Contagion® to Report on IDWeek 2019 in Washington, DC

The Contagion^® staff is returning to IDWeek this year—in Washington, DC—to provide exclusive written and video coverage on the biggest conference dedicated specifically to infectious diseases.

Each year, IDWeek serves as a forum for health care professionals of all different backgrounds and institutions to work together and learn from each other’s research, insights, and expertise on several important infectious disease topics.

Last year, Contagion^® spoke with several key opinion leaders in the realm of infectious disease on a plethora of disease topics, including optimal dosing for rezafungin, the cost-effectiveness of oritavancin, and how when it comes to penicillin, once allergic does not mean always allergic.

This year’s plenary sessions include several notable speakers. The opening plenary—From Outbreaks to -Omics: Revolutionizing the Infectious Diseases Landscape in the Age of Big Data—will include Francis S. Collins, MD, PhD, of the National Institutes of Health and Pardis C. Sabeti, MD, PhD, of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. The session will focus on recent advances in the field of genomics and their effect on the acceleration of research and how these will advance the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases.

The closing plenary—All About Vaccines: The Individual, the Community, the World—will feature a presentation by Peter J. Hotez, MD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine, along with Anthony S. Fauci, MD, of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Penny M. Heaton, MD, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute. The presenters will discuss the re-emergence of neglected diseases, the development of vaccines for emerging infectious diseases, and the need for vaccines for poverty-related diseases. The presenters will discuss the use of monoclonal antibodies to treat or protect against infectious diseases and the role of bacteriophages for the treatment of bacterial infections and how phage lysins act as therapeutic agents against antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their effectiveness.

At this year’s conference, we have identified several “hot button” sessions that we will provide coverage on in the upcoming weeks. One big topic is the assessment and containment of Candida auris transmission in post-acute care settings.

Other important topics include: microarray patch delivery for long-acting HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, the role of adults in measles outbreaks, patterns on influenza A-related hospitalization, and recent developments for the prevention of cytomegalovirus.

In addition, Contagion^® will be interviewing several presenters to discuss several antibiotics in the pipeline. Some of these antibiotics include, but are not limited to:

• Cefiderocol: Cefiderocol is a cephalosporin with a novel mechanism that penetrates the outer cell membrane of Gram-negative pathogens, including multidrug-resistant strains including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.
• Iclaprim: Iclaprim is a novel investigational antibiotic with strong in vitroactivity against Gram-positive isolates in various types of staphylococci including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. The investigational antibiotic is being developed to treat acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections.

If there are any specific presentations from the “Program” that you would like us to cover, please share your thoughts on our Twitter or Facebook pages and we will do our best to accommodate your requests.

Going to ID Week? Be sure to swing by our booth (#543) to say hello and grab a publication and a microbe.

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