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Using two or more drugs together as treatment is a simple idea with a complicated underpinning. In order to combine drugs to treat complex infections such as tuberculosis, HIV, and most cancers, we have to understand how their mechanisms work together first. One drug may target one pathway, another drug another pathway. If infected cells grow at different rates, some classes of antibiotics kill the fast-growing cells better, while others are better at killing the slow ones. There can be thousands of combinations to measure. If the right combinations are found, such multidrug therapy may increase treatment efficacy and prevent the development of drug resistance, both important long-term goals.

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The Levy CIMAR’s Alysse G. Wurcel, M.D., from Tufts Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues assessed disparities in SSTI treatment using data from the national survey of Acute Care Hospital Groups within Vizient Inc. (Oct.16, 2018, to Jan. 13, 2019). The researchers found that Cefazolin was more commonly used in White inpatients versus Black inpatients (13 versus 5 percent), while clindamycin was more frequently used in Black inpatients than White inpatients (12 versus 7 percent). Cefazolin is one of the first-line SSTI treatments. Clindamycin is not recommended given frequent dosing and high potential for adverse effects including Clostridioides difficile infection.

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The discovery of drugs appears to obey a rule christened Eroom’s Law. In a nutshell, the number of drugs approved for every billion dollars’ worth of research and development (R&D) halves every nine years. This pattern has remained largely consistent for over 70 years. Since 1950, the cost of developing a new drug has risen at least 80-fold. A Tufts University study suggests that the cost of developing a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) rose at least 13 times between 1975 and 2009. By the mid-2000s it was $1.3 billion. In the 1960s, by contrast, costs per drug developed were around $5 million. Timelines, at least pre-Covid, are likewise extended. Eroom’s Law shows that it takes more and more effort and money to develop new drugs. Achieving a pharmaceutical breakthrough is on a trend of increasing difficulty.

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The scientific community generally recommends vaccination even in people who have already had COVID-19. \u0022The most common question I’m getting is, ‘How should I time my booster and my flu shot?’\u0022 says Levy CIMAR’s Dr. Shira Doron of Tufts Medical Center. \u0022Or my first COVID vaccine shot, or my second COVID vaccine shot and my flu shot. And the answer is, whatever works for you. There are no rules.\u0022 The only important thing to note, Doron says, is that the flu shot should be given at least one inch apart from your COVID shot if you get them at the same time. People can receive both shots on the same day at the same time, she said, or they can be spaced out over time.

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Drug-resistant “superbugs” pose a dire threat in hospitals, where an antibiotic-resistant germ like MRSA could leave an already sick patient without any treatment options. Superbugs were a topic of concern in the medical community long before COVID-19 was in our vocabulary, says the Levy CIMAR’s Helen Boucher, MD, an infectious disease physician at Tufts Medical Center and interim dean of Tufts University School of Medicine. “It’s a growing problem, and many of us call it a silent pandemic, because it is, ever, ever so much still with us, despite our very appropriate focus on COVID,” she says.\n\n

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Coherent Market Insights recently published an in depth study of Bacteriophages Therapy Market covering interesting aspects of the market with supporting development scenarios starting from 2021-2027. The report delivers the clean elaborated structure of the Market comprising each and each business-related information of the market at a worldwide level. the entire range of data associated with the worldwide Market is obtained through various sources. PhagePro, Inc., co-founded by the Levy CIMAR’s Andrew Camilli, PhD, is listed among key players focusing on bacteriophage therapies.

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As COVID-19 cases rise once again, and as variants continue to spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are recommending that vaccinated people start wearing masks indoors, in many situations. The recommendation applies to areas considered to have a \u0022high and substantial transmission\u0022 of COVID-19, and in K-12 schools. The Levy CIMAR’s Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, joined WBUR’s Morning Edition to discuss what this means for Americanas and how this affects Massachusetts residents in particular.

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\u0022Before antibiotics, a simple skin infection had a 10% chance of killing you. People never think about that today, because we have antibiotics that cure all bacterial skin infections. We don’t think about skin infections as being a problem at all,\u0022 says Dr. Helen W. Boucher of the Levy CIMAR and interim Dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston. But now, she warns, time for many of these drugs is running out. Antimicrobial resistance is turning back nearly a century of work to prevent deaths from bacterial and fungal infections. In the U.S. alone, nearly 3 million people annually are believed to fall ill to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, and more than 35,000 of the patients die.

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Dozens of studies show that for many bacterial infections, a short course of antibiotics, measured in days, performs as well as the traditional course, measured in weeks. Shorter courses also carry a lower risk of side effects. In April the strength of this research persuaded the American College of Physicians to issue new \u0022best practice advice\u0022 for four kinds of infections: pneumonia (the kind acquired in the community rather than in a hospital), \u0022uncomplicated\u0022 urinary tract infections (UTIs), skin infections known as cellulitis (provided there is no pus) and acute bronchitis in people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

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Many people are worried that the rise of the delta variant of the coronavirus, which is more contagious than the earlier variants and has become the dominant strain in the U.S., as well as in Massachusetts. Among the questions people have been wondering is whether they need to wear masks inside again indoors, even if they’ve been vaccinated. The World Health Organization recently said they should, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that’s unnecessary.Experts including the Levy CIMAR’s Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center, weigh in.

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Thanks to vaccines, the number of COVID-19 cases has plummeted in the U.S. and restrictions are being lifted across the country. But as we return to our normal activities, we face a more familiar summertime scourge. We’re in the thick of Lyme disease season, the two-month run from early June to the end of July when 85 percent of infections take place. Surprisingly, vaccines may have allowed us to avoid this epidemic, too. A vaccine called LYMErix has existed for decades, but it’s no longer available. In this article, you will learn why LYMErix is no longer available and discover where the research stands today.