Posted 02/06/2020. Thomas Althaus and colleagues identified Influenza and dengue viruses as key pathogens in febrile children and adults attending primary care in Thailand and Myanmar. CRP performance for distinguishing bacterial from viral pathogens was average while patients recovered regardless of antibiotic prescription. This suggests that most primary care infections do not require an antibiotic.

Posted 05/05/2020. In this Cochrane qualitative review to inform the 2020 COVID19 pandemic, Xin Hui Chan and colleagues identify key barriers and facilitators to healthcare workers’ adherence to infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines for respiratory infectious diseases to support policymakers and healthcare leaders in designing and implementing IPC guidelines. These include organisational factors (safety climate, design & communication of consistent PPE guidelines, availability of training programmes), physical environment (space, facility design, administrative controls, personal protective equipment availability), and individual factors (knowledge, beliefs, attitudes).

Posted 01/05/2020. Although effective treatment for malaria in pregnancy is needed for preventing adverse impact on both mother and fetus, quinine is still widely used in pregnancy. Makoto Saito and 41 other collaborators worldwide put their individual patient data together to summarise the currently available evidence showing that quinine is inferior to ACT and further research on dose optimization of ACT is warranted.