Audio Journal of Infectious Disease: Reporting from the 2006 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), September 27 – 30, San Francisco

REFERENCE: Abstract C2-605
Henry Fraimow, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, New Jersey
Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus is most often looked for in the nose, but could it be hiding elsewhere? According to Henry Fraimow, of Cooper University Hospital in Camden, New Jersey, vaginal and rectal cavities may also be an important reservoirs for this bacterium. Derek Thorne asked him about his findings.

REFERENCE: Abstract G-346
Michael Jacobs, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
The conjugated pneumococcal vaccine did initially reduce the incidence of invasive Streptococcus pneumoniae infection in children; however, six years after its introduction, a particular multidrug resistant serotype has replaced the types that were covered by the vaccine. Michael Jacobs of the Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, revealed his findings to the ICAAC conference and talked about them in San Francisco with Derek Thorne.

REFERENCE: Abstract G-345
Ron Dagan, Soroka University Medical Center, Beer-Sheva, Israel
If antibiotic use drops markedly, will resistant strains become less common? Have they paid a ‘fitness cost’ in becoming resistant? A group led by Ron Dagan, of the Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel, tested this hypothesis by tracking Streptococcus pneumoniae strains throughout the year, to see whether a decrease in antibiotics – which is seen in the summer months – led to a decrease in resistant strains. During the ICAAC meeting he told Derek Thorne about their findings.