View clinical trials related to Communicable Diseases.
Filter by:Therapeutic options for serious fungal infections are limited by intrinsic and acquired resistance to existing antifungal agents. For example, zygomycetes (such as Mucor spp.) are intrinsically resistant to voriconazole and caspofungin. Yet, the only available therapeutic option, amphotericin, is associated with significant renal toxicity, even in lipid formulations. Posaconazole is a new antifungal drug, not yet Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved, but which has excellent in vitro activity against some intrinsically resistant fungi such as the zygomycetes. The intent of this trial is to provide access to posaconazole to patients with serious fungal infections which are refractory to standard antifungal therapies or invasive fungal infections for which there are currently no effective therapies. Secondly, the drug will also be made available to patients with invasive fungal infections who: - have experienced serious or severe toxicities while receiving standard antifungal therapies; - have pre-existing renal dysfunction which precludes use of standard antifungal therapies; or - are chronically immunosuppressed with a history of invasive fungal infections previously treated with posaconazole in other clinical trials, and who require oral antifungal suppressive therapy as maintenance treatment to prevent recurrence. This is a multicenter, open-label, non-comparative experimental treatment use protocol. The experimental treatment use protocol will provide the investigational medication posaconazole where no other drug is commercially available. Posaconazole is given as an orally or enterally administered suspension. The duration of therapy is at the discretion of the investigator. Safety assessments will include an electrocardiogram [ECG] (to ensure no QTc interval prolongation) performed at baseline and serum/urine pregnancy testing performed at baseline and every three months after initiation of therapy. Plasma concentrations will be obtained if there is evidence of clinical failure. No other tests will be performed specifically for the experimental treatment use protocol.
Leukocyte depletion of autologous whole blood prior to storage does not reduce infection rate (wound, urinary tract, other), use of antibiotic treatment and length of hospital stay but may increase retransfusion perioperatively during hip arthroplasty and allogenic transfusion rate
Patients admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) have an intravenous (IV) catheter (small plastic tube) placed in their vein. Very occasionally (4 times out of 100) the insertion of an intravenous catheter may cause an infection in the blood. It has been shown that the removal of the catheter and the insertion of a new one at a new site helps to get rid of this infection. Sometimes, antibiotics are also given. Vancomycin is the antibiotic given intravenously (into the vein) to treat these catheter-related infections. At Vancouver General Hospital, some physicians may not give any vancomycin at all whereas others may treat with intravenous (IV) vancomycin for one to fourteen days. Since there are a lack of data to support the length of IV vancomycin therapy, the investigators would like to find out if two days of IV vancomycin are as good as seven days. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine if two days of IV vancomycin are as good as seven days for the treatment of catheter-related infections in the blood.
The study is designed to evaluate interferon responses to CMV in HIV positive individuals and a component will look at interferon responses to CMV in HIV positive individuals over time after commencement of antiretroviral therapy. We will also look at the correlation between CD4 T cell numbers and HLA type with the interferon response.
To determine the value of increasing use of piperacillin/tazobactam as empiric therapy and restricting extended-spectrum cephalosporins in reducing the cases of ESBL producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae in hematology and oncology units
To determine whether the restriction of 3rd generation cephalosporins and carbapenems contribute to the reduction of intestinal colonization or infection with vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in a medical intensive care unit (MICU).
All surgical procedures carry with them the risk of infection. Even a minor infection can extend the hospitalization after cardiac surgery. The average minimum increase in length of stay for a single infection is three days. One of the many means used to reduce post-operative infections is the preventative, or "prophylactic", administration of antibiotics just before and just after surgery. Because antibiotics, and for that matter surgery itself, alter the body's natural immune and inflammatory responses and the makeup of the bacteria in the intestine, there is a great deal of scientific interest in using the supplementation of bacteria that naturally reside in the intestine. It is felt that by doing so, the alterations in the immune response may be corrected and the patient better able to fight infections. There are studies using probiotics that have demonstrated a reduction in infection rates in patients undergoing abdominal surgery. Subjects will be patients at high risk for infection including those with any one or more of the following characteristics: over 65 years old, poor heart function (ejection fraction <40), diabetes (insulin dependant or non-insulin dependant), peripheral vascular disease, kidney dysfunction (creatinine level >2mg/dl), obesity (body surface area > 2 m2), low serum protein levels (albumin < 2.5 mg/dl), infection of the heart valve (endocarditis), or on any antibiotics other than standard prophylaxis before surgery. The safety of these products has been very well established. Patients who consent to enter the study will receive the synbiotic mix, or a placebo, which comes in a powder that may be mixed with a drink, or washed down into the stomach through the NG tube if the patient is still on a ventilator. Dosing will be initiated within four hours of patient arrival in the Cardiac Surgery Intensive Care Unit and will continue on a twice daily basis for the duration of their admission days. Infection and diarrhea data will be monitored.
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of GB virus C (GBV-C) on the natural history of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in subjects co-infected with HIV and HCV. The other aspect of the study is to assess the effect of GBV-C on the severity of liver disease due to chronic hepatitis C in subjects co-infected with HIV and HCV. This will be done by determining the point prevalence of co-infection retrospectively then following that cohort prospectively. In addition, further individuals will be recruited in a prospective manner.
The objective of this trial is to find the rationale and the optimal dose and duration of regimen for the eradication of H. pylori infection using different proton pump inhibitors.
The main objectives of the study are 1. to compare the efficacy of oral vs initial iv antibiotic treatment in children with a first episode of UTI 2. to assess the diagnostic power of the various imaging technique (renal ultrasonogram, voiding cystourethrogram, and renal scanning with technetium-99m-labeled dimercaptosuccinic acid)