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Particulate respirators a controversial step beyond common surgical masks are now mandated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect health care workers from acquiring H1N1 pandemic influenza A from patients.
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A misguided federal mandate that health care workers don N95 respirators to treat known or suspect H1N1 influenza A patients is critically undermining the medical response to the first pandemic in four decades, clinicians tell Hospital Infection Control & Prevention.
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Infection prevention is a top priority of an ambitious new quality improvement effort that could lead to new accreditation standards for the nation's hospitals, says Mark R. Chassin, MD, MPP, MPH, president of The Joint Commission.
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The American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) has issued a position statement on H1N1 pandemic influenza A that endorses and reiterates the key findings of an Institute of Medicine panel that recommended N95 respirators for health care workers. Key points stressed by AIHA include:
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Talk about peer review. Rarely do medical researchers have their specific papers described to the president of the United States, but that is the case for two studies playing a central role in the national furor over surgical masks vs. respirators for H1N1 protection.
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The nation's leading infection prevention groups are urging President Barack Obama to halt federal enforcement of a mandate that health care workers wear N95 respirators to treat H1N1 pandemic patients.
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Recombinant Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) toxins showed lytic activity against human (but not murine) neutrophils. The lytic activity of culture supernatants of USA400 and USA300 strains of MRSA were completely neutralized by anti-PVL monoclonal antibodies. In contrast, phenol-soluble modulin alpha3 (PSM) failed to lyse human neutrophils but did enhance PVL-mediated neutrophil lysis.
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This retrospective cohort study reaffirms the link between hyperglycemia and mortality in the ICU, but demonstrates that the risk does not apply equally to all patient groups and, instead, varies based on admission diagnosis.
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Many clinical trials have confirmed the benefit of early invasive therapy for high-risk patients presenting with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). However, the optimal timing of cardiac catheterization in this group remains unknown.