Appropriate use of the "watchful waiting" strategy for management of acute otitis media (AOM) in children could reduce healthcare costs and improve health outcomes, according to a new study in Pediatrics.
Israel and four European countries reported more highly pathogenic H5N8 outbreaks, according to the latest updates from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). Israel reported six new outbreaks in the central part of the country, with start dates ranging from Jan 23 to Feb 12, five of them at farms (turkeys, ducks, and laying hens) and one involving three barn owls found dead at a nature park.
The drug may cut all-cause mortality in patients with severe C difficile infection.
More than 90% of Veterans Health Administration (VHA) hospitals have developed written antimicrobial stewardship policies, and the agency's Antimicrobial Stewardship Initiative has cut antibiotic use 12% overall so far, VHA officials noted yesterday in an analysis in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.
Two phase 3 trials showed that a human mononoclonal antibody cut recurrence about 40%.
Though a UK C diff spike was thought to be caused by dirty hospital rooms, that theory proved unlikely.
A case report on an immunocompromised patient with prolonged influenza virus in yesterday's Eurosurveillance reveals resistance to two common antiviral drugs and shows how rapidly antiviral resistance can evolve, a finding the authors say highlights the importance of rapid antiviral resistance testing.
An expensive type of ultraviolet (UV) light treatment called UVC was associated with a 30% drop in the incidence of infections with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) but did not affect Clostridium difficile rates when used for cleaning hospital rooms between patients, according to a study yesterday in The Lancet.
The federal government is for the first time cutting Medicare payments to hospitals that have high rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile, according to Kaiser Health News.
A panel of experts has identified six metrics that hospitals can use to assess the impact of antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs).
