Infectious diseases

Antibiotic resistance: is it time to get serious about point-of-care testing?

There is solid evidence from other countries that point-of-care testing before prescribing antibiotics for respiratory tract and other infections helps to combat antimicrobial resistance, but experts say the UK is far behind.…

How COVID-19 affected pharmacy supply of antibiotics for uncomplicated urinary tract infections

Learnings from a community pharmacy patient group direction service for the management of suspected urinary tract infections, which identified prescribing patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

UTIs can be diagnosed without a dipstick test, says NICE

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has said women aged under 65 years can be diagnosed with urinary tract infection if they have two or more key urinary symptoms and no other excluding causes or warning signs.…

Chlamydia: screening, diagnosis and management

Chlamydia is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK. Learn the signs and symptoms of chlamydia, who is eligible for screening and how to treat it.…

Eliminating HIV: are we on target?

Testing was blown off course by the COVID-19 pandemic, so England has to continue to make progress in order to reach its target of zero new HIV transmissions by 2030.…

Shortage of cold and flu medicines increases pressure on pharmacies

Community pharmacists are claiming the current medicine supply system is broken, as price concessions reach record levels.…

Serious shortage protocols issued for three penicillin oral solutions

Under the protocols, pharmacists are able to supply alternative strengths or tablets with immediate effect.…

GP leader calls for pharmacists to be able to substitute antibiotics where there are shortages

Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said that pharmacists need to be able to dispense a different formulation of an antibiotic or an alternative if it is not available.…

National Institute for Health and Care Research to fund new phase of platform trial to assess treatments for severe flu

The 'Randomised, embedded, multi-factorial, adaptive platform trial for community-acquired pneumonia' was also designed to assess several treatments during a respiratory pandemic, such as COVID-19.…

Concern over ‘inappropriate’ flu vaccine being given to people aged over 65 years

An NHS regional flu lead has warned that patients aged over 65 years who have been given the QIVe vaccine should be recalled and possibly revaccinated.…