Scientists from Italy today reported detecting the worrisome colistin-resistance gene MCR-4 in two isolates of Salmonella from people, only the second time the gene has been reported and the first time in humans, according to their report in Eurosurveillance.
A growing number of vaccine makers are expressing concerns about their ability to quickly develop new vaccine candidates against emerging disease threat, such as Zika and Ebola viruses, Stat reported today, based on interviews with pharmaceutical executives, government officials, and infectious disease experts.
An "interactive massive open online course" (MOOC) on antimicrobial stewardship was taken by 32,944 people in 163 countries and was rated highly by its participants, most of whom were healthcare professionals, according to a report this week in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
China has reported its second human H7N9 avian influenza infection of the season, in a 72-year-old man from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region who died from his illness, Hong Kong's Center for Health Protection (CHP) said in a statement today, based on information from the mainland.
Our weekly wrap-up of antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance scans
Preliminary indications into South Sudan's recent viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak suggest that Rift Valley fever (RVF) may be the cause, the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa said in its latest outbreak and health emergencies update.
Most infection specialists currently do not advise the shortest possible duration of antibiotic therapy to prescribers, but nearly half are willing to shorten the duration most of the time, a French-led team of researchers reported yesterday in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.
Starting antiviral treatment early may reduce the size of flu outbreaks in long-term care facilities, researchers from Taiwan reported today in Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses.
An antimicrobial stewardship program (ASP) in an intensive care unit (ICU) in a Spanish hospital was associated with a 22% drop in antimicrobial doses, according to a new study in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.
The World Economic Forum's 2018 Global Risks Report, released this week, includes a section on antimicrobial resistance (AMR), noting that while initiatives to address antibiotic overuse and the lack of new antibiotics have been launched, concrete successes "remain elusive."
Researchers in New Zealand report today in The Lancet that exposure to the outer-membrane vesical meningococcal B vaccine (MeNZB) was associated with reduced rates of gonorrhea in a retrospective case-control study. It's the first time a vaccine has shown any protection against the sexually transmitted infection.
Canadian researchers are reporting the first case of the drug-resistant fungal pathogen Candida auris in Canada.
The World Health Organization (WHO) may reverse a decision it made a month ago to launch a cholera vaccine campaign in Yemen, due to the aggressive spread of the disease and conflict conditions in the country, the New York Times reported today, citing a WHO spokesman who updated reporters at a briefing in Geneva today.
Basic molecular typing and routine hospital data can be used in resource-limited settings to do lab surveillance of antimicrobial resistance organizations, according to researchers in Sri Lanka who reported their findings yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases.
More than half of the multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) isolates tested in the Republic of Georgia were resistant to one of the first-line treatments for the disease, researchers reported yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new numbers on current outbreaks of Salmonella illnesslinked to backyard poultry. Since the last update on Jun 1, there have been 418 more cases, raising the total number of cases this year to 790, reported in 10 multistate outbreaks. The outbreaks involve 10 different Salmonella subtypes.
The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) said there was a new case of measles in an adult who visited several public places while infectious. The new case brings the total to 79 for Minnesota's ongoing measles outbreak.
Originally published by CIDRAP News Jul 13
A case series of 112 babies born to Brazilian mothers who had confirmed Zika infections found that 21.4% had eye abnormalities with the potential to impair sight, with the condition sometimes seen on its own without microcephaly or other central nervous system (CNS) problems. Researchers from Brazil reported in JAMA Pediatrics today.
The Texas Department of State Health Services said today that clinicians should consider testing patients who complain of lingering diarrhea for Cyclospora, a parasite that can cause severe diarrheal illness.
A retrospective analysis of antibiotic prescriptions in England published yesterday in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy found that nearly 8% of all antibiotics dispensed in primary care are prescribed by non-medical prescribers (NMPs), mostly nurses.
A study yesterday in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases that measured the time between symptom onset and diagnosis in 537 patients with MERS-CoV in Saudi Arabia found that patients were diagnosed 0 to 36 days after symptoms appeared, with a median of 4 days.
Members of the World Health Organization's (WHO's) food standards–setting body, the Codex Alimentarius Commission, agreed yesterday to update guidelines aimed at reducing antimicrobial resistance along the food chain.
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, yesterday announced the second year of funding to states—totaling $30.9 million—to support the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
Originally published by CIDRAP News Jul 20
A study today in Genome Biology suggests methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) emerged several years before methicillin was used to treat S aureus infections.
