Editors in Conversation – Details, episodes & analysis

Join Dr. Ben Pinsky and Dr. Greg Berry as they dissect recent news stories, including the USDA's testing for H5N1 in ground beef and a surprising bubonic plague case in Oregon. They also tackle the resurgence of measles in the U.S., the local reappearance of malaria, and a curious study on Neosporin's potential to prevent viral infections.

• H5N1 Influenza Virus: Dr. Ben Pinsky provides an update on recent cases of H5N1 in humans and animals, including concerns about dairy cattle infections and the potential for human transmission.
• Bubonic Plague: Dr. Greg Berry discusses a recent case in Oregon, its transmission through cats, and the historical context of the plague.
• Measles: The resurgence of measles in the U.S. is addressed, with Dr. Pinsky noting an increase in cases compared to previous years and emphasizing the importance of vaccination.
• Malaria: The episode covers recent cases of locally acquired malaria in the U.S. and discusses the history of malaria in America.
• Neosporin and Viral Infections: The hosts examine a study suggesting Neosporin might prevent viral infections and discuss the implications and practicality of this claim.

• Dr. Ben Pinsky
• Dr. Greg Berry

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This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

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The pipeline of antibiotic discovery is a major necessity due to the continuous evolution of resistance to currently used antimicrobials. This pipeline faces important challenges due to the lack of investment on antimicrobial research in the private sector and an economic model that discourages investment. In the last few years, however, encouraging signs are occurring but major gaps still remain. The World Health Organization has regularly assessed the preclinical and clinical antibacterial development pipeline and the latest report is now available in the journal, lets discuss it!

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/IgqWmHDIx-0

• The process for review of the antibacterial pipeline.
• The progress and gaps in antibiotic discovery
• The opportunities to overcome the numerous hurdles in the early stages of the antibacterial research and development space

• Valeria Gigante Ph.D., Team Lead at the World Health Organization's (WHO) in the AMR Division, Geneva, Switzerland.

• Multi-year analysis of the global preclinical antibacterial pipeline: trends and gaps.

This episode is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy journal available at aac.asm.org. If you plan to publish in AAC, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit asm.org/membership to sign up.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/aac to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript.

Gonorrhea remains one of the more common sexually transmitted infections. In North America, the number of reported cases has generally risen for over ten years, with interruptions in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by returns to rising rates of infection. Under the selective pressure of antimicrobial treatment, antimicrobial resistance has risen, which has led to limited options for treatment

Today, we will be discussing antimicrobial resistance in N. gonorrhoeae, including these questions:
    •    How accurate is gradient diffusion susceptibility testing when compared to agar-dilution results?
    •    Should we use analysis of whole genome sequencing results or agar dilution phenotypic results as the gold-standard for antibiotic susceptibility testing of N. gonorrhoeae?
    •    What is the utility of beta-lactamase testing for predicting penicillin susceptibility results in N. gonorrhoeae?

• Dr. Tanis Dingle, Clinical Microbiologist at Alberta Precision Laboratories and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Calgary.
• Dr. Angela Ma., Clinical Microbiologist at Public Health Ontario.

• Use of genome sequencing to resolve differences in gradient diffusion and agar dilution antimicrobial susceptibility testing performance of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates in Alberta, Canada

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Follow JCM on Twitter via @JClinMicro

In the last few years we have witnessed the rise of very resistant fungal species some of them likely influenced by environmental conditions and climate change. Fortunately, there has been a bit of an explosion in the development of new antifungals and the pipeline has been strengthened in the last decade. We will have the ability to have new molecules with distinct and novel mechanisms of action in the near future that may contribute to combat recalcitrant fungal infections.

• The overall threat of fungal resistance.
• The antifungal pipeline in the last few years.
• New promising antifungals

• Andreas Groll, MD PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Head of the Infectious Disease Research Programme and Deputy Director of the Department of Haematology/Oncology at the University Children's Hospital in Münster, Germany. Editor AAC

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Journal and hosted by AAC Editor in Chief, Cesar Arias. 

AAC is available at https://asm.org/aac. 

Follow Cesar on twitter at https://twitter.com/SuperBugDoc for AAC updates. 

Subscribe to the podcast at https://asm.org/eic

Despite the many advances in diagnostic testing for infectious diseases, detection of Coccidoides infections continues to rely on serologic assessment for anti-fungal antibodies, and what is perhaps more astonishing is that the serologic methods we use today, such as complement fixation and immunodiffusion, were first developed about a century ago. These assays are technically challenging to maintain and perform, and as a result few labs offer this testing, and even if performed on-site, testing can take up to 3 days complete, so there is definitely room for improvement.

So today, we are talking about a study that aimed to modernize and improve our current options and diagnostic approach for Valley Fever, using a simpler and definitely faster lateral flow immunoassay. And as an added bonus, the study was not homo sapien-centric.

• Dr. Francisca Grill, Chief Scientific Officer at Cactus Bio
• Dr. Tom Grys, Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and co-Director of the Clinical Microbiology laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Arizona

• Development of a rapid lateral flow assay for detection of anti-coccidioidal antibodies

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Follow JCM on Twitter via @JClinMicro

Climate change is possibly the major threat that planet earth is experiencing in this century with potential catastrophic consequences. As the planet warms, the change in weather patterns is affecting the microbial ecology in such a manner that humans are facing new health threats including emerging diseases and facing species of organisms that are more likely to survive these new climatic conditions and resist clinically useful antimicrobials.

• The global threat of global warming.
• Climate change and change sin microbial ecology.
• The consequences of climate change and emergence of new infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance patterns.

• Arturo Casadeval MD, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor, Alfred & Jill Sommer Professor and Chair Department of Molecular Microbiology & Immunology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Editor in Chief of mBio, Member of the National Academy of Sciences

Fungi that are resistant to antifungal drugs have been very much in the news and even the subject of the hugely popular television program, The Last of Us. We talk with two experts in mycology and fungal susceptibility testing about the recent descriptions of terbinafine-resistant dermatophytes in the United States.

Some of the questions we will address include:
 • What are the manifestations of infections caused by terbinafine-resistant dermatophytes?
 • What species, including novel species, of dermatophytes are more commonly resistant to terbinafine?
 • How common is terbinafine resistance in dermatophytes in the U.S.?

Guests:

- Dr. Shawn Lockhart - Senior Advisor at the Centers for Disease Control

- Dr. Nathan Wiederhold - Director of the Fungus Testing Laboratory and a Professor at UT Health San Antonio.

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. Editors in conversation is supported by the American Society for Microbiology, which publishes JCM. If you are a member of ASM, you can get up to 50% off the publication fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals.

Visit https://journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Follow EIC, Alex McAdam on twitter for JCM updates via https://twitter.com/JClinMicro and co-host, Elli Theel at https://twitter.com/ETheelPhD.

Subscribe to the podcast at https://asm.org/eic

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to change the way we practice medicine and public health. The tools and AI approaches can substantially impact a broad range of fields from the manner we approach patient care to strategies to discover new antimicrobials, track pandemics and deploy public health measures.

AAC recently published a commentary on the impact of AI in infectious diseases and we have a conversation with the lead author of the manuscript and a expert guest who is applying these concepts in real time. 

• Basic concepts of AI and different applications.
• How AI can affect the practice of infectious diseases and antimicrobial research.
• Specific examples in which AI may have a transformative effect in the future.

• Lilian Abbo, MD MBA. Associate CMO Infectious Diseases, Professor of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Jackson Health System, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami Transplant Institute
• Masayuki Nigo, MD, MSc.  Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Section of Transplant Infectious Diseases.

This episode is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy journal available at aac.asm.org. If you plan to publish in AAC, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit asm.org/membership to sign up.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/aac to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript.

Dr. Elli Theel and Dr. Alex McAdam discuss recent viral outbreaks with expert virologists. Recorded before a live audience at ASM Microbe 2023.

• What are the recent epidemiologic and diagnostic findings with Mpox? 
• What are the reservoirs for influenza A H5N1 and how is it transmitted to humans?
• Why was there such a large number of cases of human metapneumovirus this past respiratory virus season?

• Dr. Ben Pinsky, Director of the Clinical Virology laboratory and Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Stanford Health Care and the Stanford University School of Medicine
• Dr. Ryan Relich, Director of Clinical Microbiology and the Special Pathogens Unit laboratory at IU Health and Eskenazi Health and an Associate Professor of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Follow JCM on Twitter via @JClinMicro

In response to the global burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the critical role antimicrobial stewardship plays in optimizing antibiotic use and reducing the subsequent emergence of AMR, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy is excited to add a new section to the journal focused on antimicrobial stewardship studies. Combatting the devastating burden of AMR requires novel, multipronged approaches from clinicians and scientists alike. Launching this new section is an important step in disseminating cutting-edge research that will have notable implications in the global fight against antimicrobial-resistant pathogens.

• The role of antimicrobial stewardship in preventing emerging of resistance.
• The types of high-quality manuscripts that AAC is seeking in this area.
• Encourage excellence in antimicrobial stewardship research.

• Pranita Tamma, MD MPH, Associate Professor of Pediatrics Director, Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MA, Editor AAC.
• Ryan Shields PharmD, MS.  Associate Professor of Medicine, Co-Director, Antibiotic Management Program, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA. Editor AAC.

This episode is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy journal available at aac.asm.org. If you plan to publish in AAC, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit asm.org/membership to sign up.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/aac to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript.