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2024 SEP 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators publish new report on glycopeptide antibiotics. According to news reporting from [...]

2022 DEC 31 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Data detailed on antibiotics have been presented. According to news reporting from [...]

2022 OCT 22 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators publish new report on antibiotics. According to news reporting originating from [...]

2022 MAR 5 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- According to news reporting based on a preprint abstract, our journalists obtained [...]

2021 APR 3 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Fresh data on Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections - Melioidosis are presented in a [...]

2019 OCT 12 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators discuss new findings in Sepsis. According to news originating from Shanghai, [...]

2017 JAN 14 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Obesity, Fitness & Wellness Week -- Investigators publish new report on Gram-Negative Bacteria - Bacteroides. According to news [...]

Pivamdinocillin may be a better treatment for a Shigella bacterial infection in adults than cefixime. Doctors treated 30 adult males with diarrhea caused by a Shigella infection with either a daily 400 milligram (mg) dose of cefixime or four daily 400 mg doses of pivamdinocillin. Cefixime treatment was successful in only 8 of 15 patients while pivamdinocillin treatment was successful in all 15 patients. Patients treated with cefixime had more bloody stools for a longer period of time and their fever lasted significantly longer than those patients treated with pivamdinocillin. The Shigella bacteria were no longer present in 87% of the patients' stools after 2 days of pivamdinocillin treatment. This was the case in only 40% of the patients treated with cefixime.

Bacterial keratitis, or bacterial infection of the cornea, is a potential threat to vision. The cornea is the transparent outermost tunic covering the front of the eyeball; it is a refracting surface for light entering the eye. Consequently, scarring of the cornea can cause loss of vision. Even mild infections require immediate treatment, and severe infections are ophthalmologic emergencies. Antibiotics must be given quickly and effectively inhibit bacterial growth. Bacterial keratitis can be caused by both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria; therefore, treatment requires a broad spectrum potent antibiotic. Fluoroquinolones are broad spectrum antibiotics effective against both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The fluoroquinolone ciprofloxacin is commercially available for local administration to the eye. A multicenter clinical study was undertaken of 148 patients with bacterial keratitis who were treated with topically administered 0.3 percent ciprofloxacin solution. This treatment was compared with other standard drug therapies, specifically fortified cefazolin and fortified gentamicin or tobramycin. Ciprofloxacin had a 91.9 percent success rate in curing or improving cases of bacterial keratitis. The rates of cure and/or improvement with standard treatment were 88.2 for those treated concurrently with the study group and 88.3 percent for those treated one-year before the current study. There were no serious side effects noted with ciprofloxacin, which was found to be very effective against the bacteria identified in the infected corneas. The data suggest that ciprofloxacin is safe and effective in the treatment of bacterial keratitis. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Fluoroquinolones are both old and new antibiotics; a prototype, nalidixic acid, has been available since 1962, however, newer fluoroquinolones were tested in the late 1980s. In Japan and Europe, oral dosing of fluoroquinolones has been widely used in the treatment of community-acquired and hospital-acquired infections. There are various clinical uses of these new antibiotics. All of the new quinolone drugs are effective against the major bacteria or pathogens of the urinary system, and they are especially useful in treating complicated urinary tract infections. They have been shown to be effective in the treatment of gonococcal urethritis (inflammation of the urethra); in addition, the fluoroquinolone ofloxacin is as effective as doxycycline (a type of tetracycline) in treating Chlamydia infections. Quinolones are effective in treating necrotizing external otitis, a condition of diabetic patients. In treating gram-negative hospital-acquired respiratory infections, oral ciprofloxacin was as effective as parenterally administered penicillin and cephalosporins. All quinolones are effective in treating bacterial diarrhea. In treating osteomyelitis (inflammation of the bone, and bone marrow), the quinolones are effective against many resistant gram-negative organisms. Ciprofloxacin and ofloxacin given orally are as effective as parenteral treatment for mixed aerobic, gram-negative and gram-positive skin infections in hospitalized patients. Endocarditis (inflammation of the lining of the heart), has been effectively treated with a combination of ciprofloxacin and rifampin. Ciprofloxacin has been remarkably effective in the treatment of eye infections. The incidence of adverse reactions to the fluoroquinolones is low. The most frequently reported side effects are gastrointestinal (nausea, vomiting, and anorexia). Fluoroquinolones have few drug-to-drug interactions. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Snakebites often cause puncture wounds, swelling due to toxic substances, and destruction of the tissue. Although various types of bacteria have been isolated from the mouths of snakes, snakebites are rarely complicated by bacterial infection. The bactericidal activity of venoms, or ability of snake poisons to kill bacteria, has not been studied. Snake venoms may kill bacteria directly, and thereby prevent bacterial infection of the snakebite wound. The antibacterial activities of crotalid, or rattlesnake, venoms were assessed. Snake venoms were tested against six aerobic and eight anaerobic bacterial species and three bacterial species normally found in the mouths of rattlesnakes. (Aerobic bacteria require oxygen, but anaerobic bacteria do not.) Rattlesnake venom had antibacterial activity against staphylococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Enterobacter, Citrobacter, Proteus, and Morganella species, but not against anaerobic bacteria. The bactericidal effects of rattlesnake venoms was diminished after prolonged exposure to gram-negative aerobic bacteria. These findings show that rattlesnake venoms have bactericidal effects against aerobic, gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial species, and that these antibacterial effects may help to prevent infectious complications of snakebites. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Patients with otitis media, middle ear infection considered to be caused by bacteria, are usually treated with antibiotics and symptoms clear within 24 hours. However, the signs and symptoms may persist in 4 to 18 percent of patients. Recently 26 to 42 percent of patients with middle ear infection have been reported to have respiratory viruses in the nose and throat, and 11 to 24 percent to have viruses in the middle ear fluid. Twenty-two children with acute otitis media were studied; these children had failed to improve following 48 hours of antibiotic therapy. A group of 66 children with newly diagnosed ear infection was used as a comparison group. Respiratory viruses were able to be isolated in 68 percent of the group unresponsive to treatment, compared with 41 percent of the newly treated group. The middle ear fluid revealed these viruses in 32 percent of the study group and 15 percent of the comparison group. In the treatment-resistant group, four children were found to have bacteria in the middle ear fluid but only one child's fluid sample revealed a bacterial strain resistant to the antibiotic. Bacterial resistance to the antibiotic given was not the cause of the poor treatment result in most of the study group. All four children in the study group shown to have bacteria also had a simultaneous respiratory virus. The signs and symptoms of otitis media can either be specific to otitis media or due to an underlying virus. The presence of viral infection may be associated with a poor initial response to treatment. Failure of treatment should be determined on the basis of specific local signs, such as the appearance of the tympanic membrane, rather than nonspecific signs such as fever. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Granulocytopenia is an abnormal decrease in granulocytes, a type of white blood cell in the bone marrow. The disease is often associated with bacterial infections and can be controlled by antibiotics. Under normal conditions, the gastrointestinal tract has anaerobic bacteria, which prevent the growth of aerobic bacteria, that is, bacteria that require oxygen to thrive. Ofloxacin is an antibiotic that specifically attacks aerobic bacteria, such as gram-negative bacilli and gram-positive cocci, but preserves the natural anaerobic bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. The effectiveness and safety of ofloxacin were compared with that of the antibiotic mixture vancomycin/polymyxin in treating bacterial infections in 62 patients with granulocytopenia. There were fewer numbers of gram-negative bacilli organism per patient, fewer patients with infection, and fewer cases of septicemia, or bacteria in the blood, in the group receiving ofloxacin than those receiving the antibiotic mixture. Ofloxacin was also better tolerated and caused fewer side effects. However, neither of the antibiotic preparations could eliminate infection by viridans group streptococci, coagulase-negative staphylococci, or other gram-positive organisms. Three types of bacteria that were resistant to inactivation by ofloxacin were isolated but did not cause infections. The results show that ofloxacin is a more effective and tolerable antibiotic than vancomycin/polymyxin for the prevention of infections by gram-negative bacteria in granulocytopenic patients, although more effective treatment is needed to prevent gram-positive infections.