At a glance: this study shows that medical grade honey exhibits good efficacy against a range of organisms, including multi-resistant strains.

At a glance: a self-limiting reactivation of CMV is very common in patients receiving chemotherapy for cancer.

At a glance: this paper from the US shows that there was a reduction of half to two-thirds in rates of pneumococcal meningitis in vaccinated children.

At a glance: this study from London shows that ciprofloxacin sensitivity is a good marker for CA-MRSA.

At a glance: a recent audit of clinical and laboratory practice in the diagnosis of syphilis has reported turnaround times for positive samples of up to 8 weeks. More than a quarter of GUM clinics reported that delays in turnaround time had adversely affected patient management in the past year.

At a glance: when given at birth, monovalent type 1 oral poliovirus vaccine is superior to trivalent oral poliovirus vaccine in inducing humoral antibodies, overcoming high preexisting levels of maternally derived antibodies, and increasing the resistance to excretion of type 1 poliovirus.

At a glance: this study suggests an association between the donor TLR4 haplotype S4 and the risk of invasive aspergillosis among recipients of haematopoietic-cell transplants from unrelated donors.

At a glance: the sensitivities and specificities of ESBL detection by the BD Phoenix and Vitek 2 systems differ depending on the microorganisms under study.

At a glance: this study shows that 14 days’ culture is necessary to reliably detect periprosthetic infection.

At a glance: in the Netherlands ribotype O78 is the second commonest ribotype of C. difficile, is associated with a younger population, and is more frequently community-associated than is O27.

At a glance: this study showed that the AST N-054 gram negative sensitivity card detected ESBL production with a sensitivity of 67.9%.

At a glance: this study using a mouse model shows that the administration of oral ß-lactamase preserved colonic flora of mice during parenteral ß-lactam antibiotic treatment.

At a glance: three antifungal agents were found to have a time-dependent decrease in activity against Aspergillus fumigatus.

At a glance: this German study finds that moxifloxacin is the most effective agent against the range of pathogens found in this surveillance of respiratory tract infections.

At a glance: risk factors for surgical site infection depend on whether surgery is laparoscopic or open and the duration of operation; BMI is also significant for colon surgery and age for gastric surgery.

At a glance: this study finds that thioridazine, when used in combination with oxacillin, reverses meticillin resistance in MRSA; this may be due to a reduced transcripTion of mecA.

At a glance: reducing the duration of urinary catheterisation to under four days significantly reduces the frequency of catheter-associated urinary tract infection.

At a glance: extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis can be cured in HIV-negative patients through supervised outpatient treatment, even where previous treatments have failed.

At a glance: quarterly cycling of linezolid and vancomycin in the ICU shows promise as a method to reduce infections with MRSA.

At a glance: does a rapid PCR method and universal screening reduce MRSA infections in surgical patients? Answer: no. There was no difference in nosocomial MRSA rates when universal screening by PCR was performed. Also, over half of the MRSA infections found in this study were MRSA free on admission.

At a glance: this study concludes that carers of children with fever should be advised initially to use ibuprofen, with the possible option of using paracetamol plus ibuprofen over 24 hours.

At a glance: this study shows there are differing clinical features and diagnostic results from the CSF between various viral aetiologies of viral meningitis.

At a glance: this study shows that 80% of all antibiotic adverse events are allergic reactions, of which the β-lactams cause half.

At a glance: in cases of catheter-related candidaemia when catheter removal is not feasible, the combination of ABLC + EDTA may be considered for antifungal catheter lock solution as part of a catheter salvage therapy.