Infectious Disease

DENVER -- Controversial TB patient Andrew Speaker is a free man -- declared non-contagious, released from the hospital, and given medical clearance to fly on commercial aircraft without posing any risk to fellow travelers.

SYDNEY -- Making circumcision widely available to adult men in regions of the world where HIV infection is highly prevalent will save millions of lives and should be undertaken immediately, researchers urged here.

SYDNEY -- Starting antiretroviral therapy in the first 12 weeks of life markedly reduces mortality for infants born with HIV infection.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Corticosteroids appear to be ineffective against first episode bronchiolitis in infants, despite frequent emergency room use, researchers said.

SYDNEY -- An investigational HIV drug that blocks the virus from entering its target cells "isn't ready for prime time" in the treatment of newly diagnosed patients, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- A combination of two new HIV drugs can reduce the virus to undetectable levels even in patients with a highly resistant strain, according to two studies presented here.

SYDNEY -- Malignancies still plague a major study of the investigational HIV drug vicriviroc, which blocks one of the pathways the virus uses to enter target cells, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- As the long-term prognosis for patients with HIV improves, it becomes more important to assess the patient's risk for cardiovascular disease and other health issues, researchers suggested here.

SYDNEY -- The novel integrase inhibitor raltegravir was as effective initial therapy as the standard treatment, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- New compounds that seek ways to disrupt mechanisms of the HIV life cycle were outlined here, reflecting an expanding investigative antiviral pipeline

CHICAGO -- Medicare patients who couldn't read a physician's instructions, or who didn't understand what they read had a higher mortality rate than patients with adequate reading skills.

SYDNEY -- A novel HIV drug aimed at barring entry of the virus into the cell was safe and had a long half-life in an early trial, lowering viral load for up to two weeks after treatment stopped, a researcher said here.

SYDNEY -- HIV vaccine research is poised to take a step into the unknown -- the use of live but attenuated viruses to create immunity.

SYDNEY -- Doctors and patients should not be content with keeping human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) at low levels, but should seek to optimize treatment to suppress virus to undetectable levels.

SYDNEY -- Tuberculosis and HIV therapy can take place at the same time without the risk of long-term HIV treatment failure, researchers said here.

SYDNEY -- The pendulum of HIV treatment is starting to swing -- once again -- toward the "hit early, hit hard" theory.

GENEVA, Switzerland -- The risk of late-onset ventilator-associated pneumonia in ICU patients rises as the nurse-to-patient ratio declines, reported investigators here.

DENVER -- Andrew Speaker's much-documented battle with drug-resistant tuberculosis took another a turn today, with the sudden announcement that he would have surgery this morning to remove diseased and damaged lung tissue.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Occurrence rates for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma more than tripled from 1973 to 2002, with the rise varying by race, sex, and geographic area, researchers found.

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Diabetes complicates hospital trauma care much as it does for in-patient acute care, researchers here reported.

MINNEAPOLIS -- The frequency and severity of Clostridium difficile colitis in hospitalized patients have increased dramatically since the early 1990s, leading to greater morbidity and mortality, investigators here reported.

RICHMOND, Va. -- Longer is better when it comes to treatment for hepatitis C, researchers here said.

BOSTON -- Incretin-based therapies offer an alternative to hypoglycemic agents for type 2 diabetes with little if any weight gain, a meta-analysis showed.

PHILADELPHIA -- Not only did prophylactic antibiotic therapy fail to reduce recurrence of urinary tract infections in young children, it was linked to an increase in resistant infections.

PARIS, July 9 -- Episodic impaired memory, not dementia, is the crucial clinical symptom required for diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, according to a proposal for revised diagnostic criteria.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Calcium and ceftriaxone (Rocephin) are a dangerous combination that can increase the risk of lethal precipitates forming in the lungs and kidneys of infants, according to the FDA.

DENVER -- In a surprising turn of events, the tuberculosis that turned Andrew Speaker into an international cause celebre was misdiagnosed, physicians said today.

abstract: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic interstitial lung disease of unknown etiology that leads to progressive fibrosis and respiratory failure. Patients with IPF typically present in their sixth to seventh decade of life with the insidious onset of progressive dyspnea and cough. Lung histopathology reveals the distinct lesion of usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP), and other causes of UIP, such as collagen-vascular disease, drug exposure, or occupational exposures, must be excluded. A confident clinical diagnosis of IPF can often be made without resorting to surgical lung biopsy if certain clinical features are present and a typical pattern is identified on high-resolution CT (HRCT) scanning of the thorax. Changes on HRCT scans that are typical for UIP include a predilection for peripheral and basilar lung zones with patchy involvement and sparing of more central areas, especially in upper lung zones. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(7):283-292)

abstract: Tuberculous pericarditis, while relatively rare in the United States, is an important cause of pericardial disease in countries where tuberculosis is prevalent. Patients are most likely to present with chronic disease--effusive and/or constrictive. Those with effusive pericarditis often present with tamponade. Patients with constrictive pericarditis exhibit features of systemic and pulmonary venous congestion. An elevated level of adenosine deaminase in pericardial fluid is a good marker for tuberculosis. The presence of granulomas or case-ation necrosis in pericardial tissue confirms the diagnosis. If treatment of effusive tuberculous pericarditis is delayed, constrictive or effusive-constrictive disease usually develops, resulting in a high mortality risk. In addition to a standard antituberculosis regimen, treatment of tuberculous pericarditis may include adjuvant therapy with corticosteroids, pericardiocentesis, and/or pericardiectomy. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(7):278-282)

Given the dramatic advances in antimicrobials since penicillin was introduced, why has the mortality rate associated with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) remained essentially unchanged? Inadequate application of practice guidelines may be the chief reason, according to a committee from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and the American Thoracic Society (ATS).1