ID Roundup: Shorter TB Treatment, Next Year's Flu Vaccine, and More

March has been a busy month for infectious disease news. Up-to-date recommendations and new, potential treatment options have emerged for infections including influenza and tuberculosis, and important trends regarding inappropriate antibiotic prescribing practices have been revealed.

Here, we have put together our list of this month’s top stories on infectious diseases. See what your colleagues have been reading.

Researchers may have found a shorter course of treatment for tuberculosis.

One month of this once-daily treatment regimen was found to be noninferior to 9-month standard-of-care treatment for some patients with tuberculosis. Read more.

Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing practices have remained a widespread problem in the United States.

Despite the existence of guidelines intended to reduce these patterns, findings from a new study suggest that no significant changes in annual antibiotic prescribing rates have occurred. For details, read more.

The World Health Organization and the US Food and Drug Administration have each released recommendations regarding the composition of 2018-2019 influenza virus vaccines.

The recommendations from both agencies are the same. Read more.

Flu vaccination can significantly reduce the risk of mortality among patients with heart failure.

These results applied to both influenza and non-influenza seasons. Read more.