Ethiopian researchers report that the introduction of a rapid molecular diagnostic test at a teaching hospital resulted in the first diagnosis of viral meningitis in routine clinical practice in Ethiopia. The study was published yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases.
US scientists report that the Etest, made by the French company bioMerieux, outperformed disc tests and is a suitable alternative to broth microdilution (BMD) for testing ceftazidime combined with avibactam against ceftazidime- and meropenem-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, according to results published yesterday in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
A systematic review and meta-analysis published today in JAMA Facial Plastic Surgery suggests there's no evidence to support routine use of postoperative antibiotics after rhinoplasty procedures.
Afghanistan officials have reported 3 new cases of wild poliovirus 1 (WPV1), while Papua New Guinea (3 cases), Nigeria (2 cases), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, 1 case) have all reported cases involving circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus (cVDPV), according to a weekly update today from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
An investigation into 40 variant H3N2 (H3N2v) influenza cases in people exposed to pigs at three agriculture fairs in Maryland in September 2017 found that 30 (75%) occurred in people at high risk for flu complications. Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Maryland described their findings today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).
Bacterial reads for unexplained sepsis were 1,000 times higher than with a different assay.
An international group of specialists from hospitals, research institutes, public health agencies, and diagnostics firms yesterday published a paper outlining the challenges to developing novel and rapid antibiotic susceptibility tests (ASTs). The consensus statement was published in Nature Reviews Microbiology.
A team of researchers from the United Kingdom report that Clostridioides difficile spores can survive on hospital sheets even after being washed with high-temperature water and industrial detergents, and that those spores could be contributing to outbreaks of C difficile infection (CDI) in hospitals.
The new study sheds light on prescribing missed in other studies, including for conditions without an in-patient visit.
The results of a small clinical trial in France show that a topical treatment containing a cocktail of bacteriophages successfully reduced bacterial burden in patients with infected burn wounds, but at a significantly slower rate than standard of care. The findings appeared yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
