Centers for disease control and prevention expert panel meetings on prevention and treatment of anthrax in adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention convened panels of anthrax experts to review and update guidelines for anthrax postexposure prophylaxis and treatment. The panels included civilian and military anthrax experts and clinicians with experience treating anthrax patients. Specialties represented included internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, infectious disease, emergency medicine, critical care, pulmonology, hematology, and nephrology. Panelists discussed recent patients with systemic anthrax; reviews of published, unpublished, and proprietary data regarding antimicrobial drugs and anthrax antitoxins; and critical care measures of potential benefit to patients with anthrax. This article updates antimicrobial postexposure prophylaxis and antimicrobial and antitoxin treatment options and describes potentially beneficial critical care measures for persons with anthrax, including clinical procedures for infected nonpregnant adults. Changes from previous guidelines include an expanded discussion of critical care and clinical procedures and additional antimicrobial choices, including preferred antimicrobial drug treatment for possible anthrax meningitis.

A literature review of laboratory-acquired brucellosis.

Brucellosis is a bacterial zoonotic disease which has been associated with laboratory-acquired infections. No recent reviews have addressed the characteristics of laboratory-acquired brucellosis (LAB). English-language literature was reviewed to identify reports of laboratory exposures to Brucella spp. and LAB cases between 1982 and 2007. Evaluation of 28 case reports identified 167 potentially exposed laboratory workers, of whom 71 had LAB. Nine reports were identified that summarized an additional 186 cases of LAB. Only 18 (11%) exposures were due to laboratory accidents, 147 (88%) exposures were due to aerosolization of organisms during routine identification activities, and the circumstances of 2 (1%) exposures were unknown. Brucella melitensis was the causative agent in 80% (135/167) of the exposures. Workers with high-risk exposures were 9.3 times more likely to develop LAB than workers with low-risk exposures (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.0 to 38.6; P < 0.0001); they were also 0.009 times likelier to develop LAB if they took antimicrobial PEP than if they did not (95% CI, 0 to 0.042; P < 0.0001). The median incubation period in case and summary reports was 8 weeks (range 1 to 40 weeks). Antimicrobial PEP is effective in preventing LAB. The incubation period may be used to identify appropriate serological and symptom surveillance time frames for exposed laboratory workers.

Workshop on treatment of and postexposure prophylaxis for Burkholderia pseudomallei and B. mallei Infection, 2010.

The US Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise convened subject matter experts at the 2010 HHS Burkholderia Workshop to develop consensus recommendations for postexposure prophylaxis against and treatment for Burkholderia pseudomallei and B. mallei infections, which cause melioidosis and glanders, respectively. Drugs recommended by consensus of the participants are ceftazidime or meropenem for initial intensive therapy, and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole or amoxicillin/clavulanic acid for eradication therapy. For postexposure prophylaxis, recommended drugs are trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole or co-amoxiclav. To improve the timely diagnosis of melioidosis and glanders, further development and wide distribution of rapid diagnostic assays were also recommended. Standardized animal models and B. pseudomallei strains are needed for further development of therapeutic options. Training for laboratory technicians and physicians would facilitate better diagnosis and treatment options.

Epidemiology and investigation of melioidosis, Southern Arizona.

Burkholderia pseudomallei is a bacterium endemic to Southeast Asia and northern Australia, but it has not been found to occur endemically in the United States. We report an ostensibly autochthonous case of melioidosis in the United States. Despite an extensive investigation, the source of exposure was not identified.

Burkholderia pseudomallei infection in a child with cystic fibrosis: acquisition in the Western Hemisphere.

Melioidosis, an infection caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, is endemic to Southeast Asia and northern Australia but is only very rarely seen in patients in the United States. We report pulmonary B pseudomallei infection in a young girl with cystic fibrosis (CF) who had never traveled to Asia or Australia. Biochemical and epidemiologic investigation determined Aruba as the likely site of disease acquisition. This report highlights the ability of patients with CF to acquire this organism outside of Southeast Asia and describes an aggressive treatment regimen that has kept this patient culture-negative for the organism over a long period of time.

Antimicrobial-resistant nocardia isolates, United States, 1995-2004.

We conducted a 10-year retrospective evaluation of the epidemiology and identification of Nocardia isolates submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The species most commonly identified were N. nova (28%), N. brasiliensis (14%), and N. farcinica (14%). Of 765 isolates submitted, 61% were resistant to sulfamethoxazole and 42% were resistant to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole.

International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases, 2010.

The seventh International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases (ICEID) was held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, July 11-14, 2010. The conference goal was to bring together public health professionals to encourage exchange of scientific and public health information on global emerging infectious disease issues. The conference was organized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Society for Microbiology, the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the Association of Public Health Laboratories, and the World Health Organization; additional support was provided by 40 other multidisciplinary public health partners.

Investigation of an apparent outbreak of Rhodococcus equi bacteremia.

During January to April 2007, hospital staff reported 3 patients with Rhodococcus equi bloodstream infections. Isolates were analyzed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, to confirm identification and to assess strain relatedness; 2 were R. equi but genetically distinct, and 1 was identified as Gordonia polyisoprenivorans. Rapid reference laboratory support prevented an unnecessary outbreak investigation.

Management of accidental laboratory exposure to Burkholderia pseudomallei and B. mallei.

The gram-negative bacillus Burkholderia pseudomallei is a saprophyte and the cause of melioidosis. Natural infection is most commonly reported in northeast Thailand and northern Australia but also occurs in other parts of Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Melioidosis develops after bacterial inoculation or inhalation, often in relation to occupational exposure in areas where the disease is endemic. Clinical infection has a peak incidence between the fourth and fifth decades; with diabetes mellitus, excess alcohol consumption, chronic renal failure, and chronic lung disease acting as independent risk factors. Most affected adults ( approximately 80%) in northeast Thailand, northern Australia, and Malaysia have >/=1 underlying diseases. Symptoms of melioidosis may be exhibited many years after exposure, commonly in association with an alteration in immune status. Manifestations of disease are extremely broad ranging and form a spectrum from rapidly life-threatening sepsis to chronic low-grade infection. A common clinical picture is that of sepsis associated with bacterial dissemination to distant sites, frequently causing concomitant pneumonia and liver and splenic abscesses. Infection may also occur in bone, joints, skin, soft tissue, or the prostate. The clinical symptoms of melioidosis mimic those of many other diseases; thus, differentiating between melioidosis and other acute and chronic bacterial infections, including tuberculosis, is often impossible. Confirmation of the diagnosis relies on good practices for specimen collection, laboratory culture, and isolation of B. pseudomallei. The overall mortality rate of infected persons is 50% in northeast Thailand (35% in children) and 19% in Australia.

Transfusion-associated transmission of West Nile virus, United States 2003 through 2005.

BACKGROUND: National blood donation screening for West Nile virus (WNV) started in June 2003, after the documentation of WNV transfusion-associated transmission (TAT) in 2002. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Blood donations were screened with investigational nucleic acid amplification assays in minipool formats. Blood collection agencies (BCAs) reported screening results to state and local public health authorities. Donor test results and demographic information were forwarded to CDC via ArboNET, the national electronic arbovirus surveillance system. State health departments and BCAs also reported suspect WNV TATs to CDC, which investigated these reports to confirm WNV infection in blood transfusion recipients in the absence of likely mosquito exposure. RESULTS: During 2003 to 2005, a total of 1,425 presumptive viremic donors were reported to CDC from 41 states. Of 36 investigations of suspected WNV TAT in 2003, 6 cases were documented. Estimated viremia levels were available for donations implicated in four TAT cases; the median estimated viremia was 0.1 plaque-forming units (PFUs) per mL (range, 0.06-0.50 PFU/mL; 1 PFU equals approximately 400 copies/mL). CONCLUSIONS: National blood screening for WNV identified and removed more than 1,400 potentially infectious blood donations in 2003 through 2005. Despite the success of screening in 2003, some residual WNV TAT risk remained due to donations containing very low levels of virus. Screening algorithms employing selected individual-donation testing were designed to address this residual risk and were fully implemented in 2004 and 2005. Continued vigilance for TAT will evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies.

Bloodstream infections in pediatric oncology outpatients: a new healthcare systems challenge.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate a perceived increase in central venous catheter (CVC)-associated bloodstream infections (BSIs) among pediatric hematology-oncology outpatients. DESIGN: A case-control study. SETTING: A pediatric hematology-oncology outpatient clinic at Fresno Children's Hospital. PATIENTS: Pediatric hematology-oncology clinic outpatients with CVCs at Fresno Children's Hospital between November 1994 and October 1997. METHODS: A case-patient was defined as any hematology-oncology outpatient with a CVC-associated BSI at Fresno Children's Hospital from November 1996 to October 1997 (study period) without a localizable infection. To identify case-patients, we reviewed Fresno Children's Hospital records for all hematology-oncology clinic patients, those with CVCs and those with CVCs and BSIs. Control-patients were randomly selected hematology-oncology outpatients with a CVC but no BSI during the study period. Case-patient and control-patient demographics, diagnoses, caretakers, catheter types, catheter care, and water exposure were compared. RESULTS: Twenty-five case-patients had 42 CVC-associated BSIs during the study period. No significant increase in CVC-associated BSI rates occurred among pediatric hematology-oncology patients. However, there was a statistically significant increase in nonendogenous, gram-negative (eg, Pseudomonas species) BSIs during summer months (May-October) compared with the rest of the year. Case-patients and control-patients differed only in catheter type; case-patients were more likely than control-patients to have a transcutaneous CVC. Summertime recreational water exposures were similar and high in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: Hematology-oncology clinic patients with transcutaneous CVCs are at greater risk for CVC-associated BSI, particularly during the summer. Caretakers should be instructed on proper care of CVCs, particularly protection of CVCs during bathing and recreational summer water activities, to reduce the risk of nonendogenous, gram-negative BSIs.