Public transit mobility as a leading indicator of COVID-19 transmission in 40 cities during the first wave of the pandemic.

Background: The rapid global emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 created urgent demand for leading indicators to track the spread of the virus and assess the consequences of public health measures designed to limit transmission. Public transit mobility, which has been shown to be responsive to previous societal disruptions such as disease outbreaks and terrorist attacks, emerged as an early candidate.

Methods: We conducted a longitudinal ecological study of the association between public transit mobility reductions and COVID-19 transmission using publicly available data from a public transit app in 40 global cities from March 16 to April 12, 2020.

Evaluation of an automated feedback intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing among primary care physicians (OPEN Stewardship): a multinational controlled interrupted time-series study.

Tools to advance antimicrobial stewardship in the primary health care setting, where most antimicrobials are prescribed, are urgently needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate OPEN Stewarship (Online Platform for Expanding aNtibiotic Stewardship), an automated feedback intervention, among a cohort of primary care physicians. We performed a controlled, interrupted time-series study of 32 intervention and 725 control participants, consisting of primary care physicians from Ontario, Canada and Southern Israel, from October 2020 to December 2021.

An Evaluation of the Impact of an OPEN Stewardship Generated Feedback Intervention on Antibiotic Prescribing among Primary Care Veterinarians in Canada and Israel.

An interrupted time-series study design was implemented to evaluate the impact of antibiotic stewardship interventions on antibiotic prescribing among veterinarians. A total of 41 veterinarians were enrolled in Canada and Israel and their prescribing data between 2019 and 2021 were obtained. As an intervention, veterinarians periodically received three feedback reports comprising feedback on the participants' antibiotic prescribing and prescribing guidelines.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 Vaccination Is Associated With Reduced Outpatient Antibiotic Prescribing in Older Adults With Confirmed Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2: A Population-Wide Cohort Study.

Background: Antibiotics are frequently prescribed unnecessarily in outpatients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). We sought to evaluate factors associated with antibiotic prescribing in outpatients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.

Methods: We performed a population-wide cohort study of outpatients aged ≥66 years with polymerase chain reaction-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2021 in Ontario, Canada.

Antimicrobial resistance in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Frequent use of antibiotics in patients with COVID-19 threatens to exacerbate antimicrobial resistance. We aimed to establish the prevalence and predictors of bacterial infections and antimicrobial resistance in patients with COVID-19.

Methods: We did a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies of bacterial co-infections (identified within ≤48 h of presentation) and secondary infections (>48 h after presentation) in outpatients or hospitalised patients with COVID-19.

Antibiotic resistance associated with the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: COVID-19 and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are two intersecting global public health crises.

Objective: We aimed to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on AMR across health care settings.

Data Source: A search was conducted in December 2021 in WHO COVID-19 Research Database with forward citation searching up to June 2022.

Predictors and microbiology of respiratory and bloodstream bacterial infection in patients with COVID-19: living rapid review update and meta-regression.

Background: The prevalence of bacterial infection in patients with COVID-19 is low, however, empiric antibiotic use is high. Risk stratification may be needed to minimize unnecessary empiric antibiotic use.

Objective: To identify risk factors and microbiology associated with respiratory and bloodstream bacterial infection in patients with COVID-19.

A sub-national real-time epidemiological and vaccination database for the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for real-time, open-access epidemiological information to inform public health decision-making and outbreak control efforts. In Canada, authority for healthcare delivery primarily lies at the provincial and territorial level; however, at the outset of the pandemic no definitive pan-Canadian COVID-19 datasets were available. The COVID-19 Canada Open Data Working Group was created to fill this crucial data gap.

The mobility gap: estimating mobility thresholds required to control SARS-CoV-2 in Canada.

Background: Nonpharmaceutical interventions remain the primary means of controlling severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) until vaccination coverage is sufficient to achieve herd immunity. We used anonymized smartphone mobility measures to quantify the mobility level needed to control SARS-CoV-2 (i.e.

Evaluation of an OPEN Stewardship generated feedback intervention to improve antibiotic prescribing among primary care veterinarians in Ontario, Canada and Israel: protocol for evaluating usability and an interrupted time-series analysis.

Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) impacts the health and well-being of animals, affects animal owners both socially and economically, and contributes to AMR at the human and environmental interface. The overuse and/or inappropriate use of antibiotics in animals has been identified as one of the most important drivers of the development of AMR in animals. Effective antibiotic stewardship interventions such as feedback can be adopted in veterinary practices to improve antibiotic prescribing.

Antibiotic prescribing in patients with COVID-19: rapid review and meta-analysis.

Background: The proportion of patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 that are prescribed antibiotics is uncertain, and may contribute to patient harm and global antibiotic resistance.

Objective: The aim was to estimate the prevalence and associated factors of antibiotic prescribing in patients with COVID-19.

Data Sources: We searched MEDLINE, OVID Epub and EMBASE for published literature on human subjects in English up to June 9 2020.

Bacterial co-infection and secondary infection in patients with COVID-19: a living rapid review and meta-analysis.

Background: Bacterial co-pathogens are commonly identified in viral respiratory infections and are important causes of morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of bacterial infection in patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 is not well understood.

Aims: To determine the prevalence of bacterial co-infection (at presentation) and secondary infection (after presentation) in patients with COVID-19.

Fluoroquinolone Use and Seasonal Patterns of Ciprofloxacin Resistance in Community-Acquired Urinary Escherichia coli Infection in a Large Urban Center.

Urinary tract infections caused by the bacterium Escherichia coli are among the most frequently encountered infections and are a common reason for antimicrobial prescriptions. Resistance to fluoroquinolone antimicrobial agents, particularly ciprofloxacin, has increased in recent decades. It is intuitive that variation in fluoroquinolone resistance is driven by changes in antimicrobial use, but careful study of this association requires the use of time-series methods.

Joint Modeling of Resistance to Six Antimicrobials in Urinary Escherichia coli Isolates in Quebec, Canada.

Empirical treatment of urinary tract infections should be based on susceptibility profiles specific to the locale and patient population. Additionally, these susceptibility profiles should account for correlations between resistance to different types of antimicrobials. We used hierarchical logistic regression models to investigate geographic, temporal, and demographic trends in resistance to six antimicrobials in community-acquired and nosocomial urinary isolates from three communities in the province of Quebec, Canada, procured between April 2010 and December 2017.

Antagonistic interactions of soil pseudomonads are structured in time.

Social interactions have been invoked as potential major selective forces structuring natural microbial communities and thus may help explain the astonishing bacterial diversity of natural ecosystems. Here, we investigate the prevalence and structure of exotoxin-mediated antagonistic interactions among free-living soil Pseudomonas strains collected over the course of 2 years at distances of up to 1 km. Unlike some previous studies on antagonistic interactions among natural isolates, we found the prevalence of exotoxin-mediated inhibitions to be relatively low.