Month: December 2018

Happy Holidays!

As the holiday season comes to a close, we here at UNMC ID want to wish each and everyone of you a happy, healthy holiday season and a wonderful start to 2019! Thank you for your continued support in our endeavor to bring you the latest news, updates and research from our amazing faculty & […]

Dec 31, 2018

Farewell to 2018; a year of UNMC ID growth

2018 has been a year of growth for our Division of Infectious Diseases. We have added several new faculty to our group (and still actively hiring), continued to redesign the College of Medicine Infectious Diseases curriculum, established a new Orthopedic Infectious Diseases service line, expanded our social media presence, joined multiple national Infectious Diseases committees, […]

Dec 28, 2018

At the end of 2018, we remember and respect Influenza, 100 years after the great pandemic

The Mother of All Pandemics In the 1918-1919 calendar year, the world experienced the worst influenza pandemic in modern times. Coming on the heels of WWI, the H1N1 pandemic occurred in three waves – in the spring of 1918, fall 1918 and spring 1919. Estimates suggest that the pandemic infected a third of the world’s […]

Dec 26, 2018

Pharm To Exam Table – Candida glabrata Urinary Tract Infections

The following is a clinical review written by Allison Graner, UNMC College of Pharmacy PharmD candidate 2019, and supervised by Scott Bergman PharmD FIDSA, Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator of Nebraska Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship Program What is the appropriate treatment for urinary tract infection caused by Candida glabrata? Infections caused by the fungus known as Candida, the […]

Dec 21, 2018

Bacteriocidal versus Bacteriostatic: What Makes the Biggest Difference in VRE Bloodstream Infection?

An October 2018 publication in Critical Care Medicine by Chuang et al details a prospective study of adults in Taiwan, between 2010 -2015, aimed to assess all-cause mortality and rate of bloodstream clearance among patients with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) treated with daptomycin (bacteriocidal) versus linezolid(bacteriostatic). Patients were treated with conventional daptomycin (6 to < 9 mg/kg […]

Dec 19, 2018

Saving SIRS? Discernment of Sepsis from Non-Infectious Syndromes in the ED

Upon patients’ arrival to the emergency department (ED), determining whether they do or do not have sepsis is difficult. Because of this, many patients receiving antibiotics ultimately are found to have a noninfectious cause of their syndrome. In order to try and improve detection of sepsis in the ED, Mearelli et al. completed a multicenter […]

Dec 10, 2018

Skin Deep: A Closer Look at Treatment of Skin and Soft Tissue Infections

Current guidelines for management of Skin/Soft Tissue Infections (SSTIs) were published in 20141.  Nevertheless, management of SSTIs is variable, likely driven by the fact that culture data is often unavailable to direct clinical decision making. Treatment variability results in inappropriate antimicrobial use, highlighting the need for antimicrobial stewardship. Consequently, management of SSTIs is one area […]

Dec 3, 2018