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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Apr 13

Congratulations to Steve Tong, Josh Davis and the huge SNAP team (including Monash Health). Clear outcome that cefazolin is less nephrotoxic than flucloxacillin for MSSA, and pencillin is better for PSSA. @steventong.bsky.social @gurujosh.bsky.social

Erin McCreary, PharmD @erinmccreary.bsky.social · Apr 12

@steventong.bsky.social presents the results of the PSSA domain of the SNAP 🫰 trial - the worlds largest trial of staph aureus bacteremia - at #ESCMID2025

fluclox resulted in higher mortality and more AKI compared to penicillin for PSSA

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Reposted by Allen Cheng

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · Mar 1

Cool paper from Florian Kramer & colleagues about a novel feature of circulating H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4. These viruses have a longer stalk in their neuraminidase (NA) enzyme, a key viral protein. This was not seen in past H5N1 strains (2002-2019)
Why does it matter?🧪
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Clade 2.3.4.4b H5N1 neuraminidase has a long stalk, which is in contrast to most highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses circulating between 2002 and 2020 | mBio

While the truncated version of the N1 neuraminidase stalk domain may be associated with increased virulence in poultry, the long version of the stalk domain has been associated with increased transmis...

journals.asm.org

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Mar 2

Looks like PubMed is down - not sure if this is a temporary outage or something more sinister. Europe PMC is an alternative search engine for medical literature that is publicly accessible. europepmc.org

Europe PMCHome - Europe PMC

Europe PMC is an archive of life sciences journal literature.

europepmc.org

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Reposted by Allen Cheng

Josh Davis @gurujosh.bsky.social · Dec 12

Great list @absteward.bsky.social! Mine is coming soon (limited to 10)

Antibiotic Steward 🅱️C🆔🅿️🌟 @absteward.bsky.social · Dec 11

🔥🔥 NEW 🔥🔥
Year In Review: Top Infectious Diseases Articles From 2024
Our new post, a great collaboration with my friend
🌟 @idstewardship.bsky.social
1️⃣6️⃣⚡️🆔 RCTs
7️⃣Syst Reviews/Meta
3️⃣🌏Guidelines ✨️Wiki_Guidelines
#idsky #EMIMCC #medsky #utisky
EnJoy
Share plz!
www.idstewardship.com/year-review-...

Year In Review: Top Infectious Diseases Articles From 2024

In this article a selection of notable peer-reviewed publications from 2024 are provided. Article Selection by: Bassam Ghanem, Pharm.D., MS, BCPS Article Construction by: Timothy P. Gauthier, Pharm.D....

www.idstewardship.com

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Dec 12

Paul Sax's "oh wow" moments in HIV: AZT during pregnancy reduces vertical transmission; triple ARVs improve survival; integrase inhibitors as effective salvage therapy; PrEP is very effective; undetectable = untransmissible and now 6 monthly lenacapravir PReP is 100% effective

Paul Sax @paulsaxmd.bsky.social · Dec 9

With the publication of PURPOSE 2 for PrEP in @nejm.org, and the stellar results, I wonder what’s going to happen once it gets approved for this indication. Should be interesting, to say the least! blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-obser...

Who's Going to Get Lenacapavir for HIV Prevention?

At the International AIDS Conference this past summer, Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker brought down the house presenting the results of the PURPOSE 1 trial of twice-yearly injectable lenacapavir for prevention ...

blogs.jwatch.org

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Dec 6

Not my area of expertise, but I understand there are restrictions on the use of the Individual Healthcare Identifier so that it can't be used in linkage. But I could be wrong - others might know.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Dec 3

Very annoying when you’re writing a manuscript - can’t easily find/replace to change full stops to interpuncts. I understand it’s a historical anachronism, like the New Yorker using diaereses (coöperation”) en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpu...

Interpunct - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Dec 1

Five years ago (1 Dec 2019), the first person became unwell in a case cluster of a new infection that we now know as COVID-19. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China

A recent cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China, was caused by a novel betacoronavirus, the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV). We report the epidemiological, clinical, laboratory, and radiologica...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 27

My father's family were originally rice farmers in China, and I ended up doing my PhD on melioidosis, a disease of rice farmers, partly based in Thailand where many of his siblings moved to (and where my cousin is an infectious diseases physician).

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 26

C is the Schrödinger's result - simultaneously inferior and non-inferior.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

I've been off social media mostly for almost three years, was enticed back by Tony Korman, and tentitively wading back in!

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

Supports routinely using 7 days of treatment in bacteraemia (other than S aureus, fungaemia, and if there is a definite indication for longer eg endocarditis)

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

90 day mortality was *lower* in 7 day group (14.5%) vs 14 day group (16.1%); met non-inferiority criteria
There were no major differences between shorter/longer groups in subgroups, i8ncluding ICU, APACHE-II >25, by site or pathogen.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

Broad variety of infection sites but majority gram neg (71%); clear separation in duration between shorter group (median 8 days) vs longer duration group (median 14 days)

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

It included ICU patients (55% of enrolled patients) but notably excluded immunocompromised, S aureus, candida, deep infection (eg endocarditis).

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

This was a large trial (n=3608) at 74 hospitals in 7 countries. (COI: The Australian arm was co-ordinated from Monash by Ben Rogers). It was a non inferiority, 7 vs 14 days of treatment; primary outcome 90 day mortality.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 21

Congratulations to the BALANCE group on the trial published in NEJM today. This trial tested 7 vs 14 days of antibiotics for bloodstream infection. #IDSky www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Antibiotic Treatment for 7 versus 14 Days in Patients with Bloodstream Infections | NEJM

Bloodstream infections are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality. Early, appropriate antibiotic therapy is important, but the duration of treatment is uncertain. In a multicenter, non...

www.nejm.org

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Reposted by Allen Cheng

Sonia Koning @sonkoning.bsky.social · Nov 15

Lessons from practice for immunocompromised hosts by Dr Ai Li Yeo and A/Prof Claire Dendle
#ForbesWeek #IDSky
1. There can be more than two pathologies in immunocompromised patients

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

Thanks for coming to Melbourne! It's been an honour to have you join our ID community here and benefit from your expertise.

Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

28. In community-acquired infection, resistant organisms do not cause more severe illness than their sensitive counterparts. The only reason for using broader than usual therapy is when you (and the patient) cannot afford to be wrong.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

27. When you suspect bacteraemia, do not wait for the patient’s temperature to go up before doing blood cultures.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

26. In patients with unexplained neurological features, think of the five great infective mimics: HIV, syphilis, tuberculosis, Lyme disease (with epidemiological history), Whipple’s disease.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

25. Bacterial aortitis needs to be excluded in a patient who develops abdominal pain or back pain within weeks of an episode of diarrhoea.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

24. Remember that Listeria monocytogenes meningoencephalitis can masquerade clinically as herpes simplex encephalitis.

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Allen Cheng @peripatetical.bsky.social · Nov 16

23. Avoid the term “atypical pneumonia” in children, adults over the age of 50 years, the immunocompromised, the severely ill, or patients with diffuse bilateral interstitial pulmonary infiltrates.

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