various types of human H. cinaedi infections, including the more severe ones such as bacteremia, meningitis, and artificial joint infection, have been successfully treated with regimens that include a single or multiple antibiotics. The bacterium is highly sensitive to carbapenem, aminoglycoside, cephalosporin, and tetracycline antibiotics and moderately sensitive to β-lactam antibiotics, but has often been found to be resistant to macrolides, quinolones, and metronidazole. However, the infection has frequently recurred even in patients who have been treated with an appropriate antibiotic regimen. For example, one patient with H. cinaedi bacteremia had been successfully treated with cephazolin (a β-lactam antibiotic) and panipenem (a carbapenem antibiotic), but had two symptom recurrences, each of which was successfully retreated with the same antibiotic regimen. Longer-term initial antibiotic treatments may reduce these recurrences. Prevention Careful monitoring of H. cinaedi in the hospital/medical setting may prevent nosocomial infections. Monitoring may be particularly helpful in sections or wards of hospitals that treat immunocompromised patients, e.g. cancer or other wards that focus on treating patients with chemotherapy. Prognosis The prognosis of patients with H. cinaedi infections is generally good, with many symptoms showing improvements within 2–3 days of starting antibiotics. However, patients receiving short-term (e.g. ≤10 days) antibiotic treatments experience recurrent symptoms in 30 to 60% of cases. The Centers for Disease Control now recommends that initial antibiotic treatment regimens for infections with this bacterium be extended to 2–6 weeks. Conventional antibiotic regimens used to treat H. cinaedi bacteremia in immune-incompetent individuals is reported to have a mortality rate after 30 days of treatment of 6.3%. References External links Type strain of Helicobacter cinaedi at BacDive - the Bacterial Diversity Metadatabase Bacteria described in 1988 Gram-negative bacteria Campylobacterota Pathogenic bacteria