A baby in Mississippi has died of whooping cough for the first time since 2012. The baby was less than two months old—too young for vaccination.

Impact of a multifaceted intervention including supportive care order sentence implementation on outpatient antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections - Volume 5 Issue 1

Lack of international guidelines for Gram-negative bloodstream infection (GN-BSI) management poses clinical challenges. We aimed to assess whether implementing a management bundle for GN-BSI patients affected mortality and/or emergence of multidrug resistance (MDR).MethodsSingle-center, quasi-experimental study including adult patients hospitalized with monomicrobial GN-BSI. In the pre-phase (2018-2019), no standardized protocol was used. In the post-phase (2022–2023), a bundle was applied including predefined rules for follow-up blood cultures (FU-BC), imaging, beta-lactam administration schedule and treatment duration. Primary endpoint was 30-day all-cause mortality; secondary endpoint was 30-day MDR-GN carriage or infection. Treatment-effect lasso models were used to estimate bundle impact.ResultsA total of 2713 patients were included: 1430 in the pre-phase and 1253 in the post-phase. FU-BCs were performed in 22.5% (n=322) vs 47% (n=589), p<0.001; imaging in 65.5% (n 936) vs 71.6% (n=897), p<0.001; median treatment duration was 10 days in both phases (p=0.625). Thirty-day mortality was 10.7% (n=153) vs 11.6% (n=143), p=0.467. New MDR carriage/infection was 140 (11.0%) vs 78 (6.5%), p<0.001. The bundle had no overall effect on 30-day mortality (ATE = 0.008, p=0.568), despite reduced mortality in BSIs due to carbapenem-resistant organisms (ATE = -0.074, p=0.197) the effect was not significant. MDR emergence was significantly reduced (ATE = -0.038, p=0.031) in both overall and high-risk populations.ConclusionsThe GN-BSI management bundle reduced MDR.

The U.S. has reported its first human case of bird flu since February, with a confirmed infection in Washington state

AbstractSyphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum (subsp. pallidum) and associated with severe symptoms culminating into cardiovascular complications or neurological damage. In the late 15th century, its epidemic occurred in Europe with an outbreak in Naples, causing numerous deaths and impacted people’s lives, shaping their thoughts, behaviours, and language. Here, we traced the syphilis’ origin, exploring its social implications, and reviewing its therapeutic approaches. Moreover, using examples of Neapolitan folk-sayings we illustrated how dialects preserve fragments of medical history. In conclusion, beside epidemics impact human health, years later they continue shaping socio-cultural traits, including language.

We use a mathematical model incorporating racial inequities in the United States to determine the effects of interventions aimed at ameliorating inequity i