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Top stories in infectious disease: Most antibiotics for toothaches unnecessary, new TB vaccine shows promise

The top story in infectious disease last week was about new a guideline from the American Dental Association, which stated that treating toothaches with antibiotics may do more harm than good.

Also, experts hope an experimental tuberculosis vaccine — potentially the first to be developed since the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin vaccine was introduced about a century ago — will help save millions of lives against the world’s top infectious disease killer.

Most toothaches do not require antibiotics, new American Dental Association guideline says

Antibiotics are not needed for most toothaches, the American Dental Association, or ADA, said in a newly published guideline that was created to address overprescribing and drug resistance. Read more.

Experimental TB vaccine could have ‘vast’ impact

An experimental vaccine against Mycobacterium tuberculosis was nearly 50% effective in protecting infected adults from progression to pulmonary tuberculosis disease for at least 3 years, according to study findings published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Read more.

Q&A: SHEA white paper identifies gaps in antibiotic stewardship research

The ability of antibiotic stewardship programs to control and reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics could be improved by addressing several research gaps, according to a Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America white paper published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. Read more.

‘We are learning from this’: After death of fecal microbiota transplant recipient, a warning about screening

In a report summarizing two fecal microbiota transplant cases that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers said the stool donor for both transplants had no risk factors that would have indicated they carried multidrug-resistant organisms, and they donated stool before the trials required testing for extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing organisms. Read more.

Hair study strengthens link between food insecurity, antiretroviral therapy nonadherence

Among women living with HIV, study findings showed that food insecurity was associated with lower antiretroviral therapy concentrations in hair, suggesting that it impacts antiretroviral therapy adherence and/or drug absorption, researchers said. Read more.