Optimizing Therapy of Bloodstream Infection Due to Extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae

Optimizing Therapy of Bloodstream Infection Due to Extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae

Carbapenems should be used in patients with serious infections; alternatives could be used individually, particularly for definitive treatment of patients with milder presentations. Meropenem and imipenem are the drugs... read more

Corticosteroids for Children with Septic Arthritis

Corticosteroids for Children with Septic Arthritis

Researchers conducted a review of the effects of corticosteroids given in addition to antibiotics to children with septic arthritis. Evidence was sought until April 2018. After searching for all relevant studies, reviewers... read more

Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

Get Well Soon: History’s Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them

A witty, irreverent tour of history's worst plagues―from the Antonine Plague, to leprosy, to polio―and a celebration of the heroes who fought them. In 1518, in a small town in Alsace, Frau Troffea began dancing and... read more

Procalcitonin does not curb antibiotic use for lower respiratory tract infection

Procalcitonin does not curb antibiotic use for lower respiratory tract infection

In the Procalcitonin Antibiotic Consensus Trial (ProACT), the use of a procalcitonin-guided antibiotic prescription guideline did not result in less exposure to antibiotics than did usual care among patients presenting to... read more

Hospital-acquired Infections – Adding Process Metrics

Hospital-acquired Infections – Adding Process Metrics

So far, we've only been looking at metrics that are really big and important. This is certainly a good place to start. To move beyond this, I'd like to introduce the concept of Outcome vs Process Metrics. Outcome Metrics... read more

Study Shows How Bacteria Spread from Sink Drainpipes to Patients

Study Shows How Bacteria Spread from Sink Drainpipes to Patients

Many recent reports have found multidrug resistant bacteria living in hospital sink drainpipes, putting them in close proximity to vulnerable patients. But how the bacteria find their way out of the drains, and into patients... read more

Probiotic and Synbiotic Therapy in Critical Illness

Probiotic and Synbiotic Therapy in Critical Illness

Critical illness is characterized by a loss of commensal flora and an overgrowth of potentially pathogenic bacteria, leading to a high susceptibility to nosocomial infections. Probiotics are living non-pathogenic microorganisms,... read more

You Can Get Sick From Germs on Hospital Floors

When you enter the hospital, probably the last thing that you’re thinking about is the floors. However, an emerging body of research suggests that hospital floors are covered with bacteria and could serve as a potential... read more

Decontaminants Don’t Cut Bloodstream Infection Risk in Ventilated ICU Patients

Decontaminants Don’t Cut Bloodstream Infection Risk in Ventilated ICU Patients

The use of digestive and oral decontaminants in patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) who are mechanically ventilated and who have moderate to high antibiotic resistance is not associated with a reduction in ICU-acquired... read more

Antimicrobial copper touch surfaces may help fight global threat of antibiotic resistance

Antimicrobial copper touch surfaces may help fight global threat of antibiotic resistance

Copper is a powerful antimicrobial with rapid, broad-spectrum efficacy against bacteria and viruses, and has been shown to kill disease-causing pathogens, including influenza A, E.coli and norovirus, and resistant bacteria... read more

Bacteria ‘alarm clock’ may cause repeat infections in patients

Bacteria ‘alarm clock’ may cause repeat infections in patients

Scientists have discovered a bacteria 'alarm clock' that wakes dormant Salmonella in the body, allowing the bug to trigger a repeat infection. The researchers, from Imperial College London, say the 'alarm clock' is shared... read more

A Bold New Strategy for Stopping the Rise of Superbugs

A Bold New Strategy for Stopping the Rise of Superbugs

Scientists have pinpointed a molecule that accelerates the evolution of drug-resistant microbes. Now they're trying to find a way to block it. The British chemist Leslie Orgel reputedly once said that "evolution is cleverer... read more

Can probiotics be an alternative to chlorhexidine for oral care in the mechanically ventilated patient?

Can probiotics be an alternative to chlorhexidine for oral care in the mechanically ventilated patient?

In this multicentre study, we could not demonstrate any difference between Lp299 and CHX used in oral care procedures regarding their impact on colonisation with emerging potentially pathogenic enteric bacteria in the oropharynx... read more

Imaging platform captures hard-to-track bacterial lung infections in real time

Imaging platform captures hard-to-track bacterial lung infections in real time

Ahsan Akram and colleagues have created a fluorescent imaging probe that can quickly and accurately detect hard-to-trace Gram-negative bacteria (one of the major bacterial groups) in human lungs within minutes. Their first-in-human... read more