Efficacy of soap and water and alcohol-based hand-rub preparations against live H1N1 influenza virus on the hands of human volunteers.

Background: Although pandemic and avian influenza are known to be transmitted via human hands, there are minimal data regarding the effectiveness of routine hand hygiene (HH) protocols against pandemic and avian influenza.

Methods: Twenty vaccinated, antibody-positive health care workers had their hands contaminated with 1 mL of 10(7) tissue culture infectious dose (TCID)(50)/0.1 mL live human influenza A virus (H1N1; A/New Caledonia/20/99) before undertaking 1 of 5 HH protocols (no HH [control], soap and water hand washing [SW], or use of 1 of 3 alcohol-based hand rubs [61.

Comparing the pneumonia severity index with CURB-65 in patients admitted with community acquired pneumonia.

Pneumonia severity assessment systems such as the pneumonia severity index (PSI) and CURB-65 were designed to direct appropriate site of care based on 30-d mortality. Increasingly they are being used to guide empirical antibiotic therapy and also possibly to detect patients who will require admission to the intensive care unit (ICU). We retrospectively reviewed the records of all patients admitted to our institution with confirmed community acquired pneumonia (CAP) for the 12 months from January 2002.

Good clinical outcomes but high rates of adverse reactions during linezolid therapy for serious infections: a proposed protocol for monitoring therapy in complex patients.

We assessed the toxicity and clinical outcomes associated with linezolid therapy (mean duration, 29+/-28 days; range, 8 to 185 days) in 44 patients with serious gram-positive infections. Although a clinical cure was achieved in 73% of the cases, 28/44 (64%) had adverse reactions (thrombocytopenia, n=13; anemia, n=7; gastrointestinal, n=12; peripheral neuropathy, n=1; serotonin syndrome, n=1), such that a systematic monitoring protocol was developed.

Impact of an electronic antibiotic advice and approval system on antibiotic prescribing in an Australian teaching hospital.

The impact of a computer-based infectious diseases electronic antibiotic advice and approval system ("IDEA(3)S") was assessed as an alternative to a labour-intensive, phone-based approval system. IDEA(3)S-based approvals replaced 48% of all approvals for the most frequently requested antimicrobial agents (ceftriaxone/cefotaxime, vancomycin) and were associated with stable overall rates of antimicrobial use. Antibiotic prescribing for community-acquired pneumonia was 76% concordant with IDEA(3)S recommendations, and clinical acceptance of IDEA(3)S was excellent.

Alatrofloxacin-induced seizures during slow intravenous infusion.

Objective: To report a case of seizures associated with slow infusion (1-2 h) of alatrofloxacin, the prodrug of trovafloxacin.

Case Summary: A 37-year-old Asian man was admitted to the hospital for a distal pancreatectomy and drainage of a pseudocyst. Postoperative complications developed, which included peritonitis and pneumonia, requiring intensive care admission.