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Infection Prevention: The Past Is Prelude
Looking to the past and the present, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) President Karen Hoffmann, RN, MS, CIC, FSHEA, FAPIC, recently gave a keynote address in Philadelphia at the annual APIC conference. Hoffman also is an infection prevention consultant for the Survey and Certification Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a clinical instructor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
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FDA Alert: Fatal Infection Following Fecal Transplant
Multidrug-resistant organisms are infecting new patients via transplantation, putting recipients at risk of infections and threatening to spur larger hospital outbreaks. Two recently reported incidents underscore the threat, with one described in an alert by the FDA about fecal microbiota transplantation to treat Clostridioides difficile infections.
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Common Foot Problems
Foot problems are a common chief complaint. Patients may present to the ED when they do not have access to other sources of care or when an exacerbation becomes painful enough. Although these foot problems rarely are considered emergencies, it is useful for the emergency physician to be knowledgeable about these conditions to provide sound advice to patients and appropriate referral.
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FDA: Hospitals Could Face Shortages of Sterile Supplies
The emission of ethylene oxide from sterilization facilities into surrounding communities has raised cancer concerns, warnings, and closures that threaten the critical flow of sterile supplies in healthcare, the FDA reports. Infection preventionists should keep communication channels open with central sterile supply and other key colleagues to ensure spot shortages of equipment do not pose a threat to patient safety.
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Meeting the Challenge of Sterilizing Duodenoscopes
Infection preventionists and central sterile supply technicians must work together to protect patients from duodenoscopes that could remain contaminated after reprocessing. That is the take-home message from a comprehensive program that shows it can be done.
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Infectious Disease Alert Updates
Surgeons Really Are Different; Short-Course Atovaquone/Proguanil for Malaria Prophylaxis; The High Cost of Chronic Lyme Treatment
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Trimethoprim Sulfamethoxazole Plus Clindamycin for Treatment of Staphylococcus aureus Endocarditis
A before-and-after intervention study compared 170 patients treated with either oxacillin IV or vancomycin IV for six weeks (plus gentamicin IV given during the first five days) to 171 patients who were treated with TMP/SMZ IV plus clindamycin IV for the first week followed by TMP/SMZ PO (without clindamycin) to complete a six-week course. Mortality and hospital length of stay were significantly less in the TMP/SMZ-treated patients.