Tuberculosis treatment through directly observed therapy in a large multisite methadone maintenance treatment program: addressing the public health needs of a high-risk population.

The rate of tuberculosis in patients receiving methadone treatment is significantly greater than the general population. The stabilization of former injection drug users occurs within methadone maintenance treatment programs, indicating the suitability of these sites for directly observed therapy (DOT). There are formidable barriers to the success of DOT, some are institutional, others patient-related. Strategies to address these obstacles need to be implemented. The integration of DOT into existing programs required support from the New York State Department of Health, institutional commitment, as well as continued staff and patient education and training.

Nosocomial outbreak due to Enterococcus faecium highly resistant to vancomycin, penicillin, and gentamicin.

In October 1990, Enterococcus faecium that was highly resistant to glycopeptides, penicillins, and aminoglycosides was isolated from the peritoneal dialysis fluid from a patient in an intensive care unit. Over the following 6 months, multiresistant E. faecium organisms were isolated from cultures of blood, urine, or surgical wound specimens from eight additional patients. Surveillance cultures of groin and/or rectal swabs were positive for eight of 37 patients and four of 62 employees at risk. Restriction endonuclease digestion of chromosomal DNA from outbreak isolates was consistent with dissemination of a single strain throughout the intensive care unit. Strict infection control interventions contained the outbreak after several weeks. Review of patient charts suggested that renal insufficiency, length of hospital stay, duration of antibiotic treatment, and prior treatment with vancomycin were risks for infection due to multiresistant E. faecium. The emergence of multiple-drug-resistant enterococci presents serious infection control and therapeutic dilemmas.

Concomitant high-level vancomycin and penicillin resistance in clinical isolates of enterococci.

Enterococci are important nosocomial pathogens among which resistance to multiple antibiotics is being recognized with increasing frequency. We characterized three clinical isolates from three New York City hospitals that demonstrated concomitant resistance to vancomycin (one VanA, two VanB phenotypes) and high-level resistance to penicillin. Two Enterococcus faecium strains were intrinsically highly resistant to penicillin and showed very low affinity for penicillin of penicillin-binding protein 5. Unlike previously described glycopeptide-resistant enterococci, these strains were not hypersusceptible to beta-lactam agents after vancomycin induction, and combinations of penicillin and vancomycin were not synergistic against them. A third isolate, Enterococcus faecalis, produced beta-lactamase. Two of the three strains were also highly resistant to all aminoglycosides. Emergence of concomitant high-level resistance to multiple antibiotic classes among enterococci considerably narrows the therapeutic options for treatment of infections due to these opportunistic pathogens.

HIV-associated Hodgkin disease: a clinical study of 18 cases and review of the literature.

Intermediate- and high-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) occurring in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patient is considered diagnostic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Other neoplasms (both hematopoietic and nonhematopoietic) have also been reported in patients with HIV infection, although none except Kaposi sarcoma carries the same diagnosis of AIDS as B-cell NHL in an HIV-infected host. There have been previous reports in the literature of Hodgkin disease (HD) in HIV-infected patients. We describe our clinical and pathological experience with HD from 1984-1989, in 18 patients with documented HIV infection and also review the literature on HD in HIV-infected patients. Almost all patients described herein presented with advanced disease and mixed cellularity histology and did very poorly despite some good initial responses to therapy. By statistical analysis, we found that the patients with HIV-associated HD had a strong tendency to be outside the age range seen in non-HIV-associated HD (P less than 0.005). We also discuss the possible relationship between HIV and HD and consider whether HIV-associated HD, like B-cell NHL, is a manifestation of AIDS.