Top stories in infectious disease: USPSTF recommends clinicians offer PrEP to high-risk patients, CDC discusses E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce

Among the top stories in infectious disease last week were the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s final recommendations regarding providing pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, to patients at high risk for HIV infection, a CDC report explaining this month’s Escherichia coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce and a primer on improving outpatient antibiotic prescribing rates.

Other popular stories included data that compared the effectiveness of two flu vaccines and a WHO report that updated the worldwide fight against malaria. – by Janel Miller

USPSTF recommends clinicians offer pre-exposure prophylaxis to high-risk patients

For the first time, the USPSTF recommended that clinicians offer PrEP to patients at high risk for HIV infection. Read more

‘Throw it away’: CDC provides details of E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce

The CDC announced another multistate outbreak of Escherichia coli linked to romaine lettuce and said people should not eat the leafy greens in any form. Read more.

Q&A: Interventions to improve outpatient antibiotic prescribing

Healio spoke with Katherine Fleming-Dutra, MD, deputy director of the CDC’s Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, about a recent review published in The BMJ that summarized drivers behind inappropriate prescribing in the outpatient setting and assessed interventions to improve antibiotic use in this environment. Read more.

Cell-based flu vaccine 36% more effective than egg-based vaccine

Seqirus released adjusted data showing that its cell-based quadrivalent influenza vaccine was around 36% more effective than the standard egg-based quadrivalent vaccine in preventing influenza-like symptoms in people aged 4 years and older during the most recent influenza season in the United States. Read more.

Progress against malaria has ‘stalled,’ WHO says

Global progress against malaria has “stalled” and requires a country-driven response to support the hardest-hit nations to get efforts back on track, WHO said. Read more.