Infectious Disease

Blepharitis caused by lice; lung cancer in former smokers; infection in chronic kidney disease. . . . here: 5 questions on 5 different disorders to challenge you again this week.

From lacy and reticular and limited to the cheeks, this rash quickly covered the child’s body and transformed into a solid rash. Your dx?

For which of these patients would you give the 23-valent pneumoccocal vaccine?

Here a close-up look at fungal, eosinophilic pustular, and steroid-induced folliculitis.

Patients coinfected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) and HIV can develop rapidly progressive liver fibrosis.

First of all, it is important to know what exactly is meant by “the best.”

Here: a close-up look at gram-positive and -negative cases of folliculitis.

Discitis, a bacterial infection within the vertebral disc, typically results from seeding during an episode of bacteremia.

A 46-year-old man with a history of HIV infection presents to the emergency department for left flank pain. A lateral x-ray film of the patient’s lumbar spine is shown. What is the diagnosis?

For patients with asthma or COPD, PL554 has the potential to both reverse bronchodilation and reduce inflammation more quickly and with fewer adverse effects.

Awareness of medical conditions and drugs that can suppress the immune system or cause other complications is key to providing safe and appropriate care for immunosuppressed patients. Details here.

Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalisa rare condition, is characterized by gaseous cysts within the submucosal and subserosal spaces of the bowel wal

Here: 5 things (at least) you may not know about human viral hepatitis.

Which test should you order if you suspect Clostridium difficile infection-and how often do you check the stool for the C difficile toxin? Here: the answer-and explanation.

The 5 quiz questions this week are far-ranging and cover conditions as rare as opisthorchiasis and as common as obesity. See how you fare...

Data from pivotal international phase III clinical trials showed superior efficacy, safety, and convenience for a new wave of direct-acting oral agents. The breakthrough will benefit physicians in all practice settings, including primary care.

This presentation at the ACG Scientific Meeting provided the requisite research-oriented material but an equal amount of practical information that will be useful for the general internist, family physician, DO, and primary care physician.

Broad-spectrum antibiotics offer no advantage over guideline-recommended agents, even against severe community-acquired pneumonia.

How much do you know about cephalic tetanus? Perioperative hypotension? PCOS? Take this week’s test and see if you can answer these 5 questions.

English- and Spanish-speaking parents cited widely differing reasons for avoiding vaccination for their eligible daughters or failing to ensure the 3 doses were received.

In hospitalized HIV patients, medication errors are common and can be mitigated by enlisting ID specialists.

The norovirus vaccine, while not preventive of all disease, does significantly reduce the severity of symptoms.

The association of missed visits and increased mortality in HIV-infected patients is related to factors other than access to care.

Thirty-day hospital readmission rates in adults infected with HIV are driven largely by CD4+ count and length of stay.

Clostridium difficile colitis can be cured by having patients swallow capsules brimming with other people’s concentrated stool. Inexpensive, effective, and readily available. This could be an enormous opportunity for primary care (if the FDA approves it).

This is an opportunity for primary care to help avert a public health catastrophe. Physicians need to take ownership over this issue and demand more time for URI patients-E&M criteria do not capture what is lost when these visits are viewed simply as “Level 2 Office Visit, CPT 99212.”

6 sexually transmitted infections-6 decisions. Test your skills.

Most parents of boys aged 9 to 18 years do not know that an HPV vaccine is available for their sons. One major factor is a lack of information. This is where you play a vital role.

“STD organisms are all part of an ecological pool that simply share one thing in common: sex," says the author of a new study. Testing for all important STD pathogens is the only way to detect all agents that might be involved in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients. Details here.

When patients develop diarrhea in the hospital within 48 hours after admission, it is most likely antibiotic-associated diarrhea, including CDAD.