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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued interim guidelines for use of antiviral medications during the 2004-2005 influenza season. The guidelines are summarized as follows.
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Despite widespread protests from the infection control community, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not rescinded its controversial requirement for annual respirator fit-testing for workers who may be exposed to tuberculosis patients.
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Age issues cast doubt on intradermal flu shots, SARS transmission requires close contact.
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In a battle that is expected to unfold in an increasing number of states, infection control professionals in Pennsylvania are facing a demand for public disclosure of infection rates.
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The Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports, is urging people to write their government representatives and demand open records on hospital infection rates.
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ICPs be advised: Surveyors for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations are asking health care workers whether they understand the new hand hygiene guidelines and are looking for signs of compliance.
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Leapfrog Groups standards for critical care are not grounded sufficiently in evidence to mandate their stringent and universal implementation. Rather, most of the guidelines are grounded in common sense and rational extrapolation of the data. As such, they are a reasonable starting point for debate by physicians and policymakers about optimal methods of achieving intensivist-guided care of critically ill patients.
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No CT variables predicted severe in-hospital morbidity and mortality (death from pulmonary embolism, death from any cause, or cardiac arrest) in patients with PE. However, ventricular septal bowing and increased RV/LV diameter ratio were both strongly predictive of less severe morbidity, namely, subsequent ICU admission, and oligemia was associated with subsequent intubation and vasopressor use.