Infectious Disease

"We believe that the current entrepreneurial development model for antibiotics is broken and needs to be fundamentally transformed." This provocative opinion is from a recent editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine. The introduction of penicillin, the first antibiotic miracle drug, led to an 80 percent reduction in mortality from infectious diseases. Other antibiotics quickly followed, reducing death rates even further. Over the past several decades, however, the discovery ...

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In response to concerns about the unnecessary use of antibiotics, researchers have sought to identify simple, non-specific tests to help clinicians determine which patients require antibiotics and which do not. Indeed, such tests could facilitate challenging management decisions, which currently rely predominately upon a thorough clinical assessment. To compound the challenge, patients often have pre-conceived ideas about whether or not ...

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Flu vaccination prevents millions of flu-related illnesses and deaths annually, but vaccination rates are low for many reasons. During the 2018-2019 flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that about 45% of U.S. adults received the flu vaccine. While this is an increase of 8% from 2017-2018, it falls way below the national goal of 70% of American adults ...

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Candida auris (C. auris) is a multidrug-resistant fungus responsible for a rising number of infections and deaths around the world, the origin of which is currently subject to investigation. Spread primarily in the health care setting, it is a growing threat to high-risk patients in hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care facilities. The CDC estimates that between 30 percent and 60 percent of people who become ill with C. auris infections have died. ...

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An episode pitting top administrators at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) against senior scientists at the organization serves as a vital reminder of the importance of academic freedom and the need to communicate and express concerns about scientific research. NIH administrators prohibited two of its senior scientists from speaking out about a research study the scientists claim has serious flaws (Crystalloid Liberal or Vasopressors Early Resuscitation in ...

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Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 64-year-old woman is evaluated during a posthospital visit for severe COPD with an FEV₁ of 30% of predicted. She has been admitted three times during the last year with acute exacerbations characterized by cough, increased purulent sputum production, and dyspnea. She is now at baseline of her exertional dyspnea ...

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Antibiotics serve two purposes for large-scale meat farmers. They allow them to raise animals in unsanitary, confined conditions that would otherwise kill or sicken them and they allow factory farmers to use less feed. How much less feed? Without antibiotics, 175,550 more tons of feed would be needed to grow U.S turkeys, lamented Michael Rybolt of the National Turkey Federation at 2008 hearings when the FDA tried ...

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There have been over 1,000 cases of measles in the first half of 2019–the most since 1992, according to the CDC. For comparison, 2018 had 372 cases. With New York at the center of the outbreak, it’s reasonable to have questions–from how to know if you’re fully vaccinated to (if you have infants) whether you should opt for an earlier schedule. Below is a collection of up-to-date answers to ...

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Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians. A 38-year-old woman undergoes follow-up evaluation in the office. She was evaluated in the emergency department 3 nights ago with fever and flank pain following 2 days of dysuria. A urine culture and two sets of blood cultures were collected. She was given intravenous ceftriaxone and discharged with a 7-day ...

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