News by Subject Medicine & Health

The antibiotic combination treatment piperacillin-tazobactam was significantly less effective than meropenem when treating potentially fatal bloodstream infections (BSI) caused by ceftriaxone-resistant Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae and should be avoided when treating these organisms, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

A seven-day course of antibiotic treatment for Gram-negative bacteraemia (GNB), a serious infection that occurs when bacteria get into the bloodstream, was shown to offer similar patient outcomes as a 14-day course, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

The vast majority of measles cases in Europe were reported in unvaccinated patients, and children younger than two years old were at a higher risk of dying from measles than older patients, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

Bacteria's internal bomb, the so-called toxin-antitoxin (TA) system that is part of the normal bacterial makeup, may be triggered to make bacteria turn on themselves, providing a valuable target for novel antimicrobial approaches in drug design, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

Outbreaks of the fungal pathogen Candida auris in healthcare settings, particularly in intensive care units (ICUs), may be linked to multi-use patient equipment, such as thermometers, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Researchers developed a new color-coded visual tool called Infection Risk Scan, or IRIS, which is set to make it easier for healthcare workers to measure in which areas a hospital complies with guidelines and where it needs to implement measures to improve infection control and the use antimicrobial therapies, according to research presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID).

West Nile virus (WNV), which is transmitted via mosquito bites, reemerged and spread to new territories of Greece in 2017 following a two-year hiatus in reported human cases, according to findings presented at the 28th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID). Greece provides the appropriate ecological and climatic conditions for WNV circulation. The virus has been established in Greece and disease transmission may continue in the future.

A Rice University study of 6,610 human flu sequences predicts that this fall's flu vaccine will likely have the same reduced efficacy against the dominant circulating strain of influenza A as the vaccine given in 2016 and 2017 due to viral mutations related to vaccine production in eggs.