Injectable HIV therapy held suppression in people who struggle with pills

The edition in brief

The edition closes on IMPALA, a phase 3b trial in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda: 540 virally suppressed adults with a history of poor adherence were switched to cabotegravir plus rilpivirine injections every eight weeks or kept on oral dolutegravir-based therapy. At 48 weeks, 91.0% versus 89.2% had a viral load under 50 copies, meeting non-inferiority, but five people on injections (1.9%) had confirmed virological failure against none on oral therapy, without baseline resistance testing. In POET II, 508 stable patients with left-sided endocarditis who had received 2 to 4 weeks of antibiotics were randomised to stop on clinical response or continue to a standard 4 to 6 weeks. Tailored therapy gave 13 more antibiotic-free days and met non-inferiority for death, surgery or embolism, but relapse was higher (5.1% vs 1.6%). In Zambia, a new Pfkelch13 mutation, A724E, rose from 0% to 79% of isolates in one district between 2018 and 2026 and was linked to day-3 parasitaemia after artemisinin combination therapy. FDA records a supplement to a generic voriconazole application; it is administrative. The pearl covers when to repeat blood cultures in Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia.