[Infection Control Standards Expected in the Primary Care Pharmacy].

In medical care, qualified physicians, nurses, and pharmacists have come to be recognized as a team integral to a patient's success, and this team approach to medical care has become popular. In the infectious disease field, more hospitals are practicing antimicrobial stewardship as a team, in addition to the conventional infection control team (ICT). As a result, infectious disease chemotherapy pharmacists are in demand.

Author Correction: Integrating standardized whole genome sequence analysis with a global Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibiotic resistance knowledgebase.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Salmonella enterica Subspecies arizonae Detected from Bilateral Pleural Fluid in a Patient with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Malignant Lymphoma.

A 72-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with bilateral pleural effusions. She had a 31-year history of systemic lupus erythematosus and had been treated with prednisolone and azathioprine. Pleural fluid culture revealed Salmonella enterica subsp.

Correction to: Comparison of hepatitis B vaccine efficacy in Japanese students: a retrospective study.

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors spotted errors in their paper concerning the positive rate in the right side in Table 2.

A retrospective genomic analysis of drug-resistant strains of M. tuberculosis in a high-burden setting, with an emphasis on comparative diagnostics and reactivation and reinfection status.

Background: Recurrence of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) after treatment occurs through relapse of the initial infection or reinfection by a new drug-resistant strain. Outbreaks of DR-TB in high burden regions present unique challenges in determining recurrence status for effective disease management and treatment. In the Republic of Moldova the burden of DR-TB is exceptionally high, with many cases presenting as recurrent.

Comparison of hepatitis B vaccine efficacy in Japanese students: a retrospective study.

Background: Two types of recombinant hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccines are available in Japan. One type uses the antigen from genotype A (Heptavax-II®) and the other uses the antigen from genotype C (Bimmugen®). Potential differences in productivity of the hepatitis B virus surface (HBs) antibody between vaccines have not been studied in detail.

Antibiotic de-escalation therapy in patients with community-acquired nonbacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia.

Background De-escalation therapy is recommended as an effective antibiotic treatment strategy for several infectious diseases. While there is limited evidence supporting its clinical and cost-effective outcomes in patients with community-acquired bacteremic pneumonia, there is no evidence in patients with nonbacteremic pneumonia. Objective This study aimed to evaluate the antibiotic costs in patients who did and did not receive de-escalation therapy, based on the 2017 Japanese guidelines for the management of community-acquired nonbacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia of the Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS).

Efficacy of educational intervention on reducing the inappropriate use of oral third-generation cephalosporins.

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of an educational intervention on reducing the inappropriate use of oral third-generation cephalosporins, the prevalence of resistant bacteria, and clinical outcomes.

Methods: A before-after study was conducted to compare the data for 1 year before and after intervention at a Japanese university hospital. Educational intervention included lectures for all medical staff on oral antibiotics and educational meetings with each medical department.

Daily practice and prognostic factors for pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in Japan: A multicenter prospective observational cohort study.

Pneumonia caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is associated with poor clinical outcomes. We surveyed clinical outcomes of MRSA pneumonia in daily practice to identify risk factors for the clinical failure and mortality in patients with MRSA pneumonia. This multicenter prospective observational study was performed across 48 Japanese medical institutions.

The incidence of endophthalmitis or macular involvement and the necessity of a routine ophthalmic examination in patients with candidemia.

Background: The incidence of ocular candidiasis (OC) in patients with candidemia varies across different reports, and the issue of whether routine ophthalmoscopy improves outcomes has been raised. This study investigated the incidence of OC and evaluate whether the extent of OC impacts the clinical outcomes.

Methods: This retrospective study included non-neutropenic patients with candidemia who underwent treatment at one of 15 medical centers between 2010 and 2016.

Selection of Oral Antifungals for Initial Maintenance Therapy in Chronic Pulmonary Aspergillosis: A Longitudinal Analysis.

Background: There are limited data for direct comparisons of the efficacy of oral itraconazole (ITCZ) and oral voriconazole (VRCZ) therapy in the treatment of chronic pulmonary aspergillosis (CPA).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective, follow-up, observational study of CPA patients enrolled in 2 previous multicenter trials.

Results: Of the 273 CPA patients, 59 and 101 patients started maintenance therapy with oral ITCZ and oral VRCZ, respectively, just after the end of acute intravenous therapy in each trial.

Cigarette smoking and culture conversion in patients with susceptible and M/XDR-TB.

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Active cigarette smoking may have a significant impact on treatment responses to anti-tuberculosis treatment.

Objective: To ascertain the effect of smoking on sputum culture conversion rates following treatment initiation in patients with susceptible, multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB (M/XDR-TB).

Daptomycin Plasma and CSF Levels in Patients with Healthcare-Associated Meningitis.

Background: There are currently few data concerning the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) penetration of daptomycin in patients with healthcare-associated meningitis. This study aims (1) to better characterize the pharmacokinetics of daptomycin in humans during a 7-day intravenous (IV) therapy course, and (2) to study the penetration of daptomycin in the CSF after IV infusion at the dose of 10 mg/kg.

Results: In this prospective observational study, we enrolled nine patients with an implanted external ventricular drainage and a diagnosis of a healthcare-associated meningitis.

Integrating standardized whole genome sequence analysis with a global Mycobacterium tuberculosis antibiotic resistance knowledgebase.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis poses a persistent public health threat. The ReSeqTB platform is a collaborative, curated knowledgebase, designed to standardize and aggregate global Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) variant data from whole genome sequencing (WGS) with phenotypic drug susceptibility testing (DST) and clinical data. We developed a unified analysis variant pipeline (UVP) ( https://github.

Treatment correlates of successful outcomes in pulmonary multidrug-resistant tuberculosis: an individual patient data meta-analysis.

Background: Treatment outcomes for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis remain poor. We aimed to estimate the association of treatment success and death with the use of individual drugs, and the optimal number and duration of treatment with those drugs in patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis.

Methods: In this individual patient data meta-analysis, we searched MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library to identify potentially eligible observational and experimental studies published between Jan 1, 2009, and April 30, 2016.

Epidemiology and risk factors for mortality in bloodstream infections: A single-center retrospective study in Japan.

Background: Few published data are available on the morbidity and mortality of bloodstream infections (BSIs) in Japan. We sought to investigate the epidemiology of BSIs, the involvement of antimicrobial resistance, and the factors that influence patient prognosis.

Methods: This single-center study retrospectively evaluated patients who were found to have positive blood cultures at a tertiary teaching hospital between January 2012 and December 2016.

Clinical utility of direct application of matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and rapid disk diffusion test in presumptive antimicrobial therapy for bacteremia.

Objective: To study how and to what degree the rapid pathogen identification by MALDI-TOF MS coupled with rapid disk diffusion test improve the current clinical practice of patients with bacteremia in a tertiary teaching hospital with full-time ID consultation service.

Patients And Methods: MALDI-TOF MS and 8H disk diffusion tests were directly applied to the positive blood cultures samples and the results were reflected on antimicrobial therapy (n = 119). The appropriateness of antimicrobial selection through these interventions was verified with conventional culture results in comparison with historical control (n = 129).

Growth Inhibition Assay of Human Alveolar Macrophages as a Correlate of Immune Protection Following Mycobacterium bovis Bacille Calmette-Guérin Vaccination.

Background: In order to eliminate tuberculosis (TB), an effective vaccine is urgently needed to prevent infection with . A key obstacle for the development of novel TB vaccines is the lack of surrogate markers for immune protection against .

Methods: We investigated growth rates of in the mycobacterial growth inhibition assay (MGIA) as a marker for mycobacterial growth control of human bronchoalveolar lavage (BALC) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) before and after vaccination with Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) of healthy adult volunteers.