The ESCMID Global Late Breakers series returns to Communicable ! Five CMI Communications editors – Marc Bonten, Josh Davis, Angela Huttner, Anne-Grete Märtson, and Erin McCreary – handpicked five late-breaking trials presented at ESCMID Global 2026 to summarise their findings and discuss whether the results will change their practice. This is part one of the two-part series. Trials presented are listed below and links to their respective sessions can be watched and rewatched on the ESCMID Global...
May 17, 2026•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 53
In this collaborative episode of Breakpoints and Communicable , the hosts revisit the “trial run” session from ESCMID Global, a format designed to facilitate critical discussion of major infectious diseases trials. This episode focuses on two studies addressing bloodstream infections caused by third‑generation cephalosporin-resistant Enterobacterales [1]. Mical Paul (Rambam Health Care Campus, Israel) joins the podcast to discuss the PETER PEN trial [1,2], comparing piperacillin/tazobactam with ...
May 08, 2026•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 52
This is a short message to Communicable listeners to inform them that the next episode will be released on Friday, 8 May, as it is a collaboration episode with Breakpoints , the podcast of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists. It will cover the two trials presented in Munich during ESCMID Global's late-breaker Trial Run session.
May 03, 2026•1 min
Communicable is launching a new series on everything related to pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD). Kicking off this series are hosts Thomas Tängdén, Erin McCreary and Angela Huttner, and invited guests Amy Legg and Rekha Pai Mangalore. They walk us through key parameters and terms of PK/PD, such as volume of distribution, minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), epidemiological cut-off value (ECOFF), and PK/PD indices, laying the foundation to better comprehend clinical applications...
Apr 19, 2026•48 min•Season 2Ep. 51
This is the first episode of the 'Quarterly catchup' series, in which CMI Communications editors discuss important and useful articles that have come out in the last 3 months to understand their results and potential clinical impact. In this inaugural episode of 'Quarterly catchup', Emily McDonald (Canada), Thomas Tängdén (Sweden) and Navaneeth Narayanan (USA) convene to discuss clinical microbiology and infectious diseases studies published in the first quarter of 2026 [1-6]. From Wolbachia-inf...
Apr 05, 2026•59 min•Season 2Ep. 50
In this episode of Communicable , hosts Angela Huttner and Marc Bonten invite two members of the ESCMID Emerging Infections Subcommittee, Martin Grobusch (Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Pikka Jokelainen (Copenhagen, Denmark), to discuss infectious disease outbreaks. Sparked by the Subcommittee's beloved 'Epi Alert', which identifies and tracks outbreaks around the world, the episode covers common missteps and underestimated challenges in handling new outbreaks, the effects of climate change, and wh...
Mar 22, 2026•55 min•Season 2Ep. 49
Yesterday was International Women's Day. In light of that, Communicable prepared a special episode in which hosts Erin McCreary and Annie Joseph are joined by Esmita Charani (South Africa) and Annette Westgeest (Netherlands) for a discussion on gender- and sex-dependent patient-care disparities in the infectious diseases space. Together they review recent research findings that identified gender and sex as important determinants influencing patient outcomes and even decision making by prescriber...
Mar 08, 2026•39 min•Season 2Ep. 48
In this third collaboration between SIDP’s Breakpoints and ESCMID’s Communicable podcasts, hosts Erin McCreary and Angela Huttner invite two veteran authors of guidelines and guidances, Pranita Tamma (Philadelphia, USA) and Benedikt Huttner (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland) [1-3]. Together, they deconstruct the complex landscape of developing and implementing guidelines into digestible components: they discuss why different organizations develop guidelines and what need they hope to fulfil, the framewo...
Feb 22, 2026•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 47
In this episode of Communicable , Navaneeth Narayanan and Josh Nosanchuk invite Virginie Lemiale and Elie Azoulay (Paris, France) as well as fellow editor Emily McDonald (Montreal, Canada)—this time as guest—to discuss adjunctive steroid therapy for pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in HIV-negative individuals. In 2025, Lemiale and Azoulay published results from their double-blind, randomised controlled trial investigating steroid treatment for severe Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PIC trial) in t...
Feb 08, 2026•55 min•Season 2Ep. 46
In this episode of Communicable , Josh Davis (Newcastle, Australia) and Emily McDonald (Montreal, Canada), plus invited guest, Steven Tong (Melbourne, Australia)—all practicing physicians and clinical trialists—assemble to discuss some of their ‘top infectious diseases papers published in 2025’. Bassam Ghanem (Jeddah Lol, Saudi Arabia), whom one might know better as Antibiotic Steward on social media, was also invited to share his favourite publications of 2025. Six papers that were most consist...
Jan 25, 2026•39 min•Season 2Ep. 45
In the first Communicable episode of 2026, Annie Joseph and Josh Nosanchuk invite Robin Patel (Rochester, USA) and Fidelma Fitzpatrick (Dublin, Ireland) to discuss some of their favourite clinical microbiology papers published in 2025. These six papers highlight everything from technological advances of genomics and molecular diagnostic testing to the importance of patient and public involvement in research as well as effective communication [1-6]. The panel also discusses whether or not any of ...
Jan 11, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 44
In this final episode of 2025, hosts Annie Joseph (Nottingham, UK) and Angela Huttner (Geneva, Switzerland), interview Communicable 's producer, Katie Hostettler-Oi (Zurich, Switzerland), to learn which episodes she liked best this year. Their discussion provides a behind-the-scenes look at some of the episodes--including the strange surprises that sometimes came with them. Finally, the CMI Comms editors and editorial fellows send in their perspectives on 2025 and their wishes for 2026....
Dec 28, 2025•47 min•Season 2Ep. 43
During the COVID-19 pandemic with lockdown mandates and social distancing, doctors, researchers, and the public were able to find refuge and community online; for the infectious disease community, it was on the social media platform Twitter, and more specifically under the widely used hashtag, #IDTwitter. Under new ownership from 2022, however, Twitter’s name and brand changed to what we now know as X, and “the heyday of #IDTwitter is long since gone”. In this special episode of Communicable , A...
Dec 14, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 42
In the last ten years, 'diagnostic stewardship' has emerged as a core principle of good clinical practice whose implementation impacts both the individual patient and public health at large. In this episode of Communicable , hosts Angela Huttner and Annie Joseph invite two experts in the field, Daniel Morgan (Maryland, USA) and Valerie Vaughn (Utah, USA), to discuss diagnostic stewardship in the context of infectious diseases, hospital medicine, and healthcare in general. Other topics covered in...
Nov 30, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 41
It’s World AMR Awareness Week (WAAW) and we have prepared a special episode in light of that. In this week's Communicable , Navaneeth Narayanan and Thomas Tängdén host Aula Abbara (London, UK), Guido Granata (Rome, Italy) and Tuomas Aro (Helsinki, Finland) to discuss the phenomenon of AMR in conflict and crisis zones. They elaborate on how difficult conditions and austere environments amplify the spread of AMR, drawing on findings from the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Syria and other regi...
Nov 16, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 40
Once confined to the tropics, dengue is spreading via its vector, the Aedes mosquito, to more temperate regions, causing increases in global morbidity, mortality and cost. In 2019, the WHO recognised dengue as one of the top ten global health threats alongside climate change and antimicrobial resistance [1]. In this episode of Communicable , Annie Joseph and Nav Narayanan welcome two dengue experts, André Siqueira of the non-profit Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative based in Geneva, Switzer...
Nov 02, 2025•57 min•Season 2Ep. 39
In this episode of Communicable , Erin McCreary and Angela Huttner are joined by Barbara Trautner (St. Louis, USA) and Valéry Lavergne (Vancouver, Canada), the co-chairs and leading authors of the first IDSA guideline on complicated urinary tract infection (cUTI), which was published a few months ago [1]. Together, they discuss the process of developing the guideline from its conception in 2018, the new definition of cUTI, their stepwise approach to clinical decision-making, and some case-by-cas...
Oct 19, 2025•48 min•Season 2Ep. 38
Contrary to popular belief, peer review has only recently become an integral step in scientific publishing. Currently seen by many as a badge of honour ensuring valid, innovative and honest research, peer review seems in reality to be increasingly thankless, exploitative, and sometimes invisible. How did we get here? In this episode of Communicable , Annie Joseph and Angela Huttner are joined by two experts, Melinda Baldwin (University of Maryland, USA) and Serge Horbach (Radboud University, Net...
Oct 05, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 37
In this second-ever collaboration between SIDP’s Breakpoints and ESCMID’s Communicable podcasts, hosts Erin McCreary and Angela Huttner invite the two principal investigators and visionaries who spearheaded the Bacteraemia Antibiotic Length Actually Needed for Clinical Effectiveness (BALANCE) trial, Nick Daneman and Rob Fowler (Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto), for a “deep dive into all things that went into this trial” (1). The BALANCE trial spanned over ten years investigating - as ...
Sep 19, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 36
In this episode of Communicable , Angela Huttner and Erin McCreary invite two titans of vaccinology, Barney Graham (Atlanta, USA), former deputy director of the NIH NIAID Vaccine Research Center and architect of the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, and Gary Kobinger (Galveston, USA), leading virologist in the development of the first effective Ebola vaccine, rVSV-ZEBOV, for a candid conversation about their direct experience building two of the most well known vaccines to date, and deploying them...
Sep 07, 2025•58 min•Season 2Ep. 35
Fungal infections and disease have long been overlooked in terms of healthcare burden, with poor diagnostics and limited options for treatment and management. In 2022, the WHO published its first Fungal Priority Pathogens List as an effort to establish a global prioritised framework that addresses unmet research and development needs in fungal disease and antifungal resistance, as well as guides public health action [1]. In this episode of Communicable , Angela Huttner and Josh Nosanchuk invite ...
Aug 24, 2025•50 min•Season 2Ep. 34
Ethics in the field of infectious disease can be a delicate interplay between treating the individual patient and protecting the collective health of a society. Sometimes these two mandates go hand in hand; at other times they can appear to be in conflict. In this episode of Communicable , Dr. Angela Huttner invites Drs. Zeb Jamrozik (Melbourne, Australia) and Beenish Syed (Karachi, Pakistan), two members of ESCMID’s Ethics Advisory Committee, to unpack different scenarios encountered in the fie...
Aug 10, 2025•37 min•Season 2Ep. 33
Fluoroquinolones (FQs) are valuable given their broad-spectrum activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and their high penetration into various tissues. Yet FQs have also caused concern, with some market withdrawals, important and sometimes long-lasting adverse drug events, and substantial collateral effects on the microbiota. In this episode of Communicable , hosts Emily McDonald and Thomas Tängdén invite Staffan Tevell (Karlstad, Sweden) and Bernadette Young (Oxford, UK) to we...
Jul 27, 2025•56 min•Season 2Ep. 32
The adaptability of fungi to warmer temperatures is an obvious consequence of climate change. Perhaps less obvious is the role climate change has played on fungal pathogens emerging as a global health concern. While humans are mostly protected from fungal infections by our immune system and body temperature, a warming global climate could subvert the status quo. Some fungi are already adapted to warmer temperatures and causing invasive acute infections in humans: Candidozyma auris , Cryptococcus...
Jul 13, 2025•52 min•Season 2Ep. 31
Meningitis remains a major global health threat, with an estimated 2.5 million cases each year; of these, one in six results in death and one in five in long-term disabilities. Although meningitis “can strike anyone, anywhere in the world,” outbreaks disproportionately impact low- and middle-income countries, where diagnostic and treatment resources are limited. In efforts to address this, WHO launched its first-ever guideline on meningitis diagnosis and management in April this year. In this ep...
Jun 29, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 30
Bacterial vaginosis (BV) was long considered not to be a sexually transmitted infection (STI), and treatment was only for women to bear. That was the convention at least until Catriona Bradshaw and her team at the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre published their groundbreaking clinical trial results earlier this year, demonstrating that treating male partners of women with BV prevented recurrence in those women. In this episode of Communicable , hosts Angela Huttner and Annie Joseph welcome back B...
Jun 15, 2025•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 29
Editors of CMI Comms , Josh Davis, Erin McCreary and Emily McDonald return for round 2 taking turns to summarise and discuss late-breaker trials presented at ESCMID Global 2025 in Vienna, and whether or not these trials should change your practice. Part 2 covers the ALABAMA trial exploring the safety of penicillin-allergy delabelling using the penicillin allergy assessment pathway, the SOLARIO trial investigating short (≤7 days!) versus long (≥4 weeks) antibiotic courses for orthopaedic infectio...
Jun 01, 2025•47 min•Season 2Ep. 28
This episode of Communicable takes on a special format where editors of CMI Comms , Marc Bonten, Josh Davis, Erin McCreary, Emily McDonald, all clinical trialists in their own right, take turns to summarise and discuss late-breaker trials presented at ESCMID Global 2025 in Vienna. These include the CloCeBa trial on Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia treatment options, the Taper V trial on vancomycin as prophylaxis for Clostridioides difficile infection, the ASTARTÉ trial on temocillin versus mero...
May 18, 2025•54 min•Season 2Ep. 27
In this first-ever collaboration between Communicable and Breakpoints , the podcast of the US Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, hosts Angela Huttner (Geneva, Switzerland) and Erin McCreary (Pittsburgh, USA) join trial investigators Josh Davis (Newcastle, Australia) and Steve Tong (Melbourne, Australia) to unpack the first results coming from the SNAP adaptive platform trial, which were recently presented at ESCMID Global in Vienna. Learn whether penicillin and cefazolin are non-inferio...
May 04, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 26
In this episode of Communicable , hosts Angela Huttner and Annie Joseph join experts Kerrigan McCarthy of South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and Natasha Crowcroft of the World Health Organisation to discuss the resurgence of measles as a consequence of misinformation campaigns and waning vaccination rates, how to diagnose and manage active measles cases, and post-exposure control measures to take to reduce further spread. They also address the broader challenges of the m...
Apr 20, 2025•55 min•Season 2Ep. 25
