-
The infection control professional title formerly infection control practitioner with its enduring abbreviation ICP, has given way to a new era and a new name: Infection Preventionist.
-
The largest look-back investigation in medical history involving some 50,000 patients seen at two endoscopy clinics in Las Vegas has netted a growing total of hepatitis C infections; at least 11 unconfirmed HIV cases, lawsuits involving thousands of patients, multiple criminal proceedings, and a nonstop media blitz that only will increase the likelihood of more infection-related claims in other states, speakers recently said at the annual APIC conference in Denver.
-
The much-feared widespread emergence of vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus has not occurred, with true VRSA still a rare phenomenon. But perhaps the path to this milestone toward a post-antibiotic era will occur in more incremental steps.
-
If hospitals nationwide followed draft recommendations to stockpile flu antivirals to protect health care workers against an influenza pandemic more than 100 million antiviral regimens would be required, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
-
With a matching vaccine not expected to be available for at least five months if and when pandemic influenza hits, hospitals should stockpile flu antivirals to protect their health care workers, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommends in recently issued draft guidance.
-
A disturbing number of cases of pneumonia caused by staph infections resulted in death among young, otherwise healthy patients during the 2006-2007 flu season, with more than three-quarters caused by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), researchers found.
-
For the first time, a newly proposed guidance puts a number and a cost to the respirators needed to protect health care workers during an influenza pandemic: 480 respirators at a cost of about $240 to protect a single employee, or a single reusable elastomeric respirator with three filters at a cost of $40 per employee.
-
An aging population and the emergence of a hypervirulent strain are combining to make Clostridium difficile disease a killer. Hospitalizations and deaths from C. diff-associated disease (CDAD) are on the rise in the United States.
-
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention investigators considered several other theories before concluding that improper needle practices and reuse of single-dose vials of propofol likely caused a recent HCV outbreak among patients at a Las Vegas endoscopy clinic.
-
Hospital infection prevention efforts aimed at methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) appear to having some effect in preventing nosocomial transmission.
