This issue of Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, guest edited by Dr. Mark H. Wilcox, is devoted to Clostridium Difficile Infection. Articles in this issue include: Potential sources of C. difficile for human infection; Colonisation versus carriage of C. difficile; Diagnostic pitfalls in C. difficile infection; The epidemiology of C. difficile infection in and outside of healthcare institutions; What makes epidemic C. difficile strains epidemic?: Fact versus fiction; Environmental interventions to control C. difficile infection; The contribution of strains and hosts to outcomes in C. difficile infection; Treatment of C. difficile infection; Faecal microbiota transplantation for the management of C. difficile infection; The morbidity, mortality, and costs associated with C. difficile infection; The potential of probiotics to prevent C. difficile infection; The prospect for vaccines to prevent C. difficile infection; and Predictive value of models of C. difficile infection.
KEY FINDINGS: Data from the National Nursing Home Survey, 2004. In 2004, 8 percent of U.S. nursing home residents had an emergency department (ED) visit in the past 90 days. Among nursing home residents with an ED visit in the past 90 days, 40 percent had a potentially preventable ED visit. Injuries from falls were the most common conditions accounting for potentially preventable ED visits by nursing home residents. Nursing home residents who had a potentially preventable ED visit in the past 90 days had shorter lengths of stay and more medications In 2004, 8 percent of U.S. nursing home residents had an emergency department (ED) visit in the past 90 days. Among nursing home residents with an ED visit in the past 90 days, 40 percent had a potentially preventable ED visit. Injuries from falls were the most common conditions accounting for potentially preventable ED visits by nursing home residents. Nursing home residents who had a potentially preventable ED visit in the past 90 days had shorter lengths of stay and more medications.
The Oxford Textbook of Infectious Disease Control: A Geographical Analysis from Medieval Quarantine to Global Eradication is a comprehensive analysis of spatial theory and the practical methods used to prevent the geographical spread of communicable diseases in humans. Drawing on current and historical examples spanning seven centuries from across the globe, this indispensable volume demonstrates how to mitigate the public health impact of infections in disease hotspots and prevent the propagation of infection from such hotspots into other geographical locations. Containing case studies of longstanding global killers such as influenza, measles and poliomyelitis, through to newly emerged diseases like SARS and highly pathogenic avian influenza in humans, this book integrates theory, data and spatial analysis and locates these quantitative analyses in the context of global demographic and health policy change. Beautifully illustrated with over 100 original maps and diagrams to aid understanding and assimilation, in six sections the authors examine surveillance, quarantine, vaccination, and forecasting for disease control. The discussion covers theoretical approaches, techniques and systems central to mitigating disease spread, and methods that deliver practical disease control. Essential information is also provided on the geographical eradication of diseases, including the design of early warning systems that detect the geographical spread of epidemics, enabling students and practitioners to design spatially-targeted control strategies. Despite the early hope of eradication of many communicable diseases after the global eradication of smallpox by 1979, the world is still working at the control and elimination of the spatial spread of newly-emerging and resurgent infectious diseases. Learning from past examples and incorporating modern surveillance and reporting techniques that are used to design value-for-money spatially-targeted interventions to protect public health, the Oxford Textbook of Infectious Disease Control is an essential resource for all those working in, or studying ways to control the spread of communicable diseases between humans in a timely and cost-effective manner. It is ideal for specialists and students in infectious disease control as well as those in the medical sciences, epidemiology, demography, public health, geography, and medical history.
Covering all the major tropical diseases that present a health riskto travelers, this book is an invaluable resource for allpractitioners who encounter the post travel patient. With emphasison clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment, it is the first book tosummarize the knowledge of post travel presentations in theotherwise non-immune and non-endemic population and will aidclinicians to evaluate travelers’ symptoms. The book is divided into three parts. The first is an overviewof key aspects of travel medicine; the second contains a detaileddiscussion of multiple viral, bacterial and parasitic infections.The third part provides a syndromic approach to patients withcommon travel complaints such as diarrhea, fever and respiratoryinfections. It also includes useful appendices with lists ofanti-parasitic drugs and available diagnostic tests.
In this issue, guest editors bring their considerable expertise to this important topic. - Contains 14 practice-oriented topics including COVID-19 prevention in organ transplant recipients; COVID-19 management in organ transplant recipients; updates in molecular diagnostics in organ transplant recipients; updates in immunizations for organ transplant recipients; data that inform "low hanging fruit antimicrobial stewardship interventions among solid organ transplant recipients; and more. - Provides in-depth clinical reviews of transplant-related infections, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. - Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.
Among the many who serve in the United States Armed Forces and who are deployed to distant locations around the world, myriad health threats are encountered. In addition to those associated with the disruption of their home life and potential for combat, they may face distinctive disease threats that are specific to the locations to which they are deployed. U.S. forces have been deployed many times over the years to areas in which malaria is endemic, including in parts of Afghanistan and Iraq. Department of Defense (DoD) policy requires that antimalarial drugs be issued and regimens adhered to for deployments to malaria-endemic areas. Policies directing which should be used as first and as second-line agents have evolved over time based on new data regarding adverse events or precautions for specific underlying health conditions, areas of deployment, and other operational factors At the request of the Veterans Administration, Assessment of Long-Term Health Effects of Antimalarial Drugs When Used for Prophylaxis assesses the scientific evidence regarding the potential for long-term health effects resulting from the use of antimalarial drugs that were approved by FDA or used by U.S. service members for malaria prophylaxis, with a focus on mefloquine, tafenoquine, and other antimalarial drugs that have been used by DoD in the past 25 years. This report offers conclusions based on available evidence regarding associations of persistent or latent adverse events.
Authoritative investigators active in the discovery, development, and application of biological anti-infective agents concisely review their use and potential in preventing and treating human disease. Focusing on biotherapeutic entities that have been tested in controlled studies, the prominent experts illuminate the scientific underpinnings of their therapeutic power, assess their possible risks in the treatment of infectious diseases, and outline the research needed to better define their effectiveness. In addition, they also consider how biotherapeutic agents may be genetically engineered for maximum intestinal and vaginal production of bioactive substances in vivo. Biotherapeutic Agents and Infectious Diseases brings together all the evidence needed to understand and capitalize on the considerable promise of this significant new class of biotherapeutic entities.
The National Strategy for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, published in 2014, sets out a plan for government work to mitigate the emergence and spread of resistant bacteria. Direction on the implementation of this strategy is provided in five-year national action plans, the first covering 2015 to 2020, and the second covering 2020 to 2025. Combating Antimicrobial Resistance and Protecting the Miracle of Modern Medicine evaluates progress made against the national strategy. This report discusses ways to improve detection of resistant infections and estimate the risk to human health from environmental sources of resistance. In addition, the report considers the effect of agricultural practices on human and animal health and animal welfare and ways these practices could be improved, and advises on key drugs and diseases for which animal-specific test breakpoints are needed.
