Dr. Cheston Cunha MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA is an attending in adult infectious diseases at The Miriam Hospital and Rhode Island Hospital. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University Alpert School of Medicine. Dr. Cunha obtained his medical degree from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Brown University at the Rhode Island Hospital and Miriam Hospital. He also completed his fellowship in Infectious Disease at Brown University.
Dr. Cunha is the Medical Director of the Rhode Island Hospital and Miriam Hospital Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He acts as the program director for the Infectious Disease Fellowship at Brown, and is Co-Course Leader of the Medical Student Infectious Disease Course.
He has contributed over 50 articles and 75 book chapters to the medical literature. He serves as editor of the books: Antibiotic Essentials, Antimicrobial Stewardship: Principles & Practice, Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship in Critical Care Medicine, and Schlossberg's Clinical Infectious Disease. He has received the Dean’s Excellence in Teaching award from the Alpert Medical School of Brown University as well as the Beckwith Family Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching, the House Staff Award for Outstanding Teaching Consultant, and the Steven M. Opal Teaching Award.
Dr. Cunha’s clinical and research interests include general infectious diseases, antimicrobial therapy and stewardship, ancient plagues, PO therapy of infectious diseases, and fever of unknown origin (FUO).
| Goldberg EM, Lin TR, Cunha CB, Mujahid N, Davoodi NM, Vaughan CP. "Enhancing the quality of prescribing practices for older adults discharged from the emergency department in Rhode Island." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol. 70, no. 10, 2022, pp. 2905-2914. |
| Barlam TF, Al Mohajer M, Al-Tawfiq JA, Auguste AJ, Cunha CB, Forrest GN, Gross AE, Lee RA, Seo SK, Suh KN, Volk S, Schaffzin JK. "SHEA statement on antibiotic stewardship in hospitals during public health emergencies." Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, vol. 43, no. 11, 2022, pp. 1541-1552. |
| "Schlossberg's Clinical Infectious Disease." [], 2021. |
| Kalligeros M, Shehadeh F, Atalla E, Mylona EK, Aung S, Pandita A, Larkin J, Sanchez M, Touzard-Romo F, Brotherton A, Shah R, Cunha CB, Mylonakis E. "Hydroxychloroquine use in hospitalised patients with COVID-19: An observational matched cohort study." Journal of global antimicrobial resistance, vol. 22, 2020, pp. 842-844. |
| Weiss ZF, Cunha CB, Chambers AB, Carr AV, Rochat C, Raglow-Defranco M, Parente DM, Angus A, Mermel LA, Sivaprasad L, Chapin K. "Opportunities Revealed for Antimicrobial Stewardship and Clinical Practice with Implementation of a Rapid Respiratory Multiplex Assay." Journal of clinical microbiology, vol. 57, no. 10, 2019. |
| Cunha BA, Cunha CB. "Pharmacokinetic considerations in selecting optimal antibiotic therapy for Mycoplasma pneumoniae encephalitis." European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, vol. 38, no. 4, 2019, pp. 631-635. |
| Cunha, Cheston B. "An Overview of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: Imperatives, Interventions, and Innovations." Medical Clinics of North America, vol. 102, no. 5, 2018, pp. xxi-xxiii. |
| Cunha CB. "Antibiotic Stewardship Program Perspective: Oral Antibiotic Therapy for Common Infectious Diseases." The Medical clinics of North America, vol. 102, no. 5, 2018, pp. 947-954. |
| Cunha CB, Opal SM. "Antibiotic Stewardship: Strategies to Minimize Antibiotic Resistance While Maximizing Antibiotic Effectiveness." The Medical clinics of North America, vol. 102, no. 5, 2018, pp. 831-843. |
| Cunha CB. "Antimicrobial Stewardship Program Perspective: IV-to-PO Switch Therapy." Rhode Island medical journal (2013), vol. 101, no. 5, 2018, pp. 31-34. |
| Cunha CB. "Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (ASP): Perspective on Problems and Potential." Rhode Island medical journal (2013), vol. 101, no. 5, 2018, pp. 18-21. |
| Cunha CB. "Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs: Principles and Practice." The Medical clinics of North America, vol. 102, no. 5, 2018, pp. 797-803. |
| Cunha CB. "Antimicrobial Stewardship." Rhode Island medical journal (2013), vol. 101, no. 5, 2018, pp. 16-17. |
| Cunha BA, Baron J, Cunha CB. "Monotherapy with High-Dose Once-Daily Tigecycline is Highly Effective Against Acinetobacter baumanii and other Multidrug-Resistant (MDR) Gram-Negative Bacilli (GNB)." International journal of antimicrobial agents, 2018. |
| Vigliani, Marguerite B., Cunha, Cheston B. "Multiple recurrent abscesses in a patient with undiagnosed IL-12 deficiency and infection by Burkholderia gladioli." IDCases, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 80-83. |
| Parente DM, Cunha CB, Mylonakis E, Timbrook TT. "Reply to Burnham, Kakol, Vazquez-Guillamet." Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2018. |
| Cunha BA, Baron J, Cunha CB. "Similarities and differences between doxycycline and minocycline: clinical and antimicrobial stewardship considerations." European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, vol. 37, no. 1, 2018, pp. 15-20. |
| Parente DM, Cunha CB, Mylonakis E, Timbrook TT. "The Clinical Utility of Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Nasal Screening to Rule Out MRSA Pneumonia: A Diagnostic Meta-analysis with Antimicrobial Stewardship Implications." Clinical Infectious Diseases, 2018. |
| Cunha CB. "The Pharmacoeconomic Aspects of Antibiotic Stewardship Programs." The Medical clinics of North America, vol. 102, no. 5, 2018, pp. 937-946. |
| Cunha BA, Cunha CB. "Vancomycin Is Ineffective in Eliminating Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Colonization of Respiratory Secretions in Ventilated Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Clinical and Pharmacokinetic Perspective." Clinical Infectious Diseases, vol. 66, no. 6, 2018, pp. 981-982. |
| Cunha CB, Cunha BA. "Antimicrobial Therapy for Legionnaire's Disease: Antibiotic Stewardship Implications." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. 179-191. |
| Cunha BA, Cunha CB. "Legionnaire's Disease and its Mimics: A Clinical Perspective." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. 95-109. |
| Cunha CB, Cunha BA. "Legionnaire's Disease and Its Protean Clinical Manifestations: The Ongoing Challenges of the Most Interesting Atypical Pneumonia." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. xiii-xvi. |
| Cunha CB, Cunha BA. "Legionnaire's Disease Since Philadelphia: Lessons Learned and Continued Progress." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. 1-5. |
| Cunha BA, Cunha CB. "Legionnaire's Disease: A Clinical Diagnostic Approach." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 31, no. 1, 2017, pp. 81-93. |
| Cunha BA, Cunha CB, Lam B, Giuga J, Chin J, Zafonte VF, Gerson S. "Nitrofurantoin safety and effectiveness in treating acute uncomplicated cystitis (AUC) in hospitalized adults with renal insufficiency: antibiotic stewardship implications." European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2017. |
| Cunha CB, D'Agata EM. "Implementing an antimicrobial stewardship program in out-patient dialysis units." Current opinion in nephrology and hypertension, vol. 25, no. 6, 2016, pp. 551-555. |
| Cunha BA, Baron J, Cunha CB. "Once daily high dose tigecycline - pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic based dosing for optimal clinical effectiveness: dosing matters, revisited." Expert review of anti-infective therapy, 2016, pp. 1-11. |
| Cunha CB. "Relation of Diagnostic Accuracy of Viral Respiratory Polymerase Chain Reaction to Specimen Number and Source in Severe Adenovirus Pneumonia: Antimicrobial Stewardship Implications." Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, vol. 37, no. 9, 2016, pp. 1127-9. |
| Cunha, Cheston B., Kassakian, Steven Z., Chan, Ryan, Tenover, Fred C., Ziakas, Panos, Chapin, Kimberle C., Mermel, Leonard A. "Screening of nursing home residents for colonization with carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae admitted to acute care hospitals: Incidence and risk factors." American journal of infection control, vol. 44, no. 2, 2016, pp. 126-130. |
| Hudepohl NJ, Cunha CB, Mermel LA. "Antibiotic Prescribing for Urinary Tract Infections in the Emergency Department Based on Local Antibiotic Resistance Patterns: Implications for Antimicrobial Stewardship." Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, vol. 37, no. 3, 2015, pp. 359-360. |
| Cunha, Burke A., Lortholary, Olivier, Cunha, Cheston B. "Fever of Unknown Origin: A Clinical Approach." The American Journal of Medicine, vol. 128, no. 10, 2015, pp. 1138.e1-1138.e15. |
| Cunha CB, Cunha BA. "Infections Acquired in the Garden." Microbiology spectrum, vol. 3, no. 5, 2015. |
| Reece RM, Cunha CB, Rich JD. "Corynebacterium minutissimum vascular graft infection: Case report and review of 281 cases of prosthetic device-related Corynebacterium infection." Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases, vol. 46, no. 9, 2014, pp. 609-16. |
| Cunha CB, Opal SM. "Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS): a new zoonotic viral pneumonia." Virulence, vol. 5, no. 6, 2014, pp. 650-4. |
| Cunha CB, Varughese CA, Mylonakis E. "Antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs): the devil is in the details." Virulence, vol. 4, no. 2, 2013, pp. 147-9. |
| Chan PA, Mermel LA, Andrea SB, McCulloh R, Mills JP, Echenique I, Leveen E, Rybak N, Cunha C, Machan JT, Healey TT, Chapin KC. "Distinguishing characteristics between pandemic 2009-2010 influenza A (H1N1) and other viruses in patients hospitalized with respiratory illness." PLoS ONE, vol. 6, no. 9, 2011, pp. e24734. |
| Cunha CB. "The first atypical pneumonia: the history of the discovery of Mycoplasma pneumoniae." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 24, no. 1, 2010, pp. 1-5. |
| Cunha CB, Cunha BA. "Brief history of the clinical diagnosis of malaria: from Hippocrates to Osler." Journal of vector borne diseases, vol. 45, no. 3, 2008, pp. 194-9. |
| Cunha CB. "Prolonged and perplexing fevers in antiquity: malaria and typhoid fever." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 21, no. 4, 2007, pp. 857-66, vii. |
| Cunha CB, Cunha BA. "Impact of plague on human history." Infectious disease clinics of North America, vol. 20, no. 2, 2006, pp. 253-72, viii. |
| Wang XP, Goodwin L, Kahn P, Gawel C, Cunha CB, Laser B, Sahn B, Kaplan MH. "Influence of increased CD4 cell counts on the genetic variability of hepatitis C virus in patients co-infected with human immunodeficiency virus I." Journal of biomolecular techniques : JBT, vol. 17, no. 3, 2006, pp. 228-39. |
| Cunha BA, Domenico P, Cunha CB. "Pharmacodynamics of doxycycline." Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, vol. 6, no. 5, 2000, pp. 270-3. |
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | MD | Pennsylvania State University |
| 2005 | BA | Trinity College-Hartford |
Dean’s Excellence in Teaching Award, Brown University Alpert School of Medicine
Beckwith Family Teaching Award for Outstanding Teaching
House Staff Award for Outstanding Teaching Consultant
Steven M. Opal Teaching Award
| MED 2190 - Microbiology and Infectious Disease |
