Infectious Disease

Here: 5 things (at least) you may not know about human viral hepatitis.

Which test should you order if you suspect Clostridium difficile infection-and how often do you check the stool for the C difficile toxin? Here: the answer-and explanation.

The 5 quiz questions this week are far-ranging and cover conditions as rare as opisthorchiasis and as common as obesity. See how you fare...

Data from pivotal international phase III clinical trials showed superior efficacy, safety, and convenience for a new wave of direct-acting oral agents. The breakthrough will benefit physicians in all practice settings, including primary care.

This presentation at the ACG Scientific Meeting provided the requisite research-oriented material but an equal amount of practical information that will be useful for the general internist, family physician, DO, and primary care physician.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics offer no advantage over guideline-recommended agents, even against severe community-acquired pneumonia.

How much do you know about cephalic tetanus? Perioperative hypotension? PCOS? Take this week’s test and see if you can answer these 5 questions.

English- and Spanish-speaking parents cited widely differing reasons for avoiding vaccination for their eligible daughters or failing to ensure the 3 doses were received.

In hospitalized HIV patients, medication errors are common and can be mitigated by enlisting ID specialists.

The norovirus vaccine, while not preventive of all disease, does significantly reduce the severity of symptoms.

The association of missed visits and increased mortality in HIV-infected patients is related to factors other than access to care.

Thirty-day hospital readmission rates in adults infected with HIV are driven largely by CD4+ count and length of stay.

Clostridium difficile colitis can be cured by having patients swallow capsules brimming with other people’s concentrated stool. Inexpensive, effective, and readily available. This could be an enormous opportunity for primary care (if the FDA approves it).

This is an opportunity for primary care to help avert a public health catastrophe. Physicians need to take ownership over this issue and demand more time for URI patients-E&M criteria do not capture what is lost when these visits are viewed simply as “Level 2 Office Visit, CPT 99212.”

6 sexually transmitted infections-6 decisions. Test your skills.

Most parents of boys aged 9 to 18 years do not know that an HPV vaccine is available for their sons. One major factor is a lack of information. This is where you play a vital role.

“STD organisms are all part of an ecological pool that simply share one thing in common: sex," says the author of a new study. Testing for all important STD pathogens is the only way to detect all agents that might be involved in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Details here.

When patients develop diarrhea in the hospital within 48 hours after admission, it is most likely antibiotic-associated diarrhea, including CDAD.

Trimethylamine-N-oxide, TMAO, is a by-product of the metabolic breakdown of certain foods; elevated levels have been correlated with coronary atherosclerosis.

Some of the signs of infection are pathognomonic, but not many, so careful patient evaluation often is needed. This week's photo quiz offers a variety of presentations to test your diagnostic acumen.

Both VRE and vancomycin-sensitive enterococci are considered normal flora in the human intestine.

The FDA today advised physicians prescribing rituximab to screen and monitor all patients taking the drug for evidence of hepatitis B infection.

Escherichia coli resistance to quinolone antibiotics increased 5-fold between 2000 and 2010.

These wounds occurred when this 77-year-old woman fell when chasing her dog. Such wounds-a combination of ecchymoses and erosion caused by blunt and sheering forces on fragile skin-are common in the elderly, even after relatively mild trauma. Simple interventions will promote healing.

A 15-year prospective study shows that although cryoglobulinemic syndrome has no influence on overall survival of hepatitis C patients, it does influence the risk for other comorbidities.