Infectious Disease Alert articles from July 2004

Infectious Disease Alert archives from July 2004

An outbreak of Quinolone Resistant Haemphilus influenzae in a long-term care facility.(Abstract & Commentary)
July 1, 2004... Synopsis: Ninety-three percent of sputum isolates from a single long-term care facility were resistant to quinolones. Epidemiologic study showed an association with prior receipt of levofloxacin. Strains were closely related by pulsed field gel...

A recurring theme: from apes to man.(Abstract & Commentary)
July 1, 2004... Synopsis: In what may be a harbinger of a changing host preference, it was found that over one-half of cases of malaria in an area of Malaysian Borneo were caused by Plasmodium knowlesi, monkey pathogen. Such cases are likely to go unrecognized...

Another cause of Rickettsial-spotted fever in the United States.(Abstract & Commentary)
July 1, 2004... Synopsis: A fourth pathogen, Rickettsia parkeri, has been identified as a newly identified cause of rickettsial spotted fever in the United States. ********** A 40-YEAR-OLD MAN WHO LIVED ADJACENT TO A tidal estuary in southeast...

Are two tests better than one for detecting invasive aspergillosis?(Abstract & Commentary)
July 1, 2004... Synopsis: The case for this PCR assay for aspergillus DNA remains unproven; and that proof can only be obtained by undertaking a formal prospective study in which samples for the detection of galactomannan and fungal DNA by PCR are taken at...

Pseudomonas, ear cartilage and cell-to-cell signaling.(Abstract & Commentary)
July 1, 2004... Synopsis: The interaction of cell to cell negative with cell to cell positive may be the crucial consideration between real patients. ********** EAR AND BODY PIERCING ARE BACK IN THE NEWS again. This time it involves the devastating...

ICAAC/IDSA/ASTMH 2003.(Conference Coverage)(Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy)(Infectious Disease Society of America)(American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene)
July 1, 2004... The following is a summary of selected abstracts from 3 meetings. The 43rd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) met in Chicago September 14-17, 2003. The Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) met in...

CME questions.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... 1. What organism is the most likely to cause auricular cellulitis? a. Legionella pneumophilia b. Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus) c. Pseudomonas aeruginosa d. Staphylococcus aureus 2. Which of the following...

Mystery lung nodule in baker--case closed.(Updates)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... HOW MANY TIMES AS AN ID Consultant have you been faced with a case with abnormal pathology suggestive of mycobacterial or fungal infection but cultures were either not obtained or were lost? This was the circumstance facing Ren and colleagues,...

Frequency of CJD in asymptomatic britons.(Updates)(Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... SCIENTISTS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM have discovered that 0.024% of routine surgical specimens have tested positive for variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), suggesting that up to 3800 persons in Britan may harbor the prion protein without...

Pre-prepared infant formula a risk.(Updates)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... TWO STUDIES PRESENTED AT THE American Society for Microbiology meeting in New Orleans 2 weeks ago reported finding a surprising frequency of baby food contaminated with bacteria. Iverson and colleagues surveyed powdered infant formula, dried...

Does Mefloquine pose an unacceptable risk to US soldiers?(Updates)
July 1, 2004... THE CONTINUED USE OF MEFLOQUINE in United States soldiers stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq is becoming an increasingly hot button issue. While Military Health Officials continue to assert the safety of the drug in military personnel, and deny...

Adherence with HIV vaccination guidelines poor.
July 1, 2004... CLINICAL CARE GUIDELINES HAVE recommended the routine use of hepatitis A vaccine (HAV) and hepatitis B vaccine (HBV) in HIV-infected persons for many years, especially for individuals at greatest risk for infection, such as men who have sex...

Britain to allow over-the-counter sales of Zocor.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT WILL SOON ALLOW over-the-counter (OTC) sales of Merck's simvastatin (Zocor), marking the first time any country has allowed the OTC sale of a statin. The drug lost its patent protection in England last year, and Merck is...

FDA rejects Plan B bid.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... FDA regulators have rejected a bid from Barr Pharmaceuticals to market their "morning after pill" as an OTC. The product, called Plan B, contains 0.75 mg of levonorgestrel, a progestin commonly used in birth control pills. Plan B is marketed as...

Recombinant erythropoietin products may stimulate tumor growth.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Two recent studies have raised the question of whether recombinant erythropoietin products may stimulate tumor growth in cancer patients. One study, published in the October 2003 Lancet, reviewed 351 adult patients with head neck cancer who...

Rosuvastatin: market's most potent statin.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Rosuvastatin (Crestor-Astra Zeneca) appears to be the most potent statin currently marketed. In a study of 3140 patients with CAD, atherosclerosis, or type 2 diabetes, patients were randomized to rosuvastatin 10 mg, atorvastatin 10 or 20 mg,...

FDA actions.(Food and Drug Administration)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... Immunex Corp.'s etanercept (Enbrel) has been approved for use in patients older than the age of 18 with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis. Enbrel is currently marketed for use in patients with ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis,...

Alendronate for osteoporosis.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... THE BISPHOSPHANATES ALENDRONATE (ALE) and risedronate are the most commonly used pharmacologic agents for the treatment and prevention of osteoporosis (OSPS). Bisphosphonates have been shown to reduce fracture rates and improve bone mass, but...

Exercise training in patients with chronic heart failure.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... IN THE NOT TOO-DISTANT PAST, CLINICIANS were apprehensive about exercise for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). Evolution of knowledge about optimizing treatment in CHF has recognized that exercise may indeed provide symptomatic...

Cardiovascular prognosis of "masked hypertension".(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... THERE IS CONSISTENT AGREEMENT that ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) provides a better indicator of ultimate cardiovascular risk than office blood pressure (OBP). Because measurement of BP at home (HBP) often frees the patient from...

Short-term intensive insulin therapy in newly diagnosed DM2.(type 2 diabetes)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... THE BEST INITIAL TREATMENT FOR THE newly diagnosed type 2 diabetic (DM2) remains a matter of debate. Although there is consensus that DM2 is characterized by both insulin secretory and insulin responsivity defects, and that hyperglycemia may...

Endothelial dysfunction and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... THE PRIMARY CAUSE OF MORTALITY IN type 2 diabetes (DM2) is cardiovascular disease (CVD). Indeed, our most recent national guidelines have recognized that at the point of diagnosis, a person with DM2 has a similar or greater risk of subsequent...

Treatment of Parkison's disease with pergolide and relation to restrictive valvular heart disease.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2004... EVEN MEDICATIONS THAT ARE GENERERALLY may cause adverse effects that are sufficiently uncommon that they escape adequate identification. Although valvular heart disease (VHD) has been described as potentially associated with pergolide...