Hospital Infection Control & Prevention – March 1, 2023
March 1, 2023
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FDA Adopts Flu-Like Plan for an Annual COVID Vaccine
The Food and Drug Administration took a decisive step recently in pivoting to fight COVID-19 with an approach similar to that used for decades against influenza, a seasonal virus for which a vaccine is concocted annually based on the circulating strains.
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CDC: Vaccine Safety ‘Signal’ of Stroke Risk in the Elderly
A vaccine safety surveillance system has detected a “signal” of a possible higher risk of ischemic stroke following vaccination in those age 65 years and older with the bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.
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Hybrid IPs: With Autonomy Comes Responsibility
For better or worse, infection control and prevention programs had to reinvent themselves as COVID-19 hit the healthcare system in 2020. Some hospitals went to “hybrid” programs, with staff working both inhouse and from home on a rotating basis.
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New Hand Hygiene Guidance Stresses Skin and Nail Care
A coalition of epidemiology and infection control groups, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have issued a comprehensive update of hand hygiene recommendations that emphasizes care of hands and fingernails.
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The Short, Unhappy Life of Ignaz Semmelweis
Ignaz Semmelweis, the 19th century Hungarian obstetrician who made the lifesaving connection between unwashed hands and patient infections, is widely known to have had his findings soundly rejected by his physician peers. But that is only part of the story.
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U.S. Mpox Outbreak Down to Two Cases Daily
Mpox (monkeypox) virus, which startled epidemiologists when it appeared suddenly in many non-endemic countries in May 2022, has subsided dramatically in the United States. The infection also is decreasing rapidly in affected regions of the globe.