Hospital Infection Control & Prevention
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APIC Raises IP Profile on YouTube
For many years, patients, the public, and even some fellow healthcare workers were not fully aware of the critical role IPs played behind the scenes. The IP profile has been raised dramatically over the last decade by national efforts to reduce healthcare-associated infections, the rise of antibiotic resistance, and emerging infections like Ebola. As a result, APIC created a video that features IPs explaining what they do and what aspects of the job they particularly enjoy. The video can be used to raise awareness among the public, patients, medical personnel, and recruit new IPs into the profession.
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Infection Prevention Expertise Lacking on Water Management Teams
Water management plans to control Legionella and other waterborne pathogens in healthcare settings have become a priority since a CMS memo in 2017 ordered such measures to protect patients. Infection preventionists should be a key member of these water management teams, but almost half the facilities consulted by Legionella experts did not have an IP on the committee.
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CMS Deadline Nears, But Infection Control in Long-Term Care a Challenge
The churn of staff turnover and administrative changes in long-term care may make it difficult for many facilities to meet an impending federal requirement to establish infection prevention programs. The CMS deadline for a designated and trained infection preventionist in long-term care facilities is Nov. 28, 2019. CMS and the CDC are offering free training to meet this requirement, but there are signs that some long-term care facilities will struggle to comply.
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MERS Still a Threat in Saudi Arabia
Although it has not been sustained in other countries following introductions and outbreaks, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus has established an endemic presence in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since it emerged in 2012, the World Health Organization reports. As of June 30, 2019, there have been 2,449 laboratory-confirmed cases of MERS reported, with 84% in Saudi Arabia and the rest in 27 other countries, including the United States. There have been 845 MERS deaths, resulting in a mortality rate of 35%.
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CDC Gears Up as Ebola Outbreak Escalates in Africa
The CDC is stepping up efforts to fight an Ebola outbreak that is threatening to spread beyond the borders of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The World Health Organization recently declared an international health emergency in DRC after an Ebola case appeared July 14 in Goma, a city of 2 million people that has connecting flights to global air travel. As of Aug. 2, there have been four cases in Goma.
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The ‘Vaccine Wars:’ Will Science Prevail?
In a year marked by more than 1,000 infections with a disease that once was eradicated in the United States, the tide of public opinion may be turning against the antivaccine movement. Measles resurgence coincides with parents citing unsafe vaccines as a reason not to immunize their children. However, there is a growing pushback against the antivaccine movement, with herd immunity threatened and the real risk of measles to immunocompromised patients and those who cannot be immunized.
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CDC Drops Routine Annual Tuberculosis Testing of Healthcare Workers
The agency is dropping routine screening in favor of testing on hire, and after TB exposure or ongoing transmission. In updating 2005 TB guidelines, the CDC screening change was expected as the disease continues to decline nationally and healthcare workers appear to be at no greater risk of transmission than the general public.
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Surgeons’ Negative Attitudes Can Lead to Higher Infection Rates
“Surgeons who model unprofessional behaviors may help to undermine a culture of safety, threaten teamwork, and thereby increase risk for medical errors and surgical complications," according to authors of a recent study.
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Infection Prevention: The Past Is Prelude
Looking to the past and the present, Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) President Karen Hoffmann, RN, MS, CIC, FSHEA, FAPIC, recently gave a keynote address in Philadelphia at the annual APIC conference. Hoffman also is an infection prevention consultant for the Survey and Certification Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and a clinical instructor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
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FDA Alert: Fatal Infection Following Fecal Transplant
Multidrug-resistant organisms are infecting new patients via transplantation, putting recipients at risk of infections and threatening to spur larger hospital outbreaks. Two recently reported incidents underscore the threat, with one described in an alert by the FDA about fecal microbiota transplantation to treat Clostridioides difficile infections.