About the Authors

Kyle D. Brizendine

brizenk@ccf.org (KDB); pappas@uab.edu (PGP)

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America

John W. Baddley

Affiliations Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Peter G. Pappas

brizenk@ccf.org (KDB); pappas@uab.edu (PGP)

Affiliation Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have the following interests: JWB reports that he is an advisor for Merck, a consultant for Abbott and Pfizer, and a Pfizer research grant recipient. PGP reports that he has received research support from and has been an ad hoc advisor for Merck, Pfizer, Astellas, Schering-Plough, Basilea, and Novartis. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: KDB JWB PGP. Performed the experiments: KDB JWB PGP. Analyzed the data: KDB JWB. Wrote the paper: KDB JWB PGP.