diseases.
Popular presentations included how an antiseptic stopped therapy dogs from spreading MRSA to young patients with cancer, and study results comparing a 5-day course of oral lefamulin vs. 7 days of oral moxifloxacin in community-acquired bacterial pneumonia and, separately, the combination of daptomycin and fosfomycin compared to daptomycin alone in treating MRSA bacteremia.
Other top stories were a study that examined a potential link between a retrovirus and addictive behaviors and an expert explaining what clinicians need to know about diseases involving fungi. – by Janel Miller
Antiseptic prevents therapy dogs from spreading MRSA to pediatric patients with cancer
Researchers found that a low-cost cleaning procedure could prevent therapy dogs from spreading MRSA among pediatric cancer patients — presenting a possible solution to the danger that therapy animals pose to at-risk patients.. Read more.
LEAP 2 study demonstrates safety, efficacy of oral lefamulin for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia
A 5-day course of oral lefamulin is noninferior to 7 days of oral moxifloxacin for the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, according to results from a second phase 3 trial. Read more.
VIDEO: Fungal Disease Awareness Week
In this video, Snigdha Vallabhaneni, MD, MPH, medical epidemiologist in the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, advises clinicians to “think fungus.” Watch video.
Daptomycin, fosfomycin combination more effective against MRSA
The combination of daptomycin and fosfomycin was more effective in treating MRSA bacteremia than daptomycin alone. Read more.
Addictive behaviors linked with ancient retrovirus
A retrovirus discovered in Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes is more frequently found in people who inject drugs and is likely associated with addictive behavior, according to findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Read more.