A new way to battle bloodborne staph infections could help save lives while combating the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, according to new clinical trial results.
Two intravenous doses of the antibiotic dalbavancin delivered seven days apart worked just as well as daily IV doses of conventional antibiotics in quelling Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections, researchers reported Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Given the small number of antimicrobial drugs available to treat Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections and the bacteria's growing drug resistance, establishing dalbavancin as a beneficial therapy for these severe infections gives us a vital new alternative to treat them," Dr. John Beigel said in a news release. He's acting director of microbiology and infectious diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
NIAID sponsored and funded the trial, which involved 200 hospitalized adults with complicated staph blood infections treated at 23 medical centers in the U.S. and Canada.
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