Infectious Disease

A Photo Quiz to Hone Dermatologic Skills

An 82-year-old man is seen for annual physical examination in the nursing home. He has resided there for 1 year because of the aggregate impact of multiple medical problems including, most prominently, laryngeal swallowing dysfunction associated with vocal cord paralysis.

LONDON -- Bolstering the GI tract with a mix of disease-fighting microbes significantly reduced the incidence of diarrhea associated with antibiotics and Clostridium difficile, according to results of a placebo-controlled trial.

HELSINKI -- About 90% of early signs of cervical cancer in young women can be prevented by an investigational vaccine against human papillomavirus, according to interim data.

SAN FRANCISCO -- The rate of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in U.S. hospital patients is now nearly 5% -- dramatically higher than previously thought, according to a nationwide survey of healthcare facilities.

BALTIMORE -- A needle stick injures more than four of every five surgical residents during their training, researchers here said, and about half of the incidents go unreported.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Echinacea, the irrepressible alternative cold remedy, is ascendant again in the topsy-turvy world of evidence-based medicine.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Although the recent withdrawal of tegaserod from the market has left a hole in the options available to treat irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), there are still many available.

TORONTO -- If avian flu holds the potential for a human pandemic, one possible strategy is to vaccinate the birds.

ATLANTA -- Rapid HIV testing with on-the-spot results during emergency room visits or at community events appears to be a feasible way to identify people who are infected with the virus and don't know it.

TORONTO -- To quantify flu vaccine's effectiveness for children with more specificity, a new surveillance network is able to provide consistent and potentially valuable estimates, CDC researcher said here.

NEW YORK -- Motor symptoms of advanced Parkinson's disease were significantly improved in a small investigational gene-therapy trial, according to investigators here.

DUBLIN -- When alcohol turns fighting into biting, it's a problem for the emergency department.

INDIANAPOLIS -- Community Acquired Pneumonia (CAP) is the sixth leading cause of death in the U.S., yet health care professionals don't always offer immunization to their most vulnerable patients.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- For smoldering multiple myeloma, the risk of progression to active disease may be predicted by a pair of factors at diagnosis, according to researchers here.

TORONTO -- An investigational oil-and-water adjuvant for flu vaccines -- tested in conjunction with a vaccine against avian flu -- is safe, a researcher said here.

BALTIMORE -- When treating hepatitis B and HIV co-infection, physicians should use caution with the antiviral drug entecavir (Baraclude), researchers here said.

TORONTO -- The trivalent inactivated flu vaccine appeared to outperform the newer live attenuated vaccine in a large study of military personnel, a U.S. Army researcher reported here.

HOUSTON -- Myocardial infarction and other acute cardiac events closely track pneumococcal pneumonia, which suggests a need for multiple admitting diagnoses.

TORONTO -- Highly pathogenic avian flu is rarely transmitted to people and apparently never in a mild or asymptomatic form, a Thai researcher said here.

TORONTO -- The tests used to evaluate influenza vaccines are so unreliable they can vary up to 700-fold from one lab to another, according to a British researcher.

LONDON, Ontario, June 18 -- Although sudden sensorineural hearing loss is typically treated with systemic steroids, little evidence exists to support this or any other treatment, researchers said.

HOUSTON -- Psoriasis patients who had extended exposure to high-dose etanercept (Enbrel) responded without increased infections or other serious adverse effects, researchers reported.

ATLANTA -- Borrelia burgdorferi are winning the Lyme disease war, at least in 10 endemic states that were targeted for a sharp reduction. Instead, with a vaccine no longer available, Lyme rates worsened, said the CDC.

DENVER -- Andrew Speaker, the focus of the storm over extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis, will have surgery next month to remove part of his lung, doctors here announced.