Journal of Urgent Care Medicine

Antibiotics Aren’t The Only Drugs That Increase Risk of C. Diff

Researchers found that antibiotics and other commonly prescribed medications substantially increase the risk of Clostridioides difficile infection, and their analysis shows that more drugs impact the gut microbiome than previously believed, as published in Gut. Recent antibiotic exposure (within 30 days) carried the highest risk. Some agents (eg, nitroimidazoles and intestinal anti-infectives) had particularly high odds ratios (OR), likely reflecting treatment-related bias, the authors say. Lipid-lowering agents (aOR 0.8, 95% CI 0.8–0.8) and aspirin (aOR …

Does Your Patient Really Have Penicillin Allergy? Probably Not.

A large international study found that direct oral challenge (DOC) can be a safe and effective strategy for identifying patients who have a true penicillin allergy. Researchers evaluated hospitalized adults who self-reported a penicillin allergy—a label that historically is attached to about 10% of patients, according to the study presented in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Among the 5,121 patients assessed, 30.7% underwent DOC; of these, 95.5% (95% confidence interval, 94.3%–96.5%) were safely “delabeled,” after assessing and …

As Flu Season Fades, Urgent Care Volume Remains Solid

Now that spring has arrived, respiratory virus season seems to be winding down across the country, according to the latest FluView report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Positive test rates for influenza were 9.8% for the week ending March 28, 2026, trending down as compared to the previous week (11.5%), and outpatient visits for respiratory illness also decreased to 2.6% of visits, down from 2.9%. In urgent care specifically, this month’s flu …

Doxy-PEP Lowers Syphilis Cases, Directing More Care Toward Pregnant Women

An analysis of surveillance data from January 2017–June 2025 in Washington’s King County area found a health clinic program that offered doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis (doxy-PEP) starting in March 2023 was associated with substantial declines in syphilis diagnoses. Compared with projected trends, researchers found total cases decreased by 52.3% (3,031 fewer cases), as published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. Reductions were greatest among cisgender men (−53.1%; 2,248 fewer cases) but were also observed in cisgender women (−46.9%; …

Deepfake X-Rays Could Be Hard To Spot

A new study in Radiology evaluated whether radiologists in 6 different countries could distinguish AI-generated (“deepfake”) radiographs from real images. In a subsequent phase of the study, 4 large language models (LLMs) were also tasked with deciding which images were authentic and which were deepfakes. Among 17 practicing radiologists, only 41% recognized AI-generated images as having poor technical quality at first look (“Did you notice anything unusual about these images?”). After learning that some images …

Panic Attacks Might Be Another Side Effect of Fluoroquinolones

Researchers believe there may be a potential link between fluoroquinolone antibiotics and increased risk of panic attacks, according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Using the Food and Drug Administration’s Adverse Event Reporting System database, researchers examined 4 clinical trials and found panic attack prevalence was low (0.5%–1.8%) but was reported with wide confidence intervals. Case reports generally suggested a probable causal link, according to the authors. Further …

HMPV Seems To Peak In April

As every urgent care clinician knows, acute respiratory illnesses (ARIs) often present with many of the same symptoms, such as cough, fever, and rhinitis. A recent outpatient study of 7,143 patients with ARI published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases found that human metapneumovirus (HMPV) accounted for 4.7%–7.3% of cases during the 5 influenza seasons the authors examined (from 2016–2022), compared with 11.3%–13.6% for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and 30.2%–37.1% for influenza. HMPV circulated later in …

New Daily Oral Medication Treats Plaque Psoriasis

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the oral medication icotrokinra for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adults and pediatric patients 12 years of age and older, according to a press release. An interleukin-23 receptor antagonist, the once‑daily medication is a uniquely targeted oral peptide for patients who weigh at least 40 kg and who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy. New guidance from the International Psoriasis Council clarifies when clinicians …

Hot, Humid Days Drive ED Visits Among Medicaid Beneficiaries

A large study of 55,200 emergency department (ED) visits among adults aged 65 years and older found that heat-related risk varies by population, and higher-than-average “feels like” temperatures in the summer months are associated with greater all-cause ED use for EDs with predominantly Medicaid-covered populations. Researchers analyzed visits from May 1 to September 30 between 2022 to 2024 at 2 New York hospitals and compared the data, as published in JAMA Network Open. At a …

Rapid Tests for RSV Reduce Unnecessary Antibiotic Prescribing

A retrospective cohort study of 256 children aged 9–36 months found rapid antigen testing for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) reduced unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in primary care, as published in JAMA Network Open. Among tested children, 30.86% were RSV positive. Antibiotic prescribing was substantially lower when RSV was detected: 20.25% of RSV-positive cases received antibiotics compared with 39.55% of RSV-negative cases. The prescription rate was 0.18 vs 0.29 per 10 person-days, corresponding to about a 48% …

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