Articles Tagged With:
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New International Guidelines on Prolonged Infusion Beta-Lactams
The largest randomized clinical trial of prolonged vs. intermittent beta-lactam antibiotic (meropenem) infusion in septic intensive care unit patients found no benefit in mortality or emergence of antibiotic resistance. Unfortunately, this trial has numerous flaws that ultimately limit its generalizability.
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Use of Ceftobiprole for Complicated Staphylococcus aureus Bacteremia
In a randomized, controlled trial conducted by Holland and colleagues, no significant difference in overall treatment success of complicated Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia was observed in patients who received ceftobiprole as compared with patients who received daptomycin.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Infectious Disease Approval to Reduce Hospital Clostridioides difficile Cases; Oral Amoxicillin for Syphilis
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APIC: SCOTUS Race Ruling: ‘Willfully Ignores’ Challenges Minorities Still Face
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling that race cannot be a factor in college, medical, and nursing school admissions was, if nothing else, tone-deaf. The ruling came in the simmering aftermath of a three-year pandemic that exposed widespread inequity in healthcare, and gave rise to the perception of “institutionalized racism” in medicine.
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Respiratory Triple Play: Vaccination Is the Key
As a trifecta of viruses converge this fall and winter, the United States has an unprecedented infection control counterpunch: vaccines for the 2023-2024 flu season, new shots for respiratory syncytial virus, and the latest formula to protect against COVID-19.
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Joint Commission: If You Create Infection Control Policy, Make Sure You Follow It
If infection preventionists adopt or write up an infection control policy — even if it goes beyond existing recommendations and requirements — The Joint Commission will cite or “score” them if the hospital is not following it. Do not put in word what you will not follow in deed, said Sylvia Garcia-Houchins, MBA, RN, CIC, director of infection prevention and control at The Joint Commission.
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Incentivizing New Antibiotics to Kill Multidrug-Resistant Bugs
Bacteria have developed resistance to so many antibiotics that a familiar adage about these lifesaving drugs is “use ’em and lose ’em.” Ideas to break this cycle and create a market for new antibiotics include the proposed PASTEUR (Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions To End Upsurging Resistance) Act of 2023, which has been reintroduced in Congress.
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Necessity and Reinvention: APIC Tries to Hire, Retain IPs
As a generation of infection preventionists (IPs) near career end, it is well to remember that many of them tell a similar story of how they got into the profession. Often, they were working some other clinical job and an opening or temporary need came up in the infection control department. To paraphrase what Hospital Infection Control & Prevention has reported time and again from new IPs to long-established leaders in the field, “I just fell into it and I loved it. I found it fascinating.”
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Navigating Antimicrobial Resistance
As more patients request antibiotics for managing many types of illnesses, it is no surprise that antimicrobial resistance is on the rise. According to the CDC, 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur every year in the United States, with 35,000 deaths.
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Caring for COPD Patients During Winter
Navigating the care of patients who are living with chronic conditions already is challenging, but it takes an extra layer of thoughtfulness for a case manager to also consider the climate and season when making plans and facilitating decisions for patients with COPD.