An international study led by a Rutgers scientist comparing new and older treatments against complicated urinary tract infections has found a new drug combination to be more effective, especially against stubborn, drug-resistant infections. Describing the results in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), researchers in the ALLIUM Phase 3 clinical trial showed that a combination of the drugs cefepime and enmetazobactam was more effective in treating both complicated urinary tract infections and acute pyelonephritis (AP), a bacterial infection causing kidney inflammation, than a standard treatment combining piperacillin and tazobactam. Urinary tract infections are considered complicated when they are associated with risk factors – including fevers, sepsis, urinary obstruction or catheters – that increase the danger of failing antibiotic therapy. To read the full story.