Open forum infectious diseases
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Open Forum Infect Dis · Aug 2020
Clinical Characteristics of Pregnant Women With Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Wuhan, China.
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a pandemic. Despite the growing number of patients with COVID-19 infection, data on the clinical characteristics of pregnant patients are still limited. ⋯ Pregnant patients with COVID-19 had a lower level of severity and an enhanced inflammatory response and cell immunity when compared with nonpregnant patients.
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Open Forum Infect Dis · Aug 2020
Alignment With Market Forces: The "Re-Whithering" of Infectious Diseases.
Given constant emergence of new infectious threats, infectious diseases (ID) should be one of the most attractive medical specialties to students and trainees. Yet, ID Fellowship programs continue to not fill in the match, and ID remains among the lowest paid specialties. ⋯ Petersdorf first asked the question, we find ourselves once again wondering, "Whither Infectious Diseases?" To answer this question, and align with predominant US market forces, ID experts should push for the following: (1) restrictions regarding utilization of ID diagnostics and antimicrobial agents; (2) pay-for-performance measures regarding antimicrobial prescribing rates; and (3) healthcare reform as called for by the American College of Physicians to move away from fee-for-service medicine. Einstein said, "Continuing to do the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity." We must move towards alignment with market forces, to benefit our patients, society, and our colleagues.
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Open Forum Infect Dis · Jul 2020
An "Infodemic": Leveraging High-Volume Twitter Data to Understand Early Public Sentiment for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Outbreak.
Twitter has been used to track trends and disseminate health information during viral epidemics. On January 21, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention activated its Emergency Operations Center and the World Health Organization released its first situation report about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), sparking significant media attention. How Twitter content and sentiment evolved in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic has not been described. ⋯ Twitter is a rich medium that can be leveraged to understand public sentiment in real-time and potentially target individualized public health messages based on user interest and emotion.
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Open Forum Infect Dis · Jul 2020
Clinical Manifestation and Neonatal Outcomes of Pregnant Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pneumonia in Wuhan, China.
Clinical manifestation and neonatal outcomes of pregnant women with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were unclear in Wuhan, China. ⋯ Clinical characteristics of pregnant patients with COVID-19 are less serious than nonpregnant. No evidence indicated that pregnant women may have fetal infection through vertical transmission of COVID-19. Pregnant patients with H1N1 had more serious condition than those with COVID-19.
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Open Forum Infect Dis · Jul 2020
Utilizing Behavioral Science to Improve Antibiotic Prescribing in Rural Urgent Care Settings.
Antibiotic-inappropriate prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections (ARTI) is 45% among urgent care centers (UCCs) in the United States. Locally in our UCCs, antibiotic-inappropriate prescribing for ARTI is higher-over 70%. ⋯ In this sample of rural UCCs, we reduced antibiotic-inappropriate prescribing for ARTI using 3 behavioral interventions.