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Israeli officials are reporting a 30% decrease in the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. At the same time, protection against hospitalization and severe illness remains robust.

The country’s Ministry of Health data cited high levels of circulating Delta variant and a relaxation of public health measures in early June for the drop in the vaccine’s prevention of “breakthrough” cases from 94% to 64% in recent weeks.

However, it is important to consider the findings in context, experts cautioned.

“My overall take on this that the vaccine is highly protective against the endpoints that matter – hospitalization and severe disease,” Anna Durbin, MD, told this news organization.

“I was very pleasantly surprised with the very high efficacy against hospitalization and severe disease – even against the Delta variant,” added Dr. Durbin, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Ali Mokdad, PhD, of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington, Seattle, agreed that the high degree of protection against severe outcomes should be the focus.

“That’s the whole idea. You want to defend against COVID-19. So even if someone is infected, they don’t end up in the hospital or in the morgue,” he said in an interview.

Compared with an earlier report, the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine against hospitalization fell slightly from 98% to 93%.

“For me, the fact that there is increased infection from the Delta variant after the vaccines such as Pfizer is of course a concern. But the positive news is that there is 93% prevention against severe disease or mortality,” added Dr. Mokdad, who is also professor of global health at University of Washington.

In addition, the absolute numbers remain relatively small. The Ministry of Health data show that, of the 63 Israelis hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide on July 3, 34 were in critical condition.
 

Unrealistic expectations?

People may have unrealistic expectations regarding breakthrough infections, Dr. Durbin said. “It seems that people are almost expecting ‘sterilizing immunity’ from these vaccines,” she said, explaining that would mean complete protection from infection.

Expectations may be high “because these vaccines have been so effective,” added Dr. Durbin, who is also affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

The higher the number of vaccinated residents, the more breakthrough cases will be reported, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology, human genetics, and environmental sciences at the University of Texas Science Center at Houston, wrote in her “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog.

This could apply to Israel, with an estimated 60% of adults in Israel fully vaccinated and 65% receiving at least one dose as of July 5, Our World in Data figures show.

How the updated figures were reported could be confusing, Dr. Jetelina said. Israel’s Health Minister Chezy Levy noted that “55% of the newly infected had been vaccinated” in a radio interview announcing the results.

“This language is important because it’s very different than ‘half of vaccinated people were infected,’ ” Dr. Jetelina noted.

Israel had a 7-day rolling average of 324 new confirmed COVID-19 cases as of July 5. Assuming 55% of these cases were among vaccinated people, that would mean 178 people experienced breakthrough infections.

In contrast, almost 6 million people in Israel are fully vaccinated. If 55% of them experienced breakthrough infections, the number would be much higher – more than 3 million.

Dr. Jetelina added that more details about the new Israel figures would be helpful, including the severity of COVID-19 among the vaccinated cases and breakdown of infections between adults and children.
 

Next steps

Israeli health officials are weighing the necessity of a third or booster dose of the vaccine. Whether they will reinstate public health measures to prevent spread of COVID-19 also remains unknown.

Going forward, Israel intends to study whether factors such as age, comorbidities, or time since immunization affect risk for breakthrough infections among people vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We want to prevent people from getting hospitalized, seriously ill, and of course, dying. It’s encouraging these vaccines will be able to have a high impact on those outcomes,” Dr. Durbin said. “We just need to get people vaccinated.”
 

A call for better global surveillance

A global surveillance system is a potential solution to track and respond to the growing threat of the Delta variant and other variants of concern, Scott P. Layne, MD, and Jeffery K. Taubenberger, MD, PhD, wrote in a July 7, 2021, editorial in Science Translational Medicine.

One goal, Dr. Layne said in an interview, is to highlight “the compelling need for a new global COVID-19 program of surveillance and offer a blueprint for building it.” A second aim is to promote global cooperation among key advisers and leaders in the G7, G20, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations.

“It’s an uphill struggle with superpower discords, global warming, cybersecurity, and pandemics all competing for finite attention,” Dr. Layne said. “However, what other options do we have for taming the so-called forever virus?”

Dr. Mokdad and Dr. Jetelina had no relevant disclosures. Dr. Durban disclosed she was the site primary investigator for the phase 3 AstraZeneca vaccine trial and an investigator on the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Israeli officials are reporting a 30% decrease in the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. At the same time, protection against hospitalization and severe illness remains robust.

The country’s Ministry of Health data cited high levels of circulating Delta variant and a relaxation of public health measures in early June for the drop in the vaccine’s prevention of “breakthrough” cases from 94% to 64% in recent weeks.

However, it is important to consider the findings in context, experts cautioned.

“My overall take on this that the vaccine is highly protective against the endpoints that matter – hospitalization and severe disease,” Anna Durbin, MD, told this news organization.

“I was very pleasantly surprised with the very high efficacy against hospitalization and severe disease – even against the Delta variant,” added Dr. Durbin, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Ali Mokdad, PhD, of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington, Seattle, agreed that the high degree of protection against severe outcomes should be the focus.

“That’s the whole idea. You want to defend against COVID-19. So even if someone is infected, they don’t end up in the hospital or in the morgue,” he said in an interview.

Compared with an earlier report, the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine against hospitalization fell slightly from 98% to 93%.

“For me, the fact that there is increased infection from the Delta variant after the vaccines such as Pfizer is of course a concern. But the positive news is that there is 93% prevention against severe disease or mortality,” added Dr. Mokdad, who is also professor of global health at University of Washington.

In addition, the absolute numbers remain relatively small. The Ministry of Health data show that, of the 63 Israelis hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide on July 3, 34 were in critical condition.
 

Unrealistic expectations?

People may have unrealistic expectations regarding breakthrough infections, Dr. Durbin said. “It seems that people are almost expecting ‘sterilizing immunity’ from these vaccines,” she said, explaining that would mean complete protection from infection.

Expectations may be high “because these vaccines have been so effective,” added Dr. Durbin, who is also affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

The higher the number of vaccinated residents, the more breakthrough cases will be reported, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology, human genetics, and environmental sciences at the University of Texas Science Center at Houston, wrote in her “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog.

This could apply to Israel, with an estimated 60% of adults in Israel fully vaccinated and 65% receiving at least one dose as of July 5, Our World in Data figures show.

How the updated figures were reported could be confusing, Dr. Jetelina said. Israel’s Health Minister Chezy Levy noted that “55% of the newly infected had been vaccinated” in a radio interview announcing the results.

“This language is important because it’s very different than ‘half of vaccinated people were infected,’ ” Dr. Jetelina noted.

Israel had a 7-day rolling average of 324 new confirmed COVID-19 cases as of July 5. Assuming 55% of these cases were among vaccinated people, that would mean 178 people experienced breakthrough infections.

In contrast, almost 6 million people in Israel are fully vaccinated. If 55% of them experienced breakthrough infections, the number would be much higher – more than 3 million.

Dr. Jetelina added that more details about the new Israel figures would be helpful, including the severity of COVID-19 among the vaccinated cases and breakdown of infections between adults and children.
 

Next steps

Israeli health officials are weighing the necessity of a third or booster dose of the vaccine. Whether they will reinstate public health measures to prevent spread of COVID-19 also remains unknown.

Going forward, Israel intends to study whether factors such as age, comorbidities, or time since immunization affect risk for breakthrough infections among people vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We want to prevent people from getting hospitalized, seriously ill, and of course, dying. It’s encouraging these vaccines will be able to have a high impact on those outcomes,” Dr. Durbin said. “We just need to get people vaccinated.”
 

A call for better global surveillance

A global surveillance system is a potential solution to track and respond to the growing threat of the Delta variant and other variants of concern, Scott P. Layne, MD, and Jeffery K. Taubenberger, MD, PhD, wrote in a July 7, 2021, editorial in Science Translational Medicine.

One goal, Dr. Layne said in an interview, is to highlight “the compelling need for a new global COVID-19 program of surveillance and offer a blueprint for building it.” A second aim is to promote global cooperation among key advisers and leaders in the G7, G20, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations.

“It’s an uphill struggle with superpower discords, global warming, cybersecurity, and pandemics all competing for finite attention,” Dr. Layne said. “However, what other options do we have for taming the so-called forever virus?”

Dr. Mokdad and Dr. Jetelina had no relevant disclosures. Dr. Durban disclosed she was the site primary investigator for the phase 3 AstraZeneca vaccine trial and an investigator on the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Israeli officials are reporting a 30% decrease in the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection and mild to moderate cases of COVID-19. At the same time, protection against hospitalization and severe illness remains robust.

The country’s Ministry of Health data cited high levels of circulating Delta variant and a relaxation of public health measures in early June for the drop in the vaccine’s prevention of “breakthrough” cases from 94% to 64% in recent weeks.

However, it is important to consider the findings in context, experts cautioned.

“My overall take on this that the vaccine is highly protective against the endpoints that matter – hospitalization and severe disease,” Anna Durbin, MD, told this news organization.

“I was very pleasantly surprised with the very high efficacy against hospitalization and severe disease – even against the Delta variant,” added Dr. Durbin, professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Ali Mokdad, PhD, of the Institute for Health Metrics at the University of Washington, Seattle, agreed that the high degree of protection against severe outcomes should be the focus.

“That’s the whole idea. You want to defend against COVID-19. So even if someone is infected, they don’t end up in the hospital or in the morgue,” he said in an interview.

Compared with an earlier report, the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine against hospitalization fell slightly from 98% to 93%.

“For me, the fact that there is increased infection from the Delta variant after the vaccines such as Pfizer is of course a concern. But the positive news is that there is 93% prevention against severe disease or mortality,” added Dr. Mokdad, who is also professor of global health at University of Washington.

In addition, the absolute numbers remain relatively small. The Ministry of Health data show that, of the 63 Israelis hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide on July 3, 34 were in critical condition.
 

Unrealistic expectations?

People may have unrealistic expectations regarding breakthrough infections, Dr. Durbin said. “It seems that people are almost expecting ‘sterilizing immunity’ from these vaccines,” she said, explaining that would mean complete protection from infection.

Expectations may be high “because these vaccines have been so effective,” added Dr. Durbin, who is also affiliated with the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

The higher the number of vaccinated residents, the more breakthrough cases will be reported, epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina, PhD, MPH, assistant professor of epidemiology, human genetics, and environmental sciences at the University of Texas Science Center at Houston, wrote in her “Your Local Epidemiologist” blog.

This could apply to Israel, with an estimated 60% of adults in Israel fully vaccinated and 65% receiving at least one dose as of July 5, Our World in Data figures show.

How the updated figures were reported could be confusing, Dr. Jetelina said. Israel’s Health Minister Chezy Levy noted that “55% of the newly infected had been vaccinated” in a radio interview announcing the results.

“This language is important because it’s very different than ‘half of vaccinated people were infected,’ ” Dr. Jetelina noted.

Israel had a 7-day rolling average of 324 new confirmed COVID-19 cases as of July 5. Assuming 55% of these cases were among vaccinated people, that would mean 178 people experienced breakthrough infections.

In contrast, almost 6 million people in Israel are fully vaccinated. If 55% of them experienced breakthrough infections, the number would be much higher – more than 3 million.

Dr. Jetelina added that more details about the new Israel figures would be helpful, including the severity of COVID-19 among the vaccinated cases and breakdown of infections between adults and children.
 

Next steps

Israeli health officials are weighing the necessity of a third or booster dose of the vaccine. Whether they will reinstate public health measures to prevent spread of COVID-19 also remains unknown.

Going forward, Israel intends to study whether factors such as age, comorbidities, or time since immunization affect risk for breakthrough infections among people vaccinated against COVID-19.

“We want to prevent people from getting hospitalized, seriously ill, and of course, dying. It’s encouraging these vaccines will be able to have a high impact on those outcomes,” Dr. Durbin said. “We just need to get people vaccinated.”
 

A call for better global surveillance

A global surveillance system is a potential solution to track and respond to the growing threat of the Delta variant and other variants of concern, Scott P. Layne, MD, and Jeffery K. Taubenberger, MD, PhD, wrote in a July 7, 2021, editorial in Science Translational Medicine.

One goal, Dr. Layne said in an interview, is to highlight “the compelling need for a new global COVID-19 program of surveillance and offer a blueprint for building it.” A second aim is to promote global cooperation among key advisers and leaders in the G7, G20, and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation nations.

“It’s an uphill struggle with superpower discords, global warming, cybersecurity, and pandemics all competing for finite attention,” Dr. Layne said. “However, what other options do we have for taming the so-called forever virus?”

Dr. Mokdad and Dr. Jetelina had no relevant disclosures. Dr. Durban disclosed she was the site primary investigator for the phase 3 AstraZeneca vaccine trial and an investigator on the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

With two sets of Clostridioides difficile recommendations being published within a month of each other, clinicians may find themselves trying to reconcile some of the conflicts between the two guidelines.

The first set, published June 1 by the American College of Gastroenterology, focuses on fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and the antibiotic vancomycin. The second, published June 24 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, drives a shift in treatment for initial episodes and short-term recurrence from vancomycin to fidaxomicin and, in some cases, adding on the monoclonal antibody bezlotoxumab, both made by Merck.

The updates are timely because researchers are now recognizing that C. difficile can colonize people without causing symptoms, David Johnson, MD, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology at the Eastern Virginia School of Medicine, Norfolk, said in an interview. He was not involved in writing either set of guidelines. “C. diff infection was a hospital-type infection, but we’re now seeing it in up to approximately 35%-50% of patients coming from the community, so it’s a big concern.”

Although the guidelines agree on which treatments are effective, the recommendations give the options a different emphasis.

Infectious disease specialist Stuart Johnson, MD, professor of medicine at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and a physician researcher at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital in Hines, Ill., is the first author in the IDSA/SHEA guidelines. He told this news organization that one reason the two sets of recommendations may diverge in emphasis for initial and recurrent C. difficile is that “everyone has a different way of looking at things.” Compared with infectious disease specialists like him, he said, gastroenterologists “for the most part see the world a little different and have their own bent on things.” 

The differences between the two guidelines relate to the first-line therapy for people with an initial or recurrent C. difficile episode. For an initial episode, the IDSA/SHEA authors conditionally recommend fidaxomicin as first preferred choice over vancomycin, with a moderate certainty of evidence. They noted that implementing this recommendation depends on “available resources,” a reference to the higher cost and difficulty of access associated with fidaxomicin.

Gastroenterologist Monika Fischer, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Indiana University, Indianapolis, is one of the authors of the ACG guidelines. She told this news organization that the cost difference between fidaxomicin and vancomycin is considerable and finds the choice to foreground fidaxomicin puzzling. “They did not reference any new data compared to those we have published.” Their recommendation may make sense in terms of efficacy, but real-world demands require attention to cost and reimbursement. “They themselves state this in their recommendations,” she noted. 

Dr. Fischer cited a ballpark of about $100 for a course of vancomycin, compared with about $3,000 for a course of fidaxomicin. The IDSA/SHEA guidelines do cite vancomycin as an acceptable alternative. According to Dr. Fischer, the ACG guidelines authors discussed fidaxomicin and concluded that there just wasn’t enough evidence to justify favoring this antibiotic over vancomycin, given the cost-benefit imbalance. The ACG guidelines call for a standard course of oral vancomycin for a first, nonsevere C. difficile episode, listing oral fidaxomicin or oral metronidazole as alternatives.

For a recurrence, the IDSA/SHEA authors also favor fidaxomicin in a conditional recommendation over a standard course of vancomycin. For multiple recurrences, a tapered and pulsed vancomycin regimen, vancomycin followed by rifaximin, or FMT are also options.

Dr. David Johnson said that these recommendations favoring fidaxomicin are “surprising,” and that lower costs of vancomycin outweigh the benefit of fidaxomicin, given more-or-less comparable data on cure rates.

In contrast, the ACG guidelines recommend that an initial recurrence be treated with a tapering dose of vancomycin, and call for FMT for patients who are eligible and who experience a second or more C. difficile recurrences after a round of pulsed vancomycin.

Dr. Stuart Johnson said that FMT carries its own special set of issues. “If you don’t have a donor program set up, you have to rely on a stool bank,” noting that one widely used stool bank “basically had to stop making the product because of the coronavirus.” Costs for FMT products have doubled in recent years, and because Food and Drug Administration approval of the therapy is lacking, insurance does not cover it.

Dr. David Johnson also said that he is not “terribly happy” about the ACG recommendation for vancomycin prophylaxis. “It may help, but it also can have off-target effects against colonic bacterial flora, so we would not agree with that recommendation.”

The IDSA/SHEA authors also conditionally recommend bezlotoxumab, on very low certainty of evidence, as a cotherapy with standard of care antibiotics for recurrence prevention in patients with an episode in the last 6 months, particularly for patients at high recurrence risk “where logistics is not an issue.” The FDA has warned that this monoclonal antibody should be used with great care in patients with heart failure and only when benefits outweigh risks.

The ACG guidelines conditionally recommend considering bezlotoxumab to prevent recurrence in patients with specific risk factors, including age over 65 years and severe presentation. The IDSA/SHEA guidelines expand this population to anyone with a recurrence within 6 months, Dr. Fischer pointed out.

The antibody treatment “does offer another 10% absolute reduction in recurrent C. diff disease,” said Dr. Stuart Johnson, which is a “helpful option and primarily for people who have had recurrent C. diff already.” In general, he said, for both drugs, “access is still something we have to work with.”

In a commentary on the ACG guidelines, Dr. David Johnson wrote that there is good evidence that bezlotoxumab prevents relapse, especially in patients with specific risk factors. The hitch is the $4,500 price tag for a 1,000-mg vial, with a recommended dose of 10 mg/kg.

Dr. Stuart Johnson agreed that the costs of the fidaxomicin and bezlotoxumab are important considerations. In addition, there are logistical issues with using the antibody because most hospitals don’t offer infusions, which pushes patients to infusion centers.

Regardless, he added, “we’re happy that we have new options.”

Dr. Fischer, Dr. Stuart Johnson, and Dr. David Johnson reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

With two sets of Clostridioides difficile recommendations being published within a month of each other, clinicians may find themselves trying to reconcile some of the conflicts between the two guidelines.

The first set, published June 1 by the American College of Gastroenterology, focuses on fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and the antibiotic vancomycin. The second, published June 24 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, drives a shift in treatment for initial episodes and short-term recurrence from vancomycin to fidaxomicin and, in some cases, adding on the monoclonal antibody bezlotoxumab, both made by Merck.

The updates are timely because researchers are now recognizing that C. difficile can colonize people without causing symptoms, David Johnson, MD, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology at the Eastern Virginia School of Medicine, Norfolk, said in an interview. He was not involved in writing either set of guidelines. “C. diff infection was a hospital-type infection, but we’re now seeing it in up to approximately 35%-50% of patients coming from the community, so it’s a big concern.”

Although the guidelines agree on which treatments are effective, the recommendations give the options a different emphasis.

Infectious disease specialist Stuart Johnson, MD, professor of medicine at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and a physician researcher at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital in Hines, Ill., is the first author in the IDSA/SHEA guidelines. He told this news organization that one reason the two sets of recommendations may diverge in emphasis for initial and recurrent C. difficile is that “everyone has a different way of looking at things.” Compared with infectious disease specialists like him, he said, gastroenterologists “for the most part see the world a little different and have their own bent on things.” 

The differences between the two guidelines relate to the first-line therapy for people with an initial or recurrent C. difficile episode. For an initial episode, the IDSA/SHEA authors conditionally recommend fidaxomicin as first preferred choice over vancomycin, with a moderate certainty of evidence. They noted that implementing this recommendation depends on “available resources,” a reference to the higher cost and difficulty of access associated with fidaxomicin.

Gastroenterologist Monika Fischer, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Indiana University, Indianapolis, is one of the authors of the ACG guidelines. She told this news organization that the cost difference between fidaxomicin and vancomycin is considerable and finds the choice to foreground fidaxomicin puzzling. “They did not reference any new data compared to those we have published.” Their recommendation may make sense in terms of efficacy, but real-world demands require attention to cost and reimbursement. “They themselves state this in their recommendations,” she noted. 

Dr. Fischer cited a ballpark of about $100 for a course of vancomycin, compared with about $3,000 for a course of fidaxomicin. The IDSA/SHEA guidelines do cite vancomycin as an acceptable alternative. According to Dr. Fischer, the ACG guidelines authors discussed fidaxomicin and concluded that there just wasn’t enough evidence to justify favoring this antibiotic over vancomycin, given the cost-benefit imbalance. The ACG guidelines call for a standard course of oral vancomycin for a first, nonsevere C. difficile episode, listing oral fidaxomicin or oral metronidazole as alternatives.

For a recurrence, the IDSA/SHEA authors also favor fidaxomicin in a conditional recommendation over a standard course of vancomycin. For multiple recurrences, a tapered and pulsed vancomycin regimen, vancomycin followed by rifaximin, or FMT are also options.

Dr. David Johnson said that these recommendations favoring fidaxomicin are “surprising,” and that lower costs of vancomycin outweigh the benefit of fidaxomicin, given more-or-less comparable data on cure rates.

In contrast, the ACG guidelines recommend that an initial recurrence be treated with a tapering dose of vancomycin, and call for FMT for patients who are eligible and who experience a second or more C. difficile recurrences after a round of pulsed vancomycin.

Dr. Stuart Johnson said that FMT carries its own special set of issues. “If you don’t have a donor program set up, you have to rely on a stool bank,” noting that one widely used stool bank “basically had to stop making the product because of the coronavirus.” Costs for FMT products have doubled in recent years, and because Food and Drug Administration approval of the therapy is lacking, insurance does not cover it.

Dr. David Johnson also said that he is not “terribly happy” about the ACG recommendation for vancomycin prophylaxis. “It may help, but it also can have off-target effects against colonic bacterial flora, so we would not agree with that recommendation.”

The IDSA/SHEA authors also conditionally recommend bezlotoxumab, on very low certainty of evidence, as a cotherapy with standard of care antibiotics for recurrence prevention in patients with an episode in the last 6 months, particularly for patients at high recurrence risk “where logistics is not an issue.” The FDA has warned that this monoclonal antibody should be used with great care in patients with heart failure and only when benefits outweigh risks.

The ACG guidelines conditionally recommend considering bezlotoxumab to prevent recurrence in patients with specific risk factors, including age over 65 years and severe presentation. The IDSA/SHEA guidelines expand this population to anyone with a recurrence within 6 months, Dr. Fischer pointed out.

The antibody treatment “does offer another 10% absolute reduction in recurrent C. diff disease,” said Dr. Stuart Johnson, which is a “helpful option and primarily for people who have had recurrent C. diff already.” In general, he said, for both drugs, “access is still something we have to work with.”

In a commentary on the ACG guidelines, Dr. David Johnson wrote that there is good evidence that bezlotoxumab prevents relapse, especially in patients with specific risk factors. The hitch is the $4,500 price tag for a 1,000-mg vial, with a recommended dose of 10 mg/kg.

Dr. Stuart Johnson agreed that the costs of the fidaxomicin and bezlotoxumab are important considerations. In addition, there are logistical issues with using the antibody because most hospitals don’t offer infusions, which pushes patients to infusion centers.

Regardless, he added, “we’re happy that we have new options.”

Dr. Fischer, Dr. Stuart Johnson, and Dr. David Johnson reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

With two sets of Clostridioides difficile recommendations being published within a month of each other, clinicians may find themselves trying to reconcile some of the conflicts between the two guidelines.

The first set, published June 1 by the American College of Gastroenterology, focuses on fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) and the antibiotic vancomycin. The second, published June 24 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, drives a shift in treatment for initial episodes and short-term recurrence from vancomycin to fidaxomicin and, in some cases, adding on the monoclonal antibody bezlotoxumab, both made by Merck.

The updates are timely because researchers are now recognizing that C. difficile can colonize people without causing symptoms, David Johnson, MD, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology at the Eastern Virginia School of Medicine, Norfolk, said in an interview. He was not involved in writing either set of guidelines. “C. diff infection was a hospital-type infection, but we’re now seeing it in up to approximately 35%-50% of patients coming from the community, so it’s a big concern.”

Although the guidelines agree on which treatments are effective, the recommendations give the options a different emphasis.

Infectious disease specialist Stuart Johnson, MD, professor of medicine at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., and a physician researcher at Edward Hines Jr. Veterans Affairs Hospital in Hines, Ill., is the first author in the IDSA/SHEA guidelines. He told this news organization that one reason the two sets of recommendations may diverge in emphasis for initial and recurrent C. difficile is that “everyone has a different way of looking at things.” Compared with infectious disease specialists like him, he said, gastroenterologists “for the most part see the world a little different and have their own bent on things.” 

The differences between the two guidelines relate to the first-line therapy for people with an initial or recurrent C. difficile episode. For an initial episode, the IDSA/SHEA authors conditionally recommend fidaxomicin as first preferred choice over vancomycin, with a moderate certainty of evidence. They noted that implementing this recommendation depends on “available resources,” a reference to the higher cost and difficulty of access associated with fidaxomicin.

Gastroenterologist Monika Fischer, MD, an associate professor of medicine at Indiana University, Indianapolis, is one of the authors of the ACG guidelines. She told this news organization that the cost difference between fidaxomicin and vancomycin is considerable and finds the choice to foreground fidaxomicin puzzling. “They did not reference any new data compared to those we have published.” Their recommendation may make sense in terms of efficacy, but real-world demands require attention to cost and reimbursement. “They themselves state this in their recommendations,” she noted. 

Dr. Fischer cited a ballpark of about $100 for a course of vancomycin, compared with about $3,000 for a course of fidaxomicin. The IDSA/SHEA guidelines do cite vancomycin as an acceptable alternative. According to Dr. Fischer, the ACG guidelines authors discussed fidaxomicin and concluded that there just wasn’t enough evidence to justify favoring this antibiotic over vancomycin, given the cost-benefit imbalance. The ACG guidelines call for a standard course of oral vancomycin for a first, nonsevere C. difficile episode, listing oral fidaxomicin or oral metronidazole as alternatives.

For a recurrence, the IDSA/SHEA authors also favor fidaxomicin in a conditional recommendation over a standard course of vancomycin. For multiple recurrences, a tapered and pulsed vancomycin regimen, vancomycin followed by rifaximin, or FMT are also options.

Dr. David Johnson said that these recommendations favoring fidaxomicin are “surprising,” and that lower costs of vancomycin outweigh the benefit of fidaxomicin, given more-or-less comparable data on cure rates.

In contrast, the ACG guidelines recommend that an initial recurrence be treated with a tapering dose of vancomycin, and call for FMT for patients who are eligible and who experience a second or more C. difficile recurrences after a round of pulsed vancomycin.

Dr. Stuart Johnson said that FMT carries its own special set of issues. “If you don’t have a donor program set up, you have to rely on a stool bank,” noting that one widely used stool bank “basically had to stop making the product because of the coronavirus.” Costs for FMT products have doubled in recent years, and because Food and Drug Administration approval of the therapy is lacking, insurance does not cover it.

Dr. David Johnson also said that he is not “terribly happy” about the ACG recommendation for vancomycin prophylaxis. “It may help, but it also can have off-target effects against colonic bacterial flora, so we would not agree with that recommendation.”

The IDSA/SHEA authors also conditionally recommend bezlotoxumab, on very low certainty of evidence, as a cotherapy with standard of care antibiotics for recurrence prevention in patients with an episode in the last 6 months, particularly for patients at high recurrence risk “where logistics is not an issue.” The FDA has warned that this monoclonal antibody should be used with great care in patients with heart failure and only when benefits outweigh risks.

The ACG guidelines conditionally recommend considering bezlotoxumab to prevent recurrence in patients with specific risk factors, including age over 65 years and severe presentation. The IDSA/SHEA guidelines expand this population to anyone with a recurrence within 6 months, Dr. Fischer pointed out.

The antibody treatment “does offer another 10% absolute reduction in recurrent C. diff disease,” said Dr. Stuart Johnson, which is a “helpful option and primarily for people who have had recurrent C. diff already.” In general, he said, for both drugs, “access is still something we have to work with.”

In a commentary on the ACG guidelines, Dr. David Johnson wrote that there is good evidence that bezlotoxumab prevents relapse, especially in patients with specific risk factors. The hitch is the $4,500 price tag for a 1,000-mg vial, with a recommended dose of 10 mg/kg.

Dr. Stuart Johnson agreed that the costs of the fidaxomicin and bezlotoxumab are important considerations. In addition, there are logistical issues with using the antibody because most hospitals don’t offer infusions, which pushes patients to infusion centers.

Regardless, he added, “we’re happy that we have new options.”

Dr. Fischer, Dr. Stuart Johnson, and Dr. David Johnson reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Vineet Arora, MD, MHM, has been appointed dean of medical education for the University of Chicago’s biological sciences division. She began her assignment on July 1, 2021, taking over for the retiring Halina Brukner, MD, a 36-year veteran in medicine.

Dr. Arora will take charge of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education for the University of Chicago’s medical education program, with a focus on simulation-based training. She also will represent the medical school within the university proper, as well as with outside organizations such as the Association of American Colleges, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Dr. Arora has been a faculty member at Chicago Medicine since 2005. She is a professor of medicine, assistant dean for scholarship and discovery, associate chief medical officer for clinical learning, and Master of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. Dr. Arora is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is on the board of directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
 

Zeshan Anwar, MD, SFHM, was named new chief of the section of inpatient internal medicine and director of hospitalist services at Reading Hospital–Tower Health (West Reading, Pa.) in January 2021. He provides support to hospitalists, nurses, pharmacists, care managers, support service professionals and others.

Previously, Dr. Anwar worked as vice chair of the department of medicine and medical director of the hospitalist program at Evangelical Community Hospital (Lewisburg, Pa.). He has a background in education, having taught as an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (Scranton, Pa.) since 2014.
 

Katherine Hochman, MD, FHM, has been appointed the first director of the newly established division of hospital medicine at NYU Langone Health in New York. Dr. Hochman is the founder of NYU Langone’s hospitalist program (2004), and the new division was established this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Hochman will be charged with expanding on the hospitalist program, analyzing best practices, and educating residents, clinicians, and other health care professionals. She plans to emphasize mentorship and creating career pathways for the program’s students.

Daniel Asher, MD, recently was named a Top Hospitalist by Continental Who’s Who. Dr. Asher is a night hospitalist at Piedmont Columbus Regional (Columbus, Ga.), where he works with residents and consults with other physicians regarding patients at the facility.

Dr. Asher has spent his entire post–medical school career at Piedmont, serving as a family medicine resident from 2018 to 2020. He was named chief resident in 2019-20, and has continued his efforts at the hospital since then, including front-line work with COVID-19 patients.
 

Nicholas O’Dell, MD, has been selected as medical director of the Murray Medical Associates hospitalist program at Murray-Calloway County Hospital (Murray, Ky.). Dr. O’Dell, who has been a hospitalist at the facility since 2014, has served as chief medical officer at the hospital since February 2020. He will continue in his role as CMO, but will no longer see clinical patients.

Brad Tate, MD, has been elevated to associate chief medical officer at Children’s Medical Center Plano (Texas), starting in the new leadership role in June 2021.

Dr. Tate has been affiliated with Children’s Health since 2010, when he was a hospitalist in Plano, as well as medical director of the Children’s Health Medical Group Hospitalist Group. He advanced that program from Plano to the network’s Dallas campus.
 

Touchette Regional Hospital (Centreville, Ill.) has contracted with MEDS Emergency Physician Staffing and Management (O’Fallon, Ill.) to provide inpatient physician and nurse practitioner staffing. The move is an extension of the existing relationship between the two entities, as MEDS has provided emergency room staffing services at Touchette since 2019.

Vineet Arora, MD, MHM, has been appointed dean of medical education for the University of Chicago’s biological sciences division. She began her assignment on July 1, 2021, taking over for the retiring Halina Brukner, MD, a 36-year veteran in medicine.

Dr. Arora will take charge of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education for the University of Chicago’s medical education program, with a focus on simulation-based training. She also will represent the medical school within the university proper, as well as with outside organizations such as the Association of American Colleges, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Dr. Arora has been a faculty member at Chicago Medicine since 2005. She is a professor of medicine, assistant dean for scholarship and discovery, associate chief medical officer for clinical learning, and Master of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. Dr. Arora is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is on the board of directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
 

Zeshan Anwar, MD, SFHM, was named new chief of the section of inpatient internal medicine and director of hospitalist services at Reading Hospital–Tower Health (West Reading, Pa.) in January 2021. He provides support to hospitalists, nurses, pharmacists, care managers, support service professionals and others.

Previously, Dr. Anwar worked as vice chair of the department of medicine and medical director of the hospitalist program at Evangelical Community Hospital (Lewisburg, Pa.). He has a background in education, having taught as an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (Scranton, Pa.) since 2014.
 

Katherine Hochman, MD, FHM, has been appointed the first director of the newly established division of hospital medicine at NYU Langone Health in New York. Dr. Hochman is the founder of NYU Langone’s hospitalist program (2004), and the new division was established this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Hochman will be charged with expanding on the hospitalist program, analyzing best practices, and educating residents, clinicians, and other health care professionals. She plans to emphasize mentorship and creating career pathways for the program’s students.

Daniel Asher, MD, recently was named a Top Hospitalist by Continental Who’s Who. Dr. Asher is a night hospitalist at Piedmont Columbus Regional (Columbus, Ga.), where he works with residents and consults with other physicians regarding patients at the facility.

Dr. Asher has spent his entire post–medical school career at Piedmont, serving as a family medicine resident from 2018 to 2020. He was named chief resident in 2019-20, and has continued his efforts at the hospital since then, including front-line work with COVID-19 patients.
 

Nicholas O’Dell, MD, has been selected as medical director of the Murray Medical Associates hospitalist program at Murray-Calloway County Hospital (Murray, Ky.). Dr. O’Dell, who has been a hospitalist at the facility since 2014, has served as chief medical officer at the hospital since February 2020. He will continue in his role as CMO, but will no longer see clinical patients.

Brad Tate, MD, has been elevated to associate chief medical officer at Children’s Medical Center Plano (Texas), starting in the new leadership role in June 2021.

Dr. Tate has been affiliated with Children’s Health since 2010, when he was a hospitalist in Plano, as well as medical director of the Children’s Health Medical Group Hospitalist Group. He advanced that program from Plano to the network’s Dallas campus.
 

Touchette Regional Hospital (Centreville, Ill.) has contracted with MEDS Emergency Physician Staffing and Management (O’Fallon, Ill.) to provide inpatient physician and nurse practitioner staffing. The move is an extension of the existing relationship between the two entities, as MEDS has provided emergency room staffing services at Touchette since 2019.

Vineet Arora, MD, MHM, has been appointed dean of medical education for the University of Chicago’s biological sciences division. She began her assignment on July 1, 2021, taking over for the retiring Halina Brukner, MD, a 36-year veteran in medicine.

Dr. Arora will take charge of undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education for the University of Chicago’s medical education program, with a focus on simulation-based training. She also will represent the medical school within the university proper, as well as with outside organizations such as the Association of American Colleges, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

Dr. Arora has been a faculty member at Chicago Medicine since 2005. She is a professor of medicine, assistant dean for scholarship and discovery, associate chief medical officer for clinical learning, and Master of the Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators. Dr. Arora is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is on the board of directors for the American Board of Internal Medicine.
 

Zeshan Anwar, MD, SFHM, was named new chief of the section of inpatient internal medicine and director of hospitalist services at Reading Hospital–Tower Health (West Reading, Pa.) in January 2021. He provides support to hospitalists, nurses, pharmacists, care managers, support service professionals and others.

Previously, Dr. Anwar worked as vice chair of the department of medicine and medical director of the hospitalist program at Evangelical Community Hospital (Lewisburg, Pa.). He has a background in education, having taught as an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine (Scranton, Pa.) since 2014.
 

Katherine Hochman, MD, FHM, has been appointed the first director of the newly established division of hospital medicine at NYU Langone Health in New York. Dr. Hochman is the founder of NYU Langone’s hospitalist program (2004), and the new division was established this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Hochman will be charged with expanding on the hospitalist program, analyzing best practices, and educating residents, clinicians, and other health care professionals. She plans to emphasize mentorship and creating career pathways for the program’s students.

Daniel Asher, MD, recently was named a Top Hospitalist by Continental Who’s Who. Dr. Asher is a night hospitalist at Piedmont Columbus Regional (Columbus, Ga.), where he works with residents and consults with other physicians regarding patients at the facility.

Dr. Asher has spent his entire post–medical school career at Piedmont, serving as a family medicine resident from 2018 to 2020. He was named chief resident in 2019-20, and has continued his efforts at the hospital since then, including front-line work with COVID-19 patients.
 

Nicholas O’Dell, MD, has been selected as medical director of the Murray Medical Associates hospitalist program at Murray-Calloway County Hospital (Murray, Ky.). Dr. O’Dell, who has been a hospitalist at the facility since 2014, has served as chief medical officer at the hospital since February 2020. He will continue in his role as CMO, but will no longer see clinical patients.

Brad Tate, MD, has been elevated to associate chief medical officer at Children’s Medical Center Plano (Texas), starting in the new leadership role in June 2021.

Dr. Tate has been affiliated with Children’s Health since 2010, when he was a hospitalist in Plano, as well as medical director of the Children’s Health Medical Group Hospitalist Group. He advanced that program from Plano to the network’s Dallas campus.
 

Touchette Regional Hospital (Centreville, Ill.) has contracted with MEDS Emergency Physician Staffing and Management (O’Fallon, Ill.) to provide inpatient physician and nurse practitioner staffing. The move is an extension of the existing relationship between the two entities, as MEDS has provided emergency room staffing services at Touchette since 2019.

Most of us are familiar with the good news: In recent weeks, rates of COVID-19 infection and death have plummeted in California, falling to levels not seen since the early days of the pandemic. The average number of new COVID infections reported each day dropped by an astounding 98% from December to June, according to figures from the California Department of Public Health.

And bolstering that trend, nearly 70% of Californians 12 and older are partially or fully vaccinated.

But state health officials are still reporting nearly 1,000 new COVID cases and more than 2 dozen COVID-related deaths per day. So, where does COVID continue to simmer in California? And why?

An analysis of state data shows some clear patterns at this stage of the pandemic: As vaccination rates rose across the state, the overall numbers of cases and deaths plunged. But within that broader trend are pronounced regional discrepancies. Counties with relatively low rates of vaccination reported much higher rates of COVID infections and deaths in May and June than counties with high vaccination rates.

There were about 182 new COVID infections per 100,000 residents from May 1 to June 18 in California counties where fewer than half of residents age 12 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, CDPH data show. By comparison, there were about 102 COVID infections per 100,000 residents in counties where more than two-thirds of residents 12 and up had gotten at least one dose.

“If you live in an area that has low vaccination rates and you have a few people who start to develop a disease, it’s going to spread quickly among those who aren’t vaccinated,” said Rita Burke, PhD, assistant professor of clinical preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Burke noted that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus now circulating in California amplifies the threat of serious outbreaks in areas with low vaccination rates.

The regional discrepancies in COVID-related deaths are also striking. There were about 3.2 COVID-related deaths per 100,000 residents from May 1 to June 18 in counties where first-dose vaccination rates were below 50%. That is almost twice as high as the death rate in counties where more than two-thirds of residents had at least one dose.

While the pattern is clear, there are exceptions. A couple of sparsely populated mountain counties with low vaccination rates – Trinity and Mariposa – also had relatively low rates of new infections in May and June. Likewise, a few suburban counties with high vaccination rates – among them Sonoma and Contra Costa – had relatively high rates of new infections.

“There are three things that are going on,” said George Rutherford, MD, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. “One is the vaccine – very important, but not the whole story. One is naturally acquired immunity, which is huge in some places.” A third, he said, is people still managing to evade infection, whether by taking precautions or simply by living in areas with few infections.

As of June 18, about 67% of Californians age 12 and older had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, according to the state health department. But that masks a wide variance among the state’s 58 counties. In 14 counties, for example, fewer than half of residents 12 and older had received a shot. In 19 counties, more than two-thirds had.

The counties with low vaccination rates are largely rugged and rural. Nearly all are politically conservative. In January, about 6% of the state’s COVID infections were in the 23 counties where a majority of voters cast ballots for President Donald Trump in November. By May and June, that figure had risen to 11%.

While surveys indicate politics plays a role in vaccine hesitancy in many communities, access also remains an issue in many of California’s rural outposts. It can be hard, or at least inconvenient, for people who live far from the nearest medical facility to get two shots a month apart.

“If you have to drive 30 minutes out to the nearest vaccination site, you may not be as inclined to do that versus if it’s 5 minutes from your house,” Dr. Burke said. “And so we, the public health community, recognize that and have really made a concerted effort in order to eliminate or alleviate that access issue.”

Many of the counties with low vaccination rates had relatively low infection rates in the early months of the pandemic, largely thanks to their remoteness. But, as COVID reaches those communities, that lack of prior exposure and acquired immunity magnifies their vulnerability, Dr. Rutherford said. “We’re going to see cases where people are unvaccinated or where there’s not been a big background level of immunity already.”

As it becomes clearer that new infections will be disproportionately concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates, state officials are working to persuade hesitant Californians to get a vaccine, even introducing a vaccine lottery.

But most persuasive are friends and family members who can help counter the disinformation rampant in some communities, said Lorena Garcia, DrPH, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. Belittling people for their hesitancy or getting into a political argument likely won’t work.

When talking to her own skeptical relatives, Dr. Garcia avoided politics: “I just explained any questions that they had.”

“Vaccines are a good part of our life,” she said. “It’s something that we’ve done since we were babies. So, it’s just something we’re going to do again.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Most of us are familiar with the good news: In recent weeks, rates of COVID-19 infection and death have plummeted in California, falling to levels not seen since the early days of the pandemic. The average number of new COVID infections reported each day dropped by an astounding 98% from December to June, according to figures from the California Department of Public Health.

And bolstering that trend, nearly 70% of Californians 12 and older are partially or fully vaccinated.

But state health officials are still reporting nearly 1,000 new COVID cases and more than 2 dozen COVID-related deaths per day. So, where does COVID continue to simmer in California? And why?

An analysis of state data shows some clear patterns at this stage of the pandemic: As vaccination rates rose across the state, the overall numbers of cases and deaths plunged. But within that broader trend are pronounced regional discrepancies. Counties with relatively low rates of vaccination reported much higher rates of COVID infections and deaths in May and June than counties with high vaccination rates.

There were about 182 new COVID infections per 100,000 residents from May 1 to June 18 in California counties where fewer than half of residents age 12 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, CDPH data show. By comparison, there were about 102 COVID infections per 100,000 residents in counties where more than two-thirds of residents 12 and up had gotten at least one dose.

“If you live in an area that has low vaccination rates and you have a few people who start to develop a disease, it’s going to spread quickly among those who aren’t vaccinated,” said Rita Burke, PhD, assistant professor of clinical preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Burke noted that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus now circulating in California amplifies the threat of serious outbreaks in areas with low vaccination rates.

The regional discrepancies in COVID-related deaths are also striking. There were about 3.2 COVID-related deaths per 100,000 residents from May 1 to June 18 in counties where first-dose vaccination rates were below 50%. That is almost twice as high as the death rate in counties where more than two-thirds of residents had at least one dose.

While the pattern is clear, there are exceptions. A couple of sparsely populated mountain counties with low vaccination rates – Trinity and Mariposa – also had relatively low rates of new infections in May and June. Likewise, a few suburban counties with high vaccination rates – among them Sonoma and Contra Costa – had relatively high rates of new infections.

“There are three things that are going on,” said George Rutherford, MD, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. “One is the vaccine – very important, but not the whole story. One is naturally acquired immunity, which is huge in some places.” A third, he said, is people still managing to evade infection, whether by taking precautions or simply by living in areas with few infections.

As of June 18, about 67% of Californians age 12 and older had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, according to the state health department. But that masks a wide variance among the state’s 58 counties. In 14 counties, for example, fewer than half of residents 12 and older had received a shot. In 19 counties, more than two-thirds had.

The counties with low vaccination rates are largely rugged and rural. Nearly all are politically conservative. In January, about 6% of the state’s COVID infections were in the 23 counties where a majority of voters cast ballots for President Donald Trump in November. By May and June, that figure had risen to 11%.

While surveys indicate politics plays a role in vaccine hesitancy in many communities, access also remains an issue in many of California’s rural outposts. It can be hard, or at least inconvenient, for people who live far from the nearest medical facility to get two shots a month apart.

“If you have to drive 30 minutes out to the nearest vaccination site, you may not be as inclined to do that versus if it’s 5 minutes from your house,” Dr. Burke said. “And so we, the public health community, recognize that and have really made a concerted effort in order to eliminate or alleviate that access issue.”

Many of the counties with low vaccination rates had relatively low infection rates in the early months of the pandemic, largely thanks to their remoteness. But, as COVID reaches those communities, that lack of prior exposure and acquired immunity magnifies their vulnerability, Dr. Rutherford said. “We’re going to see cases where people are unvaccinated or where there’s not been a big background level of immunity already.”

As it becomes clearer that new infections will be disproportionately concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates, state officials are working to persuade hesitant Californians to get a vaccine, even introducing a vaccine lottery.

But most persuasive are friends and family members who can help counter the disinformation rampant in some communities, said Lorena Garcia, DrPH, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. Belittling people for their hesitancy or getting into a political argument likely won’t work.

When talking to her own skeptical relatives, Dr. Garcia avoided politics: “I just explained any questions that they had.”

“Vaccines are a good part of our life,” she said. “It’s something that we’ve done since we were babies. So, it’s just something we’re going to do again.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

Most of us are familiar with the good news: In recent weeks, rates of COVID-19 infection and death have plummeted in California, falling to levels not seen since the early days of the pandemic. The average number of new COVID infections reported each day dropped by an astounding 98% from December to June, according to figures from the California Department of Public Health.

And bolstering that trend, nearly 70% of Californians 12 and older are partially or fully vaccinated.

But state health officials are still reporting nearly 1,000 new COVID cases and more than 2 dozen COVID-related deaths per day. So, where does COVID continue to simmer in California? And why?

An analysis of state data shows some clear patterns at this stage of the pandemic: As vaccination rates rose across the state, the overall numbers of cases and deaths plunged. But within that broader trend are pronounced regional discrepancies. Counties with relatively low rates of vaccination reported much higher rates of COVID infections and deaths in May and June than counties with high vaccination rates.

There were about 182 new COVID infections per 100,000 residents from May 1 to June 18 in California counties where fewer than half of residents age 12 and older had received at least one vaccine dose, CDPH data show. By comparison, there were about 102 COVID infections per 100,000 residents in counties where more than two-thirds of residents 12 and up had gotten at least one dose.

“If you live in an area that has low vaccination rates and you have a few people who start to develop a disease, it’s going to spread quickly among those who aren’t vaccinated,” said Rita Burke, PhD, assistant professor of clinical preventive medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Dr. Burke noted that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus now circulating in California amplifies the threat of serious outbreaks in areas with low vaccination rates.

The regional discrepancies in COVID-related deaths are also striking. There were about 3.2 COVID-related deaths per 100,000 residents from May 1 to June 18 in counties where first-dose vaccination rates were below 50%. That is almost twice as high as the death rate in counties where more than two-thirds of residents had at least one dose.

While the pattern is clear, there are exceptions. A couple of sparsely populated mountain counties with low vaccination rates – Trinity and Mariposa – also had relatively low rates of new infections in May and June. Likewise, a few suburban counties with high vaccination rates – among them Sonoma and Contra Costa – had relatively high rates of new infections.

“There are three things that are going on,” said George Rutherford, MD, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco. “One is the vaccine – very important, but not the whole story. One is naturally acquired immunity, which is huge in some places.” A third, he said, is people still managing to evade infection, whether by taking precautions or simply by living in areas with few infections.

As of June 18, about 67% of Californians age 12 and older had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, according to the state health department. But that masks a wide variance among the state’s 58 counties. In 14 counties, for example, fewer than half of residents 12 and older had received a shot. In 19 counties, more than two-thirds had.

The counties with low vaccination rates are largely rugged and rural. Nearly all are politically conservative. In January, about 6% of the state’s COVID infections were in the 23 counties where a majority of voters cast ballots for President Donald Trump in November. By May and June, that figure had risen to 11%.

While surveys indicate politics plays a role in vaccine hesitancy in many communities, access also remains an issue in many of California’s rural outposts. It can be hard, or at least inconvenient, for people who live far from the nearest medical facility to get two shots a month apart.

“If you have to drive 30 minutes out to the nearest vaccination site, you may not be as inclined to do that versus if it’s 5 minutes from your house,” Dr. Burke said. “And so we, the public health community, recognize that and have really made a concerted effort in order to eliminate or alleviate that access issue.”

Many of the counties with low vaccination rates had relatively low infection rates in the early months of the pandemic, largely thanks to their remoteness. But, as COVID reaches those communities, that lack of prior exposure and acquired immunity magnifies their vulnerability, Dr. Rutherford said. “We’re going to see cases where people are unvaccinated or where there’s not been a big background level of immunity already.”

As it becomes clearer that new infections will be disproportionately concentrated in areas with low vaccination rates, state officials are working to persuade hesitant Californians to get a vaccine, even introducing a vaccine lottery.

But most persuasive are friends and family members who can help counter the disinformation rampant in some communities, said Lorena Garcia, DrPH, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Davis. Belittling people for their hesitancy or getting into a political argument likely won’t work.

When talking to her own skeptical relatives, Dr. Garcia avoided politics: “I just explained any questions that they had.”

“Vaccines are a good part of our life,” she said. “It’s something that we’ve done since we were babies. So, it’s just something we’re going to do again.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

The contagious Delta variant has become the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States, now accounting for more than 51% of COVID-19 cases in the country, according to new CDC data to updated on July 6.

The variant, also known as B.1.617.2 and first detected in India, makes up more than 80% of new cases in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Delta also accounts for 74% of cases in Western states such as Colorado and Utah and 59% of cases in Southern states such as Louisiana and Texas.

Communities with low vaccination rates are bearing the brunt of new Delta cases. Public health experts are urging those who are unvaccinated to get a shot to protect themselves and their communities against future surges.

“Right now we have two Americas: the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” Paul Offit, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told NPR.

“We’re feeling pretty good right now because it’s the summer,” he said. “But come winter, if we still have a significant percentage of the population that is unvaccinated, we’re going to see this virus surge again.”

So far, COVID-19 vaccines appear to protect people against the Delta variant. But health officials are watching other variants that could evade vaccine protection and lead to major outbreaks this year.

For instance, certain mutations in the Epsilon variant may allow it to evade the immunity from past infections and current COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study published July 1 in the Science. The variant, also known as B.1.427/B.1.429 and first identified in California, has now been reported in 34 countries and could become widespread in the United States.

Researchers from the University of Washington and clinics in Switzerland tested the variant in blood samples from vaccinated people, as well as those who were previously infected with COVID-19. They found that the neutralizing power was reduced by about 2 to 3½ times.

The research team also visualized the variant and found that three mutations on Epsilon’s spike protein allow the virus to escape certain antibodies and lower the strength of vaccines.

Epsilon “relies on an indirect and unusual neutralization-escape strategy,” they wrote, saying that understanding these escape routes could help scientists track new variants, curb the pandemic, and create booster shots.

In Australia, for instance, public health officials have detected the Lambda variant, which could be more infectious than the Delta variant and resistant to vaccines, according to Sky News.

A hotel quarantine program in New South Wales identified the variant in someone who had returned from travel, the news outlet reported. Also known as C.37, Lambda was named a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization in June.

Lambda was first identified in Peru in December and now accounts for more than 80% of the country’s cases, according to the Financial Times. It has since been found in 27 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

The variant has seven mutations on the spike protein that allow the virus to infect human cells, the news outlet reported. One mutation is like another mutation on the Delta variant, which could make it more contagious.

In a preprint study published July 1, researchers at the University of Chile at Santiago found that Lambda is better able to escape antibodies created by the CoronaVac vaccine made by Sinovac in China. In the paper, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, researchers tested blood samples from local health care workers in Santiago who had received two doses of the vaccine.

“Our data revealed that the spike protein ... carries mutations conferring increased infectivity and the ability to escape from neutralizing antibodies,” they wrote.

The research team urged countries to continue testing for contagious variants, even in areas with high vaccination rates, so scientists can identify mutations quickly and analyze whether new variants can escape vaccines.

“The world has to get its act together,” Saad Omer, PhD, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, told NPR. “Otherwise yet another, potentially more dangerous, variant could emerge.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The contagious Delta variant has become the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States, now accounting for more than 51% of COVID-19 cases in the country, according to new CDC data to updated on July 6.

The variant, also known as B.1.617.2 and first detected in India, makes up more than 80% of new cases in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Delta also accounts for 74% of cases in Western states such as Colorado and Utah and 59% of cases in Southern states such as Louisiana and Texas.

Communities with low vaccination rates are bearing the brunt of new Delta cases. Public health experts are urging those who are unvaccinated to get a shot to protect themselves and their communities against future surges.

“Right now we have two Americas: the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” Paul Offit, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told NPR.

“We’re feeling pretty good right now because it’s the summer,” he said. “But come winter, if we still have a significant percentage of the population that is unvaccinated, we’re going to see this virus surge again.”

So far, COVID-19 vaccines appear to protect people against the Delta variant. But health officials are watching other variants that could evade vaccine protection and lead to major outbreaks this year.

For instance, certain mutations in the Epsilon variant may allow it to evade the immunity from past infections and current COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study published July 1 in the Science. The variant, also known as B.1.427/B.1.429 and first identified in California, has now been reported in 34 countries and could become widespread in the United States.

Researchers from the University of Washington and clinics in Switzerland tested the variant in blood samples from vaccinated people, as well as those who were previously infected with COVID-19. They found that the neutralizing power was reduced by about 2 to 3½ times.

The research team also visualized the variant and found that three mutations on Epsilon’s spike protein allow the virus to escape certain antibodies and lower the strength of vaccines.

Epsilon “relies on an indirect and unusual neutralization-escape strategy,” they wrote, saying that understanding these escape routes could help scientists track new variants, curb the pandemic, and create booster shots.

In Australia, for instance, public health officials have detected the Lambda variant, which could be more infectious than the Delta variant and resistant to vaccines, according to Sky News.

A hotel quarantine program in New South Wales identified the variant in someone who had returned from travel, the news outlet reported. Also known as C.37, Lambda was named a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization in June.

Lambda was first identified in Peru in December and now accounts for more than 80% of the country’s cases, according to the Financial Times. It has since been found in 27 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

The variant has seven mutations on the spike protein that allow the virus to infect human cells, the news outlet reported. One mutation is like another mutation on the Delta variant, which could make it more contagious.

In a preprint study published July 1, researchers at the University of Chile at Santiago found that Lambda is better able to escape antibodies created by the CoronaVac vaccine made by Sinovac in China. In the paper, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, researchers tested blood samples from local health care workers in Santiago who had received two doses of the vaccine.

“Our data revealed that the spike protein ... carries mutations conferring increased infectivity and the ability to escape from neutralizing antibodies,” they wrote.

The research team urged countries to continue testing for contagious variants, even in areas with high vaccination rates, so scientists can identify mutations quickly and analyze whether new variants can escape vaccines.

“The world has to get its act together,” Saad Omer, PhD, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, told NPR. “Otherwise yet another, potentially more dangerous, variant could emerge.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The contagious Delta variant has become the dominant form of the coronavirus in the United States, now accounting for more than 51% of COVID-19 cases in the country, according to new CDC data to updated on July 6.

The variant, also known as B.1.617.2 and first detected in India, makes up more than 80% of new cases in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Delta also accounts for 74% of cases in Western states such as Colorado and Utah and 59% of cases in Southern states such as Louisiana and Texas.

Communities with low vaccination rates are bearing the brunt of new Delta cases. Public health experts are urging those who are unvaccinated to get a shot to protect themselves and their communities against future surges.

“Right now we have two Americas: the vaccinated and the unvaccinated,” Paul Offit, MD, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told NPR.

“We’re feeling pretty good right now because it’s the summer,” he said. “But come winter, if we still have a significant percentage of the population that is unvaccinated, we’re going to see this virus surge again.”

So far, COVID-19 vaccines appear to protect people against the Delta variant. But health officials are watching other variants that could evade vaccine protection and lead to major outbreaks this year.

For instance, certain mutations in the Epsilon variant may allow it to evade the immunity from past infections and current COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study published July 1 in the Science. The variant, also known as B.1.427/B.1.429 and first identified in California, has now been reported in 34 countries and could become widespread in the United States.

Researchers from the University of Washington and clinics in Switzerland tested the variant in blood samples from vaccinated people, as well as those who were previously infected with COVID-19. They found that the neutralizing power was reduced by about 2 to 3½ times.

The research team also visualized the variant and found that three mutations on Epsilon’s spike protein allow the virus to escape certain antibodies and lower the strength of vaccines.

Epsilon “relies on an indirect and unusual neutralization-escape strategy,” they wrote, saying that understanding these escape routes could help scientists track new variants, curb the pandemic, and create booster shots.

In Australia, for instance, public health officials have detected the Lambda variant, which could be more infectious than the Delta variant and resistant to vaccines, according to Sky News.

A hotel quarantine program in New South Wales identified the variant in someone who had returned from travel, the news outlet reported. Also known as C.37, Lambda was named a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organization in June.

Lambda was first identified in Peru in December and now accounts for more than 80% of the country’s cases, according to the Financial Times. It has since been found in 27 countries, including the U.S., U.K., and Germany.

The variant has seven mutations on the spike protein that allow the virus to infect human cells, the news outlet reported. One mutation is like another mutation on the Delta variant, which could make it more contagious.

In a preprint study published July 1, researchers at the University of Chile at Santiago found that Lambda is better able to escape antibodies created by the CoronaVac vaccine made by Sinovac in China. In the paper, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, researchers tested blood samples from local health care workers in Santiago who had received two doses of the vaccine.

“Our data revealed that the spike protein ... carries mutations conferring increased infectivity and the ability to escape from neutralizing antibodies,” they wrote.

The research team urged countries to continue testing for contagious variants, even in areas with high vaccination rates, so scientists can identify mutations quickly and analyze whether new variants can escape vaccines.

“The world has to get its act together,” Saad Omer, PhD, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, told NPR. “Otherwise yet another, potentially more dangerous, variant could emerge.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

Patient:

Alone in the Emergency Dept, breathless, I wait for you

“The Hospitalist will admit you” says the nurse, “she will come in a few.”

Muffled voices – masked faces bustle in & out of the room

Loud beeping machines & the rushed pace, fill me with gloom



You walk in the room, lean in to introduce

You tell me your name and what you will do

For a moment I’m more than a diagnosis, an H&P,

and then the fleeting connection passes, can’t you see?

You listen, seem hurried, but I think you care

Would you sit with me while my story I share?

Physician:

I do see you, I feel your fear & anguish

A moment to know you too, is all that I wish

How do I convince you that I truly care?

When, with all my tasks I have only minutes to spare

Patient:

You diligently ask questions from your checklist of H.P.I.,

Finalizing the diagnosis, when I hear your pager beep.

An admission awaits I know, but please sit by my side

Could we make our new-found meeting, a little more deep?

Physician:

The minute our day begins, it’s go-go-go

There isn’t a second to pause, inhale, or be slow

Missed lunch, it’s 6 p.m., bite to eat I dare?

My shift ended 3 hrs. back but I’m still here

Notes, DC summaries, calls to your PCP

Advocating for you, is more than a job to me.



Tirelessly I work, giving patients my all

Drained, exhausted yet, for you, standing tall

Our bond albeit short lived, is very important to me

Watching you get better each day, is fulfilling for me!

Patient:

You take time to ask about my family, about what I like to do

I tell you all about Beatles & my sweet grandkids

You sit & ask me “what matters most to you”

I reply: getting well for the wedding of my daughter “Sue”

Physician:

I sense loneliness engulfing you at times

Your fear and anxiety, I promise to help overcome

I will help you navigate this complex hospital stay

Together we will fight this virus or anything that comes our way

Each passing minute the line between doctor and patient disappears

That’s when we win over this virus, and hope replaces fear

Patient:

Every day you come see me, tell me my numbers are improving

I notice your warm and kind eyes behind that stifling mask

When they light up as you tell me I’m going home soon

I feel assured I mean more to you, than a mere task

Physician:

Each day I visit, together we hum “here comes the sun”

I too open up and share with you, my favorite Beatles song

Our visits cover much more than clinical medicine

True connection & mutual soul healing begins, before long.

Patient:

Today is the day, grateful to go home,

My body may be healed due to all the medicine & potions,

But my bruised soul was healed due to all your kind emotions.



Time to bid adieu Dear Doc – If I meet you at our local grocery store,

I promise I’ll remember those kind eyes, and wave

After all, you stood between me and death

I’m indebted to you, it’s my life that you did save!
 

Dr. Mehta is a hospitalist and director of quality and performance and patient experience at Vituity in Emeryville, Calif. She is chair of the SHM patient experience executive council and executive board member of the SHM San Francisco Bay Area chapter.
 

Patient:

Alone in the Emergency Dept, breathless, I wait for you

“The Hospitalist will admit you” says the nurse, “she will come in a few.”

Muffled voices – masked faces bustle in & out of the room

Loud beeping machines & the rushed pace, fill me with gloom



You walk in the room, lean in to introduce

You tell me your name and what you will do

For a moment I’m more than a diagnosis, an H&P,

and then the fleeting connection passes, can’t you see?

You listen, seem hurried, but I think you care

Would you sit with me while my story I share?

Physician:

I do see you, I feel your fear & anguish

A moment to know you too, is all that I wish

How do I convince you that I truly care?

When, with all my tasks I have only minutes to spare

Patient:

You diligently ask questions from your checklist of H.P.I.,

Finalizing the diagnosis, when I hear your pager beep.

An admission awaits I know, but please sit by my side

Could we make our new-found meeting, a little more deep?

Physician:

The minute our day begins, it’s go-go-go

There isn’t a second to pause, inhale, or be slow

Missed lunch, it’s 6 p.m., bite to eat I dare?

My shift ended 3 hrs. back but I’m still here

Notes, DC summaries, calls to your PCP

Advocating for you, is more than a job to me.



Tirelessly I work, giving patients my all

Drained, exhausted yet, for you, standing tall

Our bond albeit short lived, is very important to me

Watching you get better each day, is fulfilling for me!

Patient:

You take time to ask about my family, about what I like to do

I tell you all about Beatles & my sweet grandkids

You sit & ask me “what matters most to you”

I reply: getting well for the wedding of my daughter “Sue”

Physician:

I sense loneliness engulfing you at times

Your fear and anxiety, I promise to help overcome

I will help you navigate this complex hospital stay

Together we will fight this virus or anything that comes our way

Each passing minute the line between doctor and patient disappears

That’s when we win over this virus, and hope replaces fear

Patient:

Every day you come see me, tell me my numbers are improving

I notice your warm and kind eyes behind that stifling mask

When they light up as you tell me I’m going home soon

I feel assured I mean more to you, than a mere task

Physician:

Each day I visit, together we hum “here comes the sun”

I too open up and share with you, my favorite Beatles song

Our visits cover much more than clinical medicine

True connection & mutual soul healing begins, before long.

Patient:

Today is the day, grateful to go home,

My body may be healed due to all the medicine & potions,

But my bruised soul was healed due to all your kind emotions.



Time to bid adieu Dear Doc – If I meet you at our local grocery store,

I promise I’ll remember those kind eyes, and wave

After all, you stood between me and death

I’m indebted to you, it’s my life that you did save!
 

Dr. Mehta is a hospitalist and director of quality and performance and patient experience at Vituity in Emeryville, Calif. She is chair of the SHM patient experience executive council and executive board member of the SHM San Francisco Bay Area chapter.
 

Patient:

Alone in the Emergency Dept, breathless, I wait for you

“The Hospitalist will admit you” says the nurse, “she will come in a few.”

Muffled voices – masked faces bustle in & out of the room

Loud beeping machines & the rushed pace, fill me with gloom



You walk in the room, lean in to introduce

You tell me your name and what you will do

For a moment I’m more than a diagnosis, an H&P,

and then the fleeting connection passes, can’t you see?

You listen, seem hurried, but I think you care

Would you sit with me while my story I share?

Physician:

I do see you, I feel your fear & anguish

A moment to know you too, is all that I wish

How do I convince you that I truly care?

When, with all my tasks I have only minutes to spare

Patient:

You diligently ask questions from your checklist of H.P.I.,

Finalizing the diagnosis, when I hear your pager beep.

An admission awaits I know, but please sit by my side

Could we make our new-found meeting, a little more deep?

Physician:

The minute our day begins, it’s go-go-go

There isn’t a second to pause, inhale, or be slow

Missed lunch, it’s 6 p.m., bite to eat I dare?

My shift ended 3 hrs. back but I’m still here

Notes, DC summaries, calls to your PCP

Advocating for you, is more than a job to me.



Tirelessly I work, giving patients my all

Drained, exhausted yet, for you, standing tall

Our bond albeit short lived, is very important to me

Watching you get better each day, is fulfilling for me!

Patient:

You take time to ask about my family, about what I like to do

I tell you all about Beatles & my sweet grandkids

You sit & ask me “what matters most to you”

I reply: getting well for the wedding of my daughter “Sue”

Physician:

I sense loneliness engulfing you at times

Your fear and anxiety, I promise to help overcome

I will help you navigate this complex hospital stay

Together we will fight this virus or anything that comes our way

Each passing minute the line between doctor and patient disappears

That’s when we win over this virus, and hope replaces fear

Patient:

Every day you come see me, tell me my numbers are improving

I notice your warm and kind eyes behind that stifling mask

When they light up as you tell me I’m going home soon

I feel assured I mean more to you, than a mere task

Physician:

Each day I visit, together we hum “here comes the sun”

I too open up and share with you, my favorite Beatles song

Our visits cover much more than clinical medicine

True connection & mutual soul healing begins, before long.

Patient:

Today is the day, grateful to go home,

My body may be healed due to all the medicine & potions,

But my bruised soul was healed due to all your kind emotions.



Time to bid adieu Dear Doc – If I meet you at our local grocery store,

I promise I’ll remember those kind eyes, and wave

After all, you stood between me and death

I’m indebted to you, it’s my life that you did save!
 

Dr. Mehta is a hospitalist and director of quality and performance and patient experience at Vituity in Emeryville, Calif. She is chair of the SHM patient experience executive council and executive board member of the SHM San Francisco Bay Area chapter.
 

The stark realities of antimicrobial resistance – including rising rates of difficult-to-treat infections, lack of a robust pipeline of future antimicrobials, and COVID-19 treatments that leave people more vulnerable to infections – remain urgent priorities, experts say.

For some patients, the pandemic and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are intertwined.

“One patient I’m seeing now in service really underscores how the two interact,” Vance Fowler, MD, said during a June 30 media briefing sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). A man in his mid-40s, married with a small child, developed COVID-19 in early January 2021. He was intubated, spent about 1 month in the ICU, and managed to survive.

“But since then he has been struck with a series of progressively more drug resistant bacteria,” said Dr. Fowler, professor of medicine at Duke University, Durham, N.C., and chair of the IDSA Antimicrobial Resistance Committee.

The patient acquired Pseudomonas ventilator-associated pneumonia. Although the infection initially responded to standard antibiotics, he has experienced relapses over the past few months. Through these multiple infections the Pseudomonas grew increasingly pan-resistant to treatment.

The only remaining antimicrobial agent for this patient, Dr. Fowler said, is “a case study in what we are describing ... a drug that is used relatively infrequently, that is fairly expensive, but for that particular patient is absolutely vital.”
 

A ‘terrifying’ personal experience

Tori Kinamon, a Duke University medical student and Food and Drug Administration antibacterial drug resistance fellow, joined Dr. Fowler at the IDSA briefing. She shared her personal journey of surviving a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, one that sparked her interest in becoming a physician.

“I had a very frightening and unexpected confrontation with antimicrobial resistance when I was a freshman in college,” Ms. Kinamon said.

A few days after competing in a Division One gymnastics championship, she felt a gradual onset of pain in her left hamstring. The pain grew acutely worse and, within days, her leg become red, swollen, and painful to the touch.

Ms. Kinamon was admitted to the hospital for suspected cellulitis and put on intravenous antibiotics.

“However, my clinical condition continued to decline,” she recalled. “Imaging studies revealed a 15-cm abscess deep in my hamstring.”

The limb- and life-threatening infection left her wondering if she would come out of surgery with both legs.

“Ultimately, I had eight surgeries in 2 weeks,” she said.

“As a 19-year-old collegiate athlete, that’s terrifying. And I never imagined that something like that would happen to me – until it did,” said Ms. Kinamon, who is an NCAA infection prevention advocate.

When Ms. Kinamon’s kidneys could no longer tolerate vancomycin, she was switched to daptomycin.

“I reflect quite frequently on how having that one extra drug in the stockpile had a significant impact on my outcome,” she said.
 

Incentivizing new antimicrobial agents

A lack of new antimicrobials in development is not a new story.

“There’s been a chill that’s been sustained on the antibiotic development field. Most large pharmaceutical companies have left the area of anti-infectants and the bulk of research and development is now in small pharmaceutical companies,” Dr. Fowler said. “And they’re struggling.”

One potential solution is the Pasteur Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced in Congress and supported by IDSA. The bill encourages pharmaceutical companies to develop new antimicrobial agents with funding not linked to sales or use of the drugs.

Furthermore, the bill emphasizes appropriate use of these agents through effective stewardship programs.

Although some institutions shifted resources away from AMR out of necessity when COVID-19 struck, “I can say certainly from our experience at Duke that at least stewardship was alive and well. It was not relegated to the side,” Dr. Fowler said.

“In fact,” he added, “if anything, COVID really emphasized the importance of stewardship” by helping clinicians with guidance on the use of remdesivir and other antivirals during the pandemic.

Also, in some instances, treatments used to keep people with COVID-19 alive can paradoxically place them at higher risk for other infections, Dr. Fowler said, citing corticosteroids as an example.
 

Everyone’s concern

AMR isn’t just an issue in hospital settings, either. Ms. Kinamon reiterated that she picked up the infection in an athletic environment.

“Antimicrobial resistance is not just a problem for ICU patients in the hospital. I was the healthiest I had ever been and just very nearly escaped death due to one of these infections,” she said. ”As rates of resistance rise as these pathogens become more virulent, AMR is becoming more and more of a community threat,” she added.

Furthermore, consumers are partially to blame as well, Dr. Fowler noted.

“It’s interesting when you look at the surveys of the numbers of patients that have used someone else’s antibiotics” or leftover antimicrobial agents from a prior infection.

“It’s really startling ... that’s the sort of antibiotic overuse that directly contributes to antibacterial resistance,” he said.
 

Reasons for optimism

Promising advances in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention of AMRs are underway, Dr. Fowler said.

“It always gets me really excited to talk about it. It’s amazing what technology and scientific discovery can bring to this discussion and to this threat,” he said.

For example, there is a “silent revolution” in diagnostics with the aim to rapidly provide life-saving actionable data on a real patient in nearly real time.

Traditionally, “you start off by treating what should be there” while awaiting results of tests to narrow down therapy, Dr. Fowler said. However, a whole host of new platforms are in development to reduce the time to susceptibility results. This kind of technology has “the potential to transform our ability to take care of patients, giving them the right drug at the right time and no more,” he said.

Another promising avenue of research involves bacteriophages. Dr. Fowler is principal investigator on a clinical trial underway to evaluate bacteriophages as adjunct therapy for MRSA bacteremia.

When it comes to prevention on AMR infections in the future, “I continue to be optimistic about the possibility of vaccines to prevent many of these infections,” Dr. Fowler said, adding that companies are working on vaccines against these kinds of infections caused by MRSA or Escherichia coli, for example.
 

Patient outcomes

The man in his 40s with the multidrug resistant Pseudomonas infections “is now to the point where he’s walking in the halls and I think he’ll get out of the hospital eventually,” Dr. Fowler said.

“But his life is forever changed,” he added.

Ms. Kinamon’s recovery from MRSA included time in the ICU, 1 month in a regular hospital setting, and 5 months at home.

“It sparked my interest in antibiotic research and development because I see myself as a direct beneficiary of the stockpile of antibiotics that were available to treat my infection,” Ms. Kinamon said. “Now as a medical student working with patients who have similar infections, I feel a deep empathy and connectedness to them because they ask the same questions that I did.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The stark realities of antimicrobial resistance – including rising rates of difficult-to-treat infections, lack of a robust pipeline of future antimicrobials, and COVID-19 treatments that leave people more vulnerable to infections – remain urgent priorities, experts say.

For some patients, the pandemic and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are intertwined.

“One patient I’m seeing now in service really underscores how the two interact,” Vance Fowler, MD, said during a June 30 media briefing sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). A man in his mid-40s, married with a small child, developed COVID-19 in early January 2021. He was intubated, spent about 1 month in the ICU, and managed to survive.

“But since then he has been struck with a series of progressively more drug resistant bacteria,” said Dr. Fowler, professor of medicine at Duke University, Durham, N.C., and chair of the IDSA Antimicrobial Resistance Committee.

The patient acquired Pseudomonas ventilator-associated pneumonia. Although the infection initially responded to standard antibiotics, he has experienced relapses over the past few months. Through these multiple infections the Pseudomonas grew increasingly pan-resistant to treatment.

The only remaining antimicrobial agent for this patient, Dr. Fowler said, is “a case study in what we are describing ... a drug that is used relatively infrequently, that is fairly expensive, but for that particular patient is absolutely vital.”
 

A ‘terrifying’ personal experience

Tori Kinamon, a Duke University medical student and Food and Drug Administration antibacterial drug resistance fellow, joined Dr. Fowler at the IDSA briefing. She shared her personal journey of surviving a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, one that sparked her interest in becoming a physician.

“I had a very frightening and unexpected confrontation with antimicrobial resistance when I was a freshman in college,” Ms. Kinamon said.

A few days after competing in a Division One gymnastics championship, she felt a gradual onset of pain in her left hamstring. The pain grew acutely worse and, within days, her leg become red, swollen, and painful to the touch.

Ms. Kinamon was admitted to the hospital for suspected cellulitis and put on intravenous antibiotics.

“However, my clinical condition continued to decline,” she recalled. “Imaging studies revealed a 15-cm abscess deep in my hamstring.”

The limb- and life-threatening infection left her wondering if she would come out of surgery with both legs.

“Ultimately, I had eight surgeries in 2 weeks,” she said.

“As a 19-year-old collegiate athlete, that’s terrifying. And I never imagined that something like that would happen to me – until it did,” said Ms. Kinamon, who is an NCAA infection prevention advocate.

When Ms. Kinamon’s kidneys could no longer tolerate vancomycin, she was switched to daptomycin.

“I reflect quite frequently on how having that one extra drug in the stockpile had a significant impact on my outcome,” she said.
 

Incentivizing new antimicrobial agents

A lack of new antimicrobials in development is not a new story.

“There’s been a chill that’s been sustained on the antibiotic development field. Most large pharmaceutical companies have left the area of anti-infectants and the bulk of research and development is now in small pharmaceutical companies,” Dr. Fowler said. “And they’re struggling.”

One potential solution is the Pasteur Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced in Congress and supported by IDSA. The bill encourages pharmaceutical companies to develop new antimicrobial agents with funding not linked to sales or use of the drugs.

Furthermore, the bill emphasizes appropriate use of these agents through effective stewardship programs.

Although some institutions shifted resources away from AMR out of necessity when COVID-19 struck, “I can say certainly from our experience at Duke that at least stewardship was alive and well. It was not relegated to the side,” Dr. Fowler said.

“In fact,” he added, “if anything, COVID really emphasized the importance of stewardship” by helping clinicians with guidance on the use of remdesivir and other antivirals during the pandemic.

Also, in some instances, treatments used to keep people with COVID-19 alive can paradoxically place them at higher risk for other infections, Dr. Fowler said, citing corticosteroids as an example.
 

Everyone’s concern

AMR isn’t just an issue in hospital settings, either. Ms. Kinamon reiterated that she picked up the infection in an athletic environment.

“Antimicrobial resistance is not just a problem for ICU patients in the hospital. I was the healthiest I had ever been and just very nearly escaped death due to one of these infections,” she said. ”As rates of resistance rise as these pathogens become more virulent, AMR is becoming more and more of a community threat,” she added.

Furthermore, consumers are partially to blame as well, Dr. Fowler noted.

“It’s interesting when you look at the surveys of the numbers of patients that have used someone else’s antibiotics” or leftover antimicrobial agents from a prior infection.

“It’s really startling ... that’s the sort of antibiotic overuse that directly contributes to antibacterial resistance,” he said.
 

Reasons for optimism

Promising advances in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention of AMRs are underway, Dr. Fowler said.

“It always gets me really excited to talk about it. It’s amazing what technology and scientific discovery can bring to this discussion and to this threat,” he said.

For example, there is a “silent revolution” in diagnostics with the aim to rapidly provide life-saving actionable data on a real patient in nearly real time.

Traditionally, “you start off by treating what should be there” while awaiting results of tests to narrow down therapy, Dr. Fowler said. However, a whole host of new platforms are in development to reduce the time to susceptibility results. This kind of technology has “the potential to transform our ability to take care of patients, giving them the right drug at the right time and no more,” he said.

Another promising avenue of research involves bacteriophages. Dr. Fowler is principal investigator on a clinical trial underway to evaluate bacteriophages as adjunct therapy for MRSA bacteremia.

When it comes to prevention on AMR infections in the future, “I continue to be optimistic about the possibility of vaccines to prevent many of these infections,” Dr. Fowler said, adding that companies are working on vaccines against these kinds of infections caused by MRSA or Escherichia coli, for example.
 

Patient outcomes

The man in his 40s with the multidrug resistant Pseudomonas infections “is now to the point where he’s walking in the halls and I think he’ll get out of the hospital eventually,” Dr. Fowler said.

“But his life is forever changed,” he added.

Ms. Kinamon’s recovery from MRSA included time in the ICU, 1 month in a regular hospital setting, and 5 months at home.

“It sparked my interest in antibiotic research and development because I see myself as a direct beneficiary of the stockpile of antibiotics that were available to treat my infection,” Ms. Kinamon said. “Now as a medical student working with patients who have similar infections, I feel a deep empathy and connectedness to them because they ask the same questions that I did.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

The stark realities of antimicrobial resistance – including rising rates of difficult-to-treat infections, lack of a robust pipeline of future antimicrobials, and COVID-19 treatments that leave people more vulnerable to infections – remain urgent priorities, experts say.

For some patients, the pandemic and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) are intertwined.

“One patient I’m seeing now in service really underscores how the two interact,” Vance Fowler, MD, said during a June 30 media briefing sponsored by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). A man in his mid-40s, married with a small child, developed COVID-19 in early January 2021. He was intubated, spent about 1 month in the ICU, and managed to survive.

“But since then he has been struck with a series of progressively more drug resistant bacteria,” said Dr. Fowler, professor of medicine at Duke University, Durham, N.C., and chair of the IDSA Antimicrobial Resistance Committee.

The patient acquired Pseudomonas ventilator-associated pneumonia. Although the infection initially responded to standard antibiotics, he has experienced relapses over the past few months. Through these multiple infections the Pseudomonas grew increasingly pan-resistant to treatment.

The only remaining antimicrobial agent for this patient, Dr. Fowler said, is “a case study in what we are describing ... a drug that is used relatively infrequently, that is fairly expensive, but for that particular patient is absolutely vital.”
 

A ‘terrifying’ personal experience

Tori Kinamon, a Duke University medical student and Food and Drug Administration antibacterial drug resistance fellow, joined Dr. Fowler at the IDSA briefing. She shared her personal journey of surviving a methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection, one that sparked her interest in becoming a physician.

“I had a very frightening and unexpected confrontation with antimicrobial resistance when I was a freshman in college,” Ms. Kinamon said.

A few days after competing in a Division One gymnastics championship, she felt a gradual onset of pain in her left hamstring. The pain grew acutely worse and, within days, her leg become red, swollen, and painful to the touch.

Ms. Kinamon was admitted to the hospital for suspected cellulitis and put on intravenous antibiotics.

“However, my clinical condition continued to decline,” she recalled. “Imaging studies revealed a 15-cm abscess deep in my hamstring.”

The limb- and life-threatening infection left her wondering if she would come out of surgery with both legs.

“Ultimately, I had eight surgeries in 2 weeks,” she said.

“As a 19-year-old collegiate athlete, that’s terrifying. And I never imagined that something like that would happen to me – until it did,” said Ms. Kinamon, who is an NCAA infection prevention advocate.

When Ms. Kinamon’s kidneys could no longer tolerate vancomycin, she was switched to daptomycin.

“I reflect quite frequently on how having that one extra drug in the stockpile had a significant impact on my outcome,” she said.
 

Incentivizing new antimicrobial agents

A lack of new antimicrobials in development is not a new story.

“There’s been a chill that’s been sustained on the antibiotic development field. Most large pharmaceutical companies have left the area of anti-infectants and the bulk of research and development is now in small pharmaceutical companies,” Dr. Fowler said. “And they’re struggling.”

One potential solution is the Pasteur Act, a bipartisan bill reintroduced in Congress and supported by IDSA. The bill encourages pharmaceutical companies to develop new antimicrobial agents with funding not linked to sales or use of the drugs.

Furthermore, the bill emphasizes appropriate use of these agents through effective stewardship programs.

Although some institutions shifted resources away from AMR out of necessity when COVID-19 struck, “I can say certainly from our experience at Duke that at least stewardship was alive and well. It was not relegated to the side,” Dr. Fowler said.

“In fact,” he added, “if anything, COVID really emphasized the importance of stewardship” by helping clinicians with guidance on the use of remdesivir and other antivirals during the pandemic.

Also, in some instances, treatments used to keep people with COVID-19 alive can paradoxically place them at higher risk for other infections, Dr. Fowler said, citing corticosteroids as an example.
 

Everyone’s concern

AMR isn’t just an issue in hospital settings, either. Ms. Kinamon reiterated that she picked up the infection in an athletic environment.

“Antimicrobial resistance is not just a problem for ICU patients in the hospital. I was the healthiest I had ever been and just very nearly escaped death due to one of these infections,” she said. ”As rates of resistance rise as these pathogens become more virulent, AMR is becoming more and more of a community threat,” she added.

Furthermore, consumers are partially to blame as well, Dr. Fowler noted.

“It’s interesting when you look at the surveys of the numbers of patients that have used someone else’s antibiotics” or leftover antimicrobial agents from a prior infection.

“It’s really startling ... that’s the sort of antibiotic overuse that directly contributes to antibacterial resistance,” he said.
 

Reasons for optimism

Promising advances in diagnostics, treatment, and prevention of AMRs are underway, Dr. Fowler said.

“It always gets me really excited to talk about it. It’s amazing what technology and scientific discovery can bring to this discussion and to this threat,” he said.

For example, there is a “silent revolution” in diagnostics with the aim to rapidly provide life-saving actionable data on a real patient in nearly real time.

Traditionally, “you start off by treating what should be there” while awaiting results of tests to narrow down therapy, Dr. Fowler said. However, a whole host of new platforms are in development to reduce the time to susceptibility results. This kind of technology has “the potential to transform our ability to take care of patients, giving them the right drug at the right time and no more,” he said.

Another promising avenue of research involves bacteriophages. Dr. Fowler is principal investigator on a clinical trial underway to evaluate bacteriophages as adjunct therapy for MRSA bacteremia.

When it comes to prevention on AMR infections in the future, “I continue to be optimistic about the possibility of vaccines to prevent many of these infections,” Dr. Fowler said, adding that companies are working on vaccines against these kinds of infections caused by MRSA or Escherichia coli, for example.
 

Patient outcomes

The man in his 40s with the multidrug resistant Pseudomonas infections “is now to the point where he’s walking in the halls and I think he’ll get out of the hospital eventually,” Dr. Fowler said.

“But his life is forever changed,” he added.

Ms. Kinamon’s recovery from MRSA included time in the ICU, 1 month in a regular hospital setting, and 5 months at home.

“It sparked my interest in antibiotic research and development because I see myself as a direct beneficiary of the stockpile of antibiotics that were available to treat my infection,” Ms. Kinamon said. “Now as a medical student working with patients who have similar infections, I feel a deep empathy and connectedness to them because they ask the same questions that I did.”

A version of this article first appeared on WebMD.com.

Background: C. difficile infections (CDI) are significant with more than 400,000 cases and almost 30,000 deaths annually. However, there is uncertainty regarding asymptomatic C. difficile carriers and whether they have higher rates of progression to symptomatic infections.

Study design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Large university hospital in the New York from July 2017 through March 2018.

Synopsis: Patients admitted were screened, enrolled, and tested to include an adequate sample of nursing facility residents because of prior studies that showed nursing facility residents with a higher prevalence of carriage. Patients underwent perirectal swabbing and stool swabbing if available. Test swab soilage, noted as any visible material on the swab, was noted and recorded. Two stool-testing methods were used to test for carriage. A C. difficile carrier was defined as any patient with a positive test without diarrhea. Patients were followed for 6 months or until death; 220 patients were enrolled, with 21 patients (9.6%) asymptomatic C. difficile carriers. Having a soiled swab was the only statistically significant characteristic, including previous antibiotic exposure within the past 90 days, to be associated with carriage; 8 of 21 (38.1%) carriage patients progressed to CDI within 6 months versus 4 of 199 (2.0%) noncarriage patients. Most carriers that progressed to CDI did so within 2 weeks of enrollment. Limitations included lower numbers of expected carriage patients, diarrhea diagnosing variability, and perirectal swabbing was used rather than rectal swabbing/stool testing.

Bottom line: Asymptomatic carriage of C. difficile has increased risk of progression to symptomatic CDI and could present an opportunity for screening to reduce CDI in the inpatient setting.

Citation: Baron SW et al. Screening of Clostridioides difficile carriers in an urban academic medical center: Understanding implications of disease. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2020;41(2):149-53.

Dr. Wang is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: C. difficile infections (CDI) are significant with more than 400,000 cases and almost 30,000 deaths annually. However, there is uncertainty regarding asymptomatic C. difficile carriers and whether they have higher rates of progression to symptomatic infections.

Study design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Large university hospital in the New York from July 2017 through March 2018.

Synopsis: Patients admitted were screened, enrolled, and tested to include an adequate sample of nursing facility residents because of prior studies that showed nursing facility residents with a higher prevalence of carriage. Patients underwent perirectal swabbing and stool swabbing if available. Test swab soilage, noted as any visible material on the swab, was noted and recorded. Two stool-testing methods were used to test for carriage. A C. difficile carrier was defined as any patient with a positive test without diarrhea. Patients were followed for 6 months or until death; 220 patients were enrolled, with 21 patients (9.6%) asymptomatic C. difficile carriers. Having a soiled swab was the only statistically significant characteristic, including previous antibiotic exposure within the past 90 days, to be associated with carriage; 8 of 21 (38.1%) carriage patients progressed to CDI within 6 months versus 4 of 199 (2.0%) noncarriage patients. Most carriers that progressed to CDI did so within 2 weeks of enrollment. Limitations included lower numbers of expected carriage patients, diarrhea diagnosing variability, and perirectal swabbing was used rather than rectal swabbing/stool testing.

Bottom line: Asymptomatic carriage of C. difficile has increased risk of progression to symptomatic CDI and could present an opportunity for screening to reduce CDI in the inpatient setting.

Citation: Baron SW et al. Screening of Clostridioides difficile carriers in an urban academic medical center: Understanding implications of disease. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2020;41(2):149-53.

Dr. Wang is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: C. difficile infections (CDI) are significant with more than 400,000 cases and almost 30,000 deaths annually. However, there is uncertainty regarding asymptomatic C. difficile carriers and whether they have higher rates of progression to symptomatic infections.

Study design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Large university hospital in the New York from July 2017 through March 2018.

Synopsis: Patients admitted were screened, enrolled, and tested to include an adequate sample of nursing facility residents because of prior studies that showed nursing facility residents with a higher prevalence of carriage. Patients underwent perirectal swabbing and stool swabbing if available. Test swab soilage, noted as any visible material on the swab, was noted and recorded. Two stool-testing methods were used to test for carriage. A C. difficile carrier was defined as any patient with a positive test without diarrhea. Patients were followed for 6 months or until death; 220 patients were enrolled, with 21 patients (9.6%) asymptomatic C. difficile carriers. Having a soiled swab was the only statistically significant characteristic, including previous antibiotic exposure within the past 90 days, to be associated with carriage; 8 of 21 (38.1%) carriage patients progressed to CDI within 6 months versus 4 of 199 (2.0%) noncarriage patients. Most carriers that progressed to CDI did so within 2 weeks of enrollment. Limitations included lower numbers of expected carriage patients, diarrhea diagnosing variability, and perirectal swabbing was used rather than rectal swabbing/stool testing.

Bottom line: Asymptomatic carriage of C. difficile has increased risk of progression to symptomatic CDI and could present an opportunity for screening to reduce CDI in the inpatient setting.

Citation: Baron SW et al. Screening of Clostridioides difficile carriers in an urban academic medical center: Understanding implications of disease. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2020;41(2):149-53.

Dr. Wang is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: The opioid crisis is in the forefront as a public health emergency and there are concerns regarding addiction stemming from opioid prescriptions written in the acute setting, such as the ED and hospitals.

Dr. Wang is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: The opioid crisis is in the forefront as a public health emergency and there are concerns regarding addiction stemming from opioid prescriptions written in the acute setting, such as the ED and hospitals.

Dr. Wang is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: The opioid crisis is in the forefront as a public health emergency and there are concerns regarding addiction stemming from opioid prescriptions written in the acute setting, such as the ED and hospitals.

Dr. Wang is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: As technology and medical advances improve patient care, physicians and patients have become more dissatisfied with their interactions and relationships. Practices are needed to improve the connection between physician and patient.

Study design: Mixed-methods.

Setting: Three diverse primary care settings (academic medical center, Veterans Affairs facility, federally qualified health center).

Synopsis: Initial evidence- and narrative-based practices were identified from a systematic literature review, clinical observations of primary care encounters, and qualitative discussions with physicians, patients, and nonmedical professionals. A three-round modified Delphi process was performed with experts representing different aspects of the patient-physician relationship.

Five recommended clinical practices were recognized to foster presence and meaningful connections with patients: 1. Prepare with intention (becoming familiar with the patient before you meet them); 2. Listen intently and completely (sit down, lean forward, and don’t interrupt, but listen); 3. Agree on what matters most (discover your patient’s goals and fit them into the visit); 4. Connect with the patient’s story (take notice of efforts by the patient and successes); 5. Explore emotional cues (be aware of your patient’s emotions). Limitations of this study include the use of convenience sampling for the qualitative research, lack of international diversity of the expert panelists, and the lack of validation of the five practices as a whole.

Bottom line: The five practices of prepare with intention, listen intently and completely, agree on what matters most, connect with the patient’s story, and explore emotional cues may improve the patient-physician connection.

Citation: Zulman DM et al. Practices to foster physician presence and connection with patients in the clinical encounter. JAMA. 2020;323(1):70-81.

Dr. Trammell-Velasquez is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: As technology and medical advances improve patient care, physicians and patients have become more dissatisfied with their interactions and relationships. Practices are needed to improve the connection between physician and patient.

Study design: Mixed-methods.

Setting: Three diverse primary care settings (academic medical center, Veterans Affairs facility, federally qualified health center).

Synopsis: Initial evidence- and narrative-based practices were identified from a systematic literature review, clinical observations of primary care encounters, and qualitative discussions with physicians, patients, and nonmedical professionals. A three-round modified Delphi process was performed with experts representing different aspects of the patient-physician relationship.

Five recommended clinical practices were recognized to foster presence and meaningful connections with patients: 1. Prepare with intention (becoming familiar with the patient before you meet them); 2. Listen intently and completely (sit down, lean forward, and don’t interrupt, but listen); 3. Agree on what matters most (discover your patient’s goals and fit them into the visit); 4. Connect with the patient’s story (take notice of efforts by the patient and successes); 5. Explore emotional cues (be aware of your patient’s emotions). Limitations of this study include the use of convenience sampling for the qualitative research, lack of international diversity of the expert panelists, and the lack of validation of the five practices as a whole.

Bottom line: The five practices of prepare with intention, listen intently and completely, agree on what matters most, connect with the patient’s story, and explore emotional cues may improve the patient-physician connection.

Citation: Zulman DM et al. Practices to foster physician presence and connection with patients in the clinical encounter. JAMA. 2020;323(1):70-81.

Dr. Trammell-Velasquez is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.

Background: As technology and medical advances improve patient care, physicians and patients have become more dissatisfied with their interactions and relationships. Practices are needed to improve the connection between physician and patient.

Study design: Mixed-methods.

Setting: Three diverse primary care settings (academic medical center, Veterans Affairs facility, federally qualified health center).

Synopsis: Initial evidence- and narrative-based practices were identified from a systematic literature review, clinical observations of primary care encounters, and qualitative discussions with physicians, patients, and nonmedical professionals. A three-round modified Delphi process was performed with experts representing different aspects of the patient-physician relationship.

Five recommended clinical practices were recognized to foster presence and meaningful connections with patients: 1. Prepare with intention (becoming familiar with the patient before you meet them); 2. Listen intently and completely (sit down, lean forward, and don’t interrupt, but listen); 3. Agree on what matters most (discover your patient’s goals and fit them into the visit); 4. Connect with the patient’s story (take notice of efforts by the patient and successes); 5. Explore emotional cues (be aware of your patient’s emotions). Limitations of this study include the use of convenience sampling for the qualitative research, lack of international diversity of the expert panelists, and the lack of validation of the five practices as a whole.

Bottom line: The five practices of prepare with intention, listen intently and completely, agree on what matters most, connect with the patient’s story, and explore emotional cues may improve the patient-physician connection.

Citation: Zulman DM et al. Practices to foster physician presence and connection with patients in the clinical encounter. JAMA. 2020;323(1):70-81.

Dr. Trammell-Velasquez is a hospitalist and associate professor of medicine at University of Texas Health, San Antonio.