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Treatment of chronic Hepatitis B is directed at suppressing viral replication, reducing hepatitis (necroinflammatory) activity, slowing progression of fibrotic disease, and rendering patients noninfectious.
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We are now over 10 years into the era of haart (highly active antiretroviral therapy). The use of potent HIV protease inhibitors (or non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors), generally used in combination with a background of 2 nucleoside/nucleotide analog reverse transcriptase inhibitors, almost overnight changed the natural history of HIV disease.
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The purpose of this meta-analysis was to assess the efficacy of subglottic secretion drainage in preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP). Dezfulian and colleagues performed a comprehensive analysis of randomized trials that have compared subglottic secretion drainage with a standard endotracheal tube care in mechanically ventilated patients.
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Oxman and colleagues randomized 38,546 subjects greater than 60 years of age (median age, 69 years) to receive either 0.5 mL of attenuated Oka/Merck VZV vaccine or placebo, after which they were followed for a mean duration of 3.13 years, during which they were contacted monthly.
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Health care epidemiologists are reporting an increase in bloodstream infections (BSIs) due to the use of needleless mechanical valve devices that connect to central venous catheters.
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Emerging as the bane of cruise ships and nursing homes, norovirus with its ability to cause severe gastroenteritis, persist in the environment, and spread via contaminated food or human contact would seem to be the perfect candidate for a nosocomial pathogen of the most troublesome variety.
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The chances that a surgical patient in a U.S. hospital will receive appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis with drugs both administered and discontinued in a timely fashion remains essentially a flip of the coin.
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A snapshot of the infection control profession at a critical time finds ICPs drawing a median salary in the $50,000 to $59,999 range while facing down everything from looming pandemic flu to consumer demands for infection control report cards.
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The pandemic influenza plan recently unveiled by the Department of Health and Human Services specifies four major components of preparedness and response to pandemic influenza:
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The virulence of the 1918 pandemic strain was so extraordinary that there are accounts of people who felt well in the morning but were dead by nightfall.