The validity of the results of a clinical trial is highly dependent upon the design of the trial. The definition of disease, the selection criteria for enrollment in the trial, the selection of the study and control drugs, and the end points all affect whether the information obtained from the trial ultimately is useful in making decisions in clinical practice. These factors all apply to the de...

Severe infection of infants with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a leading cause of morbidity in the developed world and mortality in the developing world. Prophylaxis using palivizumab in infants at risk for severe RSV disease reduces the rate of hospitalisation in this population of children. To ensure complete prophylaxis, infants must receive monthly doses over the winter season. To im...

BACKGROUND A randomized, double-blind study was conducted to evaluate the pharmacokinetics of ganciclovir following oral administration of ganciclovir or valganciclovir for prophylaxis of cytomegalovirus (CMV) disease in solid organ transplant recipients (n = 240/372). METHODS The correlations between individual exposure to ganciclovir during prophylaxis, with CMV viremia incidence during and...

BACKGROUND Postexposure prophylaxis of inhalational anthrax requires prolonged antibiotic therapy or antibiotics and vaccination. The duration of treatment for established anthrax is controversial, because retained spores may germinate and cause disease after antibiotics are discontinued. Using rhesus macaques, we determined whether a short course of antibiotic treatment, as opposed to prophyla...

BACKGROUND Since the publication of the Prophlyactic Penicillin Study II in 1995, the management of penicillin prophylaxis for children with sickle cell disease (SCD) after 5 years of age has been controversial. In this study, we sought to describe current practice patterns of pediatric hematologists related to cessation of penicillin prophylaxis for children with SCD after 5 years of age. PR...

Data on antifungal prophylaxis in paediatric cancer patients at high risk for invasive fungal disease (IFD) are scant. Intermittent administration of liposomal amphotericin B (LAMB) has been shown to be safe and effective in adult patients with haematological malignancies. We prospectively evaluated the safety and efficacy of prophylactic LAMB at a dosage of 2.5 mg/kg twice weekly in children a...

In recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCTs), the mortality associated with invasive fungal infections (IFIs) remains high, despite the introduction of broad-spectrum antifungal agents over the past 2 decades. Preventing exposure to fungal pathogens in this population is impossible; therefore, clinicians have focused on prophylactic use of antifungal agents to prevent IFIs in hi...

On March 13-14, 2006, a meeting on anthrax, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with the Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats, was held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The meeting's agenda included discussion of postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), screening and evaluation, and treatment of the various manifestations of human ...

conclusion it can be concluded that prophylactic antibiotics do not have any preventive effect on wound infection in a double blind setting. according to our findings, routine antibiotic prophylaxis as recommended for biliary surgery (open or laparoscopic cholecystectomy) is now questionable. results the study population included 61 males and 69 females with the mean age of 49.3±9.6 and 51.8±9....

bacterial endocarditis is a serious disease that could occur after invasive dental procedures. despite a large number of papers written about the knowledge of prevention of bacterial endocarditis among health care workers in western countries, little is known about awareness of this subject among practitioners and students in other countries. the purpose of the present study was to assess the k...