In new polio developments, Pakistan reported five more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases and four African countries reported more circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) cases, including the first in Benin, according to the latest weekly update today from the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).
Fully 67.8% of patients received antibiotics for longer than recommended.
Viruses account for 61.4% of cases in young kids, with RSV the most common viral cause and the leading cause of severe pneumonia.
A meta-analysis of 12 studies indicates that serum procalcitonin levels are unlikely to help clinicians determine whether community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in adults requires antibiotics, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine reported yesterday in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
A study yesterday in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy details the emergence of gonorrhea strains with high-level resistance to azithromycin in Taiwan.
A study over four flu seasons of influenza and other respiratory illnesses at nine Canadian hospitals found that 95% of health providers have worked while sick, often when symptoms were mild or began during the workday. Researchers reported their findings yesterday in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA).
A 38-year-old man and his pregnant wife, 37, died in Mongolia from bubonic plague after eating tainted marmot meat, according to a report in The Siberian Times.
The Mongolian Ministry of Health confirmed the cause of death, and issued a quarantine for Ulgii, the town where the couple lived, leaving several dozen tourists stranded. The quarantine lifted yesterday, the BBC reported.
An international team of scientists reported today in Eurosurveillance that the three extensively drug-resistant (XDR) gonorrhea cases identified in Australia and the United Kingdom in 2018 were caused by a single XDR clone.
The new drug is a 'modernized' version of tetracycline, designed to address antibiotic resistance, but its clinical role isn't yet clear.
Merck announced yesterday that the US Food and Drug Administration has accepted for priority review a New Drug Application (NDA) for the combination of relebactam and imipenem/cilastatin and a supplemental NDA for Zerbaxa (ceftolozane and tazobactam).