Volume 63, Issue 10, 15 November 2016

Antibiotic use rates and selection patterns in 15 small hospitals in Utah and Idaho. Prescribing rates and broad-spectrum use vary considerably, and similar to findings in large hospitals. Small hospitals need to become a focus of stewardship efforts.

During the first 8 years after human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine introduction in a community, vaccine-type HPV prevalence decreased >90% in vaccinated young women, demonstrating high vaccine effectiveness, and decreased >30% in unvaccinated young women, providing evidence of herd protection.

We provide evidence of improved clinical symptoms, reduced viral loads, and prolonged survival time of patients with confirmed Ebola virus disease treated with favipiravir through a retrospective clinical case study.

A 4-hour classroom course on dengue, emphasizing case studies and practical aspects of clinical management, was effective in changing key physician practices in the management of patients hospitalized with dengue in Puerto Rico.

Our case-control study findings suggest that, during 2010–2011, seasonal influenza vaccination reduced the risk of influenza-associated hospitalizations by >50% among adults aged ≥50 years. Even in those aged ≥75 years, vaccination was significantly effective in preventing influenza hospitalizations.

Invasive wound mucormycosis is associated with poor prognosis in burn patients. The detection of circulating Mucorales DNA reduces the time to diagnosis by 11 (4.5–15) days relative to standard techniques allowing earlier initiation of treatment and a better outcome.

New treatment options are available for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Our findings show that 8-week sofosbuvir-ledipasvir treatment is safe and effective under real-world conditions; well-selected patients with HCV and human immunodeficiency virus coinfection respond equally well.

Our finding that 17.1% of rectal specimens were positive for Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC), Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), or both infections suggests that routine testing and timely repeat rectal GC and CT testing should be prioritized among male patients who report receptive rectal sex.

Laboratories should individually optimize procedures for blood culture (BC) collection, processing, analysis, and result reporting. Implementation of rapid BC diagnostics should be done with clinical decision support systems that maximize clinical benefits.

Galactomannan, β-D-glucan, and polymerase chain reaction–based assays to detect invasive fungal disease in pediatric cancer or hematopoietic stem cell transplantation demonstrated high negative predictive values for galactomannan, but variable and generally poor sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive values for all biomarkers overall.

Multiplex molecular diagnostic panels represent a paradigm shift for both clinical microbiology and infectious diseases. This review summarizes the advantages and limitations of current US Food and Drug Administration–approved tests for respiratory viruses, diarrheal illness, and meningitis/encephalitis.

In high-income countries providers are ethically justified in discussing breastfeeding as a reasonable, though inferior, option for mothers living with HIV, as the duty of nonmaleficence must be weighed against the providers' obligation to respect patient autonomy.

Early after starting combination antiretroviral therapy, low CD4 cell count is the dominant risk factor for developing Kaposi sarcoma. Detectable human immunodeficiency virus RNA viral load becomes an increasingly important risk factor several years after treatment start, independently of immunodeficiency.

In young persons with and without perinatal human immunodeficiency virus in England, cognitive impairment was relatively mild, but scores were lower than general population data. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stage C, worse depression, and black African ethnicity predicted lower scores.