Articles Tagged With: CDC
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Meningococcal Disease Is on the Rise
The number of cases of infection with Neisseria meningitidis is increasing in the United States. The majority of presentations are with bacteremia; meningitis is infrequent.
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Age Is Not a Risk Factor for the Oldest Patients with COVID-19
Are patients hospitalized for COVID-19, who are younger than 65 years of age, at less risk of serious outcomes than are similar patients who are older than 85 years of age? New research provides an answer that may surprise many clinicians: Metabolic syndrome measures are a major predictor of outcomes, but chronological age is not a relevant risk factor for poor outcomes attributed to COVID-19.
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Is Measles Elimination Status at Risk? Antivaxers Attack MMR Vaccine
As the number of measles cases in the United States already has outstripped total cases for last year, employee health professionals should prepare for incoming cases that can wreak havoc in a hospital if undetected. Even if staff are fully immunized, all bets are off if an undiagnosed case of measles gets into a healthcare facility.
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Healthcare Workers, CDC at Odds Over COVID Precautions
Inundated with criticism from healthcare workers, highly vulnerable patients, and those with long COVID, advisors to the CDC must make a Solomonic decision. At a time when the CDC is trying to simplify and normalize community precautions for SARS-CoV-2, initial efforts to do so in the hospital have backfired spectacularly.
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New Leaders in Infection Control
The new leaders in two key roles for healthcare epidemiology and public health are Tania Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC, FAPIC, 2024 president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology; and Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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HIV Needlestick: Low Risk, High Anxiety
Worst-case scenario: a healthcare worker experiences a needlestick and is exposed to the blood of an HIV-positive patient. All things considered, there is a less than 1% chance that the healthcare worker will acquire HIV from a known positive needlestick. Despite those odds, many healthcare workers do not feel particularly lucky right after a needlestick.
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A Concise Tool to Guide the Care of Patients with Community-Acquired Pneumonia
While patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) commonly present to the ED, obtaining a proper diagnosis and determining the best treatment course is not always clear-cut. For one thing, while there are many evidence-based guidelines for CAP, many of these tools are more than 50 pages long, making it difficult to integrate them into clinical practice.
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Threat of Reinfection Includes Long COVID
Accumulating research suggests reinfections with SARS-CoV-2 increase the likelihood of developing long COVID, the horrific post-acute syndrome with indefinite duration and a panoply of neurological, autoimmune, and physical conditions. Moreover, the risk of developing long COVID incrementally increases with each reinfection, according to a study that found this cumulative effect continues in up to three reinfections.
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CDC Seeks Clarity on Masks, Respirators
An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently completed draft isolation guidelines for respiratory patients, but got a thumbs down and a loaded question for their trouble: “Should N95 respirators be recommended for all pathogens that spread by the air?”
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National Screening Guidelines for Chlamydia
Reproductive and sexual health providers could reference evidence-based national guidelines for chlamydia screening and care, including guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the American Academy of Family Physicians.