Division of Infectious Diseases

Interested in upcoming Transplant ID conferences? UNMC ID will be representing!

We are proud of our Transplant ID faculty who have demonstrated their academic productivity with invitations to present posters, oral lectures and moderate at upcoming Transplant ID conferences. If you are planning on attending any of these conferences, check out our faculty and staff presentations and tag us on twitter @UNMC_ID!

2018 American Transplant congress, Seattle, WA 2-6 June 2018

Dr. Andre C Kalil – moderator for “Frontiers in Cytomegalovirus – Bench to Bedside” Sunday June 3rd

Chambers HC, Kalil AC, Florescu DF. Timing of infections after TAH implantation. What did we learn? Jun 2-6, 2018 ATC, Seattle, WA. Poster

Florescu DF, Grimley M, Papanicolaou G, Prasad V, Vainorius E, Chittick G, Brundage T, Nichols T. Brincidofovir was Used to Successfully Treat Adenovirus Infections in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients and Other Immunocompromised Patients.. Abstract 294. Oral presentation. Jun 2-6, 2018 ATC, Seattle, WA

Henry M; Vacha M; Florescu DF; Keck M; Evaluation of the Use of Oral Valganciclovir for the Treatment of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infections in Pediatric Intestinal Transplant Recipients: A Single Center Experience. Jun 2-6, 2018 ATC, Seattle, WA Poster

27th International Congress of the Transplantation Society, Madrid, Spain, June 30- July 5, 2018

Dr. Diana F Florescu – oral presentation: Addressing the Threat of Infections Post-Transplant – Diarrhea in Transplantation, July 1, 2018

Dr. Diana F Florescu – oral presentation: Early Morning Symposium – Challenging Cases in Transplant Infectious Diseases: Pushing the Boundaries of Donor and Recipient Outcomes – Polyoma Viruses. July 4, 2018

Chambers HC, Kalil AC, Florescu DF. Hospital Course after TAH Implantation, Nebraska Experience. Poster session 2, P.398. TTS 2018, Madrid Spain


 

Pseudomonas In Cystic Fibrosis lung disease: Time to dispense with the shotgun approach

WE are absolutely THRILLED to have Dr. Dickinson write this guest blog post in honor of Cystic Fibrosis Awareness month. There are few conditions in which antimicrobial treatment is determined at least in part, by organ function, and CF is one of those states. Here at UNMC ID, we are committed to bringing colleagues together to teach each other, garner greater understanding and hopefully foster further collaboration. This wonderful commentary by Dr. Dickinson teaches us about Cystic Fibrosis, Treatment of infections, new studies on the horizon and supports the stewardship dogma of targeted therapy!

Management of Pseudomonas aeruginosa airway infection in cystic fibrosis lung disease: Time to dispense with the shotgun approach in favor of a targeted approach with precision therapeutics.

By Dr. John Dickinson, MD, PhD

Associate Director Adult Cystic Fibrosis Center UNMC

Assistant Professor of Medicine

Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, & Allergy

 

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive genetic disease due to dysfunction of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene leading to abnormal chloride ion transport. Approximately 30,000 individuals in the United States have CF. There has been extraordinary improvement in the survival among those with CF and life expectancy has increased from the late adolescent years in the 1980s to the mid 40s today. There are now more adults living with CF than children (Figure 1). New CFTR modulators developed within the last 6 years offer further hope to CF patients to prevent bronchiectasis and loss of lung function.

In the airways, lack of chloride transport from dysfunctional CFTR leads to reduced airway surface liquid. As a consequence, normal mucociliary clearance is drastically reduced as airway mucus is thick and tenacious. This defect of innate immunity leads to a failure to clear pathogens from the airway. Early in life, children develop infections with Staph aureus, streptococcus pneumoniae, and hemophylus influenzae. Later in life, however, CF patients may be infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Due to the fundamental defect in mucociliary clearance, the Pseudomonas infection develops mucoid strains with biofilm development in the airways. Most CF centers, including ours at UNMC, define chronic infection as presence of a microorganism in >50% of sputum cultures in the preceding 12 months. CF patients with chronic pseudomonas infection have reduced lung function and survival compared to non-infected persons.1,2,3 Therefore, CF clinicians aggressively treat chronic Pseudomonas infection of the airways and prevent CF pulmonary exacerbations which accelerate lung function decline.4

Given the fundamental mucociliary defect, the anti-pseudomonal strategy is palliative rather than curative- to reduce the microbial burden of disease. Antibiotics remain the workhorse for this strategy. As the airway concentration can be up to 100x higher with nebulization vs. systemic administration, inhaled antibiotics are the primary modality. In the 1990 several RCT indicated that nebulization of tobramycin in CF patients with Pseudomonas infection increased lung function, reduced pseudomonas sputum density, improved quality of life, and increased the time to next exacerbation (Figure 2).5,6 A number of formulations have been approved. The most common rely on 300mg dose of tobramycin nebulized for inhalation twice a day for 28 days. Early clinical trial design and subsequent practice patterns have patients alternate months off and on therapy. As with all aminoglycosides, nephrotoxicity and ototoxicity are potential adverse effects to monitor. Chronic administration of aerosolized antibiotics may alter antibiotic susceptibilities as well. The NEJM study noted a slight increase in the proportion of patients with tobramycin MIC> 8mg/ml at the conclusion of the study- although this was less than the effect from intravenous tobramycin.5

Patients with CF have a tremendous treatment burden that may add up to 1-2 hours per day on average7. Airway clearance, nebulized treatments, pancreatic enzyme replacement, insulin management for diabetes all require significant resources and time each day. Dry powder formulations of tobramycin have been introduced that improve compliance due to ease of use and reduced treatment time. The EAGER trial demonstrated that dry powder tobramycin has similar efficacy as nebulized tobramycin.8

In 2010, nebulized aztreonam was approved for patients with chronic Pseudomonas airway infection. As with tobramycin, treatment strategy is 28 days on and 28 days off therapy. TID dosing of nebulized aztreonam had similar efficacy as tobramycin when randomized to placebo9-10. Although strong clinical data is lacking, most CF clinicians alternate aztreonam and tobramycin to give patients continuous anti-pseudomonal treatment. The CAT trial attempted to address if using continuous alternating antibiotics (both aztreonam and tobramycin) was superior to single agent (tobramycin alone) with no second drug during the off month. Unfortunately, enrollment was limited as clinicians and patients were reluctant to change what had become standard practice- to treat with continuous inhaled antibiotics. Therefore, no firm conclusion could be determined11.

Azithromycin has pleotropic qualities involving the macrolide ring structure that reduce neutrophil mediated inflammation in CF. Several trials indicate that CF patients with chronic Pseudomonas airway infection have the greatest benefit from azithromycin.12,13 Standard regimen is 500 mg of azithromycin (250mg in children) on three days a week schedule -typically alternating days. According to CF Foundation registry data, the majority of those on inhaled tobramycin for chronic pseudomonas infection also were treated with azithromycin. Interestingly, recent post-hoc analysis of clinical trial data14 and in vitro data15 suggests that azithromycin may negatively interact with tobramycin by inducing antibiotic resistance factors in Pseudomonas strains. Analysis of clinical trial data from

the inhaled aztreonam study revealed that CF patients chronically treated with both inhaled tobramycin and oral azithromycin had no improvement in lung function compared to those co-treated with aztreonam and azithromycin (Figure 3). While this was a post-hoc analysis in a heavily pre-exposed tobramycin cohort, it does raise sufficient concern to warrant further study. In vitro, azithromycin treatment of clinical pseudomonas isolates led to antagonism of concurrent tobramycin treatment with a reduction in the antibiotic mediated-decrease in colony forming units (CFU) and increase in pseudomonal drug efflux pump genes, MexXY (Figure 3). This potential serious drug-drug interaction led to the launching of a new study, the TEACH trial that will prospectively evaluate the interaction between azithromycin and inhaled tobramycin. The lesson remains that no therapy is completely benign and drug interactions may have un-intended consequences. It is also for difficult for physicians to stop any chronic treatment that patients have been on for years when effectiveness is difficult to gauge.

On the horizon, new antibiotic and non-antibiotic strategies are emerging. Clinical trials are underway for nebulized liposomal amikacin and levofloxacin. IV Gallium is FDA approved for MRI contrast. Gallium has iron chelating properties that interfere with Pseudomonas iron metabolism leading to reduction of both planktonic and biofilm pseudomonas levels.16 The Adult CF Center has been part of the phase II clinical trials looking at IV Gallium in CF patients chronically infected with Pseudomonas.

The CF community has often taken a shotgun approach to management of a deadly disease that had, until recently, a life expectancy only into late adolescence or early adulthood. New therapies including new CFTR modulators that improve Cl- transport in the airways offer to change the paradigm of CF treatment. As we enter into this new era, CF clinicians will need to re-examine practice patterns of indefinite antibiotic treatment of chronic mucoid pseudomonal airway infection. New randomized controlled trials will be needed to explore the optimal treatment strategy. This strategy will likely involve both antibiotic and non-antibiotic anti-microbial agents to maximize outcomes in CF while reducing adverse effects.

 

 

References:

  1. Nixon GM, Armstrong DS, Carzino R, Carlin JB, Olinsky A, Robertson CF, and Grimwood K. J Pediatrics. 2001 May;138(5):699-704.
  2. Emerson J, Rosenfeld M, McNamara S, Ramsey B, Gibson RL. Pediatric Pulmonology. 2002 Aug;34(2):91-100.
  3. Henry RL, Mellis CM, Petrovic L. Pediatric Pulmonology. 1992 Mar;12(3):158-61.
  4. de Boer K. Vandermheen KL, Aaron SD, et al. Thorax 2011;66:680-685.
  5. Ramsey BW, Pepe MS, Smith AL, et al. NEJM. Jan 7th 1999; 340:23-30.
  6. Moss R. Chest. 2002; 121(1):55-63.
  7. Sawicki GS, Sellers DE, Robinson WM. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. 2009 ; 8(2) : 910-96.
  8. Konstan MW, Flume PA, Geller DE, et al. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. 2011 January; 10(1): 54–61.
  9. McCoy KS, Quittner AL, Montgomery AB, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2008 Nov 1;178(9):921-8.
  10. Retsch-Bogart GZ, Quittner A, Cooper PJ, et al. Chest 2009;135(5):1223-1232.
  11. Flume, PA, Clancy JP, Ramsey BW, et al. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. 2016;15(6):809-15.
  12. Saiman L, Marshall BC, Campbell, PW, et al. JAMA. 2003;290(13):1749-56.
  13. Saiman L, Marshall BC, Ratjen F, et al. JAMA. 2010 May 5;303(17):1707-15.
  14. Nick J, Moskowtiz SM, Nichols DP, et al. Annals of the American Thoracic Society. 2014; 11:(3): 342–350.
  15. Nichols DP, Happoldt CL, Nick JA, et al. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis. 2017;16:358-66.
  16. Kanenko Y, Britigan BE, Singh PK, et al. Journal of Clinical Investigation. 2007; 117(4):877-888.


 

Dogma vs. Necessity: Follow-up blood cultures in patients with gram-negative negative bacteremia

Attending on the inpatient Infectious Disease service always stimulates discussion regarding management of bloodstream infections: What is the optimal duration? Can we use oral antibiotics? Do we need to document clearance of blood cultures? When these discussions lead to review of literature, one will find that the data is evolving in an attempt to answer these questions. Last month’s ID journal club included spirited discussions about one of these questions, led by our ID Division Chief, Dr. Mark Rupp.

Dr. Rupp reviewed an article by Canzoneri CN, et al:  Follow-up blood cultures in gram-negative bacteremia: are they needed? Clinical Infectious Diseases. 2017;65(11):1776-9.

It is well accepted that patients with Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (BSI) require follow-up blood cultures at day 2-4 to establish whether the infection should be classified as complicated, thus requiring at least 4 weeks of antibiotics. Unfortunately, many clinicians extrapolate from experience with S. aureus BSI and apply the same practice to patients with BSI due to gram-negative bacilli. There is little data to support routine follow-up blood cultures in patients with gram-negative bacilli BSI. Therefore, Canzoneri and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston reviewed their experience in 500 patients with bloodstream infection during the year 2015.

Of 500 patients with bloodstream infection, 383 (77%) had follow-up blood cultures. Of the 383 patients with follow-up blood cultures, 140 had a bloodstream infection due to gram-negative bacilli and only 8 (5.7%) follow-up blood cultures were positive. In contrast, 43 patients (20.8%) of patients with gram-positive cocci BSI had positive follow-up blood cultures. The only factor that predicted a positive follow-up blood culture in patients experiencing bloodstream infection due to gram-negative bacilli was fever at the time of the follow-up blood cultures. Other risk factors examined included whether the patient was receiving antibiotics, the presence of a central venous catheter or urinary catheter, neutropenia, HIV, diabetes, end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis, cirrhosis, ICU care, and mortality. Thus, 17 follow-up blood cultures had to be obtained in patients with gram-negative bacilli BSI in order to define one person with persistent bacteremia.

The authors concluded that routine follow-up blood cultures in patients with gram-negative bacilli bloodstream infection has little value and probably results in added costs and inappropriate use of antibiotics.

For those interested in the topic, another recent study showing that repeat blood cultures are generally unnecessary in patients with gram-negative bacilli bacteremia is Wiggers JB, at al. BMC Infectious Diseases 16:286 (2016).

Along a similar thought line related to misuse of blood cultures – what data supports the common practice of starting the “antibiotic clock” when repeat blood cultures are sterile?  To the best of my knowledge, there is very little information to support this common clinical practice.  I think in most instances, even in S aureus BSI, this dogmatic practice results in prolonging antibiotic course duration by a few days with associated increases in cost, toxicity, and emergence of resistance with very little demonstrated benefit to the patient.

Content courtesy Dr. Mark Rupp MD.

DANCE FOR A CHANCE with UNMC ID’s Dr. Diana Florescu

There are hundreds of homeless youth in Omaha. Some of them have been emotionally, physically, or sexually abused, making it unsafe for them to return home, while others are facing health, mental health, or substance abuse issues. Youth Emergency Services (YES) provides much needed services for these individuals.

What is YES Dance for a Chance? Dance for a Chance is an event where local representatives from several companies compete to raise awareness and money for YES and the homeless youth of Omaha. This event and all of its proceeds are for the homeless youth of Omaha. At the end of the competition, there will be 3 winners – the team with the most votes (money), the team with the best dance, and most importantly, the homeless youth of Omaha. More information can be found here.

Dr. Diana Florescu, Associate Professor in the Division of Infectious Disease, is the UNMC representative in the 2018 Dance for a Chance competition. She is partnering with Derek Pasqualetto, instructor and owner of Vintage Ballroom.

In the following weeks, there will be updates and sneak peeks of the campaign. Your support is needed to help provide critical resources to homeless youth and to bring the trophy to UNMC. You will be able to follow us on Facebook.

Voting is open NOW! Click here to vote for Dr. Diana Florescu or make a donation to YES Omaha.

Please support and cheer on Dr. Diana Florescu and her partner at the Dance for a Chance event! The event will take place on Friday, August 3, 2018 at 6:00 p.m., at the Omaha Design Center, 1502 Cuming St Omaha, NE 68102. Get 10 friends together and purchase a table! If interested please contact Dr. Florescu at dflorescu@unmc.edu.

Thank you in advance for all the support!!!

Content provided by Ada Florescu

Interested in Orthopedic Infectious Diseases? The Perfect Job Awaits You at UNMC!

Orthopedic Infectious Diseases
University of Nebraska Medical Center – Omaha, NE

The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) is excited to announce the recruitment of a faculty position in Orthopedic-ID in the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine. Successful candidates will hold an academic appointment at the assistant or associate professor level and will be employed by UNMC and Nebraska Medicine. Candidates should be Board Eligible/Certified in Infectious Diseases.

A generous compensation package with salary commensurate with experience will be offered. Candidates should have an enthusiasm for patient care, teaching, and clinical research. Generous protected time and support are available in order to conduct collaborative clinical research and achieve the goals of the program.

Opportunity Highlights:
– Join established ID Physicians, two Advanced Practice Providers, an ID-trained Pharmacist, and dedicated pharmacy technician in a newly established Orthopedic ID Service Line and support the Outpatient Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) Program
– Partner with an internationally-recognized Antimicrobial Stewardship Team to develop and implement OPAT at Nebraska Medicine
– Participate in teaching of medical students, residents, and ID fellows on the Ortho ID consult service

The successful applicant will also participate in the clinical, teaching, and research programs of the Infectious Diseases Division – a vibrant and growing division made up of 18 ID faculty.

Translational research between the Ortho ID program and the Center for Staphylococcal Research is encouraged.

Learn more about UNMC ID on our website and the UNMC ID blog. You can also follow our Division on Twitter @UNMC_ID.

Interested candidates should submit a letter of interest and CV to:

Mark Rupp, MD
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Nebraska Medical Center
985400 Nebraska Medical Center
Omaha, NE 68198-9400
Email: merupp@unmc.edu

UNMC ID Division Accolades!

Our Faculty at University of Nebraska Medical Center Division of Infectious Diseases have worked hard to maintain a strong academic presence at UNMC. We are a growing division, filled with faculty at all stages of their careers, and their collective academic prowess has our division leading the pack. Our recent Department of Medicine Research report for 2017 pegged UNMCID as the #1 Division for the number and amount of extramural contracts/awards and #2 for number of publications (out of 10 Divisions in Internal Medicine). We recently had several posters and oral presentations presented at #CROI2018#SHEA2018 and #ECCMID2018. We are proud of our faculty and would like to share some of their accomplishments with our followers.

Dr. Alison Freifeld has been invited to speak at #IDWeek2018 on new developments in the management of cancer patients, and she is on the steering committee for the American Council on Education (ACE) program at UNMC: goal is to internationalize our campus/curriculum/student body.  This program is mandated by the Chancellor and reflects UNMC’s commitment to expanding our efforts in international engagement and global health education and research.

Dr. Jasmine Marcelin was recently co-recipient of the award for Outstanding multi-site Quality Improvement Project for 2017 – Mayo Clinic Quality Review Board {Project: Management of Febrile Neutropenia (MOFN), completed as a fellow with Drs. Jack O’Horo and Omar Abu Saleh}. Dr. Marcelin also co-authored recently published papers about  Mycobacterium genavense infections in non-HIV immunocompromised hosts (Infectious Diseases) and Efficacy of Antitoxin Therapy in Treating Patients With Foodborne Botulism: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Cases, 1923–2016 (Clinical Infectious Diseases).

Dr. Susan Swindells was recently highlighted in ground-breaking research likely to change the paradigm of latent TB treatment in persons living with HIV; presented at #CROI2018One Month of Rifapentine/Isoniazid to Prevent TB in People with HIV.   Dr. Swindells also collaborated with UNMC colleagues (including Jennifer O’Neill, RN of the Specialty Care Clinic) on a recent paper published in BrainAberrant occipital dynamics differentiate HIV-infected patients with and without cognitive impairment.

Dr. James Lawler  (former White House Homeland Security Council biodefense policy director) was recently called upon to share his expertise pertaining to Biosecurity at the Blue Ribbon Study Panel on Biodefense, where he cautioned that we are unprepared for biological threats that may affect our country and the world.  He called for a new paradigm of innovation to prepare ourselves for future threats. A video of his testimony can be found here.

What a terrific group of talented and accomplished individuals.  Kudos to our faculty and staff for their continued hard work and dedication to advancing academic Infectious Diseases!

EMET Student Profile – Kevin Hanna, M1

Tell us about the position you are starting? I am a first-year medical student who is beginning the four year Enhanced Medical Education Track (EMET) program with a focus in HIV medicine. The program includes opportunities for preceptorships, seminars, volunteering, and research in HIV medicine culminating in a capstone research project and poster or conference presentation.

Background: I grew up in Bellevue, Nebraska and graduated from Bellevue West High School. I completed my undergraduate education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology. When I’m not studying, I love to read and run long distance races.

Why UNMC? Being a Nebraska native, I have always been interested in UNMC as an avenue to be at the center of patient care in Nebraska. When I was in high school, I participated in one of the inaugural classes of the UNMC High School Alliance, where I took Anatomy, Public Health, and Clinical Microbiology courses that piqued my interest in medicine and population health. These experiences drove me to pursue an undergraduate degree in Microbiology. This program helped me fall in love with the university, and I always hoped I would be able to come back for medical school. Additionally, I was very driven to the unique academic and clinical opportunities Nebraska Medicine provides, and am excited to be a part of the premier health system in the region.

What about ID and HIV medicine makes you excited?  I am drawn to the inherent detective work involved with Infectious Disease, and it makes me excited to use aspects of many different disciplines to solve complex, multi-system disease processes. My experiences in my undergraduate education have developed a passion for understanding the biological processes that drive diseases caused by microbial pathogens, and I am interested in tailoring treatment regimens to fight diseases caused by specific pathogens. I am especially excited to participate in this EMET, because I think HIV medicine combines infectious disease, population health, social determinants of health, and pharmacological breakthroughs in very exciting ways. I am excited to not only learn more about what it means to be an infectious disease physician, but also learn how to be a better physician through nuanced and rewarding patient interactions.

We wish Kevin the best of luck over the next several years during his journey with us as part of the HIV EMET! More information about the EMET program can be found here.

Pharm to Exam Table: Monoclonal Antibodies Make Their Way into HIV Treatment

Pharm to Exam Table: Clinical Pharmacology/Antimicrobial Updates – Trogarzo® (ibalizumab-uiyk), a new monoclonal antibody treatment approved for multi-drug resistant HIV-1

 On March 6th 2018, the Food and Drug Administration approved a new monoclonal antibody called ibalizumab-uiyk, marketed under the tradename Trogarzo®. Ibalizumab-uiyk (IBA) is an intravenous treatment administered every two weeks. It is intended for use in combination with other antiretrovirals (in an optimized background regimen), for the treatment of HIV-1 infection in heavily treatment-experienced adults with multidrug resistant HIV-1 infection, failing their current antiretroviral regimen.(1)

IBA is a humanized long-acting IgG4 monoclonal antibody that prevents attachment of the HIV-1 molecule to CD4+ T cells by changing the conformation of the CD4+ T cell receptor while preserving the function of the cell.  These functions classify IBA as an entry inhibitor.(1,3,4) Other previous entry inhibitors are enfurvitide (fusion inhibitor) and maraviroc (CCR5 antagonist). 

The FDA approval was based on results of study TMB-301 (N=40), an open-label study that investigated the antiviral activity and safety of IBA when administered with an optimized background regimen (OBR) in treatment-experienced patients with multi-drug resistant HIV-1. The study followed patients prospectively over 24 weeks after dosing them with IBA and their OBR.  At day 14, 83% of patients achieved at least a 0.5 log10 (roughly 70%) viral load reduction from baseline seven days after receiving the IBA loading dose. By week 25, the mean change from baseline viral load was -1.6 log10 with 55% of participants having a ≥1 log10 reduction in viral load. The most common drug-related adverse reactions (incidence ≥ 5%) were diarrhea (8%), dizziness (8%), nausea (5%) and rash (5%). Serious adverse events were reported in 23% (9/40) of participants and of these only one was considered drug-related (immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome, IRIS).(1,2,4)

IBA is the first monoclonal antibody entry  inhibitor approved for HIV infection. Given its unique properties, tolerable safety profile, lack of drug-drug interactions or antiretroviral cross-resistance, IBA offers an attractive antiretroviral option for adjunct treatment of multi-drug resistant HIV-1 infection in combination with an Optimized Background Regimen.

References
1 Trogarzo ® [package insert]. TaiMed Biologics USA Corp., Irvine, California; 2018 
2 TaiMed Biologics Inc. Ibalizumab Plus Optimized Background Regimen in Patient With Multi-Drug Resistant HIV. Available from: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02475629
3 Iacob S A, Iacob D G. Ibalizumab targeting CD4 receptors, an emerging molecule in HIV therapy[J]. Frontiers in microbiology, 2017, 8: 2323.
4 Lewis S et al. Long-acting ibalizumab in patients with multi-drug resistant hiv-1: a 24-week study. CROI, 2017 (Poster).

Images courtesy the Department of Health and Human Services AidsInfo website HIV/AIDS glossary on CCR5 Antagonists and Fusion Inhibitors.

Thanks to Chao Fu, UNMC PharmD candidate 2018 for providing concept for content.

Tune into this AMAZING Podcast : The Hot Zone: Biocontainment with Dr. Hewlett

 

Dr. Angela Hewlett recently was interviewed via podcast for a Travel Medicine show regarding biocontainment, including how to treat and handle highly infectious agents(yes, including Ebola). The blog posts include everything from what biocontainment is to worse case scenarios and other unique aspects of preparing for, and providing care for, people with these types of infections. The namesake for this podcast is a book regarding origins of the Ebola virus (this link is informational only, there is no benefit, financial or otherwise, to Dr. Hewlett or anyone involved with this blog post in regards to sales or sharing of this book).

You can access this podcast at: http://travelmedicinepodcast.squarespace.com/

 

Interested in learning more about Biocontainment?

Check out our the National Ebola Training and Education Center and the Nebraska Medicine Biocontainment Unit.

 


 

Nebraska Antimicrobial Stewardship Summit: A Step Forward in Fighting Antibiotic Resistance

The CDC estimates 30% of all antibiotics prescribed in outpatient setting in the US are unnecessary. Similarly 30% of antibiotics used in hospitals are estimated to be unnecessary or incorrectly prescribed. Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing in long-term care facilities have been found to be even higher in some studies (up to 75%). Improving antibiotic use is essential in the fight against antibiotic resistance. In the US, more than 2 million illnesses are caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria, leading to 23,000 deaths annually. Antibiotic use is also strongly associated with C. difficile infection which is another major public health threat. C. difficile infections are responsible for 250,000 illnesses requiring hospitalization or affecting already hospitalized patients and leads to 14,000 deaths each year in the US.

Antibiotic use in Nebraska is reported to be higher than the national average. Prescribing providers and healthcare institutions in Nebraska realize the need to pay attention to this important issue. Our colleagues at Nebraska Antimicrobial Stewardship Assessment and Promotion Program (ASAP) with the support of Nebraska DHHS Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) prevention team have been working with various healthcare facilities across Nebraska to improve antibiotic prescribing. There are many other organizations in the state collaborating with the Nebraska DHHS HAI team and Nebraska ASAP for the same goal. It is quite evident that healthcare facilities and prescribing providers are on-board in promoting appropriate antibiotic use in the state and developing antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASP) in their facilities. However, they need some support and guidance on best implementation strategies and effective use of the resources.

In order to meet the needs of healthcare facilities and prescribing providers in the state, Nebraska DHHS HAI team and Nebraska ASAP partnered with various local and regional organizations to organize a summit on antimicrobial stewardship. Nebraska Antimicrobial Stewardship Summit will be held on Friday June 1, 2018 in La Vista, NE. Many well known national and regional subject matter experts will be speaking at the summit. They will describe the rationales for developing ASP across the healthcare continuum. They will also outline simple strategies for ASP implementation in a variety of healthcare settings and share available resources to facilitate the process. There will be a networking session during the lunch, where attendees can find out how various organizations in the state can help them successfully implement ASP in their facilities.

The Nebraska Antimicrobial Stewardship Summit will be very helpful for any healthcare workers who are thinking about or already working on promoting appropriate antibiotic prescribing at their healthcare facility. Join us in the fight against antibiotic resistance! Register for the Summit at https://www.unmc.edu/cce/catalog/clinicmed/ne-as-summit/index.html. Follow @UNMC_ID on twitter for updates on #NebStewardSummit2018.

 

Content provided by Dr. M Salman Ashraf, Associate Professor, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Co-Medical Director, Nebraska Antimicrobial Stewardship Assessment and Promotion Program; Medical Director, Nebraska Infection Control Assessment and Promotion Program