Top stories in infectious disease: FDA OKs Xenleta for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia, Q&A on Ebola preparation
The top stories in infectious disease last week included the FDA approval of Nabriva’s Xenleta to treat adults with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia and a Q&A focusing on the benefits and challenges faced by hospitals in developed countries that prepared for Ebola.
Other highlights included research that determined an antimicrobial stewardship intervention was feasible in facilities with limited resources and little-to-no antimicrobial stewardship expertise, results from the phase 3 ATLAS-2M trial, which found that 6 treatments per year of an injectable HIV regimen was effective when given every 2 months, and a study that suggested private rooms may reduce rates of some infections among hospitalized patients.
FDA approves Nabriva’s Xenleta to treat community-acquired bacterial pneumonia in adults
The FDA approved Xenleta, a novel antibiotic to treat adults with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. According to the drug’s manufacturer, Nabriva Therapeutics, Xenleta (lefamulin) is a first-in-class semisynthetic pleuromutilin antibiotic. It was approved in IV and oral formulations. Brad Spellberg, MD, from the USC Keck School of Medicine, was critical of the drug’s price. Read more.
Q&A: The state of Ebola preparation in developed countries
The ongoing Ebola virus outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was recently declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, although officials have said the threat of spread remains a regional — and not global — emergency. Infectious Disease News asked experts about the preparations hospitals in developed countries have made to take on Ebola patients. Read more.
Core stewardship intervention feasible at community hospitals
Researchers tested two core Infectious Diseases Society of America-recommended antimicrobial stewardship interventions at four community hospitals in North Carolina and found that one — post-prescription audit and review by a pharmacist after 72 hours of therapy — was feasible in facilities with limited resources and little to no antimicrobial stewardship expertise. Read more.
6 treatments per year: Injectable HIV regimen effective when given every 2 months
An injectable two-drug regimen of cabotegravir and rilpivirine administered every 2 months is noninferior to the same injection received monthly, according to results from the phase 3 ATLAS-2M trial. Read more.
Private patient rooms may reduce rates of some infections
Moving patients from a hospital with mostly ward-type rooms to a new hospital with exclusively private rooms appeared to be associated with a sustained decrease in the rates of new MRSA colonization and vancomycin-resistant enterococci colonization and infection, according to findings published in JAMA Internal Medicine. However, researchers reported that the move was not associated with a reduction in MRSA infection or Clostridioides difficile infection. Read more.