Chagas: 30 days of once-daily benznidazole matched the 60-day standard with fewer side effects

The edition in brief

In the TESEO phase 2b trial in Bolivia, benznidazole 150 mg once daily for 30 days cleared Trypanosoma cruzi parasitaemia in 94% of adults with chronic Chagas disease, against 95% for the standard 150 mg twice daily for 60 days, and was the only regimen to cut drug-related adverse events (37% vs 60%). Most adverse events began within 10 to 14 days whatever the duration. The FDA has listed a Class II recall of Baxter's premixed vancomycin 1 g in 200 mL GALAXY bags for manufacturing-practice deviations; it is ongoing. A Lancet Infectious Diseases modelling study estimates that antiviral post-exposure prophylaxis for health workers in an orthoebolavirus outbreak could avert about 80% of their deaths if available from day one, but only about 20% if scaled up over a year, and that same-day dosing matters as much as coverage. A US difference-in-differences analysis of 1.66 million births found adjunctive azithromycin use at unscheduled caesarean rose from 2.2% to 39.6% after the 2016 trial, alongside a 2.0 percentage-point fall in postpartum infection.