Contact precautions: more is not necessarily better.

Objective: To determine whether increases in contact isolation precautions are associated with decreased adherence to isolation practices among healthcare workers (HCWs).

Design: Prospective cohort study from February 2009 to October 2009.

Setting: Eleven teaching hospitals.

Staphylococcus aureus skin/soft-tissue infections: the impact of SCCmec type and Panton-Valentine leukocidin.

We assessed the role of Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) and SCCmec type in community associated (CA) and healthcare associated (HC) Staphylococcus aureus (SA) skin/soft-tissue infections (STI). We prospectively monitored microbiology results (11 January 2005 to 6 January 2006), screened inpatients with SA in tissue samples or blood, and selected adults with STI. We recorded clinical/microbiological characteristics, and tested saved isolates for PVL genes (real time PCR) and SCCmec type (conventional multiplex PCR).

Reviews of anti-infective agents: posaconazole: a broad-spectrum triazole antifungal agent.

Posaconazole is a triazole antifungal agent with a spectrum of activity that includes Candida and Cryptococcus species, many molds, and some endemic fungi. Posaconazole has received US Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment of oropharyngeal candidiasis, including infections refractory to itraconazole and/or fluconazole. It is also approved as prophylaxis for invasive Aspergillus and Candida infections in patients aged >or=13 years who are at high risk of developing these infections, in adult and adolescent hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipients with graft-versus-host disease, and in persons with hematologic malignancies and prolonged neutropenia due to chemotherapy, who are at high risk of developing these infections.

Long-term immunologic and virologic responses in patients with highly resistant HIV infection who are treated with an incompletely suppressive antiretroviral regimen.

Background: Some treatment-experienced patients with highly drug-resistant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have no option but to continue to receive an incompletely suppressive regimen (ISR). We performed a study to determine their long-term immunologic and virologic responses to ISR, to investigate risks for immunologic or virologic failure, and to examine for the occurrence of new drug-resistance mutations.

Methods: Antiretroviral treatment-experienced HIV-infected patients with a genotype sensitivity score < or = 1, an HIV load > 1000 copies/mL, and no available optimized regimen were included in the study.

Bacterial infections in adult HIV-infected patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to critically review articles published from the pre-HAART era to the present on bacterial infections in adult HIV-infected patients.

Method: Literature search on bacterial infections in HIV-infected patients yields predominantly small case series from single centers, many of which are retrospectively collected.

Results: Variations in case selection limit the utility of these articles for assessing the epidemiology and clinical features of a particular infection.