Community-Acquired Pneumonia in Canada During Coronavirus Disease 2019.

Dealing with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a monumental test of medical skills and resources worldwide. The management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) can at times be difficult, but treating CAP in the setting of COVID-19 can be particularly trying and confusing and raises a number of challenging questions relating to etiology, diagnosis, and treatment. This article is based on the authors' experiences and presents an overview of how CAP during COVID-19 is handled in Canada.

Community-acquired pneumonia: An overview.

Community-acquired pneumonia is still a significant cause of morbidity and mortality and is often misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated. Although it can be caused by a wide variety of micro-organisms, the pneumococcus, atypicals, such as Mycoplasma pneumoniae and Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus and certain Gram-negative rods are the usual pathogens encountered. The site-of-care decision is critical in determining the site and type of care as well as the extent of diagnostic workup.

Spectrum of microbial etiology of community-acquired pneumonia in hospitalized patients: implications for selection of the population for enrollment in clinical trials.

The title of this article implies that knowledge of the etiological pathogen may be useful in selection of patients for clinical trials for community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). However, this remains to be seen. The clinical course of a patient with CAP admitted to the hospital but not to the intensive care unit depends on a number of variables, including the patient, the pathogen, and the hospital itself.

Gemifloxacin once daily for 5 days versus 7 days for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia: a randomized, multicentre, double-blind study.

Objectives: Short-course therapy has been advocated for the treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We compared the efficacy and safety of 5 and 7 day courses of gemifloxacin for outpatient treatment of mild-moderate CAP.

Patients And Methods: In a multicentre, double-blind, parallel group study, patients were randomized to receive 320 mg of oral gemifloxacin once daily for 5 or 7 days.

Update on community-acquired pneumonia. New pathogens and new concepts in treatment.

Recent years have witnessed the emergence of new pathogens linked to community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) along with new antibiotics designed to combat them. In this article, Dr Mandell presents an expert's view on these developments in the context of treatment guidelines for CAP. He also explores monotherapy versus combination therapy, the efficacy of rapid initiation of treatment, and short-course therapy as a hedge against antimicrobial resistance.

Antimicrobial resistance and treatment of community-acquired pneumonia.

This article discusses the problem of antimicrobial resistance and how it affects the management of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). The discussion is limited to infection with Streptococcus pneumoniae and to the treatment of patients hospitalized in a medical ward or an intensive care unit because of pneumococcal CAP.

Meta-analysis of bacterial resistance to macrolides.

Objectives: Understanding changing resistance patterns is important in determining appropriate antibiotic treatments. This meta-analysis systematically evaluated resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae and Streptococcus pyogenes to macrolide antibiotics among patients with community-acquired respiratory tract infections.

Methods: MEDLINE and EMBASE databases were searched and experts were consulted to identify published and unpublished literature reporting macrolide resistance rates.

Comparative efficacies and tolerabilities of intravenous azithromycin plus ceftriaxone and intravenous levofloxacin with step-down oral therapy for hospitalized patients with moderate to severe community-acquired pneumonia.

Objective: To compare the efficacy and tolerability of ceftriaxone plus azithromycin with those of levofloxacin in the treatment of hospitalized patients with moderate to severe community-acquired pneumonia (CAP).

Design: Randomized, open-label multicenter trial with 1 : 1 treatment allocation in an inpatient setting.

Patients: 212 male or female inpatients with a clinical diagnosis of CAP were included in the study.

Epidemiology and etiology of community-acquired pneumonia.

The seriousness of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), despite being a reasonably common and potentially lethal disease, often is under estimated by physicians and patients alike. CAP results in more than 10 million visits to physicians, 64 million days of restricted activity, and 600,000 hospitalizations. This article discusses the epidemiology and bacterial causes of CAP in immunocompetent adults and the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus.