Volume 11, Issue 10, October 2024

The IDSA Antimicrobial Stewardship Curriculum is designed for infectious diseases fellowship training, but unique program features may warrant a tailored implementation approach. We surveyed program directors to characterize current implementation strategies and offer guides that accommodate common program barriers and resources.

Between May 2022 and September 2023, WHO Europe collaborated with communities to tailored a mpox risk communication campaign and implementing community engagement interventions. This initiative highlights the power of community-led emergency response, offering a co-creation model for health crises.

We found evidence that following nonpharmaceutical interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic, pathogen-specific antibody levels were reduced, especially for human respiratory syncytial virus and seasonal coronavirus. This decrease was faster in children than adults.

There are limited data on whether minoritized communities are at increased risk of gram-negative resistance. This case-control study found a higher odds of ESBL Escherichia coli resistance in minoritized patients, after controlling for other ESBL risk-factors (odds ratio, 2.534; 95% confidence interval, 1.681–3.821).

One-quarter of posttraumatic Pseudomonas aeruginosa osteomyelitis (PAPTO) recurred in the low-resource settings of Mosul and Gaza, aligned with global figures. No difference in PAPTO recurrence was observed with antibiotic therapy or episode type. Outcomes were achieved through targeted monotherapy over short duration.

This study found numerous perspectives and factors that may explain the rise of congenital syphilis (CS) along various stages of the syphilis care continuum through in depth interviews of prenatal providers and birthing parents of infants with CS.

The DYAD study demonstrated noninferior efficacy of switching to dolutegravir/lamivudine among adults with virologic suppression and bictegravir/emtricitabine/tenofovir alafenamide through 48 weeks. More drug-related adverse events were observed in the dolutegravir/lamivudine arm, which is likely consistent with the open-label nature of this trial.

In a global cohort of people with HIV with low to moderate traditional atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk, statin therapy had no effect on COVID-19 incidence but showed potential to reduce the risk of serious COVID-19 prior to COVID-19 vaccination.

A new low-cost same-day test for extrapulmonary tuberculosis, IRISA-TBTM, outperformed nested PCR (Xpert Ultra) and ADA for the diagnosis of pleural tuberculosis in a prospective study in India and South Africa.

The combined model of radiomics and clinical features based on multilayer perceptron effectively enhances the classification accuracy for kidney stone–associated urinary tract infections.

US infectious diseases fellows often care for people who use drugs, but they report limited experience in integrated infectious diseases/addiction care as well as a lack of comfort in these skills. Increased fellowship-based training would be beneficial in meeting fellows’ interests and improving clinical care.

We implemented an infectious disease themed educational escape room activity at the international conference, IDWeek 2023. A post-activity survey found that participants enjoyed the experience, wanted the activity at future conferences, and were excited to incorporate escape rooms into medical education.

High rates of RSV-related hospital admissions during 2022-23 among infants and children in Ontario, together with the return of influenza and ongoing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, underscore the need to strengthen systems for real-time surveillance and to proactively prepare for critical healthcare scenarios.

Among 3749 patients with treatment-naive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) across 3 safety-net health systems in the United States, only 31% of patients eligible for treatment based on AASLD criteria received antiviral therapy. Significant disparities in CHB treatment were observed by sociodemographic characteristics.

We studied the epidemiology of Actinomyces in patients with cancer and defined risk factors for invasive actinomycosis, the predominant sites of disease and Actinomyces species prevalence.

During 2 consecutive respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) seasons from 2022 to 2024, RSV–acute respiratory infection (ARI) incidences in community-dwelling adults aged 18 to 64 years who were residing in 4 US states suggest that the RSV-ARI incidence and seasonal pattern are shifting toward pre–COVID-19 pandemic RSV epidemiology.

This study using avidity-based serology found that SARS-CoV-2 reinfection risk decreases with prior infection, yet increases the likelihood of chronic post-COVID symptoms in fully vaccinated individuals, amid challenges tracking reinfections during the Omicron variant surge.

Oral Kaposi sarcoma (KS)–associated herpesvirus shedding is highly heterogeneous across Uganda adults with and without KS and HIV. Persistent shedding is associated with higher median viral loads regardless of HIV and KS status.

Implementation of universal masking at our hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a significant reduction in the incidence of non-SARS CoV-2, hospital-associated respiratory infections, after adjusting for the prevalence of those viruses in the community.

Recurrent CDI occurred in 10% of HCT recipients in the early posttransplant period without deaths or severe complications. Metronidazole use for treatment of the initial episode of CDI was associated with an increased rate of recurrent infection.

We estimated herpes zoster (HZ) incidence rates (IRs) in individuals ≥18 years with chronic conditions in the Republic of Korea. In 2010–2019, HZ IRs generally increased with age and were ∼40% higher in patients with chronic conditions than without.

Correlations between high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, thalamic [¹⁸F]Fluorodeoxyglucose hypometabolism, and neurocognitive decline support CVD as a factor in HIV-associated neurocognitive dysfunction. CVD should be tackled aggressively in aging people with HIV to mitigate its negative neurologic effects.

Elevated cerebrospinal fluid lactate levels are a potential early risk marker to predict higher mortality in patients with cryptococcal meningitis who are HIV negative. Further validation studies are necessary.

Despite an absence of significant cardiovascular comorbidity, youth with perinatally or nonperinatally acquired HIV appear to have a higher degree of subclinical myocardial fibrosis than youth who are HIV seronegative.

Many patients with spinal epidural abscess or phlegmon have substance use disorder and most of these patients’ infections are due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and/or gram-negative bacteria other than Escherichia coli.

In the extensive study of over 3000 patients with Babesiosis in the United States, 4 in 10 patients had co-infecting tickborne zoonoses. Coinfection with other tick-borne infections was not associated with severe disease.

Our case series observed significant mortality and morbidity in cases of central skull base osteomyelitis despite prolonged antimicrobial therapy. Advanced age and diabetes were the most common risk factors. In our jurisdiction, limited surgical intervention for source control occurred and microbiological diagnoses relied on superficial sampling of contiguous, nonsterile sites rather than bone.

A high rate of antibiotic misuse was observed in hospitalized adults with dengue virus infection. Direct medical costs were similar between appropriate and inappropriate antibiotic use. Strengthening antimicrobial stewardship in dengue can prevent misuse and reduce unnecessary healthcare costs

Ribavirin remains the primary drug for treating Lassa fever, but the relationship between viremia and clinical outcome is unclear. Understanding this association would be valuable for prognostication, the design of clinical case management strategies, and future clinical trial protocols.

This study evaluated the impact of repeated vaccination and SARS-CoV-2 infection on the virus neutralization capacity in immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals during different episodes of the pandemic. Neutralization over time was categorized by age, immunization history, and vaccination status.

Results of a comparison of 2 surveys of hepatitis B vaccination status and immunity conducted 18 years apart show that adult hepatitis B vaccination coverage remains inadequate and vaccine-mediated immunity is low. It is time to accelerate hepatitis B vaccination coverage among adults.