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The following questions and answers are summarized with permission from an educational brochure developed at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, for patients who are being placed in contact isolation:
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Draft guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ratchet up increasing infection control and administrative measures depending on whether severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has appeared globally, within a community, or within a facility.
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Editors note: As this issue of Hospital Infection Control went to press, these studies were presented in Chicago at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Look for more in-depth coverage of this conference in our next issue
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There is an increasing emphasis in infection control on doing active surveillance cultures and detecting and isolating patients colonized with pathogens such as vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE).
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Diverging from the position taken by the Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will not urge influenza vaccination for the 2003-2004 season specifically as a response to the possible return of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Hospital Infection Control has learned.
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Draft guidance by public health officials preparing for a seasonal resurgence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) calls for taking the controversial step of masking all incoming patients with respiratory symptoms, Hospital Infection Control has learned.
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Prognostic Value of ABPMs in patients with Treated Hypertension; Tazarotene Cream in the Treatment of Psoriasis; Antihyperglycemic Effect of Oolong Tea in Type 2 Diabetes; Metformin and Thiazolidinedione Use in Medicare Patients with Heart Failure; Alcohol Consumption Patterns and Biologic Markers of Glycemic Control; Azelaic Acid Gel as a New Treatment for Papulopustular Rosacea
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Based on a patients lipoprotein abnormality, the algorithm described in this review begins with achievable, practical therapeutic lifestyle changes and then adds pharmacologic agents in stepwise fashion to address abnormalities of LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol. While the approach is aggressive, it is not based on driving lipid levels to extremely low levels. While some of the lipid targets appear less stringent than conventional wisdom would suggest (eg, accepting an LDL cholesterol target of 130 mg/dL), the approach is in compliance with the spirit and letter of national guidelines.
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Of 26 mechanically ventilated patients, 22 developed bacterial lower respiratory tract colonization, and in 15 patients anaerobes were recovered; 2 of 5 patients diagnosed with ventilator-associated pneumonia had anaerobes present in sufficient quantity to suggest that they were considered pathogenic.
