In this issue of Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, guest editors Drs. Naomi P. O'Grady and Sameer Kadri bring their considerable expertise to the topic of Complex Infectious Diseases Issues in the Intensive Care Unit. Affected immunity of patients with COVID-19 has made management of complex infectious diseases in the intensive care unit more important than ever. This issue provides key updates for managing these complex infectious diseases and includes current clinical information for COVID-19 patients, making this a state-of-the-art collection of review articles for practicing infectious disease physicians. - Contains 13 practice-oriented topics including timing and spectrum of antibiotic treatment for suspected sepsis and septic shock; preparing an ICU for a lethal viral respiratory pandemic; rapid implementation of a system-level ICU pandemic surge staffing amidst quarantined staff and infection control barriers; management of serious SARS-CoV-2 infection with immunotherapies; supportive care in patients with critical COVID-19; and more. - Provides in-depth clinical reviews on complex infectious diseases issues in the ICU, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. - Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

In this issue, guest editors bring their considerable expertise to this important topic. - Contains 14 practice-oriented topics including COVID-19 prevention in organ transplant recipients; COVID-19 management in organ transplant recipients; updates in molecular diagnostics in organ transplant recipients; updates in immunizations for organ transplant recipients; data that inform "low hanging fruit antimicrobial stewardship interventions among solid organ transplant recipients; and more. - Provides in-depth clinical reviews of transplant-related infections, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. - Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

Infectious diseases are the leading cause of death globally, particularly among children and young adults. The spread of new pathogens and the threat of antimicrobial resistance pose particular challenges in combating these diseases. Major Infectious Diseases identifies feasible, cost-effective packages of interventions and strategies across delivery platforms to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, other sexually transmitted infections, tuberculosis, malaria, adult febrile illness, viral hepatitis, and neglected tropical diseases. The volume emphasizes the need to effectively address emerging antimicrobial resistance, strengthen health systems, and increase access to care. The attainable goals are to reduce incidence, develop innovative approaches, and optimize existing tools in resource-constrained settings.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Public health officials and organizations around the world remain on high alert because of increasing concerns about the prospect of an influenza pandemic, which many experts believe to be inevitable. Moreover, recent problems with the availability and strain-specificity of vaccine for annual flu epidemics in some countries and the rise of pandemic strains of avian flu in disparate geographic regions have alarmed experts about the world's ability to prevent or contain a human pandemic. The workshop summary, The Threat of Pandemic Influenza: Are We Ready? addresses these urgent concerns. The report describes what steps the United States and other countries have taken thus far to prepare for the next outbreak of "killer flu." It also looks at gaps in readiness, including hospitals' inability to absorb a surge of patients and many nations' incapacity to monitor and detect flu outbreaks. The report points to the need for international agreements to share flu vaccine and antiviral stockpiles to ensure that the 88 percent of nations that cannot manufacture or stockpile these products have access to them. It chronicles the toll of the H5N1 strain of avian flu currently circulating among poultry in many parts of Asia, which now accounts for the culling of millions of birds and the death of at least 50 persons. And it compares the costs of preparations with the costs of illness and death that could arise during an outbreak.

In this issue of Critical Care Nursing Clinics, guest editors Sharon C. O'Donoghue and Justin H. DiLibero bring their considerable expertise to the topic of Moving Forward in Critical Care Nursing: Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic brought considerable pressure on nurses worldwide, and many new opportunities have occurred to help ease the burden and move forward. In this issue, top experts examine the changes the pandemic has ushered in and look to the future of making improvements for critical care nurses, covering topics like health inequities, healthy work environments, nursing management, and patient safety. Contains 12 relevant, practice-oriented topics including supporting and retaining nurses in trying times; nurse leadership and healthy work environments; what the pandemic taught us about clinical documentation and quality of care; health equities with limited English proficiency; Long COVID, critical illness, and recovery; nursing education post-COVID; and more. Provides in-depth clinical reviews on lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, offering actionable insights for clinical practice. Presents the latest information on this timely, focused topic under the leadership of experienced editors in the field. Authors synthesize and distill the latest research and practice guidelines to create clinically significant, topic-based reviews.

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.