HIV and ID Observations

March 5th, 2010

Test Question on MRSA Bacteremia

I just happened to be taking a test the other day — something I do for fun every now and then, say every 10 years or so — and I came across this question (slightly condensed/changed to protect the innocent): Man with history of IDU admitted with fever, has bacteremia due to MRSA (MIC 2 mcg/mL […]

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January 10th, 2010

Ceftobiprole’s Long Road to Approval Gets Longer

Cephalosporins with activity against MRSA are out there, but we don’t have them yet.  Just recently, the leader of the pack, ceftobiprole, hit another roadblock: The FDA has indicated in its Complete Response Letter to Johnson & Johnson PRD that it has completed the review of the application and has determined that it cannot approve the […]

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December 13th, 2009

Infection and the ICU: Outcome Predictable, but Important

If you enrolled over 14,000 ICU patients into a study on a single day, and then did follow-up, what would you find regarding the relationship of infection to the outcomes of ICU stay and mortality? Just such a study was published in JAMA last week, and here are the not-so-stunning conclusions: Infections are common in patients in […]

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September 12th, 2009

49th ICAAC Starts Today

Browsing through the program book, I see these topics extensively covered: H1N1 and seasonal flu, in all their glory — transmission, pathogenesis, treatment, predictions Highly resistant GNR — acinetobacter, carbapenemases, ESBL, etc. MRSA — my personal favorite C diff — though perhaps a little less this year? While no one expects ICAAC to be an HIV-focused […]

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January 25th, 2009

Just Twenty Days Until Pitchers and Catchers Report …

As the temperature in Boston again falls below 10 degrees, my thoughts longingly turn to baseball — and how a  locally unpopular team is making a foray into the world of Infectious Diseases: The potential of a serious staph infection affecting a member of the team has not been lost on the New York Yankees. According […]

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October 18th, 2008

Back to School, Day 2

During the course, often the best questions and anecdotes come during the breaks.  Here are a few: Tons of questions about our favorite nemesis, MRSA.  What works for chronic carriers?  How do you manage family members who you suspect would be culture-positive (and the source of recurrences), but are not your patient?  What if the vet […]

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August 22nd, 2008

We have met the enemy … and it is MRSA

In Jerry Groopman’s recent New Yorker piece on antibiotic-resistant bacteria, he quotes Dr. Louis Rice from the Cleveland VA, who uses the term “ESKAPE” bacteria:  an acronym for Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumanni, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter. Nothing against the mostly gram-negative nasties in this list (and the focus of the New Yorker article), […]

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